Va. inmate 1st woman in 5 years executed in US
AP
By STEVE SZKOTAK,Associated Press Writer - Friday, September 24
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JARRATT, Va. – Teresa Lewis spent the last days before her execution as she had spent one side of her life _ singing hymns and praying. That devotion to Christianity, by her own admission, was countered by outrageous bouts of sex and betrayal.
That dark side led her life to a deadly turn in 2002 when she plied two men with sex and cash to kill her husband and stepson to collect on a $250,000 insurance policy. For that, the 41-year-old on Thursday was the first woman put to death in the U.S. since 2005.
Lewis died by injection at 9:13 p.m., apologizing first to the sole surviving daughter of the husband she had killed. She was the first woman in Virginia since 1912 put to death. Her supporters and relatives of the victims watched her execution at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.
"She was very peaceful," before she entered the death chamber, said her attorney, James Rocap III.
"We thought that we were supposed to be helping her, while she was actually helping us," he said about the days leading to her death during which she laughed, sang and prayed _ for everybody.
Lewis promised the killers a cut of a life insurance policy to shoot her husband, Julian Clifton Lewis Jr., and his son, Charles, as they slept in October 2002. Both triggermen were sentenced to life in prison and one committed suicide in 2006.
Lewis appeared fearful, her jaw clenched, as she was escorted into the death chamber. She glanced tensely around at 14 assembled corrections officials before being bound to a gurney with heavy leather straps.
Moments before her execution, Lewis asked if her husband's daughter _ her stepdaughter _ was near. She was. Kathy Clifton was in an adjacent witness room blocked from the inmate's view by a two-way mirror.
"I want Kathy to know that I love her and I'm very sorry," Lewis said.
Then, as the drugs flowed into her body, her feet bobbed but she otherwise remained motionless. A guard lightly tapped her on the shoulder reassuringly as she slipped into death.
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution had been made to the governor in a state second only to Texas in the number of people it executes.
Texas held the most recent U.S. execution of a woman in 2005. Out of more than 1,200 people put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 have been women.
Lewis, who defense attorneys said was borderline mentally disabled, had inspired other inmates by singing Christian hymns in prison. Her fate also had drawn appeals from the European Union, an indignant rebuke from Iran and the disgust of thousands of people.
The execution stirred an unusual amount of attention because of her gender, claims she lacked the intelligence to mastermind the killings and the post-conviction emergence of defense evidence that one of the triggermen manipulated her. Her spiritual adviser, the Rev. Julie Perry, stood sobbing as she later witnessed the execution, clutching a religious book.
Throughout her life, a faith in God had been a seeming constant for Lewis _ whether it was the prayer with her husband hours before he was killed or her ministry behind bars.
But there was another side.
"I was doing drugs, stealing, lying and having several affairs during my marriages," Lewis wrote in a statement that was read at a prison religious service in August. "I went to church every Sunday, Friday and revivals but guess what? I didn't open my Bible at home, only when I was at church."
Her father said she ran off to get married, then later abandoned her children and ran off with her sister's husband. Then she had an affair with her sister's fiance while at the same time having an affair with another man.
Lewis married Julian in 2000 and two years later, his son Charles entered the U.S. Army Reserve. When he was called for active duty he obtained a $250,000 life insurance policy, naming his father the beneficiary and providing temptation for Teresa Lewis.
Both men would have to die for Lewis to receive the payout.
She met at a Walmart with the two men who ultimately killed Julian Lewis and his son. Lewis began an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and later had sex with the other triggerman, Rodney Fuller. She also arranged sex with Fuller and her daughter, who was 16, in a parking lot.
On the night before Halloween in 2002, after she prayed with her husband, Lewis got out of bed, unlocked the door to their mobile home and put the couple's pit bull in a bedroom so the animal wouldn't interfere. Shallenberger and Fuller came in and shot both men several times with the shotguns Lewis had bought for them.
___
Online:
Save Teresa Lewis: http://www.saveteresalewis.org
Friday, September 24, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Zig Ziglar - Cause of Unhappiness
A Harvard psychology professor once said that whenever he meets someone who really wants something, he always wonders what they will be willing to do not to get it. Taking another slant, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar believes that the leading cause of unhappiness is trading what we want most for what we want now.
