Qaradawi You Heard Of?

Ever heard of someone called Yusuf al-Qaradawi?

No?

A promoted Muslim "moderate"?

Well, read Barry Rubin's piece.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the best-known Muslim Brotherhood cleric in the world and one of the most famous Islamist thinkers.

Barry informs us that he

supports the straight Islamist line: anti-American, anti-Western, wipe Israel off the map, foment Jihad, stone homosexuals, in short the works.

One of Qaradawi's initiatives has been urging Muslims to settle in the West, of which he said, “that powerful West, which has come to rule the world, should not be left to the influence of the Jews alone.” He contends that the three major threats Muslims face are Zionism, internal integration, and globalization. To survive, he argues, Muslims must fight the Zionists, Crusaders, idolators, and Communists.

Make no mistake, Qaradawi is not some fossilized Islamic ideologue. He is brilliant and innovative, tactically flexible and strategically sophisticated.

His opinion on the Western Wall in Jerusalem:

“The Jews' claim to Al-Buraq Wall dates back only to recent times. The longest reign of the Jews lasted for 434 years. Their reign in Palestine dates back to the times of Kings Saul, David and Solomon. Solomon’s sons split after his decease: Jude headed for Jerusalem while the state of Israel was established in Shakim, that is Nablus. The Jewish state in Nablus lasted for 298 years and the former for 434. This is the longest period that the Jews reigned. So those who claim that they have a long history in Israel are liars. That history lasted for only 434 years. [so, our history only is reckoned by having kings?] The Arabs, on the other hand, have been present in Palestine since the days of the Jebusites and the Canaanites, that is 30 centuries before the birth of Christ [which is, of course, well, not true]. Their history under the umbrella of Islam lasted for more than 14 centuries or even longer. Before the advent of Islam, there had been no Jews in Palestine because since 70 C.E. there had been no trace of Jews or Israelis in Palestine. [which is also not true. see my timeline or this book]

Qaradawi, we are not rebuilding the Pyramids for you Egyptians.


P.S.

Now being live-blogged here.

12:33PM Al-Qaradawi extols Egyptians to persevere with their revolution as it "continues to build a new Egypt" and should be "protect[ed] from hypocrites." He condemns the regime for being the source of sectarianism in Egypt while in "here in Tahrir", Christians and Muslims strove side-by-side for their revolution.

Wonder why no Jews are mentioned.

One more:

12:56PM   Al-Qaradawi calls on the "brave Egyptian army" to open the Rafah crossing so that Gazans can receive the supplies they need. Turning his attention to arab leaders, he says: "Don't fight history, you can't delay the day when it starts. The Arab world has changed."

UPDATE

And today, Saturday, here's how the NYTimes presents the new reality:

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni cleric who is banned from the United States and Britain for supporting violence against Israel and American forces in Iraq, delivered his first public sermon here in 50 years on Friday, emerging as a powerful voice in the struggle to shape what kind of Egyptian state emerges from the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak...

...Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy.

But he has made exceptions for violence against Israel or the American forces in Iraq. “You call it violence; I call it resistance,” said Prof. Emad Shahin of the University of Notre Dame, an Egyptian scholar who has studied Sheik Qaradawi’s work and was in Tahrir Square for his speech Friday.

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