Robert Spencer takes issue with the Mayor of London’s attitude to Islam: “Red Ken’s friendship with Sheikh Qaradawi suggests that the peaceful subjugation and Islamization of the West, which Qaradawi has predicted, is perfectly fine with him. He just wishes these good people wouldn’t use bombs.”
Applying this logic to his own preferred religion, there is presumably no principled difference in Spencer’s eyes between a minister engaged in peaceful missionary work (in order to “subjugate” society to Christianity) and a “pro-life” militant who bombs an abortion clinic.
(Oh and by the way Robert, the “Lord Mayor” is not “Red Ken” but the head of the Corporation of London.)
Dean Barnett presents “a case study in how the leadership of a large American Islamic group woos and works with politicians, attempts to intimidate its adversaries, and claims to champion moderation – all while keeping company with prominent proponents of hatred and violence” – such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Jeff Barak of the Jewish Chronicle resumes the apparently endless campaign against the Mayor of London for welcoming Yusuf al-Qaradawi to City Hall.
Rumours have circulated for some time that journalist Martin Bright was researching an exposé of Mockbul Ali, the foreign office’s adviser on Muslim Affairs. Ali’s sin was to have prepared an accurate briefing on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, which underlined the latter’s role as a force of moderation in the Muslim world – see (pdf) 
“While fully supporting the right of the Iraqi people to resist occupation with all legitimate means, we denounce as illegitimate any act of aggression against innocent civilians irrespective of their religion or nationality. We therefore call for the immediate release of these four hostages and of all other Western civilians kidnapped in Iraq and urge whoever has the ability to play a role in the endeavour to secure their release and their safe return to their countries to spare no effort in this regard. All illegitimate acts of aggression against innocent civilians, including kidnappings, indiscriminate killing or other forms of harm inflicted upon non-combatants, only harm the just cause of the Iraqi people and their legitimate struggle for freedom and independence.”
“Declaring takfir on the jihadist leaders is the rhetorical equivalent of fighting terror with terror. The practice of takfir is the hallmark of the most radical, totalitarian fringe of Islamism: the assumption of the right to unilaterally declare a Muslim a non-Muslim and thereby condemn him or her to death (literally or figuratively). Any vision of a liberal or moderate Islamism should reject takfir on principle.”
Doha-based religious scholar Dr Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday expressed his sorrow over the riots in Paris suburbs and other French cities having Muslim and African communities.