There are some practices that are guaranteed to generate unhappiness. Among them are:
Don’t appreciate your achievements. Instead, regard them as things that anyone could do or which somehow occurred through no serious effort of your own.
Keep raising the bar. Turn a search for excellence into an exhausting, never-ending quest.
Look at life through a mirror. After all, the rest of the world should behave and think as you do.
Expect others to know when you are upset. Regard their failure as a sign that they are insensitive and uncaring.
Reopen old wounds. Blame your parents, siblings, coworkers, bosses, and teachers. Let no transgression have a statute of limitations.
Worry. Fret about things that are unlikely to happen. Worry some more when they don’t happen.
Embrace martyrdom. Be much harder on yourself than you would be on others
Don’t enjoy the small things. Keep your eye on the weightier matters. Ignore small pleasures such as watching a sunrise or having a good cup of coffee.
Fall in with bad companions. Associate with people who have similar negative habits so you can reinforce one another’s feelings.
Swing for the fences. Forget the base hits and incremental goals.
Don’t set deadlines. Hey, you’ll get around to it one of these days.
And above all, expect an even playing field. The world is noted for being fair.
Michael Wade writes Execupundit.com, an eclectic combination of management advice, observations, and links. A partner with the Phoenix firm of Sanders Wade Rodarte Consulting Inc., he has advised private and public-sector organizations for more than 30 years.
There are some practices that are guaranteed to generate unhappiness. Among them are:
Don’t appreciate your achievements. Instead, regard them as things that anyone could do or which somehow occurred through no serious effort of your own.
Keep raising the bar. Turn a search for excellence into an exhausting, never-ending quest.
Look at life through a mirror. After all, the rest of the world should behave and think as you do.
Expect others to know when you are upset. Regard their failure as a sign that they are insensitive and uncaring.
Reopen old wounds. Blame your parents, siblings, coworkers, bosses, and teachers. Let no transgression have a statute of limitations.
Worry. Fret about things that are unlikely to happen. Worry some more when they don’t happen.
Embrace martyrdom. Be much harder on yourself than you would be on others
Don’t enjoy the small things. Keep your eye on the weightier matters. Ignore small pleasures such as watching a sunrise or having a good cup of coffee.
Fall in with bad companions. Associate with people who have similar negative habits so you can reinforce one another’s feelings.
Swing for the fences. Forget the base hits and incremental goals.
Don’t set deadlines. Hey, you’ll get around to it one of these days.
And above all, expect an even playing field. The world is noted for being fair.
Michael Wade writes Execupundit.com, an eclectic combination of management advice, observations, and links. A partner with the Phoenix firm of Sanders Wade Rodarte Consulting Inc., he has advised private and public-sector organizations for more than 30 years.
12 Rules on Email Etiquette
Michael S. Wade, On Saturday 5 June 2010, 1:59 SGT
Since E-mail is not going away any time soon, it makes sense to develop some ground rules for its usage. Here are 10 that I try to follow:
1. Do not use E-mail for sensitive subjects or topics that may be especially susceptible to misinterpretation.
[See 15 essentials for getting hired.]
2. Do not use E-mail if you are having a difference of opinion with the other person. It is very easy to come across as curt or uncaring in an E-mail message. Schedule a meeting with the person or pick up the phone.
3. Scrutinize the tone of your E-mails. Recognize that the receiver cannot hear your tone of voice and may not spot irony or humor.
4. Don't put anything in an E-mail that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of the newspaper or while sitting on the witness stand.
[See why most CEOs are nice.]
5. Be wary of forwarding E-mails unless you are certain that the sender would not mind if the message were forwarded. I've received forwarded E-mails that contained some rather personal comments in addition to the business content. I doubt if the author of the original message wanted me to know about her family situation.
6. If you want an E-mail to be regarded as urgent, then label it as such. Regard non-urgent messages the same way you'd regard regular mail and don't expect a reply within hours.
7. Beware of using text messaging abbreviations with people who might find it to be unprofessional, confusing or abrupt. I recently received an E-mail from a customer service department that was written in "textese." I thought it was funny but not everyone would have that reaction.
