SheikhYusuf al-Qaradawiissued a fatwa,president ofthe International Union forMuslim Scholars,that he does notneednorreligious dutyto open thedoor ofjihadin Palestine, now,stressing thatGodtestedthe patiencestationedinthe holyland.
He calledal-Qaradawi,in remarks to thenationalmedia,young Muslimstofocus their efforts onjihadinSyriato liberate it fromoppressionandtyrannyBashar al-Assad,he said.
In the streets of Egyptian cities, Muslim Brotherhood activists
achieved their highest hope. They died in their Jihad against the
liberal opposition and the military, fighting against human rights for
women and Christians, against multi-party rule, freedom of speech,
museums, libraries and the future in the way that the armies of Allah
have died for over a thousand years.
Some died trying to kill Egyptian soldiers and police officers.
Others were killed by their own people in order to maximize the death
toll and spread shock and horror through the international community.
Like their Hamas outlet in Gaza, like their Syrian brigades who have
wrecked entire cities and filled them with corpses, and like Al Qaeda,
whose leaders have always been Muslim Brotherhood members; the
Brotherhood does not care whose blood it spills.
When your highest hope is dying for Allah, then everything else is a
detail. The Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, men like Morsi and Khairat
el-Shater, are far less eager to die for Allah. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the
Brotherhood’s mad genocidal preacher, is still hiding out in Qatar and
spewing calls for violence from under the skirts of the equally cowardly
Qatari Emir, who finances the Brotherhood’s wave of death and terror in
the region while living it up in his palaces.
In his final speech, Morsi boasted of his willingness to sacrifice
his blood for power. The Brotherhood’s preacher of hate, Qaradawi, urged
Jihadists from around the world to come and be martyred in Egypt.
For the wealthy titans of the Brotherhood, their followers are pawns to
be disposed of, human shields for their political ambitions. The Muslim
Brotherhood spent their blood generously during the clashes with
Egyptian police the same way that Hamas and Hezbollah spill the blood of
their own people.
...
Responding to the carnage with new calls for an end to foreign aid is
an explicit form of collaboration in the Muslim Brotherhood’s
atrocities and the surest way to ensure that they will be repeated.
Egypt may deserve to lose its foreign aid, but issuing such calls now is
handing a victory to the world’s worst terrorist organization and
giving it every incentive to up the body count next time around.
The calls for Brotherhood participation in an Egyptian government are
senseless insanity. Is there room for a movement that seeks nothing but
death in the ranks of any government? Should murderous madness on such a
scale really be the currency that purchases power? Should the burners
of churches and the torturers of peaceful protesters be rewarded with
power a second time?
Western governments fear escalation in Egypt. And that fear is the
secret weapon of every terrorist group. The terrorist groups always
escalate, spending their currency of blood cheaply to break the will of
their enemies. The only way to break that cycle is to out-escalate them
by showing that their currency of blood is worthless because the people
and governments they are terrorizing will not be bent under its terrible
weight.
Wars aren’t won through de-escalation, but through escalation.
America lost in Afghanistan because it wasn’t willing to fight harder
and bloodier than the Taliban. The Egyptian government has shown that it
is willing to match the Muslim Brotherhood’s ruthlessness without
backing down.
To reward the courage of the Egyptian soldiers and police who fought
the Muslim Brotherhood in the streets by forcing their government to
stand down and surrender to the terrorists who nearly turned Egypt into a
second Iran is an unmitigated crime. It is a crime whose consequences
will not only be felt by the women and Christians of Egypt, but by all
of us.
Two US congressmen are passing a letter around Congress asking the Qatari Ambassador to the United States, Mohammed bin-Abdullah al-Rumaihi, to explain his country's relationship with Hamas.
U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and John Barrow (D-GA) are recruiting
their fellow members of Congress to sign a letter asking Qatar’s
ambassador to the U.S., Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Rumaihi, to address
“serious allegations” regarding the oil-rich Middle East country’s
relationship with Hamas.
Qatar reportedly pledged more than $400 million to the Palestinian
terrorist organization in October 2012 during a visit to Gaza by Qatar’s
ruling emir at the time, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
“As you know, longstanding, strategic bilateral relations between the
United States and Qatar, including a strong defense pact, are of
critical importance to both countries. However, we believe that Qatar’s
relationship with Hamas empowers, legitimizes, and bolsters an
organization committed to violence and hatred,” a draft of the letter to
Al-Rumaihi states, according to a copy obtained by JNS.org.
It's a nice thought. But unlike other Arab states that can be prodded to toe the US line with foreign aid money, Qatar is wealthy enough that it can tell the US to take a hike - and it is likely to do so. With what can the US threaten them?
I'm all in favor of 'convincing' Qatar not to have a relationship with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. I'm just not sure they need any more convincing.
Qatar strips Qaradawi of citizenship, orders Khaled Meshaal out of country
Qatar has stripped prominent Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi of his Qatari citizenship, has ordered Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal (who took refuge in Qatar after it was no longer palatable to be sheltered by Bashar al-Assad) out of the country, and has withdrawn support from the Muslim Brotherhood as a result of Wednesday's events in Egypt (link in Arabic).
