Muslimska brödraskapet och Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi

Det finns en del artiklar som beskriver Muslimska Brödraskapet och en av de högsta auktoriteterna för sunni muslimer Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi som moderata krafter i arabvärlden. Här nedan finns en intervju med Barry Rubin och en artikel från The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center som behandlar ämnet och ifrågasätter beteckningen moderat.



A portrait of Muslim Brotherhood's supreme authority
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.)

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.

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.’”