[See 12 ways to be miserable at work.]
8. Unless the person is on the other side of the world, the fewer messages, the better. If you need to communicate so much with someone who is just down the hall, go see the person.
9. Beware of rushed messages. Those are the ones you are most likely to regret.
10. Forgive notes that seem unpleasant or out of character. We all have days in which we need people to cut us some slack. Unless it is extreme, don't let one note ruin a relationship.
Michael Wade writes Execupundit.com, an eclectic combination of management advice, observations, and links. A partner with the Phoenix firm of Sanders Wade Rodarte Consulting Inc., he has advised private and public-sector organizations for more than 30 years.
Since E-mail is not going away any time soon, it makes sense to develop some ground rules for its usage. Here are 10 that I try to follow:
1. Do not use E-mail for sensitive subjects or topics that may be especially susceptible to misinterpretation.
[See 15 essentials for getting hired.]
2. Do not use E-mail if you are having a difference of opinion with the other person. It is very easy to come across as curt or uncaring in an E-mail message. Schedule a meeting with the person or pick up the phone.
3. Scrutinize the tone of your E-mails. Recognize that the receiver cannot hear your tone of voice and may not spot irony or humor.
4. Don't put anything in an E-mail that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of the newspaper or while sitting on the witness stand.
[See why most CEOs are nice.]
5. Be wary of forwarding E-mails unless you are certain that the sender would not mind if the message were forwarded. I've received forwarded E-mails that contained some rather personal comments in addition to the business content. I doubt if the author of the original message wanted me to know about her family situation.
6. If you want an E-mail to be regarded as urgent, then label it as such. Regard non-urgent messages the same way you'd regard regular mail and don't expect a reply within hours.
7. Beware of using text messaging abbreviations with people who might find it to be unprofessional, confusing or abrupt. I recently received an E-mail from a customer service department that was written in "textese." I thought it was funny but not everyone would have that reaction.
[See 12 ways to be miserable at work.]
8. Unless the person is on the other side of the world, the fewer messages, the better. If you need to communicate so much with someone who is just down the hall, go see the person.
9. Beware of rushed messages. Those are the ones you are most likely to regret.
10. Forgive notes that seem unpleasant or out of character. We all have days in which we need people to cut us some slack. Unless it is extreme, don't let one note ruin a relationship.
Michael Wade writes Execupundit.com, an eclectic combination of management advice, observations, and links. A partner with the Phoenix firm of Sanders Wade Rodarte Consulting Inc., he has advised private and public-sector organizations for more than 30 years.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Connecting the Dots in Education
Connecting the dots (Janadas Devan, SunTimes Think, 28/3, p34)
SunTimes carried a commentary by Janadas Devan on the fundamental questionsthat needed to be asked in the quest for a ‘holistic education’. Hecommented that all modern systems of knowledge were the product of intensespecialisation, which produced a tendency of the mind thinking in“hermetically sealed silos, among which there was little or nocommunication”. He noted there was little progress from the past attemptsof solving the problem of integrated education, by basing education onscience or alternatively on the humanities. He suggested adopting apragmatic approach in the quest for holistic education by asking questionswhich would require the coordination of different knowledge to answer andwhy we needed to know them.
I love knowing things. The more bizarre the fact, the more surprising thehistorical event, the more unusual the feeling or thought, the moreavariciously I collect them.
How do spiders make love? Well, there at the centre of her web, sits thefemale of the species, two or three times the size of her male lovers. Themale approaches the centre, drawn by the delicious perfume. At the heightof passion, after the male has deposited all its semen, the giant femaleturns around, and promptly devours the male.
What was James I's official title? Well, in 1616, after the English woncontrol of two spice islands in the Banda Sea, it was announced that JamesI, 'by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, isalso now by the mercy of God, King of Poolaway and Poolaroone' - Poolawayand Poolaroone being what the English then called Pulau Ai and Pulau Run,two tiny atolls in what is today Indonesia's Maluku Islands. The Englishfought many wars with the Dutch for control of the atolls, once consideredto be worth more than all of Scotland because of the nutmeg that grew onthem. The English finally renounced control of the islands in 1667, when,in the Treaty of Breda, they exchanged them, most unhappily andreluctantly, for New Amsterdam - which, of course, later became New York!
