Friday, February 18, 2011

Qaradawi is Back (Yawn)

Yusuf al-Qaradawi has returned to Egypt from exile, and given the main speech at the large rally in a-Tahrir Square in Cairo today. If you're willing to accept the top media outlets as your guides to what's happening in the world, this isn't much of an event. Here's the BBC, one of the topmost media outlets anywhere:
Correspondents say there is a festive atmosphere, with a military band playing and people waving flags.
Leading Friday prayers at the square, a senior cleric called on Arab leaders to listen to their people...
Television pictures showed Tahrir Square full of people. People sang songs and chanted: "The army and people are united!"
Influential Egyptian Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi said the Arab world had changed and leaders should listen to their people.
He also called for the release of all political prisoners and for Egypt's new military leaders to form a new government.
"I call on the Egyptian army to liberate us from the government that Mubarak formed," Mr Qaradawi said.
That's it. The rest of the report is regurgitated verbiage from previous reports, and a very brief quotation from one of the demonstrators about how things need to get better.
CNN is another important and influential media organ. Here's their report, which is marginally better than that of the BBC:
Waving flags and beating drums, thousands gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday for a "Day of Victory" rally to celebrate the one-week anniversary of the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
In what was a symbol of the dramatic change taking hold across the society, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, a Muslim cleric banned from entering the country during the Mubarak years, delivered the Friday sermon to the throng and the startling appearance was broadcast on state television.
"O Egyptians, Coptic Christians and Muslims, this is your day, all of you. January 25 was your revolution," said Qaradawi, who has a program called "Shariah and Life" on the Al-Jazeera television network.
Qaradawi -- who returned to his Egyptian homeland on Thursday -- said the "youth of the revolution has lifted the head of this country and made us proud once again."
"They are the new partisans of God. These are the young people of Egypt. The revolution is not over yet. The revolution just began. We need to rebuild Egypt. Be aware of those who want to take it away from you," he said.
Qaradawi insisted that the money "stolen" by the Mubarak regime be returned to the Egyptian people and praised the "martyrs" who died in the upheaval and for the sake of the religion.
The New York Times, being a daily not a blog, hasn't reported on the matter yet; the Guardian has put up some pictures, including one that shows Qaradawi at the rally.

You'd expect top-notch news organizations to have someone in their editorial rooms who know something. Even if not, however, there's always Google, which might send one to this informative page about Qaradawi, as posted by the respectable Investigative Project on Terrorism. He has been banned from entering the United States, for example, and in the past two years alone he has publicly said all sorts of unsavory things. (For some reason I'm not managing to cut and paste, but you ought to read the whole thing anyway.)


Years ago I accepted that the media almost never gets its reports about Israel right. It's becoming increasingly clear that they have no particular interest in getting Egypt right, either, not the parts they might easily check, such as who this Qaradawi fellow is, not the parts that cry out to be explained, such as why he, of all possible religious people in Egypt is the main speaker at the event, and not the slightly deeper parts of the story, such as what cultural messages was he choosing when he chose those particular words; what his audience heard him say, rather than what CNN heard him say.

Meanwhile, over at the Economist, they've got this sentence in their Leader on the Arab uprisings, which explains why in spite of some obvious handicaps, liberal democracy may be about to bloom:
Society is suffused by contempt for the West and hatred of Israel.
Israel? Not the Jews, by any means? The hatred is merely of Israel? How does the Economist know this?
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who calls him a moderate
Submitted by lord garth, Feb 17, 2011 17:14
The article said some call him a moderate.
This should be more specific. I have found that religious scholar John Esposito and CAIR national director Nihad Awad have called him moderate. I suppose there are others.


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Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2603/qaradawi-ominous-return-to-egypt
This week, a Brotherhood official was among eight people named to a panel charged with recommending changes to Egypt's suspended constitution. As the IPT has noted, the Brotherhood's bylaws continue to call for it "to establish Allah's law in the land by achieving the spiritual goals of Islam and the true religion." That includes "the need to work on establishing the Islamic State,

Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2603/qaradawi-ominous-return-to-egyptPrayed for the opportunity to kill a Jew before his death. "The only thing that I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah."


  • Called on Muslims to acquire nuclear weapons "to terrorize their enemies."




  • Called jihad an Islamic moral duty and said Muslims are permitted to kill Israeli women because they serve in the army.




  • Affirmed his support for suicide bombings. "I supported martyrdom operations," he said, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "This is a necessary thing, as I told them in London. Give the Palestinians tanks, airplanes, and missiles, and they won't carry out martyrdom operations. They are forced to turn themselves into human bombs, in order to defend their land, their honor, and their homeland."




  • Called the Holocaust a divine punishment of Jews "for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them - even though they exaggerated this issue - he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers."