Let's go to the videotape.
UPDATE 10:22 AM
Here's a Google translation of the article:
Student
Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa second, the Emir of Qatar, on Tuesday
evening, from Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi to leave the country, and ordered
the withdrawal of Qatari nationality of it, and the closure of all
offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in order to state policy in order not
to chosing a faction or political trend given. Confirmed Prince Tamim ,
in an interview, we are all Muslims, but not the Muslim Brotherhood, and
dealing with a diameter of State and Government and not with the
political faction., Al-Nahar reported that Prince Tamim gave Hamas
leader Khaled Meshaal, 48 hours to leave the country.
So Qaradawi was also expelled. I'm sure the Egyptian army would be thrilled to have him back under lock and key.
Maybe Hamas will take him in Gaza. Three words on that: target rich environment. Heh.
I think I've mentioned before that a couple of years ago, a large mosque was built in the heart of the Jewish neighborhood where I normally stay when I'm in Boston. Boston's Jewish community had attempted to buy the property to build a school on it and was rebuffed by the owner.
But that mosque - about which I know nothing more - is far from being the only mosque in the Boston area. Significantly, there are two huge mosques in Boston and Cambridge that belong to the Islamic Society of Boston, which is the local branch of a group that federal law enforcement officials have described as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood (Hat Tip: NY Nana).
Referring to the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge,
Jacobs said, “The founder of that mosque, blocks from where the
Tsarnaevs lived and where they prayed, was Abdulrahman Alamoudi.. He is
the model of deception in American-Muslim history…
“He…convinced President Clinton and also President George W. Bush
that he was precisely the kind of moderate Muslim leader that America
was looking for,” Jacobs said. “In fact, he deceived everyone. He’s now
in jail for 23 years for giving money, for funding al Qaeda.
Other worshippers at the Cambridge mosque have included an al Qaeda
member convicted of plotting attacks on New York City and a man
sentenced to 17 years in prison for planning a shooting spree on a
Boston-area shopping mall.
One former trustee of the mosque is Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a
Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader and terrorist supporter who’s banned
from entering the United States.
The explosive material found in the mosque is not new.
One moderate Muslim leader who visited the mosque 10 years ago told CBN.
“We go upstairs and I find the library and it’s full of flyers, full of
newsletters in Arabic,” Dr. Ahmed Mansour of the International Quranic
Institute said. “And they call for jihad against America and against the
Jews and against the Christians.”
The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States hides under the name
Muslim American Society (MAS), which the Muslim Brotherhood founded in
1993. and which federal prosecutors have called “the overt arm of the
Muslim Brotherhood in America.”
MAS opened up another mosque four years the Boston neighborhood of
Roxbury and goes by the lovely-sounding name of the Islamic Society of
Boston Cultural Center.
It cost $15,5 million to build. Getting money was no problem. More
than half of it reportedly came from Saudi Arabia, the country whose
terrorists pulled off the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Both mosques are run by the same leadership and have the same ideology, according to Jacobs.
Massachusetts politicians endorsed the Roxbury mosque although two
months earlier, the mosque’s cleric incited Muslims who had been
arrested for terrorism.
One morning, they're going to wake up in Boston and in a lot of other American cities and discover that they look a lot more like London or Berlin or Riyadh than they look like the Boston or New York in which I grew up and went to college. And by then it will be too late.
I never thought I'd see the day that I'd agree with extremist Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi. It's happened.
“When Hezbollah was fighting against Israel, I defended it. I stood
against the Muslim scholars in Saudi Arabia, the most renowned scholars
who warned us against Hezbollah,” Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said.
He said Hezbollah was the "party of Satan," in a reference to the
organization's name, that means "party of God" in Arabic, and accused
Hezbollah of trying to sow discord in the Muslim world.
Referring
to his past statements in defense of Hezbollah, Qaradawi explained he
wanted "to unite all Muslims, Muslims fighting against Israel" but said
he now understands Saudi religious scholars who cautioned against the
organization "were smarter" than him.
Yes, Hezbullah is the party of Satan. And God willing both they and Qaradawi will go down in ignominious defeat.
According to Mehta, "it's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national
pride that burns as bright as Israel's success in classical music." He
adds "the amount of culture going on in a small country like Israel is
amazing."
Mehta, who is a Parsi Indian from Bombay, first performed in Israel "by
chance" in 1961, when at the age of twenty-five, he filled in as a
substitute conductor for Eugene Ormandy.
...
Asked what draws him to Israel, Mehta says: "I keep on coming back
because the people love music. They need it and that's why I'm here, to
do whatever I can."
In a statement to The New York Times, Ms. Keys said on Friday: “I look
forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that
is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of
our show.”
The New York Times mentioned a number of celebrities who urged her not to go to Israel or who boycotted Israel recently.
