Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Youssef al-Qaradawi	Youssef al-Qaradawi	Muslim Brotherhood	Africa: North				20040112
	Youssef al-Qaradawi	Learned Elders of Islam	Caucasus				20040215

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon to extradite son of late Muslim cleric al-Qaradawi to UAE over alleged inflammatory comments

2025-01-09

[IsraelTimes] Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
is set to extradite the son of late senior Moslem holy man Youssef al-Qaradawi

… (1926-2022). Peripatetic academic, scholar, and charismatic public intellectual, the chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars was known as The Voice of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood because of his popular Al Jazeera television show that claimed a worldwide audience of 40-60 million, the IslamOnline website he started in 1997 as dawa, or Muslim outreach, and the more than 120 books he wrote on various Muslim subjects. The Muslim Brotherhood claimed him as as one of their chief theologians, though he denied it, and a sharia-compliant bank of which he was the principal shareholder was listed at the UN as associated with Al Qaeda until 2010, so possibly he wasn’t the moderate Muslim some claimed, though he was definitely in the Muslim mainstream…

to the United Arab Emirates after the country’s caretaker cabinet approved the move, the Lebanese prime minister’s office says.

Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi,

…a.k.a. Abdul Rahman Yusuf, the third son of Youssef al-Qaradawi is a poet known for his criticisms of the UAE, the Sisi regime in Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, so sooner or later his number would be up…

an Egyptian-Ottoman Turkish poet, was detained in Lebanon on Dec. 28 after returning from Syria, according to his lawyer Mohammad Sablouh and human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
group Amnesty International.

His arrest followed critical comments Qaradawi made of the UAE, Saudi Arabia

...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
n and Egyptian authorities in a video posted online.

See?

The UAE and Egypt have both filed requests for his extradition.

The requests "are believed to be based on the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression," Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sara Hashash says in a statement, urging Lebanese authorities to reject the extradition requests.

The Egyptian and Emirati foreign ministries do not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Qaradawi’s lawyer says he will file an urgent appeal to block his client’s extradition but fears the poet might be flown out of the country before then.

Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, who died in 2022, was a spiritual guide to the Moslem Brüderbund who championed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and unsettled rulers in Egypt and the Gulf with his Islamist preaching. He spoke in favor of suicide kabooms against Israelis and denied Israel’s right to exist.

Born in Egypt, Qaradawi spent much of his life in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, where he became one of the Arab world’s most influential Sunni Moslem holy mans thanks to regular appearances on Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network.

Broadcast into millions of homes, his sermons fueled tensions that led Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to impose a blockade on Qatar in 2017 and declare Qaradawi a terrorist.

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Africa North

The Voice of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

2011-02-17

This is the long piece from Der Spiegel about Youssef al-Qaradawi that some blogs have been discussing. When lib-tards or the DNI tell you that the Muslim Brotherhood is 'secular', you can start your response by pointing to this article.

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Europe

Minarets as bayonets

2009-12-06

By Kanchan Gupta

Turkeys Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was being faithful to his creed when he declared, Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers. Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a fascist Sunni imam with a huge following among those who subscribe to the Muslim Brotherhoods antediluvian worldview, was more to the point when he thundered at an event organised by Londons then Labour mayor Ken Livingstone, The West may have the atom bomb, we have the human bomb. Sheikh Qaradawi, who is of Egyptian origin, frequently exhorts Muslims not to rest till they have conquered Christian Rome and believes throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the Jews people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. Islamic schools in Britain funded by Saudi Arabia use textbooks describing Jews as apes and Christians as pigs. Theo Van Gogh, who along with writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali produced Submission, a film on the plight of Muslim women under shariah, was shot dead by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim, in Amsterdam. Rallies by radical Islamists, which were once rare, are now a common feature in European capitals with banners and placards denouncing democracy as the problem and Islam as the solution.

