Islamic media is reporting that Youssef Qaradawi issued a fatwa (religious ruling)on Saturday condemning the deposing of Mohamed Morsi as President and calling on Egyptians to support Dr. Morsi. According to an IslamOnline report:
Youssef Qaradawi
CAIRO – Amid growing concerns about violence in Egypt, influential Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has issued a fatwa condemning the army’s removal of Egypt’s elected President Mohamed Morsi and calling on Egyptians to support the Islamist leader.
“Their every action is invalid,” Qaradawi said in a fatwa posted on his website and cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He urged “all parties and political groups in Egypt to support correctness and restore President Morsi to his legitimate post”.
Sheikh Qaradawi decried the military move to oust President Morsi as un-Islamic.
“Shari`ah (Islamic law) imposes on all believers allegiance to the elected president, to carry out his orders and conform to his directives,” Qaradawi, the president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), said.
Morsi “must remain president, and nobody can claim the right to remove him in the name of the people”, Qaradawi added.
The influential scholar urged all Egyptians to protect their January 25 revolution.
“I call on all Egyptians, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian, liberal and Islamist to join ranks to protect the gains of the revolution” that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Qaradawi, 86, is regular commentator on Al-Jazeera satellite television and has backed the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria.
Last week a post reported that f Qaradawi had urged Egyptians to engage in dialog to reach a solution and that according to the tenets of Islam, “we are ordered to obey him [Morsi] so that chaos does not prevail.
Youssef Qaradawi is the most important leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and is the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. He is also considered to be the “spiritual guide” for Hamas and his fatwas in support of suicide bombings against Israeli citizens were utilized by Hamas to justify their operations. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to head he Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide. He is based in Qatar and has said the Qatari Emir has protected from being designated as a terrorist by the U.S. He has also reportedly amassed substantial wealth by serving as the Shari’ah adviser to many important Islamic banks and funds. Qaradawi is the head of the Union of Good (UOG), a worldwide coalition of charities helping to raise funds for Hamas and is the leader of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), the theological body of the European Muslim Brotherhood.
Qaradawi has made frequent extremist statements including:
Predicting that Islam willconquer Europe through peaceful means.
Calling Hitler a divine punishment for the “misdeeds of the Jews” and that the Holocaust was exaggerated.
Saying that he wants to end his life “in the service of Jihad” by visiting Israel and throwing a bomb, becoming a “martyr” in the process.
Calling for attacks on US troops and civilians in Iraq along with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah.
Calling for the collapse of the US if it doesn’t end its “unjust ways.”
MEMRI has produced two video compilations of Qaradawi’s extremist statements. The first collection contains Qaradawi’s statements about Europe and the US as well as about Israel and Jews. The second collection contains various statements by Qaradawi on social issues such as discussing the killing of homosexuals and stating that beating is “suitable” for some wives.
Qaradawi been banned from entering the US since 1999 and UK since 2008. Last year, authorities also refused him entry into France.
For a more extensive profile of Youssef Qaradawi, go here.