Nearly a year and a half ago, New York Times reporter, David Kirkpatrick
profiled Sheikh Yussuf Qaradawi. After allowing that Qaradawi supported
suicide attacks against Israel, as if it were some eccentric belief of
the cleric, Kirkpatrick portrayed him as a virtual Thomas Jefferson of the Arab spring:
On Friday, he struck themes of democracy and pluralism, long hallmarks
of his writing and preaching. He began his sermon by saying that he was
discarding the customary opening “Oh Muslims,” in favor of “Oh Muslims
and Copts,” referring to Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority. He praised
Muslims and Christians for standing together in Egypt’s revolution and
even lauded the Coptic Christian “martyrs” who once fought the Romans
and Byzantines. “I invite you to bow down in prayer together,” he said.
He urged the military officers governing Egypt to deliver on their
promises of turning over power to “a civil government” founded on
principles of pluralism, democracy and freedom. And he called on the
army to immediately release all political prisoners and rid the cabinet
of its dominance by officials of the old Mubarak government.
“We demand from the Egyptian Army to free us from the government that
was appointed by Mubarak,” Sheik Qaradawi declared. “We want a new
government without any of these faces whom people can no longer stand.”
And he urged the young people who led the uprising to continue their
revolution. “Protect it,” he said. “Don’t you dare let anyone steal it
from you.”
“Every Muslim trained to fight and capable of doing that (must) make
himself available” to support the Syrian rebels, the cleric said at a
rally in Doha late Friday.
“Iran is pushing forward arms and men (to back the Syrian regime), so
why do we stand idle?” he said, branding Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah, which means the party of God in Arabic, as the “party of
Satan.”
...
“How could 100 million Shiites (worldwide) defeat 1.7 billion (Sunnis)?” he exclaimed, “only because (Sunni) Muslims are weak”.
He denounced Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as "more
infidel than Christians and Jews" and Shiite Muslim Hezbollah as "the
party of the devil."
An undeniable trend, which has also become much more widespread, is the
insistence that every dead Hizballah member was a “Defender” of
Damascus’s Sayda Zaynab Shrine. During earlier announcements and
funerals, the Zaynab Shrine and it’s protection were invoked quite
regularly, but this shift demonstrates a more full acceptance of the
narrative that all Hizballah members who are dying in Syria are
“Protecting the Lady Zaynab”. On Facebook, albums holding the pictures
of Hizballah’s dead from Syria have been entitled, “The Campaign to
Defend Saydah Zaynab’s Shrine” to “Zaynab’s Defenders”. The narrative
disregards whether these fighters were serving in the countryside near
Qusayr, Damascus, or elsewhere within Syria. Instead, the main theme is
that all actions executed in Syria are done to protect the Zaynab
Shrine. Of course, this promotes more sectarian aspects of the war in
Syria and with Hizballah’s involvement.
The Islamists will be weaker, subverting each other’s attempts to take
over or control various countries and movements. Yet growing
sectarianism can also lead to really nasty communal massacres of Muslims
by Muslims, as has already happened in Iraq. Syria is the place to
watch for that development.
Finally, in competing to show their militancy and effectiveness in
backing terrorism, the rate of attacks by both sides could well
increase. Trying to prove that one is the “proper” Islamist side
representing “authentic” Islam will also likely lead to reckless
risk-taking, which a naïve West—assuming everyone wants to be a moderate
and acts “rationally” according to their own definition—will be
ill-equipped to handle.
What do Caribou Coffee, Church’s Chicken, J. Jill, and PODS Moving and Storage have in common?
They are all owned by Muslim Brotherhood-linked Arcapita Bank (formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank).
Unlike most banks, Arcapita boasts a “spiritual advisor”–none other than Hamas-linked terrorist Youssef al-Qaradawi.
Qaradawi, you’ll remember, is the current spiritual leader of the
Muslim Brotherhood. He was exiled from Egypt under Mubarak, but now he’s b-a-a-ack, thanks to U.S. support of the “Arab Spring”.
...
Arcapita, presumably short for “Arab Capital”, buys and sells
businesses at a profit. The current list of their holdings is available
in their 2011 annual statement (pages 12-13). (If there’s no “exit date” listed, they still own that company.)
Arcapita is based in Bahrain, but it’s U.S. HQ is in Atlanta. First
Islamic Investment Bank changed its name to Arcapita in 2005, after the
Qaradawi connection went public. They had tried “Crescent Capital” for
their American branch, but apparently decided the Islamic link was still too obvious with that moniker.
Muslims know that Islam is not selling well in the West; they are
careful to conceal Islamic ties with name-changes so consumers cannot
connect the dots to brand names or distinguish between products that
fund terrorism and those that do not.
Arcapita’s spiritual advisor serves on the bank’s “Shari’ah Supervisory Board”
(see p. 113) to ensure that all financial transactions are
shari’a-compliant, or SCF. What does SCF include? That varies somewhat
depending on which Islamic legal school one is consulting, but always
bans anything involving “gambling, alcohol, pornography, dealing in pork products, or interest payments.”
