Gulf media is reporting that a Dubai police official has urged Qatar to stop Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi from what is describing as insulting the UAE following televised comments in which he accused the UAE of being against Islamic rule. According to a Gulf News report:
Youssef Qaradawi
January 24, 2014 Qatar was urged to stop a cleric from continuing to insult the UAE, following a televised Friday prayer sermon in which he accused the UAE of being ‘against Islamic rule’.
The Egyptian-born Yousuf Al Qaradawi, speaking live on Qatari state TV from a Doha mosque, was talking about the developments in Egypt that followed the ouster of former president Mohammad Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, last July by a popular uprising.
Al Qaradawi heads the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated International Federation of Muslim Scholars (IFMS). He said the new Egyptian administration was ‘ruling against Allah’s will’ and that Mursi must be reinstated to realise a government by Islamic rule.
He criticised the UAE for supporting the current Egyptian government claiming the UAE ‘has always been opposed to Islamic rule’. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammad Gargash condemned the comments. ‘It is shameful that we allow Al Qaradawi to continue his insults of the UAE and ties [that bind]the peoples of the Arabian Gulf,’ he wrote on his official twitter account.
Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Dubai Police and Public Security, wondered on his twitter account why Qatar allowed such comments against the UAE by a cleric who is ‘known to have ties to terrorist groups’.
At least two members of Al Qaradawi’s IFMS were convicted in the UAE last year on charges of plotting to de-stabilise the government and forming a clandestine Muslim Brotherhood cell in the UAE.
Our predecessor publication reported in November 2012 on the comments by
A post from November 2012 reported on comments by Lieutenant Tamim, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of creating unrest in the UAE. As noted in that post, he also said that UAE Muslim Brotherhood members who had been arrested had met with Kuwaiti Brotherhood “mentors” including Kuwaiti Brotherhood leader Tariq Al-Suwaidan.
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 and now denies that he has any relationship with the Egyptian Brotherhood. 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. MEMRI has produced two video compilations of Qaradawi’s extremist statements. Qaradawi been banned from entering the US since 1999 and UK since 2008. Last year, authorities also refused him entry into France. Last September, the GMBDW reported that Egypt’s chief prosecutor had issued an arrest warrant for Qaradawi who was accused of inciting the killing of Egyptian security forces and meddling in the country’s affairs. The same report also noted that Qaradawi was asked to leave Kuwait as a result of were been described as “divisive remarks he has made inciting violence and bloodshed.
