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Islamic Leader Calls on U.S. to Wage 'Jihad for Allah'
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A video of Dr.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi calling on the U.S. government to wage jihad for
Allah in Syria, is currently making the rounds on Arabic media and
Facebook, to mockery and dismay.
In the recorded
speech, Qaradawi—one of the most influential Islamic clerics in the
world, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, author of over 100
books on Muslim doctrine, and head of the International Union of Muslim
Scholars—sarcastically thanks the U.S. for supporting the "freedom
fighters" in Syria, adding that "Allah willing, your [U.S.] aid
will increase."
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Yusuf
al-Qaradawi (c) draped in a "Free Syria" flag. (Image source:
Wikimedia Commons)
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Then, while working himself up because the U.S is only providing
weapons to the jihadis in Syria, as opposed to directly intervening,
Qaradawi declares in frustration: "We want America to take a
manly stand—a stand for Allah!"
Needless to say, all Muslim Brotherhood opponents in the region are
pointing to this as yet more proof that Qaradawi and the Brotherhood are
mercenaries who interpret jihad any which way, so long as it helps them
consolidate power: otherwise, how can "infidel" America take
"a stand for Allah" by waging jihad on fellow Muslims?
It should further be noted that the classic formulation of the Arabic
word jihad, as in "fight," appears in the Koran with the
addition fi sabil Allah, that is, "fight in the cause of
Allah."
In other words, calling on the U.S. to strike Syria's Bashar Assad—and
calling it "a stand for Allah"—is essentially synonymous
with calling on the U.S. to fight "in the cause of Allah."
Amazingly, then, Qaradawi employs classical jihadi rhetoric to incite
American leadership to action.
As one televised political commentator in
Egypt discussing this anecdote put it,
Sheikh Qaradawi of course is the great and prominent Sheikh of Jihad,
who issues those famous fatwas we all know of to
kill and destroy on his orders. Really, the man has reached the point
where he is now calling on America to wage jihad and take a stand for
Allah. No comment; what's there to say at this point?… Now jihad is being
asked of America and to be waged against Muslims.
Nor is it any secret that this administration does act on the calls of
Qaradawi. As Clare Lopez summarizes for the Gatestone
Institute:
[T]he current administration consistently and repeatedly appeared to respond
eagerly to the calls for revolution from the Muslim Brotherhood's
senior Islamic scholar, Yousef al-Qaradawi. When al-Qaradawi said that Mubarak had to go,
the U.S. waited a whole three days before throwing America's key ally in
the Middle East for over three decades under
the bus. When al-Qaradawi called for Libyan rebels to kill
Muammar Qaddafi (so the al-Qa'eda jihadis in his jails could get out
and join the revolution), the U.S. led the Western
military campaign that brought al-Qa'eda, the MB, and chaos to Libya.
And when al-Qaradawi issued a call for jihad in Syria, in early
June 2013, the U.S. quickly issued an invitation to Abdullah
bin Bayyah (al-Qaradawi's vice president at the International Union
of Muslim Scholars), who told an Al-Jazeera reporter that, "We
demand Washington take a greater role in [Syria]." It took the U.S.
less than one week after al-Qaradawi's fatwa to announce authorization
of stepped-up military aid to the al-Qa'eda-and-Brotherhood-dominated
Syrian rebels. The White House announcement came just a single day after
bin Bayyah met with National Security and other senior administration
officials.
The problem, then, is not that Qaradawi has in desperate senility
confused the U.S. with the jihadis, but rather that he may know
that prominent elements of U.S. leadership are committed to struggling
"in the cause of Allah"—and so he unwittingly employed jihadi
rhetoric to remind them of their duty.
Unfortunately, in today's surreal climate of U.S. politics, no
interpretation is so absurd as to be implausible.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again:
Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (Regnery, April, 2013) is a
Middle East and Islam specialist, and a Shillman Fellow at the David
Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related
Topics: Radical Islam
| Raymond Ibrahim This
text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an
integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its
author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
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