Horror of horrors - Egypt's top cleric shakes the hand of Shimon Peres....

And now the Egyptian press wants him to purify his hand...

Several opposition newspapers and lawmakers in Egypt called on the country's top Islamic cleric to resign Saturday for shaking the Israeli president's hand at a conference.

Egyptian media has been running a photo of Grand Sheik Mohammed Seyed Tantawi shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres almost daily since the two met at a United Nations-sponsored interfaith dialogue in New York last month. The photo has been accompanied by critical editorials and comments by lawmakers.

Al-Osboa newspaper said in an editorial Saturday that Peres' hands were tainted with the blood of thousands of Palestinians who have lost their homes in Israel.

The paper called on Tantawi - the sheik of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's pre-eminent institution and oldest university - to ritually purify his hands after the shake.