Such crude though accurate assertions of Islamism, coupled with the relentless jihad being waged overtly exemplified by the London Underground bombings and the riots in Parisian suburbs and covertly as exposed by Channel 4s stunning investigation in its Dispatches programme titled Undercover Mosque, have now begun to raise hackles in Europe. The first signs of an incipient backlash came in the form of French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanding a ban on the burqa (the shariah-imposed hijab is already banned at public schools in France). Any doubts that may have lingered about Europes patience with Islams rage boys running thin have been removed by last Sundays referendum in Switzerland where people have voted overwhelmingly to ban the construction of minarets which are no longer seen to be representing faith. For 57.5 per cent of Swiss citizens, the minaret, an obligatory adjunct to a mosque which is used by the muezzin to call the faithful to prayers five times a day, is now a political symbol against integration. They view each new minaret as marking the transmogrification of Christian Europe into Islamic Eurabia. The Islamic minaret, according to Swiss Peoples Party legislator Ulrich Schluer, has come to represent the effort to establish shariah on European soil. Hence the counter-effort to ban their construction.

Last Sundays referendum and the massive vote against Islamic minarets is by no means an unexpected development, as is being pretended by Islamists and those who find it fashionable to defend Islamism or are scared of taking a stand lest they be accused of Islamophobia. Resentment against assertive political Islam has been building up in Switzerland for almost a decade, triggered by refugees from Yugoslavias many civil wars seeking to irreversibly change the Swiss way of life to suit their twisted notions of Islams supremacy. For the past many years the Swiss Peoples Party and the Federal Democratic Union, both avowedly right-of-centre organisations, have been trying to initiate an amendment to Article 72 of Switzerlands Constitution to include the sentence, The building of minarets is prohibited. After doing the cantonal rounds, both the parties set up a joint Egerkinger Committee in 2007 to take their campaign to the federal level. The November 29 referendum is the outcome of that campaign.

The resultant vote 57.5 per cent endorsing the proposed amendment to the Constitution with 42.5 opposing it provides some interesting insights. For instance, the Swiss Government and Parliament, which are opposed to the amendment, clearly suffer from a disconnect with the Swiss masses. The voting pattern also shows that the spurious cosmopolitan spirit of Zurich, Geneva and Basel, where people voted against the ban by a narrow margin, is not shared by most Swiss. The initiative has got 19.5 of the 23 cantonal votes Basel city Canton, with half-a-vote and the largest Muslim population in Switzerland, barely defeated the initiative with 51.61 per cent people voting against it. This only goes to show that the Left-liberal intelligentsia may dominate television studio debates, as is often seen in our country, but it neither influences public opinion nor persuades those whose perception of the reality is not cluttered by bogus tolerance of the intolerant.

Daniel Pipes, who is among the few scholars of Islam not scared to be labelled an Islamophobe, is of the view that the Swiss vote represents a turning point for European Islam, one comparable to the Rushdie affair of 1989. That a large majority of Swiss who voted on Sunday explicitly expressed anti-Islamic sentiments potentially legitimates such sentiments across Europe and opens the way for others to follow suit. As always, Pipes is prescient. An opinion poll conducted by the French Institute for Public Opinion after the Swiss referendum shows 46 per cent of French citizens are in favour of banning the construction of minarets, 40 per cent support the idea, while 14 per cent are indecisive. That it was the usually quiet, low profile, un-newsworthy, politically boring, neutral Swiss who suddenly roared their fears about Islam only enhances their votes impact, says Pipes. The post-referendum opinion poll in France shows that one in two French citizens would not only like to see minarets banned, but along with them mosques, too.

Yet, it may be too early to suggest that the tide of Islamism will now have to contend with the fury of a backlash. Governments and organisations that find merit in toeing the line of least resistance have reacted harshly to the Swiss vote; rather than try and understand why more and more people are beginning to loathe, if not hate, Islamism, a case is being made all over again for the need to be tolerant with those whose sole desire is to subjugate the world to Islam. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, who is yet to utter a word about the suppression of freedom and denial of dignity in Islamic countries or the shocking violation of human rights by jihadis, has been scathing in her response, describing the Swiss vote as a discriminatory, deeply divisive and thoroughly unfortunate step. The Organisation of Islamic Conference has warned that the vote will serve to spread hatred and intolerance towards Muslims. The OICs complaint would carry credibility if it were to demand tolerance towards non-Muslims in its member-countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and denounce Islams preachers of hate.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel rejects US call to halt Jerusalem project

2009-07-19

-- Israel on Sunday rejected a U.S. demand to suspend a planned housing project in east Jerusalem, threatening to further complicate an unusually tense standoff with its strongest ally over settlement construction.

Israeli officials said the country's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project made up of 20 apartments developed by an American millionaire should not go ahead.

