Category Archives: Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Outrage! make prats of themselves over Qaradawi again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hijab Conference“The Crown Prince of Qatar should be stoned to death for being gay, according to Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim fundamentalist scholar who is based in Qatar. These allegations appear in the Middle East news magazine Aljazeera….

“Aljazeera quotes Dr Qaradawi as saying: ‘The scholars of Islam, such as Malik, Ash-Shafi’i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried’.”

Outrage! press release, 5 August 2005

As Islamophobia Watch has pointed out, the quotation is not from Dr al-Qaradawi at all, but from a Saudi Wahhabist named Mohammed Salih Al-Munajjid.

See here and here.

As for Qaradawi’s supposed fatwa “Homosexuality and Lesbianism: Sexual Perversions”, the link provided by Outrage! shows that this was not a fatwa issued by Qaradawi but by a “Group of Muftis”. Their fatwa did include a quotation from Qaradawi in which he summarised the opinions of various scholars on the punishment for homosexuality, but did not state his own view. Moreover, the quote was taken from his book The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam, which was published … in 1960!

If Dr al-Qaradawi does indeed called for the execution of gay men, then you would have thought that Outrage! would have been able to find some statement to that effect from his numerous writings and broadcasts over the subsequent forty-five years. They have been unable to find a single one.

Abu Aardvark on Ayman al-Zawahiri

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ZawahiriMarc Lynch on the Zawahiri tape, broadcast on Al-Jazeera. Once again Lynch argues that “it’s precisely because Zawahiri’s call for violent, total change represents a minority view that he keeps lashing out against the advocates of peaceful, gradual change”. The latter, of course, being represented by figures such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Abu Aardvark weblog, 4 August 2005

Foreign Office backs engagement with Qaradawi – Nick Cohen goes apoplectic

Posted on by Bob Pitt

YusufalQaradawiNick Cohen retails another series of lies and distortions about Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi “ruled that the an [sic] Arab princeling should be stoned to death” (in fact he didn’t), Aljazeera magazine “hadn’t withdrawn the report” (in reality they had) etc etc. And Cohen concludes this demonstration of ignorant bigotry with the smug announcement that his mission as a journalist is to “tell Truth to readers”! What a plonker.

Observer, 4 August 2005

And what has made Cohen so cross? Well, it’s the fact that the Observer has acquired a leaked Foreign Office briefing which recommends that Dr al-Qaradawi should not be banned from entering the UK. The document is a well-informed piece of work, by Mockbul Ali, which entirely bears out the positive assessment of Qaradawi’s role made on this website and elsewhere. See (pdf) here.

The FCO’s line on Qaradawi, as summarised by Cohen, is to “try to detach him and the millions who listen to him from al-Qaeda”. This amounts to wilful distortion. The FCO document in fact argues for engagement with Qaradawi precisely because he is one of the most authoritative and influential opponents of al-Qaeda. He hardly requires any “detaching”. Cohen’s colleague Martin Bright (author of the Observer‘s witch-hunt against the MCB) also tries to imply a link between Qaradawi and al-Qaeda, reporting that “the memo contains the warning that refusing Qaradawi entry could lead to further terrorist attacks”. See here.

Cohen holds up the FCO briefing as evidence that “the mandarins have been preparing for an accommodation with radical Islam”, and Martin Bright agrees that the leaked document “will further fuel concerns of increasing ‘Islamist’ influence in the Foreign Office”.

It is notable that nowhere does the Observer deal with the arguments in favour of Dr al-Qaradawi that are presented in some detail in the FCO document, and unless you consulted the link in the online edition you’d be none the wiser. So much for “telling Truth to readers”. For that you have to go to Islam Online, 4 September 2005

It’s also worth noting that Cohen’s article is warmly welcomed by the Zionist right. See Israpundit, 4 September 2005

Bloggers target Times writer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Bloggers have attacked a Times writer over an article comparing Islamic fundamentalism to Nazism and his links with a rightwing US website. Anthony Browne, the Times’ European editor and an outspoken critic of British immigration policy, has sparked furious online debate over his article ‘Fundamentally, we’re useful idiots’, published in the Times.”

Chris Tryhorn reports in the Guardian, 3 August 2005

In fact, it wasn’t just “Islamic fundamentalism” that Browne compared to Nazism but such mainstream organisations and figures as the Muslim Association of Britain and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

For Browne’s links with US racists see Newshog, 1 August 2005

It’s worth noting that David T at Harry’s Place initially recommended Browne’s anti-Muslim rant as a useful “summary of the issues which we’ve been highlighting over the past few years” and had no problem at all with Browne’s characterisation of MAB and Dr al-Qaradawi as fascists. The objection David T eventually raised was not to “the argument which Browne makes about the fascist nature of radical Islamism” but to the fact that it was “part of a broader argument which he is making about ‘third world colonization’. The case for treating radical Islamism seriously can do without his support”. In short, David T finds little wrong with racist bigotry as long as it is directed exclusively against Muslims.

