Poor old Sheikh Qaradawi has been taking some hard knocks since his visit to London and welcome by Mayor Livingstone last summer. So some of his supporters organized a solidarity conference for him last week at the Youth Center in Doha, Qatar, according to MEMRI.
The London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat reported that Al-Qaradhawi said: “I am not afraid of the Mossad or the Americans.” He also said: “The Mossad has threatened to eliminate me, and I hope that Allah will grant me martyrdom [shahada] for His sake and that my life will end by my dying at the hands of the enemies of Islam.” According to the daily, Al-Qaradhawi hoped to die “a virtuous death” and that this meant “that the head would be severed from the body.”
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During the solidarity conference, a film about Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi was aired, in which London Mayor Ken Livingstone appeared. According to a report on Al-Jazeera TV ‘s Internet site, Livingstone said: “We were surprised by the onslaught of unbridled distortion of facts in the papers, which described this man as a wild animal and presented him as the jurisprudent of Satan… We were therefore of the opinion that it is important to conduct a comprehensive inquiry, in which we will consult with the world’s ‘ ulema and study Dr. Al-Qaradhawi’s 140 books.”
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According to the Qatar daily Al-Sharq, Livingstone noted that after special committees had studied Al-Qaradhawi’s ideology by reviewing over 140 books, as well as sermons and lectures by Al-Qaradhawi, it was found that “Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi’s ideology is utterly remote from extremism.”
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In their speeches, some of the conference’s participants recalled the fact that the center had previously held a conference in solidarity with Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. One of the participants, Muhammad Al-Musfir, a political science lecturer at Qatar University, said: “I thank Qatar’s political leadership for [the way] it has treated thinking and sensible men, despite the great onslaught against it. I also thank the youth center in Doha, which respects freethinkers and supports them. Yesterday it was Garaudy, and today it is Al-Qaradhawi, with whom we totally identify.”
Dr. Hayat Al-Hweiek ‘Atiya, who is close to Garaudy and who translated one of his books denying the Holocaust, also participated in the conference. ‘Atiya, the only Christian participant, said: “Muslim civilization is being targeted. As a Christian, I think we are gathering today [to honor] the supreme value that this man represents.”
There’s no report of Qaradawi angrily protesting the comparison of him to the Holocaust denier Garaudy.
Other interesting stuff on the MEMRI TV site:
–A report on the French ban of the Iranian Sahar TV for broadcasting the antisemitic series “Zahara’s Blue Eyes.” Don’t miss the clip from the series of the IDF staff meeting where The Truth is revealed. Or the fascinating details about the sinister “white ship.”
–Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir’s explanation of the two blue stripes on the flag of Israel.
–The testimony on Iraq’s Al-Iraqiya TV of an alleged Syrian intelligence officer and a “resistance” fighter who says he was trained in Syria. (It looks real to me, but I can’t vouch for its authenticity.)
