UK media is reporting that Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi has ruled that a declaration of a Caliphate by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is “void under Shariah.” According to a Telegraph report:
Youssef Qaradawi
July 5, 2014 The Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate faces a growing a backlash from leading Muslim figures. On Saturday, the prominent Sunni Muslim scholar Yusef al-Qaradawi denounced the proclamation, saying that it was in violation of sharia law.
Mr Qaradawi, a Qatar-based scholar who is regarded as a spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in his native Egypt, said in a statement that the move had ‘dangerous consequences’ for Iraqi Sunnis and the conflict in Syria.
‘We look forward to the coming, as soon as possible, of the caliphate,’ he said, referring to the form of pan-Muslim government last seen under the Ottoman Empire. ‘But the declaration issued by the Islamic State is void under sharia and has dangerous consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria,’ he added.
He said the declaration, and the nomination of al-Baghdadi as caliph, by a group ‘known for its atrocities and radical views’ fail to meet strict conditions dictated by sharia law. The title of caliph, he said, can ‘only be given by the entire Muslim nation’, not by a single group.”
The GMBDW reported last week that the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed by Qaradawi, had issued a statement calling the recent military actions by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) a “popular revolution against injustices.” We reported earlier in June that Qaradawi had told a news conference that dialogue was the only means for solving the crisis in Iraq.
Youssef Qaradawi is the most important leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and is the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. He has his own history of incendiary remarks regarding Shiites and what he sees as their threat to the Sunni Muslims.
