‘Tread more carefully’ over Qaradawi

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.