Qaradawi -- He's Doing Fatwas and He's Still Alive
(Yes, I was thinking of the end-song to Portal.)
Yusuf al Qaradawi is the spiritual leader of tens of millions of Muslims spanning many countries. A few weeks ago, he was reported to be near death, in a coma. This man, exiled from Egypt many years ago, was brought back in by the Muslim Brotherhood to rail against the West and to incite jihad against the Jews. (The link is to a YouTube video of Qaradawi justifying suicide bombing at length.
But an odd thing happened during his illness -- he started to say some things that were almost reasonable by comparison to most jihadis. He said, for example, that Muslim women should be allowed to sing if they wanted. This horrified MB clerics, who moved for the first time to distance themselves a bit from the revered Islamic scholar.
Now the Muslim Brotherhood has key people in the Egyptian government and is poised to take over by September. They are in a position to buy influence, and to coerce it. Qaradawi is apparently too sick to speak directly, but has issued a new fatwa: Egyptians should give their annual pilgrimage money to the government instead (technically, to the MB to give to the government as they see fit). And Qaradawi has found a way for the Qur'an's specific charities to be reinterpreted to mean "the government" instead. Imagine that! The zakat taxes that all Muslims pay can be used to buy political influence instead of taking care of the needy! How convenient!
At this point, I'd guess that Qaradawi is actually still in a coma, and the MB is taking advantage of the opening. It may cost them, as it seems rather ham-fisted to me -- and you know what they think of ham.
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Yusuf al Qaradawi is the spiritual leader of tens of millions of Muslims spanning many countries. A few weeks ago, he was reported to be near death, in a coma. This man, exiled from Egypt many years ago, was brought back in by the Muslim Brotherhood to rail against the West and to incite jihad against the Jews. (The link is to a YouTube video of Qaradawi justifying suicide bombing at length.
But an odd thing happened during his illness -- he started to say some things that were almost reasonable by comparison to most jihadis. He said, for example, that Muslim women should be allowed to sing if they wanted. This horrified MB clerics, who moved for the first time to distance themselves a bit from the revered Islamic scholar.
Now the Muslim Brotherhood has key people in the Egyptian government and is poised to take over by September. They are in a position to buy influence, and to coerce it. Qaradawi is apparently too sick to speak directly, but has issued a new fatwa: Egyptians should give their annual pilgrimage money to the government instead (technically, to the MB to give to the government as they see fit). And Qaradawi has found a way for the Qur'an's specific charities to be reinterpreted to mean "the government" instead. Imagine that! The zakat taxes that all Muslims pay can be used to buy political influence instead of taking care of the needy! How convenient!
At this point, I'd guess that Qaradawi is actually still in a coma, and the MB is taking advantage of the opening. It may cost them, as it seems rather ham-fisted to me -- and you know what they think of ham.
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