Sheikh Muhammad Tantawi of al-Azhar dies of heart attack

Sheikh Muhammad Tantawi, who had been the Sheikh of Cairo's al-Azhar University since 1995, died of a heart attack on Wednesday while on a visit to Saudi Arabia. He was 81 years old. There's a fairly balanced obituary for Tantawi here. Perhaps most public was his battle with al-Qaradawy, Islamists, nationalists, and many on the left over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1996, Tantawi became