What is the most truthful thing that's been said about the relationsbetween the sexes? Well, plenty, no doubt, but consider this, a poementitled Bloody Men by Wendy Cope:
'Bloody men are like bloody buses -/ You wait for about a year/ And as soonas one approaches your stop/ Two or three others appear.'You look at them flashing their indicators,/ Offering you a ride./ You'retrying to read the destinations,/ You haven't much time to decide.'If you make a mistake, there is no turning back./ Jump off, and you'llstand there and gaze/ While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by/ Andthe minutes, the hours, the days.'
Science, history, literature - does knowing bits and pieces about these andmany other subjects make me a renaissance man, a polymath?
Well, if the criterion is sheer quantity, I might qualify as a polymath. Mymind is filled with loose intellectual change - pocketfuls of five-centbits of science, 10-cent bits of history and politics, 20-cent bits ofmusic and poetry.
But if the criterion is wisdom - the ability to build bridges amongdisparate fields of knowledge to arrive at an intellectually, emotionallyand spiritually adequate view of life and society - I'm most certainly nota renaissance man. I am, I suppose, capable, on my best days, of evokingthe odd 50-cent bit of insight - and once in a blue moon, perhaps even adollar-coin's worth. But whole bills of wisdom, alas, have always eludedme.
And this is not solely due to my personal inadequacies. All modern systemsof knowledge are the product of intense specialisation. We have noalternative but to specialise in order to acquire an adequate command ofparticular subjects. But the problem is, as necessary as specialisation is,it has produced what the mathematician and philosopher A.N. Whitehead oncereferred to as a 'celibacy of the intellect' - the tendency of the modernmind to exist in a series of hermetically sealed silos, among which thereis little or no communication.
Both scientists and men of letters have been aware since the 19th centuryof the difficulty of connecting the silos. T.H. Huxley, the biologist andeducator, called for a broad-based integrated education, but believedscience should provide the basis of its organisation. Matthew Arnold, thepoet and critic, called for the inclusion of science in education, butargued that only the humanities could provide the basis of integrating allknow-ledge, including science.
This famous argument between Huxley and Arnold 130 years ago was repeated50 years ago when C.P. Snow, a scientist as well as novelist, coined theconcept of the 'two cultures': one, scientific and technical, and theother, literary and traditional. Snow blamed both scientists and literarypeople for the 'gulf of mutual incomprehension' separating them, butsuggested that scientists were on the whole morally superior. They 'havethe future in their bones', he wrote, and were more concerned aboutimproving material life than literary people, who seemed content just tocontemplate human tragedy.
Snow's views inevitably instigated a response - including a famouslyviolent one from literary critic F.R. Leavis, who called Snow 'portentouslyignorant', and another more temperate reaction from another critic LionelTrilling, who suggested a disinterested mind might be able to bridge the'two cultures'.
What is remarkable is how little progress we have made in solving theproblem of integrated education. One can revisit the Huxley-Arnold debateof 130 years ago, or the Snow-Leavis dust-up 80 years later, and get thefeeling that one is reading about current controversies.
The choice, now as before, seems to be between the Huxley-Snow position - aprimarily scientific education, with some loose change from the humanitiesto provide imaginative variety - and the Arnold-Leavis position - aprimarily humanistic education, with some loose change from the sciencesbecause they are unavoidable. But whether the stress is on science or thehumanities, the assumption is that one can adopt a smorgasbord, or dim sum,approach to education: a little of this, a little of that - and hopefully,the combination will add up to a balanced diet. The end result is not somuch the integration of knowledge but a sampling of its variety. The corecurriculum programmes of both Chicago and Harvard universities, despitetheir undoubted intellectual rigour, suffer from this limitation.
Can anything be done? As it so happens, there is one person who intervenedin the Snow-Leavis debate - Aldous Huxley, the grandson of T.H. Huxley andthe grand-nephew of Matthew Arnold, interestingly - who did have a valuablesuggestion: Instead of trying to devise an integrated education fromtheoretical first principles, why not begin with questions which wouldrequire the coordination of different knowledges to answer?