  • Prayed for the opportunity to kill a Jew before his death. "The only thing that I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah





  • Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2603/qaradawi-ominous-return-to-egypt



  • Called on Muslims to acquire nuclear weapons "to terrorize their enemies."




  • Called jihad an Islamic moral duty and said Muslims are permitted to kill Israeli women because they serve in the army.




  • Affirmed his support for suicide bombings. "I supported martyrdom operations," he said, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "This is a necessary thing, as I told them in London. Give the Palestinians tanks, airplanes, and missiles, and they won't carry out martyrdom operations. They are forced to turn themselves into human bombs, in order to defend their land, their honor, and their homeland."




  • Called the Holocaust a divine punishment of Jews "for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them - even though they exaggerated this issue - he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers."




  • Prayed for the opportunity to kill a Jew before his death. "The only thing that I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah





  • Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2603/qaradawi-ominous-return-to-egypt

    9 comments:

    Bryan said...

    My favorite sentence from the Economist article was: "And the West can press harder for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians—nothing to do with these upheavals, but a source of poison in the Arab world nonetheless."

    Thanks for the tip, Economist. Next time I have a problem with someone else, I know who to turn to for utterly irrelevant and condescending advice about my own personal problems.

    peterthehungarian said...

    I doubt that the BBC, NYT etc. scriblers and his true love Ken Livingstone don't know who is Quaradawi. This clip says all about him what we need to know.

    Silke said...

    from what I have seen, downloading the podcasts of the day we are now getting fed the fairy tale, that the young ones of the MB are different and they'll oust the old ones ...

    and this is surely only a mishap ...

    Egypt protest hero Wael Ghonim barred from stage

    http://www.hindustantimes.com/Egypt-protest-hero-Wael-Ghonim-barred-from-stage/Article1-663996.aspx

    Anonymous said...

    Yaacov,

    The links to the article on Qaradawi and to the Investigative Project on Terrorism are both garbled. Is this the article to which you wanted to point?

    http://www.investigativeproject.org/2603/qaradawi-ominous-return-to-egypt

    David E. Sigeti

    Sérgio said...

    with this level of mendacity, capitulation and sheer idiocy from the chattering class through decision makers, I´m seriously inclined to believe the West is finally on the verge of its own demise. "Interesting" times ahead...

    Just a Thought said...

    Today's IHT/NYT has an article showing the Egyptian army owning and running a considerable portion of both public and private sector.

    I speculate (as roughly in Turkey and onetime Iran) there will be a struggle between a secular military and strong public-backed Islamists. Unless the army clamps down, the only question is whether the descent to Islamism will be slow (as in Lebanon) or fast (as in Iran).

    Barry Meislin said...

    How does the Economist know this?

    1. Because it's what "The Economist" sorely wishes to believe, and therefore must be true.
    2. Because it's the narrative that "The Economist" has been pushing for years, now; and therefore it must be true.
    3. Because it will greatly help "The Economist"'s readers to understand why Israel must be destroyed.

    And to understand is to forgive.

    "The Economist" is part of the larger global effort that has been trying to help Israel, in spite of Israel's actions, world-view, behavior, rhetoric, refusals, resistance, intransigence, etc.

    That has been trying to help Israel for years now.

    That has been trying to help Israel by arguing that Israel's actions is not only bad for Israel itself; it is harmful for Israel's friends in Europe. Increasingly.

    That has been trying to help Israel by convincing that country that choosing suicide (that tough but ultimately ethical choice) is preferable to alienating its neighbors, and causing problems for Israel's friends.

    Dear friends.

    Solid friends.

    Obama, with a similar worldview, has been, similarly, trying to argue that Israel's decisions are bad for America.

    "Trying to argue"? Should be "trying to force Israel to acquiesce to this worldview."

    The latest American charade at the UN should erase any doubts about what the administration really thinks. (Even if there shouldn't have been any doubts prior to that sorry performance.)

    Silke said...

    as per Goldberg the latest at the UN is proof that Obama is a friend of Israel in support of which he quotes Satloff except the "irrelevant" paragraph of Satloff's comment

    here is a first for me translation of what Qaradawi said:

    A message to our brothers in Palestine: I have hope that Almighty Allah, as I have been pleased with the victory in Egypt, that He will also please me with the conquest of the al-Aqsa Mosque, to prepare the way for me to preach in the al-Aqsa Mosque. May Allah prepare the way for us to (preach) in the al-Aqsa Mosque in safety--not in fear, not in haste. May Allah achieve this clear conquest for us. O sons of Palestine, I am confident that you will be victorious.
    http://translating-jihad.blogspot.com/2011/02/al-qaradawi-leads-friday-prayers-in.html

    But of course due to my lack of knowledge of the culture I get it all wrong and who is that anonymous translator anyhow etc etc etc.

    Barry Meislin said...

    He has been banned from entering the United States....

    Well then, he should be sent an invitation very soon.

    Otherwise, the US might never get the opportunity.