Al-Azhar sheikh gets Jew cooties

From the Middle East Times:

Al-Sharq (QATAR): Azhar Sheikh's Handshake With Peres Sparks Crisis in Egypt Parliament – The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc in Egypt Thursday denounced the handshake between the top cleric of al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, and Israeli President Shimon Peres during a U.N. General Assembly interfaith meeting in New York this month. The Islamist group said the handshake provokes the sentiments of the Egyptian people and harms the image of al-Azhar, the highest Muslim Sunni authority, at a time when Israel is besieging "our people in the Gaza Strip." The lawmakers demanded an apology from Tantawi.

The MEMRI blog follows up:

In response to photos published in the Egyptian and Arab press showing Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Tantawi stated that he hadn't known who Peres was and that the handshake was by chance, not intentional.

He added that on this occasion he had shaken the hands of over 20 people all at once, instinctively and with good intentions.

Source: Al-Jarida, Kuwait, December 1, 2008

The shocking photograph is flying through Islamist message boards.

Jew Cooties is of course a horrible disease, and it is communicable, so now Sheikh Tantawi cannot touch anyone else until he goes through a painful decontamination procedure which is a cross between the process used to clean up people exposed to high doses of nuclear radiation, and an exorcism.

Of course, after this scandal, he is now washed up as a leader of Al Azhar. It appears that he might be growing his beard to get a new job as a department store Santa.