'Who are we? What is the nature of human nature? How should we be relatedto the planet on which we live? How are we to live together satisfactorily?What is the relationship between nature and nurture? If we start with theseproblems..., we can bring together information from a great number of atpresent completely isolated disciplines.'
Such a pragmatic approach might be something we might adopt in our questfor a 'holistic' education - an approach that begins with the questions: Sowhy do you want to know different things? What for?
SunTimes carried a commentary by Janadas Devan on the fundamental questionsthat needed to be asked in the quest for a ‘holistic education’. Hecommented that all modern systems of knowledge were the product of intensespecialisation, which produced a tendency of the mind thinking in“hermetically sealed silos, among which there was little or nocommunication”. He noted there was little progress from the past attemptsof solving the problem of integrated education, by basing education onscience or alternatively on the humanities. He suggested adopting apragmatic approach in the quest for holistic education by asking questionswhich would require the coordination of different knowledge to answer andwhy we needed to know them.
I love knowing things. The more bizarre the fact, the more surprising thehistorical event, the more unusual the feeling or thought, the moreavariciously I collect them.
How do spiders make love? Well, there at the centre of her web, sits thefemale of the species, two or three times the size of her male lovers. Themale approaches the centre, drawn by the delicious perfume. At the heightof passion, after the male has deposited all its semen, the giant femaleturns around, and promptly devours the male.
What was James I's official title? Well, in 1616, after the English woncontrol of two spice islands in the Banda Sea, it was announced that JamesI, 'by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, isalso now by the mercy of God, King of Poolaway and Poolaroone' - Poolawayand Poolaroone being what the English then called Pulau Ai and Pulau Run,two tiny atolls in what is today Indonesia's Maluku Islands. The Englishfought many wars with the Dutch for control of the atolls, once consideredto be worth more than all of Scotland because of the nutmeg that grew onthem. The English finally renounced control of the islands in 1667, when,in the Treaty of Breda, they exchanged them, most unhappily andreluctantly, for New Amsterdam - which, of course, later became New York!
What is the most truthful thing that's been said about the relationsbetween the sexes? Well, plenty, no doubt, but consider this, a poementitled Bloody Men by Wendy Cope:
'Bloody men are like bloody buses -/ You wait for about a year/ And as soonas one approaches your stop/ Two or three others appear.'You look at them flashing their indicators,/ Offering you a ride./ You'retrying to read the destinations,/ You haven't much time to decide.'If you make a mistake, there is no turning back./ Jump off, and you'llstand there and gaze/ While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by/ Andthe minutes, the hours, the days.'
Science, history, literature - does knowing bits and pieces about these andmany other subjects make me a renaissance man, a polymath?
Well, if the criterion is sheer quantity, I might qualify as a polymath. Mymind is filled with loose intellectual change - pocketfuls of five-centbits of science, 10-cent bits of history and politics, 20-cent bits ofmusic and poetry.
But if the criterion is wisdom - the ability to build bridges amongdisparate fields of knowledge to arrive at an intellectually, emotionallyand spiritually adequate view of life and society - I'm most certainly nota renaissance man. I am, I suppose, capable, on my best days, of evokingthe odd 50-cent bit of insight - and once in a blue moon, perhaps even adollar-coin's worth. But whole bills of wisdom, alas, have always eludedme.
And this is not solely due to my personal inadequacies. All modern systemsof knowledge are the product of intense specialisation. We have noalternative but to specialise in order to acquire an adequate command ofparticular subjects. But the problem is, as necessary as specialisation is,it has produced what the mathematician and philosopher A.N. Whitehead oncereferred to as a 'celibacy of the intellect' - the tendency of the modernmind to exist in a series of hermetically sealed silos, among which thereis little or no communication.
Both scientists and men of letters have been aware since the 19th centuryof the difficulty of connecting the silos. T.H. Huxley, the biologist andeducator, called for a broad-based integrated education, but believedscience should provide the basis of its organisation. Matthew Arnold, thepoet and critic, called for the inclusion of science in education, butargued that only the humanities could provide the basis of integrating allknow-ledge, including science.