To see why I may be able to enjoy Caribou coffee sometime soon, read the whole thing.
Qaradawi: Allah imposed Hitler on the Jews to punish them
Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, official "Spiritual Leader" of the Muslim Brotherhood, prominent Islamic scholar: "Allah imposed Hitler upon the Jews to Punish them. ...Allah willing, next time it will be at the hands of the Believers. ..."
Let's go to the videotape.
Nice guy - eh? Hope he gets his 'martyrdom' real soon.
French getting smarter? Qaradawi and other imams banned from France
Maybe the French have learned a few lessons from last week's events. Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, leads a list of imams who have been barred from entering France.
The President said he would block the entry of some imams invited to an Islamic conference next month, organised by the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF).
The UOIF, one of three Muslim federations in France, is regarded as close to Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
'I have clearly indicated that there certain people who have been invited to this congress who are not welcome on French soil,' Mr Sarkozy told France Info radio.
...
One imam banned by the President is Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric based in Qatar who is one of the most prominent Sunni Muslim clerics in the Arab world and a household name in the Middle East due to regular appearances on the Al Jazeera news channel.
A former member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi is independent of the group but remains close to it. Mr Sarkozy said the situation was complicated because the imam holds a diplomatic passport and does not require a visa to enter France.
'I indicated to the Emir of Qatar himself that this person was not welcome on the territory of the French republic,' Mr Sarkozy said. 'He will not come.'
Qaradawi was denied a visa to visit Britain in 2008 on grounds of seeking to 'justify acts of terrorist violence or disburse views that could foster inter-community violence', a Home Office spokeswoman said at the time.
Brings to mind a conversation I once had with a kibbutznik during the early, heady days of Oslo. Ruben, a thin, middle-age European immigrant with pepper-gray hair and round glasses that somehow accentuated his bursting intellect, would sometimes vent about Big Media’s fixation with Israel. But in a moment of candor, Ruben observed that it would be more painful to him if the world were indifferent to Israel. He broadly swept his hand to the right — overdramatically, I thought — as if to draw my attention to The Rest Of The World, as he emphatically told me:
“This tiny little country matters to the people out there.”
The problem isn't the disproportionate coverage of Israel; it's what constitutes that coverage. Israel has plenty of accomplishments that reporters could report on if they wanted to. The problem is that reporters and columnists see Israel as a "moral Disneyland" in Charles Krauthammer's formulation, from 24 years ago, at the beginning of the intidfada.
Israel's critics, so concerned about its soul, would have a little more credibility if they displayed equal concern for Israel's body. After all, it is that body - its right to mere existence - that has been the burning issue for 40 years now. Israelis don't crave the tears of the West's moral vacationers. They crave life. Any Arab negotiating partner who, like Sadat, fully declares that life to be an absolute given, will soon find across the table the kind of Jewish soul for which the moral nostalgics so ostentatiously pine.
So, what’s going on here? A smokescreen, I suspect. Netanyahu–who is opposed to a Palestinian state–is trying to draw attention away from illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank, which continue to grow and threaten the possibility of a two-state solution. He is also playing to the minority of American Jews who support neoconservative positions, especially the notion that Iran having a bomb would be somehow different, and more threatening, than Pakistan having a bomb–the idea that Iran is run by mad mullahs, who behave irrationally.
I’ve been traveling to the Middle East as a journalist for the past 30 years. During that time, Israel has grown into an ethnically diverse, economically successful country with a strong (internal) tradition of democracy, free speech and the rule of law–a tradition not always extended toward its Palestinian neighbors, especially when Likud governments are in power. And during those same 30 years, governance on the Palestinian side has been an unrelenting disgrace–until recently, when Salam Fayyad, a U.S.-trained economist reformed the government on the West Bank and, with US help, created a tough security force that insisted on the rule of law in the Palestinian territories and was respected by the international community, including the Israelis. But Fayyad was fired in the new accord between the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. This is terrible news. It changes everything.The success of Fayyad’s government was one reason why I was not entirely pessimistic about a two-state solution in the Middle East. Israel had always demanded, and deserved, a responsible negotiating partner. Fayyad had created conditions amenable to negotiation; the Israelis responded positively, in a limited way, shutting down checkpoints on the West Bank, but not nearly as positively as they should have–with a moratorium on new settlement construction. His firing has undermined those of us who had hoped for a more positive Israeli response to the Palestinian reforms.
Aside from his cheap shot about how Israel treats Palestinians, his praise of Israel as a society is welcome. But he overstates the importance of Fayyad. Fayyad never had a significant base of support. Over the past 30 years (actually more) Palestinian extremism has been praised and encouraged. Even Likud governments did more to promote peace with the Palestinians than "moderate" Fatah politicians - Fayyad included - did to encourage peace with Israel.
It would have been better had Klein not focused on Fayyad and noted that an agreement between Fatah and Hamas effectively rejects the Oslo Accords. Still it is something that he acknowledged the problem.