So it comes down to this: we're ordering the Israelis around. And they just told us to stuff it. Smooth move, Bambi, smooth ...

They just told us to stuff it, again. They'd already nixed a complete halt on building in the settlements.

Settlements built on captured lands claimed by the Palestinians have emerged as a major sticking point in relations between Israel and the Obama administration because of their potential to disrupt Mideast peacemaking.

Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently yielded to heavy U.S. pressure to endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has resisted American demands for an immediate freeze on settlement expansion. On Sunday, Netanyahu told his Cabinet there would be no limits on Jewish construction anywhere in "unified Jerusalem."

"We cannot accept the fact that Jews wouldn't be entitled to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu declared, calling Israeli sovereignty over the entire city "indisputable."

"I can only imagine what would happen if someone suggested Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry," Netanyahu said.

Also at the Cabinet meeting, the head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security service, Yuval Diskin, said both the Western-backed administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the militant Islamic Hamas were carrying out "covert activity" in east Jerusalem to stop Jews acquiring property there. An official present at the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with Cabinet rules, did not elaborate on what the activity entailed but quoted Diskin as saying that hardline Egyptian cleric Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi earmarked $25 million to be funneled to Hamas activists in Jerusalem. Al-Qaradawi is a well-known ~~terrorist~~ figure in the Arab world and a regular on the satellite Al-Jazeera network. Diskin told the Cabinet that the money was to be used by Hamas to buy apartments and plots of land and "build charitable institutions to broaden its base in the city," the official said. Diskin did not provide evidence. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group and bars it from operating in Jerusalem.

Abbas aide Rafiq Husseini dismissed the report. "We wish there was Arab money to buy threatened houses," he told The Associated Press, "but that's not the case." Qaradawi could no be reached for comment.

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Britain

Supporters of Muslim cleric protest UK visa refusal

2008-02-21

Hundreds of supporters of Egyptian-born Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi protested Wednesday in Qatar Britain's decision to deny the influential preacher entry for medical treatment on grounds he supports terorrism.

Around 200 hundred people shouted slogans and recited prayers in front of the British embassy in Qatar's capital Doha, declaring that the 81-year old cleric, who is a trustee of the Oxford University Center for Islamic Studies and chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, is not a terrorist. "Qaradawi is someone who has always worked to promote dialogue and understanding among different faiths," said Muhammad Sawalha, president of the British Muslim Initiative and one of the protesters in Doha on Wednesday. "He has never supported terrorism, on the contrary, he has condemned it publicly many times."

Britain announced February 6 that it had refused to issue a visa to Qaradawi, saying it would not tolerate visitors seeking to justify terorrism.

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Britain

UK denies visa to hardline Egyptian cleric

2008-02-08

Britain's government announced Thursday that it has denied a visa to hardline Egyptian cleric Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, saying it will not tolerate visitors who seek to justify terrorism.

The Muslim Council of Britain criticized the decision, saying al-Qaradawi is a widely respected scholar throughout the Muslim world.

The Home Office issued a brief statement confirming it had denied al-Qaradawi a visa and saying: "The UK will not tolerate the presence of those who seek to justify any acts of terrorist violence or express views that could foster inter-community violence."

It declined to say when the decision was reached or why al-Qaradawi had sought to enter Britain. The Egyptian-born preacher was reportedly seeking to come to the UK for medical treatment.

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Olde Tyme Religion

"New media" fatwas rankle old school clerics

2007-08-10

The Internet, satellite television and even the telephone are increasingly being used in the Muslim world to issue fatwas religious decrees on issues as varied as whether women can pluck their eyebrows or good Muslims should read Harry Potter.

A fatwa is a ruling by a recognized Islamic scholar, often on a weighty matter. But the traditional definition is becoming blurred as Muslims turn to Islamic Web sites and "tele-imams" for advice on how to live their lives. For example, going online turns up the fatwa on British author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, banning reading about the boy wizard because of his ties to witchcraft. Another says plucking women's eyebrows is "haram," or forbidden, because it alters God's creation. One exception: if the lady's bushy brows displease her husband.

Religious rulings have often been on grave topics. Many Westerners first heard the word "fatwa" when the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued one in 1989 condemning British writer Salman Rushdie to death, accusing him of blasphemy in his book "The Satanic Verses."

