The Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a UK-based Islamist news portal, is reporting that 93-year-old Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi has announced his resignation as head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). According to the report:
November 5, 2018 Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi on Saturday declared that he will be stepping down from his position as president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Speaking at the opening session of the fifth general assembly in Istanbul, Al-Qaradawi said he “will yield the floor to the next chairman” and that this is the last time he will chair the meeting. Al-Qaradawi added that he had told Sudanese scholar and Islamic preacher Essam Al-Bashir last year that he intended to leave after this general assembly. He went on to accuse the West of plotting against Turkey to derail its advancement. “Turkey is facing plots by those who don’t like to see this nation [rising]and by the West,” Al-Qaradawi added. “They would have succeeded [in their plots]but for Allah’s support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his brothers,” he said. Bringing together more than 1,500 scholars from around the world, the IUMS’ general assembly will continue until Thursday. Election will be held during the meeting to choose a new chairman, secretary-general and his deputies and board members.
The GMBDW has obtained a translated summary of Qaradawi’s remarks on Aljazeera:
Al-Qaradawi said he “will yield the floor to the next chairman” and that this is the last time he will chair the meeting…Election will be held during the meeting to choose a new chairman, secretary-general and his deputies and board members. Qaradawi’s 30-minute speech was aired on Al-Jazeera. Qaradwi told the participants that he was now 93 years old; he finds it hard to read or learn by heart what he wants to say and address audiences directly. Most of Qaradawi’s speech was dedicated to praising Turkey, which he said he first visited in 1967, and to Erdogan, for his work in ‘raising the flag’ of Islam. He added that Allah supports Erdogan, thus the plots Turkey is facing by those who do not wish to see it great again and leading the nation, and by the West “who knows who they are”, were not successful.
During his speech, Qaradawi referred to and praised Jamal Khashoggi, the late Saudi journalist who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and who had his own ties to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and who praised Qaradawi as a “moderate.” Other individuals praised by Qaradawi included the following, all tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood:
- Isam al-Bashir (Sudan)
- Salman Al-Ouda (Saudi Arabia)
- Hussein Halawa (Ireland)
The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) was launched on July 11, 2004 in conjunction with a visit by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi to London for a meeting of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and many prominent individuals tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas serve as IUMS Trustees. The IUMS has in the past:
- Criticized French military intervention in Mali aimed at Al Qaeda
- Helped Qatar draft a law aimed at banning attacks on or offenses to religion
- Demanded that Pope apologize “just as he apologized to the Jews”
- Called for punishment of U.S. soldiers who burned Korans
In 2004, the IUMS ruled that “resisting occupation troops in Iraq is a ‘duty’ on able Muslims in and outside the war-torn country and that aiding the occupier is impermissible.”