On Monday, government forces using tanks and machine guns shelled a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas in Homs, a major center of protests. Since Friday, an estimated 240 people have been killed in perhaps the bloodiest episode in the 11-month-old uprising. Moscow and Beijing now have the blood of Syria’s valiant people on their hands as well. Both argued that the resolution, endorsing an Arab League initiative, would expand the conflict. That is nonsense. The real explanation is that these two authoritarian governments fear any popular movement and, after the ouster of Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, are determined to deny the West another perceived victory.
Israel Television reports in its nightly news magazine that Qatari-based Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered one of the most important Sunni Sheikhs in the world, has issued a fatwa calling for a boycott of Russia and China over their vetoes of a UN Security Council resolution on Saturday that would have condemned Bashar al-Assad's regime. Qaradawi called Russia and China the 'enemies of the Arab people.'
4) Room for debating Assad?
A regular feature of the New York Times is "Room for Debate," in which typing heads discuss the important issues of the day. Incredibly, there is room for Life After Assad Could Be Worse by Ed Husayn.
It is impossible to tell whether Assad’s time is running out. Educated and Westernized friends of mine in Syria who once opposed Assad on political grounds and sought reform now support him because they fear the prospect of an all-out civil war between tribes, cities, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, Druze, Ismailis, Catholics, Protestants and assorted Orthodox Christians. Syria is a complex nation. Containing – not fanning – the current conflict is in everybody’s interests.
But the slide into anarchy is more starkly observed in Homs City in central Syria, where for weeks loyalists have been pounding restive neighborhoods with mortars and heavy artillery. On the eve of the U.N. vote, indiscriminate bombardment killed more than 250 residents of the Khaldiyeh neighborhood. Loyalist gangs have committed cold-blooded massacres of entire families, including women and babies, in their effort to spread fear among the protesters and push them out of the city — a development that could usher in a larger-scale drive for ethnic cleansing in Homs City and a number of coastal communities, where sectarian tensions continue to rise. Despite the international outcry, Russia and China went ahead with their veto, which the regime has taken as a green light to continue its crackdown.
To the credit of the New York Times, not everyone debating is an apologist for the Assad regime, Andrew Tabler contributes A new resistance with new results:
Ultimate change is much more likely to come from below. In contrast to the situation in 1982, regime opponents aren’t cowed: their numbers are simply far too high and continue to swell. In the 10 years after the Hama massacre, Syrians stayed home out of fear, and a population boom began, making Syria among the 20 fastest-growing nations. Today it is one of the youngest populations in the Middle East. The Syrian Awakening, like so many uprisings and revolutions elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond, presents, perhaps, the best example of authoritarian regime karma. But the question remains: Will the international community stand by and do nothing, as it did in 1982? And if not, what can it do to help Syrians end the 40-plus years of the Assad family’s brutal and incompetent rule and bring about a leadership capable of dealing with the needs of the next generation?
Regarding Klein, I would add that Netanyahu did actually freeze 'settlement construction' for ten months - which no Prime Minister had done before. But Abu Mazen waited until nine of those ten months were up and then went to the negotiating table to try to get Netanyahu to extend them. Enough is enough!
Breaking: Qaradawi issues fatwa against Russia and China; UPDATED WITH VIDEO
Israel Television reports in its nightly news magazine that Qatari-based Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered one of the most important Sunni Sheikhs in the world, has issued a fatwa calling for a boycott of Russia and China over their vetoes of a UN Security Council resolution on Saturday that would have condemned Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Qaradawi called Russia and China the 'enemies of the Arab people.'
Hmmm.
UPDATE 11:01 PM
Israel Radio reports that Qaradawi made the statement on his weekly television program on al-Jazeera, and that the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan has made similar statements. Qaradawi also said that any money that goes to Syria is used for murdering its civilians.
UPDATE TUESDAY 12:18 AM
MEMRI has posted video of Qaradawi's boycott call. Unfortunately, it's not embeddable, so you'll have to click through to see it here (Hat Tip: Will).
UPDATE TUESDAY 12:50 AM
And we now have embeddable video, so let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Will).
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who just two months ago enthralled two million Egyptians with his Jew hatred, is rumored to be in a coma.
According to the Syrian News Network, renowned Islamic scholar Yousuf Al Qaradawi has fallen into a coma.
The report gave no source or link. No confirmation has been obtained so far. However, the news has spread quickly on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
I believe that in the JPost print edition this was entitled something like "30 facts about Sheikh Qaradawi." Here are some highlights.
6. At the same time, building a bridge between the exigencies of Muslim emigrants’ daily lives and Islamic religious law also includes regarding taking over Europe as Islam’s next target. In 2003, al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa declaring that “Islam will return to Europe as a victorious conqueror after having been expelled twice. This time it will not be conquest by the sword, but by preaching and spreading [Islamic] ideology…The future belongs to Islam…The spread of Islam until it conquers the entire world and includes the both East and West marks the beginning of the return of the Islamic Caliphate…”
7. Although al-Qaradawi opposes Al-Qaida and its methods, he enthusiastically supports Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombing attacks targeting the civilian Israeli population. In the past he also supported “resistance” (i.e., terrorism) to the occupation of Iraq. He issued fatwas calling for jihad against Israel and the Jews, and authorizing suicide bombing attacks even if the victims were women and children. He regards all of “Palestine” as Muslim territory (according to Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas ideology), strongly opposes the existence of the State of Israel and rejects the peace treaties signed with it, and opposes the Palestinian Authority. (In the past, he called for the stoning of Mahmoud Abbas.)