More recently, fatwas have dealt with the question of whether suicide bombing is accepted under Islam, producing dueling opinions not surprising given that Islam has no single, universally recognized source. Muslims across the world seek advice from various authorities representing different sects and schools of Islamic law.

But now the growth of so-called new media fatwas has upset Egypt's religious establishment, which fears an erosion of its authority to people without solid theological credentials. Others applaud the increasing diversity of opinion and believe it is critical to updating Islamic theology and helping Muslims cope with modern life.

Traditionally, fatwas were issued by a mufti, a scholar such as Ali Gomaa, Egypt's chief Sunni Muslim authority, known as the Grand Mufti. Gomaa heads Dar al-Iftaa, or the House of Fatwas; it and Al-Azhar University are Egypt's most important institutions for issuing fatwas and have influence with Sunnis everywhere. Now, however, the proliferation of alternative outlets for religious advice offers Muslims the opportunity to seek guidance elsewhere and some fear to shop around until they find an opinion that may sanction questionable behavior. "There is an opinion for every occasion and context, and evidence of people shopping around for the opinion that suits their particular need," said Gary Bunt, author of the book "Islam in the Digital Age."

Numerous Web sites issue online fatwas in response to personal questions, including IslamOnline.net, Fatwa-Online.com and Ask-Imam.com. These sites are similar to ones that have sprung up in the West allowing people to seek opinions from rabbis or ministers. Some of the Islamic sites are run by recognized religious figures, such as Sunni cleric Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, founder of IslamOnline. Several operate in English only, targeting the large number of Muslims outside the Middle East who don't speak Arabic.

Fatwas also are issued by satellite television programs and over the telephone, forcing traditional organizations like Dar al-Iftaa into a race to keep up. Gomaa's media adviser, Ibrahim Negm, said the institution has doubled the number of fatwas it issues daily through a year-old telephone hot line, and it is now developing a Web site to answer queries. Negm said modern communications have helped fuel a growth in fatwas by making it much easier for people to solicit religious opinions. The some 1,000 fatwas that Dar al-Iftaa pumps out every day are more than six times the number it issued per year a century ago.

Gomaa has been highly critical of individuals who issue fatwas independently, especially "tele-imams" who have grown in popularity on Arabic television. But many Egyptians complain the close ties between Dar al-Iftaa and the government compromise the religious institution, making it necessary to turn to other sources for guidance.

The reputation of Egypt's religious authorities was further clouded recently when a lecturer at Al-Azhar issued a fatwa saying work colleagues of the opposite sex could escape the ban on unmarried men and women being alone together if the woman breast-fed her male colleague five times. The lecturer's rationale was breast-feeding established a maternal rather than a sexual relationship.

Goran Larsson, an expert on religion and new media, said that history provides good reason for Dar al-Iftaa to be concerned about fading influence, noting the introduction of printing meant old theologians who depended on the oral tradition lost their sway over the masses. "With today's new technology, we also see the rise of new kinds of theologians," Larsson said. One such figure in Egypt is Amr Khaled, a popular "tele-imam" who eschews religious garb and is good at connecting with young people."

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas asks supporters for money, guns, not lawyers

2006-05-11

Palestinian militant group Hamas has urged supporters around the world to send it arms, fighters and money to back its fight against arch-foe Israel. "We ask all the people in surrounding Arab countries, the Muslim world and everyone who wants to support us to send weapons, money and men," Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal said. "You should not shy away from of this. This is resistance, not terrorism.'

They always say that before blowing a bus or shooting a few babies.

Prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi says Muslims should boycott banks refusing to transfer funds to the Palestinians. The US has said it could penalise banks that help provide money to the Hamas-led Government. "We call on Muslims to boycott banks that do not transfer money to the Palestinians," he said. "The boycott would force them to cooperate."

Hamas, which has carried out about 60 suicide bombings against Israel since a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000, won elections in January and formed its first government in March. Hamas, which has largely abided by a cease-fire for more than a year, has been under increasing Western and Israeli financial pressure to recognise the Jewish state, abandon armed struggle and accept interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Ties between Hamas and al-Qaeda are plentiful

2006-03-06

The ideological compatibility of Hamas with other jihadi movements in the Middle East raises the question of whether the new Hamas government that is about to be sworn in could create in the West Bank and Gaza a new center for global terrorism.

