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Following are excerpts from an interview with Sheik of Al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, which aired on Al-Hurra TV on August 31, 2005:
Interviewer: You have strongly condemned the Sharm Al-Sheikh bombings, and said that their perpetrators are criminals and not martyrs. Why does it always seem that the reactions of Al-Azhar and of some other religious sources of authority are directly linked to specific incidents, and there is no comprehensive campaign to confront this ideology of takfir< (accusing others of heresy), which destroys and slaughters in the name of Islam, the ideology of reciting Koranic verses, and then drawing a sword and slaughtering an innocent person?
[...]
Sheik Tantawi: When such bombings or such things occur - incidents that are not supported by any religion, by logic, or by humanity... I say that a person who blows himself up among an enemy who came to kill me, and I have no way of defending myself except for blowing myself up among this enemy who came to kill me and my countrymen, or to attack what is sacred - in such a case, whoever blows himself up is a martyr. However, when someone blows himself up in a market, a bus, a car with children, women, and peaceful people, who don't participate in wars...
Interviewer: Anywhere in the world?
Sheik Tantawi: Yes, anywhere in the world.
Interviewer: Let's be specific, to make things clear. We are talking about bombings that took place in Egypt, in Iraq, in Israel, and in the Palestinian territories.
[...]
Sheik Tantawi: Whether these bombings occurred in Israel, in Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, or America... I'd like to tell you that when the events of 9/11 took place... Was it in 2003?
Interviewer: In 2001.
Sheik Tantawi:2001. When this happened, the first scientific institute in the world... I mean, the day it happened, I personally, as Sheik of Al-Azhar, convened the research team and we published a communique condemning what happened in New York and Washington. We condemned this from the very first day, and said that the perpetrators were criminals.
[...]
In what way is it the fault of these people, some of whom were Muslims from Egypt, Muslims from Syria, or Muslims from Palestine...
Interviewer: Even if they were not Muslims...
Sheik Tantawi: I've not finished. Some of them are Christians, some are Jews, some are Buddhists, and some from the East. Right? The people in the World Trade Center in New York were of different nationalities, right?
Interviewer: Yes.
Sheik Tantawi: Then how was it their fault?
[...]
Those who carry out bombings in buildings and among peaceful people, whether in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, America, or anywhere else in the world, are criminals by any standard.
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