More Islamophobia from Harry’s Place

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Over at Harry’s Place, it’s back to the nonsense about Yusuf al-Qaradawi calling for the execution of gay men. Harry reproduces a report that Qatar’s Crown Prince Tameem Bin Hamad Al-Thani has been outed in a Dubai-based publication after being banned from the G.A.Y. nightclub in London for getting involved in a bar fight.

“Anyway, who cares?” Harry comments. “Well, London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s ‘moderate’ mate Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi does. He gave this quote to Al-jazeera magazine: ‘The scholars of Islam, such as Malik, Ash-Shafi’i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried’.”

Harry’s Place, 2 August 2005

In fact, the quotation isn’t from Qaradawi at all, but from a prominent Saudi Wahhabist, Mohammed Salih Al-Munajjid. “Aljazeera” magazine (which has no connection to the famous TV station of that name) obviously made a mistake and misattributed it.

Harry is apparently a journalist by profession, and it is of course a general principle that journalists should check their sources. However, this principle evidently ceases to apply when it’s a question of attacking Muslims.

MAB complains to the CRE over Times article

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MAB logoIn today’s The Times, Anthony Browne, a renowned Zionist Right-wing commentator who has made his campaign to attack Muslims and their faith in the most despicable manner, wrote another disgusting attack under the title ‘Fundamentally, We’re Useful Idiots’.

In his article, Browne chose to go out ‘all guns blazing’ and accuse Muslims of being the Nazis and Fascists of today, treating all others with disdain and considering them ‘sub-humans’. On more than one occasion, Browne wrote of the ‘similarities’ between Muslims and Hitler and also stated that the Eminent Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is a moderate ‘in the same way that Mussolini was’.

It is clear that Anthony Browne has chosen to go beyond the pale and to blatantly accuse Muslims and particularly MAB of being fascists and Nazis. The magnitude of his statement regarding Sheikh Qaradawi can only be measured if one were to imagine the Pope being accused of being a Nazi, and the outcry and outrage that would generate.

Anas Altikriti, speaking on behalf of MAB stated earlier: “The Muslim Association of Britain will be forwarding an official complaint to the Commission of Racial Equality (CRE), and have written a letter to The Times in response to the article. “However, it is also vital that British Muslims contact The Times to sound their disgust of Anthony Browne and the hate-fuelled discourse he promotes. “At a time when all Muslims come under immense pressure from all corners through no fault of their own, Browne’s article can only lead to more hate, division and even violence against Muslims throughout the country.”

MAB press release, 1 August 2005

Qaradawi and MAB – ‘Islamic fascists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

London vigil“Elements within the British establishment were notoriously sympathetic to Hitler. Today the Islamists enjoy similar support.

“In the 1930s it was Edward VIII, aristocrats and the Daily Mail; this time it is left-wing activists, The Guardian and sections of the BBC. They may not want a global theocracy, but they are like the West’s apologists for the Soviet Union – useful idiots….

“The support of Islamic fascism spans Britain’s Left. The wacko Socialist Workers Party joined forces with the Muslim Association of Britain, the democracy-despising, Shariah-law-wanting group, to form the Stop the War Coalition. The former Labour MP George Galloway created the Respect Party with the support of the MAB, and won a seat in Parliament by cultivating Muslim resentment.

“When I revealed on these pages last year both the fascist views of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the fact that he was being welcomed to Britain by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, it caused a storm that has still to abate. Mr Livingstone claims that Sheikh al-Qaradawi is a moderate – which he is, in the same way that Mussolini was.”

Anthony Browne in the Times, 1 August 2005

‘Terrorism expert’ denounces US fatwa

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Terrorism expert” Steven Emerson (you remember him – the man who insisted that Muslims were responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma bombing) pours scorn on a recent fatwa against terrorism and extremism (see here) issued by Muslim leaders in the US and Canada:

“In fact, the fatwa is bogus. Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism….. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate…. I spoke with Judea Pearl, father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl who told me that the fatwa was ‘vacuous because it does not name the perpetrators of Islamic terrorist theologies and leaders of Islamic movements like Yousef Al Qaradawi, Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahari, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.’”

Counterterrorism Blog, 28 July 2005

That would be the same Qaradawi who was the subject of a sympathetic article by Daniel Pearl in the Wall Street Journal, would it? (See here.)

‘Tread more carefully’ over Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jonathan Freedland in yet another ignorant attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Not quite as bad as you might have feared, but we get the usual stuff – originating with the likes of MEMRI and Outrage! – about supporting the killing of unborn Israeli children and the state execution of gay men.

Guardian, 27 July 2005

The burden of Freedland’s argument is to oppose “hugging people who are sharply at odds with Britain’s progressive tradition”. Which of course ignores the need for alliances with people who represent a progressive force within their own tradition – people like Dr al-Qaradawi who promote democracy, women’s rights and dialogue with the West in the Middle East, and who constitute a democratic-reformist alternative to the terrorists of al-Qaida within political Islam.