Russia certainly doesn't think so, because President Vladimir Putin invited a Hamas delegation to Moscow. France has supported the Russian move. And in many diplomatic circles, even in Washington, the argument is being made that Hamas can be brought into a political process and moderated. This is clearly being raised by individuals who have no idea what Hamas truly represents and why Israel has cut off all financial support to the new Palestinian government even before it is formally set up.

True, unlike al Qaeda, Hamas until now has not been involved in terrorist attacks against Western targets in the United States and Europe. It was left by those fostering the global jihad to focus its military efforts on Israel alone. Yet Hamas has maintained critical links with al Qaeda. And last week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he was concerned that al Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.

Earlier evidence of links exists. In 2003, an Israeli ground unit in Gaza, seeking Hamas suspects, went into a school established by the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Written materials that Israeli soldiers collected revealed the writings of a famous Saudi Wahhabi religious authority, Sheikh Sulaiman al-Ulwan. His ideological entry into the world of Hamas immediately raised eyebrows. After all, his name was featured in a famous Osama bin Laden video clip from December 2001, when the al Qaeda leader entertained his entourage on camera by re-enacting with his hands the hijacked aircraft slamming into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

In that video, one Saudi messenger entered the scene at the end, telling bin Laden that he brought with him a "beautiful fatwa" from al-Ulwan, who had justified the mass murder of Americans. Now his ideas have penetrated the Palestinians as well. And his Islamic religious ruling justifying suicide bombing attacks appeared on the Hamas Web site along with those of other al Qaeda clerics.

Also, in 2003 and 2004, Israeli forces found Hamas posters that were distributed in West Bank cities that extolled the war being waged by Islamic militants in the Balkans, Chechnya and Kashmir. At the top was the portrait of Hamas leader Yassin alongside the portraits of bin Laden and Chechen militant leaders like Shamil Besayev, who took credit for the bloody attack on a Russian school in Beslan.

That Hamas and al Qaeda share some common ideological roots should not have come as any surprise. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Article Two of the Hamas Covenant reads, "The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine."

Throughout the Arab world, the Muslim Brotherhood is regarded as the common wellspring of all modern jihadi terrorism. Its spiritual leader, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, has been one of the pivotal figures in the globalization of the Danish cartoon rage as well as a supporter of fighting against U.S. forces in Iraq. Much of the al Qaeda leadership -- from bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of Sept. 11 -- started out with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas and al Qaeda, as Muslim Brotherhood offshoots, have had a number of notable links.

Bin Laden sent emissaries to Hamas in September 2000 and January 2001; Israel arrested three Hamas militants in 2003 after they had returned from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah entered the world of terrorism through Hamas. And according to a 2004 FBI affidavit, al Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the United States.

Hamas poses a unique danger in the world of global terrorism, because besides its past ties to the Sunni Islamic extremism of al Qaeda, Hamas is now erecting a strategic partnership with Shiite Iran. For years, Iran has funded Hamas, but now that relationship is about to be seriously upgraded.

Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, declared at a recent news conference in Tehran that "Iran's role in the future of Palestine should continue and increase." He is clearly prepared to open up Gaza to Iranian influence and serve Iranian national interests.

Just recently, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah moved one of its command centers from its base in Beirut to the heart of Gaza. So now both of the major Islamist terrorist organizations have established themselves in this Hamas-dominated territory.

Hamas is not the PLO of 1993 that lost its collapsing Soviet patron, and hence had to moderate its behavior in order to obtain Western diplomatic and financial support. The patrons of Hamas today are pushing it in a completely opposite direction. And so Mashaal spoke openly recently about the defeat of the United States in Iraq and his opposition to Western policies across the entire globe, from Darfur to East Timor.

As the struggle between the West and Iran over its nuclear program heats up, Hamas could become an important instrument for any countermeasures that Iran seeks to take. Rather than accommodate Hamas, the West should seek ways to contain its spread. Palestinian society will eventually seek another path, but in the interim, it would be a cardinal error to assume that Hamas is about to change.

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India-Pakistan

Let's also ban Winnie the Pooh

2006-02-22

Let's also ban Winnie the Pooh

Blasphemy doesn't begin with caricatures of the Prophet nor does it end with lampooning Islam, says Kanchan Gupta

The violent protest by Muslims across the world against the publication of 12 caricatures of Prophet Mohammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is showing no indication of petering out. Regardless of abject apologies by Danish authorities and the attempt by some Muslim leaders to calm passions, each day brings its share of stories of Muslims going on the rampage and clerics encouraging the faithful to slaughter the cartoonists and reap rich rewards for the murders in both this and the other world.

