Category Archives: Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Tories misled over Muslim cleric comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ken Livingstone has hit back at Tory critics over his support for a Muslim cleric. The London mayor believes Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been deliberately misquoted over his views on the tsunami disaster.

Conservatives went on the offensive this morning over remarks attributed to al-Qaradawi that the Asian tsunami was God’s punishment for sex tourism in the region. Tory London Assembly member Bob Neill attacked Livingstone, who invited al-Qaradawi’s visit to City Hall last September.

But the mayor hit back, saying al-Qaradawi’s comments had been ‘completely distorted’ by a pro-Israeli organisation. Livingstone said:

“Qaradawi’s position is completely distorted by MEMRI, group set up by a former Israeli intelligence officer, which provided the translation. Qaradawi is campaigning to raise funds for the victims of the Tsunami in the Muslim world. He is quoted everyday on Al Jazeera calling upon Muslims to contribute to the relief. In the speech referred to by MEMRI, Qaradawi specifically calls for help for all the victims without discriminating between them according to religion.”

MEMRI – Middle East Media Research Institute – was set up by Colonel Yigal Carmon, a former Israeli intelligence and counter-intelligence officer and advisor to Israeli prime ministers.

Livingstone said he did not agree with all al-Qaradawi’s views, including the view that the tsunami was God’s retribution, but insisted the cleric was a moderate. To ban leaders like him was to cut off dialogue with the whole Muslim community. He admitted al-Qaradawi was not going to be seen on “the next gay pride march” but defending his right to meet the cleric, who was widely respected as a Muslim leader of international standing.

Other religious leaders of other faiths, like Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, had also expressed views that the earthquake and tsunami wave was an act of God, but al-Qaradawi was being singled out by people holding Islamophobic opinions.

BLINK news report, 12 January 2005

Mayor responds to ‘dossier’ on al-Qaradawi

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, today released a dossier comprehensively answering claims that he should not have met the Muslim scholar Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi in July last year. The dossier demonstrated that the allegations made against Dr al-Qaradawi were almost entirely inaccurate.

“As Mayor of London, I have a responsibility to support the rights of all of London’s diverse communities and to maintain a dialogue with their political and religious leaders, irrespective of the fact that there will always be different views on many issues.”

The dossier launched today demonstrates that Dr al-Qaradawi is, as the moderate main umbrella group of Muslim organisations, the Muslim Council of Britain has argued, “the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today”.

The document comprehensively rebuts the charges against Dr al-Qaradawi made in a dossier circulated to London Assembly members in November last year. The authors called for the Assembly to conduct an inquiry into Dr al-Qaradawi’s visit to London.

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Qaradawi’s dangerous ideas

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abu Aardvark reveals that Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been denounced by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, for his opposition to terrorism.

“Zarqawi’s fury with Qaradawi has received little attention because it doesn’t fit the current storyline – the whole ‘theologian of terror‘ thing – but it does suggest an important development in the real battles taking place in Arab and Muslim public opinion. Qaradawi is dangerous to the likes of Zarqawi, because he is vastly influential, he adamantly rejects his radical, violent, exclusivist vision of Islam and he instead offers a moderate, democratic, but genuinely Islamist alternative.”

See here.

Imaan discusses Qaradawi

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim lesbian and gay group Imaan was initially listed as a supporter of the anti-Qaradawi “Community Coalition”. However, it turned out that one of Imaan’s officers had signed up to the coalition without consulting the rest of the group. As a result of protests by the membership, Imaan withdrew from the coalition.

A serious and thoughtful discussion of the issues arising from the anti-Qaradawi campaign took place on the discussion board of Imaan’s website. Not a single contributor to the discussion argued favour of supporting the Community Coalition.

“If Qaradawi comes to London again and Outrage and the other racists form a campaign against him, I will be out there standing against them and I will defend him”, one Imaan member wrote. Another contributor agreed: “I add to the objections of aligning ourselves as Queer Muslims with the racists in Outrage and other such organisations.”

The prevailing view was that Outrage! and the other supporters of the anti-Qaradawi campaign were making things worse for lesbian and gay Muslims in particular and adding to the general atmosphere of Islamophobia.

See here.

Pro-US Arabs petition the UN to establish an international tribunal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“On October 24, 2004, the liberal Arab websites www.elaph.com and www.metransparent.com published a manifesto written by Arab liberals, in which they petition the UN to establish an international tribunal which would prosecute terrorists, as well as people and institutions, primarily religious clerics, that incite terrorism.

“The idea to petition the U.N. with this request was raised by the Jordanian writer and researcher Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi in early September 2004, in response to the fatwa issued by Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi – one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood movement and one of the most important religious authorities in Islamist circles – which called for the abduction and killing of US citizens in Iraq. The idea was developed and written up by Al-Nabulsi, Tunisian intellectual Al-‘Afif Al-Akhdhar, and former Iraqi Minister of Planning Dr. Jawad Hashem.”

MEMRI reports the launch of a widely publicised petition against the “sheikhs of terror”. The report omits to mention that the accusation against Qaradawi which prompted the petition – that he “called for the abduction and killing of US citizens in Iraq” – was in fact entirely false.

For Abu Aardvark’s demolition of the charge against Dr al-Qaradawi, see here.

For MEMRI’s Special Dispatch No.812, “Arab Liberals Petition the UN to Establish an International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Terrorists”, see here.

Peter Tatchell on dialogue with Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The rise of Islamophobia post-9/11, and the need for a united response to the Bush government’s “war on terror”, have increased the importance of the labour movement engaging in dialogue with Muslim communities and co-operating on those issues where there is common ground.

There are, unfortunately, various pseudo-leftists who reject such dialogue and co-operation. The gay rights organisations Outrage!, whose most prominent figure is Peter Tatchell, are a particularly virulent example of this trend. They of course deny accusations of Islamophobia and try to cover themselves by arguing that they are in favour of dialogue and co-operation with progressive, liberal Muslim groups. But they define these terms so as to exclude the overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country, and indeed internationally.

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