Qaradawi’s Tahrir Square speech—the clearest indication that a “democratic” Egypt will be a sharia and jihad Egypt

Andrew Bostom writing at American Thinker explains in detail the beliefs of Yusuf al-Qaradawi—which are extreme to us, but entirely mainstream in Egypt—and the American liberal media’s portrayal of Qaradawi as a promoter of democracy and pluralism. Below is an abridged version of the article, which I’ve also edited slightly for formatting and punctuation.

Qaradawi and The Treason of the Intellectuals

Last Friday (2/18/11) marked the triumphal return to Cairo of Muslim Brotherhood “Spiritual Guide” Yusuf al-Qaradawi. After years of exile, his public re-emergence in Egypt was sanctioned by the nation’s provisional military rulers. Qaradawi’s own words were accompanied by images and actions during his appearance which should have shattered the delusive view that the turmoil leading to President Mubarak’s resignation augured the emergence of a modern, democratic Egyptian society devoted to Western conceptions of individual liberty and equality before the law.

Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi can be seen prominently behind al-Qaradawi for the duration of the latter’s speech. [See photo in original article.] Recently Higazi, during his Arabic-language program “Age of Glory,” broadcast on the Egyptian al-Nas satellite television network, issued an unabashed call for aggressive violent, jihad. He quoted a hadith from ‘Ali, the son-in-law of the Muslim prophet Muhammad and Islam’s fourth “Rightly Guided” caliph, in which ‘Ali tells his sons: “Go, fight, and please your grandfather. Let him be pleased with you. Fighting is what pleases the prophet (peace be upon him).” Higazi also urged jihadists, graphically, when attacking non-Muslim infidels to “Strike and split the head, and cut it in half.” Equally plain are Higazi’s goals for this brutal jihadism—the re-creation of a transnational Muslim Caliphate:

I am convinced that Islam is imminent, the caliphate is imminent. One of these days, the United States of Islam will be established. Allah willing, it will be soon. Egypt will be one state in this. Morocco and Saudi Arabia will be states as well.

And of course the requisite accompaniment to Higazi’s jihadism would be a jihad genocide of Israeli Jews, as described in other media pronouncements the cleric has made, such as,

“Dispatch Those Sons of Apes [Koran 2:65; 7:166] and Pigs[Koran 5:60] to the Hellfire,” and “Yes, I Am an Antisemite; If Not for the Arab Rulers, We Would Devour the Jews with Our Teeth.”

Contrast the prominence afforded Higazi, with the treatment of Google executive Wael Ghonim. Upheld by a fawning Western media as the putative embodiment of Egypt’s “democracy uprising,” Ghonim was forcibly barred from the platform where Qaradawi spoke in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. According to an Al-Arabiya report,

Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, but men who appeared to be guarding Qaradawi barred him from doing so. Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.

But notwithstanding MEMRI, and my colleague Al-Mutarjim (whose translation follows), no mainstream media outlets have reported that Qaradawi himself issued a clarion call for the jihad re-conquest of Al-Aqsa mosque, i.e., Jerusalem. This pronouncement was met with thunderous applause. [Note: VFR has covered Qaradawi’s Tahrir Square pronouncements on jihad and the conquest of Israel here and here.]

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.

The media’s egregious omission was hardly accidental. Qaradawi’s statement immediately following this deleted jihad rallying cry—about having the Egyptian Army open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza to facilitate “delivering aid to our brethren”—was widely reported. The deliberate omission of Qaradawi’s bellicose incitement to re-capture Jerusalem reflects a larger, sustained campaign by both the mainstream media, and the warped pseudo-academics whom they choose, selectively, to provide their background information. The poisonous fruit of this incestuous relationship has been a concerted effort to characterize as “pluralist, reform Islam” Qaradawi’s obscurantist, albeit mainstream Islamic Weltanschauung of Sharia (Islamic Law)-based, aggressive jihadism, and its corollary—virulent Jew, and other infidel hatred.

John Esposito, who heads the lavishly Saudi-funded (i.e., 20 million dollars donated in 2005, according to the New York Times) Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, is the doyen of American academic apologists for jihadism. Esposito, despite being a distressingly shallow and transparent shill for the House of Saud, who nonetheless continues to proffer geostrategic “advice” on the Muslim world to the American government, opined in a fall 2003 Boston Review essay that Qaradawi embodied a, ” … reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights.”

Nearly a decade later, Esposito’s distorted, malignant assessment of Qaradawi has become standard fare regurgitated by both the mainstream media and the next generation of Esposito-like pseudo-academics these journalists seek out for comment. Witness the New York Times coverage of Qaradawi’s Tahrir Square oration. Consistent with the unchallenged Esposito-indoctrinated narrative, we are told that the cleric’s speech, ” … struck themes of democracy and pluralism, long hallmarks of his writing and preaching.” This assertion is followed by a reiteration that “scholars”—doubtless, of Esposito’s ilk—” … who have studied his work say Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy.”

Here Bostom goes into a discussion, which I have not reproduced, about the Times’ designated Qaradawi expert, Notre Dame Professor Imad Shahin, an out and out sharia proponent, and the hadd punishments, including stoning to death for adultery, death for apostasy, and loss of hands for stealing, that Shahin, along with Qaradawi, endorses.

During two recent interviews (from 2/9/06, and 9/25/08) published at the Muslim Brotherhood’s English website “IkhwanWeb,” Qaradawi elucidated his overarching beliefs and goals. He extolled the putative “moderate vision” of MB founder and paragon, Hassan al-Banna. Qaradawi lauds al-Banna’s “approach” as representing,

… balance and integration, as it adopts a propagative educational methodology which includes the development of the Muslim individual, family, community, state, and nation, as it seeks to liberate and unite the Islamic nation.

Qaradawi further promoted the notion that the MB govern Egypt, while expressing his personal desire to be a spiritual guide for the entire Egyptian nation, not merely the MB. He also espoused the direct political expression of Islam as articulated by the MB.

One can be content with his role of calling for Islam if he finds that the political duties have been taken care of and that people’s needs are being met, but if this is absent then it becomes everyone’s duty to take on the political role.

Qaradawi concludes with an ostensible call for “freedom and democracy,” but only as a vehicle for the imposition of Sharia-the standard modern era jihadist formulation, “Islamic State by the will of the people.”

A vast array of readily available fatwas, sermons, and interviews put ugly flesh on the structural bones of Qaradawi’s Weltanschauung as articulated in the 2/9/06, and 9/25/08 IkhwanWeb postings. As salient examples, Qaradawi has publicly advocated all of the following:

• That Muslims emulate their prophet Muhammad as a model for violent, expansionist jihad, which includes the sanctioning of so-called jihad “martyrdom operations”

• The re-creation of a formal transnational United Islamic State (Islamic Caliphate)

• The jihad conquests of Europe and the Americas

• Universal application of the Sharia, including Islamic blasphemy law, and the hadd punishments (for example, notably, executing so-called “apostates” from Islam)

• Homicide “martyrdom” bombings of all Israeli Jews, including non-combatants, and subsequently, invoking Hitler and expanding the circle of hatred, a call for the frank jihad genocide of all Jews (“This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.”)

• Qaradawi also expressed a personal longing to die in a homicidal “martyrdom” operation targeting Jews: “I’d like to say that the only thing 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, Lord of the Worlds. Allah’s mercy and blessings upon you.”

I have left out the last few paragraphs of Bostom’s article, which do not add to his analysis of Qaradawi and his liberal media faciliators.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 25, 2011 03:37 PM | Send