More Muslim Than the Sheikh al-Azhar?

... would seem to be the Egyptian equivalent of "More Catholic than the Pope," but it would appear that some Egyptian critics are attacking Sheikh Tantawi for not walking out of an interfaith forum in Kazakhstan when Shimon Peres showed up. The Haaretz article really understates the story by headlining "Egypt Academic Under Fire." The Sheikh al-Azhar is rather more than an "Egypt academic" by any standard.

This is another reminder that normalization is between states, not necessarily between populations, and that Israeli normalization is still unpopular in many areas of Egyptian political life and society, except when the government insists. The Sheikh al-Azhar has an unusual role in Egypt and it is not surprising that some of his own colleagues, and the Muslim Brotherhood and others do not like him appearing with an Israeli, even in an international interfaith meeting.