OnIslam has reported that Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi wrote a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urging him to support the Libyan opposition in their fight against Gaddafi. According to the report:
CAIRO – As fighting is raging between Libyan rivals, Muslim scholars have criticized Turkey’s role in the conflict, calling on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to side with the opposition forces against embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi. “We are waiting for a crystal-clear position from you in support of the Libyan people,” Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), said in a letter to Erdogan and obtained by OnIslam.net on Wednesday, April 6. The Dublin-based body said the regime of Gaddafi, who is facing his worst crisis in his 42-year rule, is guilty of killing Libyan civilians. “This regime does not deserve to stay in power for a single day,” the letter reads. “We want from you Mr President to support the aspirations of the Libyan people and recognize the interim National Council and help arm the Libyan people with all heavy and advanced weapons to get rid of their killers.”
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has recently published an almost hundred page report titled “Turkey, the Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla” which provides extensive background on the years leading up to the flotilla. The JCPA report abstract states:
The Gaza flotilla incident brought into sharp focus an even more significant long- term development: the growing relationship between the Erdogan government and the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which has given rise to some of the most notorious Islamist terrorist groups – from al-Qaeda to Hamas. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip acted as the main axis for this activity.
Previous posts have discussed a visit to a Turkish celebration by the head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and a large group of important Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders who attended the recent funeral of Turkish Islamist Necmettin Erbakan.
Meanwhile, an Iranian Shia scholar wrote a letter to Qaradawi urging him to support the protestors in Bahrain. According to an Iranian media report:
Iranian senior Shia scholar wrote a letter to Union of Muslim Scholars and Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) urging for all out support for oppressed Muslim nations of the region. Iranian senior cleric and head of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri recognized public demonstration of the people in Bahrain and highlighted the role of Muslim Scholars in success of the protests. Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri in his letter to the head of Union of Muslim Scholars, Dr Sheykh Yusuf al-Qardawi invited him to back the oppressed people of Bahrain. “Here we ask you to take a brave and honorable stance towards the oppressed nation of Bahrain hence, it is one of the principles of the Union of Muslim Scholars to defend oppressed Muslim nations,” said Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri to Sheykh Dr Yusuf al-Qardawi, head of the Union of Muslim Scholars asking Egyptian scholar. He also condemned some Muslim leaders of the world for their ignorance towards the revolution of the people in Bahrain and called their joint stance with the oppressive rulers as a shame for them. Expressing his regret over the brutal suppression of the Bahraini nation he said; “Bahraini peaceful demonstration is savagely suppressed and thugs and mercenaries arrest, murder and brutally behave the people to disperse them.”
As of recently, Taskhiri was know to have been a deputy chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) but has criticized Qaradawi on at least one occasion in 2008 over Qaradawi’s negative comments on Shia Muslims. An earlier post discussed Qaradawi’s comments in which he called the protest in Bahrain “sectarian” and accused Shiites there of attacking Sunnis and taking over their mosques.