While there has been no outpouring of support for those who have been attacking Danish diplomatic missions and burning that country's national flag, the flood of commiseration for hurt Muslim sentiments is truly awesome. Condemnation of the wilful attempt to mock the Prophet is entirely justified, as is the demand that those who decide media content should exercise greater caution in future.

There can, however, be no support for those Muslims who have been indulging in wanton violence -- looting of Hindu shops, as happened in Hyderabad after Friday prayer or the murder of a 60-year-old Catholic priest, Fr Andrea Santoro, in Turkey, apart from the torching of Danish missions -- nor should any legitimacy be accorded to the call for killing the cartoonists -- Al Qaeda has announced a bounty of 100 kg of gold, a Pakistani cleric has offered $ 1 million and an animal fat trader who enjoys the exalted position of Minister for Minority Welfare in Uttar Pradesh has promised Rs 51 crore to those willing to murder in the name of Islam.

But those who are seeking to play a pro-active role in assuaging "hurt" Muslim sentiments, including the UPA Government which has preposterously conveyed a formal protest to Denmark, the Congress Government of Andhra Pradesh which has equally ludicrously dragooned the State Assembly into passing a resolution condemning the cartoons and what AP has described as "Muslim supporters of Hindu right wing nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party" burning the Danish national flag in a pathetic me-too-outraged response, are unwilling to accept that blasphemy does not begin with caricaturing Prophet Mohammad, nor does it end with lampooning Islam.

In 2002, Egyptian and other Arab television channels telecast a 41-part serial, A Knight Without a Horse, based on the spurious document called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a work of fiction produced in Russia in 1903 to incite and legitimise anti-Jewish pogroms. Under pressure from American Jews and the Government of Israel, the US lodged a half-hearted protest with the Egyptian Government and Arab regimes where the programme was telecast. Predictably, the 'protest' was ignored by both Arab palace and street. As if that were not enough, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, funded by liberal Governments in Europe and hailed as a symbol of secular knowledge, put on public display what it claimed to be an ancient copy of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

There was no outrage, not even a whimper of protest by secular Governments at this insidious attempt to legitimise anti-Semitism. Nobody dashed off letters of protest, nor were resolutions passed condemning this disgraceful incitement of anti-Jewish sentiments. On the contrary, the overwhelming sentiment, more so in Scandinavian countries, was that of "serves the Jews right".

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" owes its origin to anti-Semitism of early-20th century that paved the way for Adolf Hitler's gas chambers and the Holocaust. It purports to be a secret blueprint prepared by Zionists to establish Jewish control over the world. It is sufficient to incite the cruellest of passions among those who have been taught from childhood to hate Jews. It is as spurious as the Islamists' cockamamie claim that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy. It is as despicable as the sly inclusion of a photograph of a pig squealing contest, organised by farmers in rural France, in the inflammatory booklet that has been put out by clerics of Denmark to draw the ummah's attention to the caricatures of the Prophet.

But it is not Jews alone who have had to suffer anti-Semitism in silence with the liberal world refusing to condemn the hateful propaganda of Arabs and thus mollycoddling spiteful Muslims who make no effort to hide their contempt for the faith of others. Copts in Egypt dare not display the symbol of their faith or its substitute, a fish, because it would invite instant violent retribution. An Indian Hindu expatriate who died in Cairo and whose family did not have the resources to fly her body to India for cremation, had to consign the mortal remains to the flames of a garbage incinerator. Next day, local newspapers criticised the Government for allowing such pagan practices.

Elsewhere in Arabia, public display of any faith other than Islam is prohibited; violation of the law could lead to public decapitation. The hugely influential Sunni imam Youssef al-Qaradawi, who as a guest of London's Red mayor Ken Linvingstone praised suicide bombers at an official reception, runs a popular website which lists several fatwas justifying jihad against Hindus and Hinduism and encourages Muslims to join terror brigades to fight India's infidels.

In Iran, newspapers routinely organise competitions to caricature Jews and deride their faith. No Islamic country acknowledges the Holocaust which Muslim scholars wave away as Jewish propaganda.

