The following is an extract from the testimony of Steven Emerson, director of Terrorism Newswirer before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives one hundred sixth congress second session January 26, 2000 online here
[page 27]
Sheikh Yusef Al Qaradawi:
Sheik Yusef Al Qaradawi currently resides in Qatar and is one of the most popular clerics in the Muslim Brotherhood movement. In the past ten years, Qaradawi has been hosted in the United States by numerous radical Islamic organizations. In the month of November 1999 alone, he was hosted at three conferences in the United States: the conference of the Shariah Scholars Association of North America (SSANA) in Detroit, Michigan; the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA—Southeast Conference in Atlanta, Georgia; and the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) Convention held in Los Angeles, California.
Qaradawi possesses a worldwide following as a cleric; however, statements by him indicate his support of terrorist activities of such groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He has even gone so far as to suggest that if one cannot actively participate in the armed struggle, then he or she should provide financial support such that the mujahideen can fight on behalf of all Muslims.
In an interview that appeared in the September 1999 edition of the Palestine Times, Qaradawi states his support for the “Islamic resistance in Lebanon and Palestine” which he says, “represents the glorious face of the Muslim Umma and serves as an example to that effect.” Furthermore, Qaradawi blesses “the martyrdom operations in which a given Muslim fighter turns himself or herself into a human bomb that casts terror in the hearts of the enemy. . . . If we can’t carry out acts of Jihad ourselves, we at least should support and prop up the Mujahideen financially and morally so that they will be steadfast until God’s victory.”
In a speech delivered by Qaradawi at the 1995 Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) conference held in Toledo, Ohio, Qaradawi made the following statements:
. . .–[T]his is what is told in the Hadith of Ibn-Omar and the Hadith of Abu-Hurairah: “You shall continue to fight the Jews and they will fight you, until the Muslims will kill them. And the Jew will hide behind the stone and the tree, and the stone and the tree will say: ‘Oh, servant of Allah, oh Muslim, this is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!’ The resurrection will not come before this happens.
[In a question referring to the state of Islamic movements, Qaradawi responded]
. . . Our brothers in Hamas, in Palestine, the Islamic resistance, the Islamic Jihad, after all the rest have given up and despaired, the movement of the Jihad brings us back our faith. . . .
In response to a question about suspension of Hamas’ military actions, Qaradawi responded]
In regard to Palestine, I would like to say that we are in a standstill for a while, but that does not mean the end of history. As Sheikh Ahmed Yassin [of Hamas] . . . has said: “It is possible to make a truce limited in time, and this will never mean surrendering. We can bide our time, we can stand still for a while, get some rest, but the Jihad continues . . . until the Day of Resurrection.
[page 28 begins]
In a sermon (Khuttba) Qaradawi delivered in March 1996, and that was made available at the official website of the Hamas terrorist organization (http://www.palestine-info.net), Qaradawi states that Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide bombers are not engaged in terrorism, but rather in martyrdom, and that all members of Israeli society are valid targets for terrorism due to Israel’s universal conscription policy.
[end of extract]
Two quotes from Qaradawi speaking in 1995, at a conference held by the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) in Toledo, Ohio, al-Qaradawi :
“…the movement of the Jihad brings us back to our faith.”
What remains, then, is to conquer Rome. The second part of the omen. “The city of Hiraq [once emperor of Constantinople] will be conquered first”, so what remains is to conquer Rome.’ This means that Islam will come back to Europe for the third time, after it was expelled from it twice… Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing], that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa. … But the balance of power will change, and this is what is told in the Hadith of Ibn-Omar and the Hadith of Abu-Hurairah: “You shall continue to fight the Jews and they will fight you, until the Muslims will kill them. And the Jew will hide behind the stone and the tree, and the stone and the tree will say: ‘Oh servant of Allah, Oh Muslim, this is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!’ The resurrection will not come before this happens.” This is a text from the good omens in which we believe.”
http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/167
Early Relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood
Qaradawi, born in Egypt in 1926, graduated from Al Azhar University in Cairo. In 1942, during his time as a student, Qaradawi signed membership papers formally joining the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic extremist movement founded in Egypt that has spawned and inspired global terrorist groups, including the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
He was arrested several times by Egyptian government authorities between 1949 and 1961 due of his activities with the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1951, Qaradawi toured Egypt giving political speeches in support of Brotherhood candidates for the parliamentary elections that year. Egypt banned the Muslim Brotherhood in 1954 because of its opposition to the Egyptian government.
