Sunni cleric al-Qaradawi issues fatwa - kill Gaddafi! | Off the Strip for free thinkers and adventurers

Sunni cleric al-Qaradawi issues fatwa – kill Gaddafi!

A Point of View, Libya, Middle East & North Africa, Politics | Sandra | February 21, 2011 at 19:24

This is where the real split happens in cultures. Yusuf al-Qaradawi is arguably the most influential Sunni Muslim cleric in the world. He is considered by many to be the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Foreign Policy names him the world’s 3rd most influential public intellectual. He has regularly spoken in the past in support of democracy. But today, on Cairo TV, he issued a Fatwa for Gaddafi to be killed.

As much as we want to cheer at the idea of the monster Gaddafi being exterminated, it is not in the west’s mentality to call so openly for assassination. His call for any Libyan soldier who has the opportunity to shoot and kill the Libyan leader spread like wildfire in the twittersphere.

Here’s a summary of what he said:

“To all Libyan Ambassadors, you must denounce this regime. To anyone who can speak, don’t stay silent.
The Libyan army should not lose their entire population for the sake of one man, one crazy man.
What is the cause of this silence? The world must shake for these deaths.
Who is he fighting? His people! By bombing them with planes?
These people are supposed to be his family, his relatives…
I am issuing a Fatwa now to kill Gaddafi. To any army soldier, to any man who can pull the trigger & kill this man to do so.”

Al-Qaradawi might be familiar to many in Britain. The government was criticized back in 2008 by moderate Muslim groups after it banned him from entering Britain and branded him an extremist. He had previously visited the UK in 2004 at the invitation of the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, sparking protests from Jewish groups and gay people, who regard him as anti-Semitic and homophobic. Qaradawi is banned from entering the United States. He has been living in exile in Qatar and just returned to Egypt.

What is interesting to me is that his interview was covered on Al Jazeera Arabic, but I haven’t heard a word on Al Jazeera English. Is this a form of censorship on the part of AJE (Al Jazeera English) for fear of inflaming the far right and feeding the fears of Americans about extreme Islam? Americans are already suspicious of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic hijacking of democratic movements and revolutions in the Middle East.

If you want to watch the 23 minute interview (in Arabic only so far), go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp7h644lTH4&feature=youtube_gdata