Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi appears to have called for violence in connection with the recent tension over the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In a sermon translated by the Investigative Project, Qaradawi said that “For the sake of Al-Aqsa mosque, blood will flow, and Muslims will expend lives and money, and sons”:
The Muslim Brotherhood’s leading global voice, Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, called on Muslims Thursday to fight ‘the greatest battle of liberation’ against Israel and the Jews.
In an Arabic message posted on his website and translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Qaradawi called on Muslims to rise up and defend Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque – Islam’s third holiest shrine – against Israel. His comments come amid heightened tension between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel closed the Temple Mount, where the mosque is located, to all worshippers Oct. 30 following an assassination attempt against an Israeli activist. Jewish radicals have recently demanded the right to pray in the Al-Aqsa mosque, built on the holiest site to Jews, something Israel has forbidden them to do. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the closure, calling it a ‘declaration of war.’ Israel reopened the site Oct. 31 amid heavy security. Tensions remain high, and incitement to violence has increased.
Qaradawi’s article protests against Israel’s planned archaeological tunnels under the Temple Mount and what he calls ‘attempts to Judaize the city of Jerusalem.’ He warns of attacks against Muslim and Christian holy sites.
‘What is happening to Al-Aqsa at this time is a major disaster,’ Qaradawi wrote. ‘The [nation]of the Arabs and the [nation]of the Muslims may not keep silent about it.
‘For the sake of Al-Aqsa mosque, blood will flow, and Muslims will expend lives and money, and sons.’
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW reported last week that the European Muslim Brotherhood umbrella organization had joined with other elements of the Global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas with a statement attempting to raise the levels of tensions regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The GMBDW reported last month that The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed by Qaradawi, had issued a call for “a free global outburst” to direct world attention to toward what the statement called “attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Quds (Jerusalem).”
Youssef Qaradawi is the most important leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and is the de facto spiritual leader of the movement.
For a profile on Qaradawi, go here.