This famous argument between Huxley and Arnold 130 years ago was repeated50 years ago when C.P. Snow, a scientist as well as novelist, coined theconcept of the 'two cultures': one, scientific and technical, and theother, literary and traditional. Snow blamed both scientists and literarypeople for the 'gulf of mutual incomprehension' separating them, butsuggested that scientists were on the whole morally superior. They 'havethe future in their bones', he wrote, and were more concerned aboutimproving material life than literary people, who seemed content just tocontemplate human tragedy.
Snow's views inevitably instigated a response - including a famouslyviolent one from literary critic F.R. Leavis, who called Snow 'portentouslyignorant', and another more temperate reaction from another critic LionelTrilling, who suggested a disinterested mind might be able to bridge the'two cultures'.
What is remarkable is how little progress we have made in solving theproblem of integrated education. One can revisit the Huxley-Arnold debateof 130 years ago, or the Snow-Leavis dust-up 80 years later, and get thefeeling that one is reading about current controversies.
The choice, now as before, seems to be between the Huxley-Snow position - aprimarily scientific education, with some loose change from the humanitiesto provide imaginative variety - and the Arnold-Leavis position - aprimarily humanistic education, with some loose change from the sciencesbecause they are unavoidable. But whether the stress is on science or thehumanities, the assumption is that one can adopt a smorgasbord, or dim sum,approach to education: a little of this, a little of that - and hopefully,the combination will add up to a balanced diet. The end result is not somuch the integration of knowledge but a sampling of its variety. The corecurriculum programmes of both Chicago and Harvard universities, despitetheir undoubted intellectual rigour, suffer from this limitation.
Can anything be done? As it so happens, there is one person who intervenedin the Snow-Leavis debate - Aldous Huxley, the grandson of T.H. Huxley andthe grand-nephew of Matthew Arnold, interestingly - who did have a valuablesuggestion: Instead of trying to devise an integrated education fromtheoretical first principles, why not begin with questions which wouldrequire the coordination of different knowledges to answer?
'Who are we? What is the nature of human nature? How should we be relatedto the planet on which we live? How are we to live together satisfactorily?What is the relationship between nature and nurture? If we start with theseproblems..., we can bring together information from a great number of atpresent completely isolated disciplines.'
Such a pragmatic approach might be something we might adopt in our questfor a 'holistic' education - an approach that begins with the questions: Sowhy do you want to know different things? What for?
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Sheik Mohammad Sayed Tantawi - modeate Islm
Egypt's top Muslim cleric dies of heart attack
By SALAH NASRAWI (AP) – 3 days ago
CAIRO — Top Egyptian cleric Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, whose moderate views angered conservative Muslims, died of a heart attack Wednesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia, the state-owned news agency reported. He was 81.
Tantawi was the grand sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's pre-eminent theological institute. Sunni Islam is the faith's mainstream sect, to which the majority of Egypt's 80 million people adhere.
Tantawi was a moderate scholar and supporter of women's rights whose views made him a frequent target of criticism from fundamentalist Muslims.
Most recently, he infuriated conservatives late last year by barring women from wearing the full face veil known as the niqab at Al-Azhar University. That step was part of the intensifying struggle between the moderate Islam championed by the state and a populace that is turning to a stricter version of the faith.
The Middle East News Agency said Tantawi died Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he attended a religious ceremony. Saudi officials said he will be buried in the Baqee cemetery in the Saudi holy city of Medina near the shrine of Prophet Muhammad.
The sheik, who was appointed in March 1996 by President Hosni Mubarak, was a revered figure among many of the world's 1.4 billion Muslims. His rulings carried great influence, particularly in Egypt, although they did not carry the force of law.
His teachings and rulings won him wide acclaim among moderates in the Muslim world, but they were also controversial. Fundamentalist Muslims considered them against Islamic teachings.
He angered radicals by supporting organ transplants, denouncing female circumcision and by ruling that women should be appointed to top government judicial and administrative positions. He also supported interest in commercial banking, unlike many Islamic scholars who condemn the paying of interest on bank deposits.
In January 2000, amid growing public debate on legislation easing divorce procedures for women in Egypt, Tantawi ruled that there is nothing in Islam that bars women from getting a divorce easily.
