Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy

In 1989 the Egyptian government's support for Western-style, interest-based banks (long considered anathema by Muslim scholars as usury, or riba) was under siege by the expanding Islamic finance movement. In response to a government request for a ruling, Tantawy (then Grand Mufti of Egypt) issued a fatwa that described some forms of financial interest as tolerable- among them, those paid by government bonds and those on ordinary savings accounts. He declared that charging interest on such bank loans was in fact ribh, or just gaining profit, which was allowable. This eventually allowed the development of a mortgage industry. However, his ruling did not issue as an effectual decree. Tantawy's rationale was based on an interpretation of the Islamic sources as banning usury (an extreme and manipulative form of interest-taking) but not any and all comparable forms of gain.[9][10][11]

His views on this issue have been very controversial among his fellow Muslim scholars. Despite years of friendship with Tantawy, well-known Egyptian scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi has sharply criticized his position on interest.[12]

He issued a fatwa which allowed abortion in cases where a woman had become pregnant as a result of rape,[13] though this created controversy and Mufti Ali Gomaa said Tantawy was wrong, and that irrespective of how the life was created, after 120 days an abortion becomes impermissible,[note 1] forbidden.[15]

Tantawy opposed female circumcision calling it un-Islamic, especially in 1997, when he said "The ulema (theologians) of Islam are unanimous in agreeing that female circumcision has nothing to do with religion" and revealed his own daughter had not been circumcised.[16]

Tantawy initially took a line against suicide bombings, and unlike his compatriot Yusuf al-Qaradawi, he condemned the use of suicide bombings against Israelis, rejecting the argument that all Israelis were legitimate targets, because at some stage they would all carry a gun.[17] In 2003 he called suicide bombers "enemies of Islam", adding "people of different beliefs should co-operate and not get into senseless conflicts and animosity. Extremism is the enemy of Islam, whereas, jihad is allowed in Islam to defend one's land and to help the oppressed. The difference between jihad in Islam and extremism is like the earth and the sky"[18] Tantawy, however, later the same year changed his position and said anybody blowing himself up in the face of the occupiers of his land is a martyr, in response to a question about the Islamic shari'ah stance over the Palestinians who blow up their bodies against the Israelis. He stressed, however, that Islam did not allow the killing of innocent civilians and children but only invaders and aggressors.[19]

Tantawy opposed women as Imams in mixed congregations during Friday prayers (Jumu'ah), saying when "A woman's body is private. When she leads men in prayer, in this case, it is not proper for them to look at the woman whose body is in front of them. Even if they see it in their daily life, it should not be in situations of worship, where the main point is humility and modesty."[20][21] He also called Haidar Haidar's book, Feast for Seaweed, blasphemous.[22] In 2001 he issued a fatwa banning women from acting as surrogate mothers or from receiving frozen sperm from dead husbands.[23]

In response to the Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy, he stated "We have no objection if the Pope holds another speech and declares publicly that what the Byzantine emperor had said was wrong. At the same time, the Pope has to apologize frankly and justify what he said".[24]

Speaking after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Tantawy said "It's not courage in any way to kill an innocent person, or to kill thousands of people, including men and women and children."[25] He said that Osama bin Laden's call for a Jihad against the west was "invalid and not binding on Muslims", adding "Killing innocent civilians is a horrific, hideous act that no religion can approve". He said the Qur'an "specifically forbids the kinds of things the Taliban and al-Qaida are guilty of".[26]

In October 2009, Tantawy launched a campaign against the niqab (the full-face veil which covers the entire body except for the eyes, increasingly worn by women in Egypt) by personally removing the niqab of a teenage girl (after she failed to remove it) at a secondary school affiliated to Al-Azhar University, which he was touring in Cairo's Madinet Nasr suburb, much to the shock of all concerned. He had asked the teenage girl to remove her veil saying: "The niqab is a tradition, it has no connection with religion." He then instructed the girl never to wear the niqab again and promised to issue a fatwa against its use in schools, saying he was determined to officially ban any person wearing the niqab from entering schools dependent on Al-Azhar University.[9][27][28]

In the 1960s Tantawy wrote a 700-page treatise on the children of Israel in the Quran and Sunnah (Jews in the Qur'an and the Traditions), in which he summarized:

"[The] Qur'an describes the Jews with their own particular degenerate characteristics, i.e. killing the prophets of Allah, corrupting His words by putting them in the wrong places, consuming the people's wealth frivolously, refusal to distance themselves from the evil they do, and other ugly characteristics caused by their deep-rooted lasciviousness ... only a minority of the Jews keep their word. ... [A]ll Jews are not the same. The good ones become Muslims, the bad ones do not."[29]

Tantawi also denied that the Western Wall had any Jewish significance and anachronistically claimed, "All of the figures from the [Hebrew] Bible were Muslims."[30]

Tantawy believes that Saudi Arabia is the model country for respecting human rights stating in June 2000: "Saudi Arabia leads the world in the protection of human rights because it protects them according to the shari'a of God...Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia is the leading country for the application of human rights in Islam in a just and objective fashion, with no aggression and no prejudice."[31]

In 1988, Tantawy issued a fatwa regarding the sex reassignment surgery of Egyptian woman Sally Mursi. The statement summary is translated: "It is permissible to perform the operation in order to reveal what was hidden of male or female organs. Indeed, it is obligatory to do so on the grounds that it must be considered a treatment, when a trustworthy doctor advises it. It is, however, not permissible to do it at the mere wish to change sex from woman to man, or vice versa." The fatwa has been interpreted both as in favor and also in rejection of sex reassignment operations.[32]

Condolences were sent to the Egyptian government by several national leaders and scholars.[39] These included Pope Benedict XVI,[41] US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim); King Mohammed VI of Morocco; King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]