8. In response to the dramatic events in Egypt, al-Qaradawi (whose statements are widely reported in Egypt) expressed his support for the demonstrators. He called on the Egyptian people to fight the despots and forbade the security forces to shoot civilians. The IslamOnline website recently posted a chapter of his book [Islamic] Law and Jihad, according to which jihad against corruption and a tyrannical regime is the most exalted form of jihad, even more important than jihad against external enemies.
...
19. Al-Qaradawi’s enthusiastic support of Palestinian terrorism, including when it is directed against civilians, reflects his claim that Israel is a militaristic society where every civilian is a potential soldier. He has also issued fatwas authorizing attacks on Jews around the world because in his view there is no essential difference between Judaism and Zionism, and therefore every Jewish target equals an Israeli target. His status as a leading Sunni Muslim cleric gives added importance to his fatwas supporting Palestinian terrorism and make him particularly influential in shaping anti-Israeli sentiments in the Arab-Muslim world.
20. In July 2003, during the height of the suicide bombing terrorism (the second intifada), he addressed the issue of suicide bombings at an ECFR conference. He said that istishhad (death as a martyr for the sake of Allah), carried out by Palestinian organizations to oppose the so-called “Zionist occupation,” were by no means to be defined as terrorism.
21. Senior Hamas figures relied on al-Qaradawi’s fatwas which authorize suicide bombing attacks against Israel to justify such attacks. For example: a) Sheikh Hamid al-Bitawi, a senior Hamas activist in Judea and Samaria, relying on an al- Qaradawi fatwa, said that according to Islamic jurisprudence, “jihad is a collective duty…” and that if infidels occupy any bit of Muslim land – such as the occupation of Palestine by the Jews – jihad becomes the duty of every individual, thus making it permissible to carry out suicide bombing attacks. b) Dr. Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi, a senior Hamas leader who died in a targeted killing, relying on a fatwa issued by al-Qaradawi, said that “suicide depends on intention. If the person intends to kill himself because he is fed up with life, that is suicide (which is prohibited). However, if he wants to die to strike at the enemy and to receive a reward from Allah, he is considered as delivering up his soul [and not as committing suicide].”
22. To help fund Hamas’s civilian infrastructure (the da’wah) al-Qaradawi established the Union of Good, which he heads today. It is an umbrella organization which raises money for Hamas and other Islamist activities around the globe. The Union of Good was declared a terrorism-sponsoring organization and outlawed by Israel in February 2002. In December 2002 it was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and outlawed.
23. At the beginning of 2010 he criticized Abbas for a UN vote regarding the Goldstone Report, and issued a fatwa calling for Abbas to be stoned in Mecca. Abbas demanded a retraction from al-Qaradawi, who denied having issued the fatwa. However, he did admit that during a sermon he said that if accusations against any person in the Palestinian Authority were proved true [i.e., that he had supported the cancellation of the vote on the Goldstone Report], that person should be stoned in Mecca as punishment for treason. In response, Mahmoud al-Habash, the Palestinian Authority minister of religion and endowments, said that his ministry had ordered all preachers in PA mosques to attack al-Qaradawi personally.
24. Al-Qaradawi has often made anti-Semitic remarks. For example, his “Life and Islamic Law” program broadcast on March 15, 2009, discussed the topic of righteous Muslims in Islam. One of the viewers called in and asked about the role of the righteous (al-salkhoun) in the Koran in the liberation of the [Islamic] holy places and the victory of the [Muslim] nation. Al-Qaradawi used the opportunity to attack the Jews, basing his answer on a hadith [oral tradition] calling for the murder of Jews. On the program he said that righteous Muslims were “the salt of the earth” who were always instrumental in liberating lands. He called them a source of hope and said he hoped that through them Jerusalem would be “liberated,” as would “Palestine,” the Gaza Strip, and all the lands ruled by the enemies of the Muslims. He said that the war against the Jews was not only the war of the Palestinians but of all Muslims. He said that the prophet Muhammad had said that “you will continue to fight the Jews and they will fight you until the Muslims kill them. The Jew hides behind rock and tree. The rock and the tree say, ‘Oh, slave of Allah, oh, Muslim, here is the Jew behind me, come and kill him.’”