He told Egypt's male-dominated parliament: "Men are not made of gold and women from silver."
Tantawi, whose moderate views have always rankled hard-liners, has been blasted by critics several times. His meeting in 1997 with Israel's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau led to charges he wanted to normalize ties with Israel, something many Egyptians oppose despite their government's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
In 2008 he came under pressure to resign from politicians and newspapers for shaking the hand of Israeli President Shimon Peres at U.N. headquarters during an interfaith conference.
Tantawi has supported the peace process with Israel, although he also has condoned attacks by Islamic radicals against the Jewish state. In March 1997, he called for a holy war to take back Jerusalem.
The sheik also promoted Christian-Muslim dialogue.
He had a controversial side, in particular his bad temper in dealing with his critics. He sometimes yelled at reporters for questioning him about his controversial ideas.
At one religious gathering, he attacked what he called the "mob mentality" among Arabs and Muslims.
Before being named to the post at Al-Azhar, Tantawi had served as Egypt's official mufti. He is considered close to the government in his religious opinions.
Tantawi received a doctorate in interpretation of the Quran and Sunna, Prophet Muhammad's teachings, from Al-Azhar University in 1966. He was a religious teacher until 1986, when he was appointed mufti.
He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
By SALAH NASRAWI (AP) – 3 days ago
CAIRO — Top Egyptian cleric Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, whose moderate views angered conservative Muslims, died of a heart attack Wednesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia, the state-owned news agency reported. He was 81.
Tantawi was the grand sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's pre-eminent theological institute. Sunni Islam is the faith's mainstream sect, to which the majority of Egypt's 80 million people adhere.
Tantawi was a moderate scholar and supporter of women's rights whose views made him a frequent target of criticism from fundamentalist Muslims.
Most recently, he infuriated conservatives late last year by barring women from wearing the full face veil known as the niqab at Al-Azhar University. That step was part of the intensifying struggle between the moderate Islam championed by the state and a populace that is turning to a stricter version of the faith.
The Middle East News Agency said Tantawi died Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he attended a religious ceremony. Saudi officials said he will be buried in the Baqee cemetery in the Saudi holy city of Medina near the shrine of Prophet Muhammad.
The sheik, who was appointed in March 1996 by President Hosni Mubarak, was a revered figure among many of the world's 1.4 billion Muslims. His rulings carried great influence, particularly in Egypt, although they did not carry the force of law.
His teachings and rulings won him wide acclaim among moderates in the Muslim world, but they were also controversial. Fundamentalist Muslims considered them against Islamic teachings.
He angered radicals by supporting organ transplants, denouncing female circumcision and by ruling that women should be appointed to top government judicial and administrative positions. He also supported interest in commercial banking, unlike many Islamic scholars who condemn the paying of interest on bank deposits.
In January 2000, amid growing public debate on legislation easing divorce procedures for women in Egypt, Tantawi ruled that there is nothing in Islam that bars women from getting a divorce easily.
He told Egypt's male-dominated parliament: "Men are not made of gold and women from silver."
Tantawi, whose moderate views have always rankled hard-liners, has been blasted by critics several times. His meeting in 1997 with Israel's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau led to charges he wanted to normalize ties with Israel, something many Egyptians oppose despite their government's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
In 2008 he came under pressure to resign from politicians and newspapers for shaking the hand of Israeli President Shimon Peres at U.N. headquarters during an interfaith conference.
Tantawi has supported the peace process with Israel, although he also has condoned attacks by Islamic radicals against the Jewish state. In March 1997, he called for a holy war to take back Jerusalem.
The sheik also promoted Christian-Muslim dialogue.
He had a controversial side, in particular his bad temper in dealing with his critics. He sometimes yelled at reporters for questioning him about his controversial ideas.
At one religious gathering, he attacked what he called the "mob mentality" among Arabs and Muslims.
Before being named to the post at Al-Azhar, Tantawi had served as Egypt's official mufti. He is considered close to the government in his religious opinions.
Tantawi received a doctorate in interpretation of the Quran and Sunna, Prophet Muhammad's teachings, from Al-Azhar University in 1966. He was a religious teacher until 1986, when he was appointed mufti.
He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
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