In 1961, Qaradawi moved to Qatar, where he currently resides. Despite his departure from Egypt, Qaradawi’s theological influence on the Muslim Brotherhood continued. Qaradawi participated in developing the educational and cultural structure of the Brotherhood, publishing essays and books that were absorbed into the educational curriculum by its Tarbiyya (Education) Department. In addition, a number of Qaradawi’s essays relating to Thaqafat ad-Da’iya (The Culture of the Preacher) were published in the Brotherhood magazine, Da’wa, during in the 1970s. Another of his books, at-Tarbiya al-Islamiyya wa Madrasat Hassan al-Banna (Islamic Education and Hassan al-Banna’s school), published in 1979, was officially incorporated into the educational curriculum by the Brotherhood.
Although Qaradawi has built a media empire formally independent of the Muslim Brotherhood, he remains the premier spiritual guide to the Islamist movement. The Brotherhood offered Qaradawi their highest leadership position of “General Guide” in 1973, after the death of the group’s second General Guide, Hassan Al-Hudaybi, which Qaradawi declined in 1976. Qaradawi declined the position again in 2002, following the death of organization’s fifth General Guide Mustafa Mashhur.
Despite refusal to formally adopt the helm of the Brotherhood, Qaradawi maintains a close cooperation with the organization and its members. According to his memoirs, Ibn al-Qarya wa’l-Kuttab (Son of the Village and the Village Schools, vol. 2002, 2004, 2006). Qaradawi continues to regard Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Brotherhood, as the teacher who had the most significant influence on him.
Qaradawi’s Activities over Last Decade
Qaradawi has established a worldwide following through television appearances and by utilizing the Internet. He was relatively quick to take advantage of the Internet, launching a site in his name in 1997. The site includes several of his fatwas supporting terror. In 2006, Qaradawi used his Web site to denounce a Danish newspaper’s cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad and declared February 3, 2006, an “international day of rage.”
Qaradawi hosts a weekly television show called “Shariah and Life” on the Arabic-language television news network, Al Jazeera, where he also expresses his support for terror. For example, during an April 2004 show, he credited Allah with providing Palestinians “human bombs,” instead of the planes, missiles and weapons that Zionists have. In addition, his Friday sermons at the Umar bin al-Khattab mosque, a government-sponsored mosque in Doha, have been regularly broadcast live on Qatar television. In a 2005 sermon, while speaking about notable Hamas leaders killed by Israel, Qaradawi asserted, “Their fate was paradise. They died martyrs. They met the death that every Muslim wishes for himself, which is martyrdom in the cause of God.”
Qaradawi is also influential through a wide network of affiliations. In the U.S., he is the chairman (in abstenia) of the Michigan-based Islamic American University (IAU), a subsidiary of the Muslim American Society (MAS), according to the MAS Web site. The university aims to provide Islamic higher education, especially to converts and non-practicing Muslims, according to the IAU Web site. Qaradawi is also listed by the IAU as a faculty member.
Prior to being banned from the U.S. in 1999, Qaradawi reportedly spoke to several Muslim organizations around the country. For example, Qaradawi spoke at the now-defunct Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) conference in Toledo, Ohio, in 1995, where he stated, “If everyone who defends his land and dies defending his sacred symbols is considered a terrorist, then I wish to be at the forefront of the terrorists. And I pray to Allah if that is terrorism, then O Allah make me live as a terrorist, die as a terrorist, and be raised up with the terrorists.”
Despite the ban, Qaradawi’s message still reaches the American public via satellite television and the Internet, in particular IslamOnline, a Web site published in both Arabic and English. The site contains articles and religious rulings which support violence against non-Muslims, as well as anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-American content.
Recent Selected Books
Qaradawi has also written over 40 books, many of which have been published in different languages and disseminated throughout the world. In Qaradawi’s Fiqh of Jihad, published in 2009, he chastises those Muslims who do not observe the obligatory duty of jihad, including violent jihad, and attempt to “cast a veil of oblivion on jihad and drop it from the life of the Ummah [the Muslim community].” In the introduction to the book, Qaradawi writes, “Without jihad, the Ummah’s boundaries will be violated, the blood of its people will be as cheap as dust, its sanctuaries will be less worthy than a handful of desert sand, and it will be insignificant in the eyes of its enemies.” A significant portion of the work is dedicated to legitimizing suicide bombing, or “martyrdom operations,” which Qaradawi casts as a “defensive jihad against oppression.” He encapsulates his view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with anti-Semitic rhetoric, attesting that the “Zionist massacres of today” are a continuation of alleged Jewish calls to genocide in the Old Testament.
In another of his books, Fatawa’ Min Ajl Falastin [Fatwas for the Sake of Palestine], published in 2003, Qaradawi provides a warning that Muslims should not befriend “Jews, in general, and Israelis, in particular” due to the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Receiving enemies in our own countries and visiting them in the occupied lands,” he writes, “would remove such a psychological barrier that keeps us away from them, and would bridge the gap that keeps the desire for Jihad against them kindled in the hearts of the Ummah.”
http://www.adl.org/main_Arab_World/al_Qaradawi_report_20041110.htm
islamophobic 