Such blatant abuse, of course, has never invited the mildest criticism, nor have the hate-mongers been rebuked in a manner remotely similar to the reprimand to which Jyllands-Posten and the Danish cartoonists are now being subjected. Hate speech is illegal, as it should be, in most European countries, including Britain. But Muslims are spared from its purview on the specious plea that the hate they spew is integral to their faith.

Yes, this is ridiculous. But so is the move to impose a ban on Christmas, Santa, kissing in school plays, piggy banks and Winnie the Pooh because they "hurt" Muslim sentiments. As Daniel Pipes writes in one of his incisive articles, "The benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, instructed employees that all pig-related novelty items are henceforth banned from its offices, so as not to offend Muslim staff. This includes pig toys, porcelain figures, calendars, and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet."

The reason for such capitulation that has emboldened the tribe of Haji Yaqoob Qureshi can be found in Youssef al-Qaradawi's boastful claim, "We must tell Europeans, we can live without you. But you cannot live without us." He might as well have said the world can't live without being in thraldom of frightful Islamist retribution. For evidence, look at the violence that has been unleashed in the name of protesting against caricaturing the Prophet.

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Arabia

Qaradawi calls for calm

2005-11-08

Influential Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi has called for calm in French riots led by disaffected immigrants, many of them Muslims of North African origin, the official Qatar News Agency reported. Qaradawi, dean of an Islamic college in Qatar known to millions of Arabic-speakers through a weekly show on the Al Jazeera television, also called on the French government to address the root causes of the violence. "As Arabs and Muslims we wish for security, safety and peace for France and its friendly people, not least because France has an attitude towards Arab and Islamic issues which is just and free from American domination," the agency quoted him as saying late on Monday. "He (Qaradawi) called on Muslim religious and political leaders in France to intensify their efforts and their calls for calm," the agency said. "He called on the French government to deal with the situation not only from a security perspective, but also use dialogue with religious and political leaders to treat the real reasons behind the deteriorating conditions of (minority) communities in France."

France's conservative government has struggled to respond to two weeks of overnight rioting by youths frustrated over unemployment, harsh treatment by police and racism. Qaradawi often addresses the situation of Muslim communities living in Western countries in his Al Jazeera appearances. Though seen as a moderate in the Arab world, pro-Israeli groups in the West have attacked him for backing Palestinian suicide bombings and attacks on Israeli civilian targets.

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Arabia

Analysis of terrorism in Qatar

2005-03-26

The Doha Players theater was destroyed by a suicide bomb on March 19, which killed one U.K. citizen and injured 15 other people. Lone attackers were responsible for previous anti-Western attacks in Qatar--the 2001 shooting of two contractors and the failed ramming of the gate at the U.S. base at al-Udeid in 2002. The March 19 attack breaks this trend, representing the work of a terrorist network, perhaps a small one, within Qatar.

Though the attacker did not select a hard target (such as Qatar Petroleum facilities where the Egyptian suicide bomber had worked for a number of years), there are signs that the attack on Western expatriates was carefully planned, patiently reconnoitred, executed with determination, and that it came close to causing mass casualties.

While the car bomb used was relatively small, the assembly of such a device suggests the presence of a highly capable terrorist cell within Qatar; and locating the bomb-making facility will be the prime target for the emirate's security forces and Western forensic advisers.

The extension of an advanced cell structure into Qatar mirrors similar developments in Bahrain and Kuwait since last summer. The Doha attack was probably facilitated by the current head of the al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, Saleh al-Oufi, who issued a communique two days before the attack that placed Qatar at the top of the list of Gulf states in which local citizens should act against Western interests.

Significantly, the bomber had lived in Qatar for 15 years and can thus be considered a "homegrown" Qatari terrorist. A range of motivations inherent in Doha's maverick policies are likely to continue to provide al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula with local Salafist/Wahhabi Sunni Arab proxies. These include:

* Pro-U.S. policy. Qatar continues to be closely associated with the U.S. military effort in Iraq, which it made possible through its provision of basing. The recent attack coincided with the second anniversary of the war.

* Engagement with Israel. Qatari officials from Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani downwards have strongly defended the country's diplomatic engagement with Israel, whose deputy education minister, Michael Melchior, visited Qatar in February, following up a meeting between Israeli and Qatari foreign ministers in May 2004.