25. Al-Qaradawi denounced the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and said it was the duty of every Muslim to help bring the perpetrators to trial. As opposed to his opposition to Al-Qaida, he called for attacks on Americans fighting in Iraq. In August 2004, the “Pluralism in Islam” conference was held by Egypt’s Journalists’ Union in Cairo. At the conference al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa allowing the abduction and murder of American civilians in Iraq to exert pressure on the American army to remove its forces. He emphasized that “all the Americans in Iraq are fighters, there is no difference between civilians and soldiers, and they have to be fought against because the American civilians come to Iraq to serve the occupation. Abducting and killing them is a [religious] duty to make [the Americans] leave [Iraq] immediately. [On the other hand] abusing their corpses is forbidden by Islam.”
26. Al-Qaradawi issued the fatwa a week after public figures from various Muslim countries had published an open letter calling for support for the forces fighting the coalition in Iraq. It was signed by 93 Islamic clerics and public figures, including al-Qaradawi and figures from the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. Ten days later, al-Qaradawi sent a fax to the London-based daily Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat denying “what the media said” and insisting he never issued a fatwa on the issue. Before the denial was issued, Azzam Halima, al-Qaradawi’s office manager, had confirmed that al- Qaradawi issued a fatwa stating that it was a duty to fight the American civilians in Iraq because they were invaders.
Hamas trying to get Egypt to lower anti-smuggling profile
Taking advantage of its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is attempting to cozy up to a future Islamist regime in Egypt, hoping that Egypt can be induced to let weapons flow freely into Gaza by way of the Rafah crossing.
1. On February 19 Ismail Haniya, head of the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, contacted Sheikh Dr. Yussuf al-Qardawi and invited him to visit the Gaza Strip to hold prayers. He also congratulated al-Qardawi and the Egyptian people on "the victory of the revolution." Ismail Haniya expressed his personal appreciation and the appreciation of the Hamas administration for al-Qardawi's support of the Palestinian cause and for his call at the mass rally on February 18 for the lifting of the Israeli "siege" of the Gaza Strip. A Hamas website reported that al-Qardawi had accepted the invitation and promised to try to arrange a visit. He also praised the Gaza Strip's "firm stance" (Hamas’ Palestine-info website, February 19, 2011).
2. The previous day, February 18, Qardawi, who was expelled from Egypt in 1997 and found refuge in Qatar, appeared at a mass rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo and delivered the Friday sermon. His speech, which dealt with the Egyptian revolution, sent a message of unity between Muslims and Christians. However, he ended his speech with a call for the "liberation" of Al-Aqsa mosque and asked the Egyptian army to open the Rafah crossing and allow convoys to enter the Gaza Strip (Al-Jazeera TV, February 18, 2011).
3. In our assessment, Hamas is trying to make political capital from the recent events in Egypt, the strengthening of the Muslim Brotherhood and the return to Egypt of Sheikh al-Qardawi, the source of religious authority for Hamas (See Appendix I). That centers on bolstering Hamas' status with the Egyptian authorities, in the internal Palestinian arena (strengthening Hamas' position in its competition with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority) and in the Arab-Muslim world. In our assessment, Hamas is especially interested in having the Rafah crossing opened ("lifting the [so-called] siege") and in having Egypt lower the profile of its security activities regarding the smuggling-tunnel industry. That would make it easier for Hamas to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip via routes which pass through Egypt, which it regards as necessary for military buildup, both its own and that of the other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip.
Video: Sheikh Qaradawi in Tahrir Square (with translation)
Here is a video of part of Sheikh Qaradawi's speech on Friday in Tahrir Square before 2,000,000 Egyptians, with translation. The last minute or so deals with the 'Palestinians' and you will note that the Egyptians there all yell "Amen."
Let's go to the videotape.
You will also note that the Rafah crossing into Egypt has been reopened.
The end of the Camp David accords? Two million Egyptians aim to 'liberate' Jerusalem
I was surprised to discover that I have had a lot of hits from Egypt lately. I'm not sure why. Unfortunately, it's becoming clear that the new 'democratic' Egypt is likely to be an enemy of both Israel and the United States. Here's Giulio Meotti writing at Contentions.
All the secular forces in Cairo are asking for a review of or a break from the relations with both Israel and the United States. The protagonist of the revolts, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said that Israel is the biggest threat in the Middle East. “Israel has signed a peace treaty with Mubarak, not with Egypt,” said the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Leftist Karama Party leader Hamdeen Sabahi proclaims the end of the “American-Israeli domination over Egypt.” And the generals in power have just asked a former judge of the State Council, the so-called “moderate islamist” Tariq al-Bishri, to chair the committee that will reform the Egyptian constitution. Praising the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Mr. Bishri said that, against Israel, “all forms of resistance must be deployed, including violent resistance.”
The old Wafd Party wants to strengthen Egypt’s ties with Islamic countries such as Sudan. The largest leftist party, Tagammu, claims “anti-Zionist principles,” promotes solidarity among Arab states, supports the “Palestinian cause,” and opposes “normalization with Israel.” The Nasserist Party wants to “solve the Palestinian issue through the expulsion of the occupying forces from all Arab lands” and opposes the “normalization of relations with Israel.”