* Democratic reform. The development of a new constitution, and elections in 2005, place Qatar at the forefront of the modest democratization in the Islamic world, which radical Salafists consider to be a form of apostasy.

* Religious and sectarian tolerance. Qatar has hinted that it will allow the building of at least six Christian churches and may allow Jewish representatives at its annual interfaith conference in May. The government is also liberalizing personal and family law to allow Shia Arabs and non-Muslim expatriates to resolve family, marital and inheritance issues in special courts, a move also perceived as apostasy by radical Salafists.

* Censorship. Government actions to restrain the Al Jazeera television network's domestic and Iraq coverage, and also local Wahhabi preachers, cause resentment.

Though dissatisfaction among the general public rarely surfaces, the country does host a range of radical Salafist or terrorist elements that complicate the process of maintaining public order.

Qatar has a longstanding tradition of hosting exiled Islamic terrorists and radical preachers from Algeria, Chechnya, Egypt, Lebanon and the occupied territories. Their presence ties up internal security assets that might otherwise be used to investigate emerging threats and can draw political violence to the emirate, as it did in February 2004, when Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was killed in Doha. Charismatic radical preachers such as Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi stir up local antipathy towards the government's support for U.S. policy and engagement with Israel.

Saudi Salafist exiles related to the Qatari royal family were sheltered in Qatar and integrated into the Interior Ministry and religious establishment following the 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The former emir appointed a Wahhabi exile from Najd as Qatar's senior cleric. Former Interior Minister Sheikh Abdallah bin Khalifa al-Thani, and his father before him, were appointed from the Wahhabi clique within the Qatari establishment. Though Sheikh Abdallah was purged from power last summer, this clique remains embedded among mid-level Qatari security officials.

Salafists are being slowly weeded out of the Interior Ministry (controlling the police and public security organs) or are being undercut by new parallel security institutions such as the State Security Agency and the Internal Security Forces (established in 2003 and 2004 respectively). As this process unfolds, these figures may prove as disruptive to effective counterterrorism operations, as disgruntled Salafists have been in Saudi and Pakistani security services.

The root causes of violence by Qatar's violent fringe are unlikely to recede in the coming years of political and economic liberalization, suggesting that repressive policing mechanisms will be the main means used to suppress such violence. With the Interior Ministry under the de facto control of one of the emir's loyalists, Sheikh Abdallah bin Nasser bin-Khalifa al-Thani, and the State Security Agency and Internal Security Forces reporting directly to the emir, internal security in Qatar is likely to be well resourced and supported in the coming years.

The country's intelligence services are quickly readjusting to face the terrorist threat, showing moderate effectiveness in investigating and prosecuting two Russians accused of assassinating Yandarbiyev. Until the new security services complete their reorganization and realignment, Qatar will receive strong security assistance (in the forensic, intelligence-gathering and keypoint security fields) from Western states.

Operating within a very small native Sunni Arab population, strong local intelligence-gathering and protective security operations are likely to unravel the cell responsible for the March 19 attack and disrupt most future attempts to launch follow-up attacks.

Keypoint defense of government and hydrocarbon sector infrastructure remains very strong. Oil and gas facilities are largely modern and thus have been built with safety, security, health and environmental considerations in mind. Qatar is developing improved coastguard capabilities and offshore facility protection.

The weakest element of the hydrocarbon sector is the foreign personnel on which the sector overwhelmingly depends. Even so, protective security at Western compounds and hotels has been increasingly responsive to security threats for some time, perhaps influencing the selection of a nonresidential target for the March 19 attack. Though an expatriate exodus would represent a severe blow to economic development, there are no signs that al Qaeda's local proxies can launch the sustained series of highly effective attacks needed to shake expatriate confidence in the relative safety of Qatar. However, other less-robust sectors, such as tourism (where Qatar plans to spend $15 billion to hold the Asian Games in 2006 and attract 1 million tourists per year by 2010) and education (involving a raft of joint ventures with foreign universities), may be more seriously affected by sporadic terrorist incidents.

In the light of the clash of ideas and interests in Qatar, the March 19 attack, while unprecedented, was not unexpected. Further violence is likely to be infrequent and focused on soft targets such as expatriates. The al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula is clearly seeking to spread violence throughout previously quiescent Gulf states, raising the prospect of similar profile-raising strikes in the United Arab Emirates or Oman.

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