Even the popular movement Kefaya movement calls for “the opposition to the influence of Israel and the United States in the region.” Kefaya’s leader, George Ishak, said that “the Camp David agreement is only ink on paper.” The April 6 Movement, born a year ago, also asks for the cancellation of the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. The Democratic Front plans to “resist Israeli expansionism and support the Palestinian cause.”
But it isn't just Israel. Mort Zuckerman writes that Egypt is in danger of becoming America's greatest enemy in the Middle East.
Nobody knows the true strength of the Muslim Brotherhood among the young or in Egyptian society as a whole. Nobody knows what the composition of the next Egyptian parliament might be, once it is elected in free, rather than fraudulent, elections. What we do know is that the Muslim Brotherhood is the only organized force within the opposition and as such has the best chance to exploit the post-revolutionary confusion. In the aftermath of a revolution, the people who seize power need not be the most popular, only the most organized, and in Egypt that is the Muslim Brotherhood. It believes in what? It believes in an Islamic democracy based on the principles of sharia, or Islamic law, and the investiture of a supreme guide—something eerily similar to Iran's Islamic state. Islam has a unique appeal in Egypt and indeed in the broader Arab world where secular dictators ruled for decades except in the mosques, which they were unable to close. So the mosques became the center of political activism and Islam the doctrine of opposition.
The Brotherhood opposes a secular state as well as Western civilization, but supports taqiyya, which means lying is allowed if it helps to ultimately defeat the infidels. As for the Brotherhood mellowing, a notion that is the love child of our mass media, this mostly reflects the organization's recruitment of media-savvy spokesmen, who can espouse the virtues of a pro-democracy platform as a smokescreen for the group's real views and intentions.
Polls in Egypt reveal that the people want democracy—but that they also want an Islamic state with sharia and all of its restraints on minorities, religion, and women. As Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said this month, "The Muslim Brotherhood is not, as some suggest, simply an Egyptian version of the March of Dimes." Opinion polls of Egyptians in past years indicate that 60 percent or more support Islamists and favor the re-establishment of a single Islamic state, or caliphate. In a Pew poll last spring, fully three quarters of Egyptians said they favored strict sharia punishments, and of those who saw a struggle between fundamentalists and groups that want to modernize the country, only 27 percent favored modernizers. Half expressed favorable views of Hamas, 30 percent Hezbollah, and 20 percent al-Qaeda. If these convictions or inclinations govern Egypt's future politics, ousted President Hosni Mubarak's military authoritarianism might well be replaced by Islamic authoritarianism.
Remember when Egyptians had the chance to choose their legislators in 2005? Where they could, they favored the totalitarian Muslim Brotherhood. If that happens again, the United States' greatest ally in the region will become its greatest enemy, and Israel's peace partner will become its greatest foe. As Bernard Lewis, the renowned historian of Islam, said recently: "Many of our so-called friends in the region are inefficient kleptocracies. But they're better than the Islamic radicals." It's a judgment that is well captured in the phrase "the evil of two lessers."
On Friday, 2,000,000 people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to hear the Islamist Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whom I previously discussed here. I'd like to show you a video of that event.
Let's go to the videotape.
For those whose Arabic is a bit weak, the first commenter on YouTube translated what they were shouting into English.
"To Jerusalem We go, for us to be the Martyrs of the Millions."
And I'm sure some of you are wondering what became of Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who 'lead' the revolution. Well, here are a couple of comments about Ghonim by a couple of morons from the New York Times, followed by the reality (Hat Tip: Soccer Dad).
Indeed, it is no surprise that the emerging spokesman for this uprising is Wael Ghonim — a Google marketing executive who is Egyptian. He opened a Facebook page called “We are all Khaled Said,” named for an activist who was allegedly beaten to death by police in Alexandria. And that page helped spark the first protests here. Ghonim was abducted by Egyptian security officials on Jan. 28, and he was released on Monday. On Monday night, he gave an emotional TV interview that inspired many more people to come into the square on Tuesday. And when he spoke there in the afternoon, he expressed the true essence of this uprising.
The sea of people pulsated with energy, galvanized by the words of Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive who got the Mubarak treatment — 12-day disappearance, blindfolding, interrogation — before a tweet that will one day be etched in some granite memorial: “Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it.”
Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.
So much for Ghonim and his yuppie friends and their wishful thinking Western cheerleaders. So much for Egypt's 'secular revolution.' I see little chance that Camp David or any arrangements between Egypt and Israel survive this. We're right back where we were on June 4, 1967. Except that now the Egyptians have a modern, American-equipped army at their disposal.
On Friday, Egypt will get its Khomeni - the charismatic Islamic thinker with the chance to push its revolution from secular to Islamist. 84-year old Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has lived in exile in the Gulf for years, will deliver a Friday sermon at Tahrir Square in Cairo, where hundreds of thousands of people are likely to come see him. Among other things, Qaradawi is a supporter of Islamists moving to the West, where they can prevent Jews from being influential, and a supporter of Islamists participating in elections, because they will always win them.
Barry Rubin, who refers to Qaradawi as a living legend, has lots more about him.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
