#yusef qaradawi

[eretzyisrael]

by Robert Williams

To assess correctly the damage that Qatari influence in the US is causing, it is essential to understand what Qatar stands for and promotes. Qatar has for decades cultivated a close relationship with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose motto is: “‘Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” It aims to ensure that Islamic law, Sharia, governs all countries and all matters.

Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has enjoyed Qatar as its main sponsor, to the tune of up to $360 million a year, and was until recently the home of Hamas’ leadership. In 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group’s political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzook, and Khaled Mashaal, among others, moved to Qatar for a life of luxury. This month, likely because of Israel’s announcement that it will hunt down and eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey, the Qatar-based Hamas officials reportedly fled to other countries.

Qatar was also home to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was exiled from Egypt until his death in September 2022. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:

💬 “Qaradawi is mainly known as the key figure in shaping the concept of violent jihad and the one who allowed carrying out terror attacks, including suicide bombing attacks, against Israeli citizens, the US forces in Iraq, and some of the Arab regimes. Because of that, he was banned from entering Western countries and some Arab countries…. In 1999, he was banned from entering the USA. In 2009, he was banned from entering Britain…”

Qaradawi also founded many radical Islamist organizations which are funded by Qatar. These include the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which released a statement that called the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas against communities in southern Israel an “effective” and “mandatory development of legitimate resistance” and said that Muslims have a religious duty to support their brothers and sisters “throughout all of Palestine, especially in Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and Gaza.”

Qatar is still home to the lavishly-funded television network Al Jazeera, founded in 1996 by Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani. Called the “mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Al Jazeera began the violent “Arab Spring,” which “brought the return of autocratic rulers.”

In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt made 13 demands of Qatar: “to cut off relations with Iran, shutter Al Jazeera, and stop granting Qatari citizenship to other countries’ exiled oppositionists.” They subsequently cut ties with Qatar over its failure to agree to any of the demands, including ending its support for terrorism, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Jazeera.

The Saudi state-run news agency SPA said at the time:

💬 “[Qatar] embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly,”

US universities and colleges are happy to see this kind of influence on their campuses in exchange for billions of dollars in Qatari donations. According to ISGAP:

💬 “[F]oreign donations from Qatar, especially, have had a substantial impact on fomenting growing levels of antisemitic discourse and campus politics at US universities, as well as growing support for anti-democratic values within these institutions of higher education.”

[bloomadoom]

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

On June 5, three GCC members; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, announced their decision to sever diplomatic relations with Qatar. This included a land, air, and sea blockade on the country.

Those announcements were only the first phase of a number of extremely bizarre decisions that were announced over the following week, most of which were issued in the very early hours of the morning by the three governments and bizarrely targeted their own citizens.

Here are a few of the most prominent, and the strangest, of these decrees.

Breaking up families

The Saudi-led bloc issued orders of forced movement against their own nationals, as well as Qatari nationals.

Qatari residents resident of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain were given two weeks’ notice to leave and return to Qatar. Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini citizens residing in Qatar were told by their governments to return immediately or face serious consequences.

Thousands of individuals and families suffered under these orders, as the deep familial and interpersonal ties between GCC countries mean that there are a huge number of families where one spouse is Qatari and the other is a national of another GCC country.

These families were split up. Qatari mothers residing in Saudi, the UAE or Bahrain took the brunt of these decisions, since they were forced to leave their children, who only have their father’s citizenship, behind.

WATCH: Amnesty slams embargo on Qatar over rights violations (2:19)

Criminalising sympathy

An overwhelming sympathy for Qatar expressed by social media users across the GCC created a PR nightmare for the countries who severed relations, and they took steps to intimidate their citizens from expressing opinions that opposed their policies.

The UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi announced that any objections to the UAE’s strict measures against the government of Qatar or expression of sympathy with Qatar would be a crime punishable by a prison sentence of 3-15 years and a fine of no less than $136,000 (500,000AED), whether on a social media platform or via any written or spoken medium.

Shamsi added that the UAE had taken decisive action against Qatar as a result of “its hostile and irresponsible policy against the UAE and a number of Gulf and Arab states”. He noted that these infractions would be prosecuted in accordance with cybercrime laws because they were deemed to be harmful to the nation’s higher interests and social stability.

Shamsi stated that the general prosecutor’s office would be implementing the law on offenders who were guilty of what he called “crimes”. He stressed that this decision was taken to preserve the national security of the UAE and its higher interests and the interests of its people.

The criminalisation of sympathy with Qatar was implemented in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with slight differences in the length of prison sentences and size of fines. The Bahraini Ministry of Interior stated “any expression of sympathy with the government of Qatar or opposition to the measures taken by the government of Bahrain, whether through social media, Twitter or any other form of communication, is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine”.

WATCH: Blockade on Qatar ‘toying’ with people’s lives (24:39)

Banning Al Jazeera

Hotel residents in Saudi Arabia can no longer watch Al Jazeera channels, after the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage warned against airing Al Jazeera inside any hotel or tourist establishment.

The commission stressed that all channels belonging to the Al Jazeera Media Network are to be removed from the list of satellite stations in “all hotel rooms and touristic facilities and furnished residential units … including the TV lists kept within”, in order to avoid punishments that included fines up to $27,000 (100,000 Saudi riyals) and a cancellation of the hotel’s licence.

This general directive was sent to the owners and operators of tourist facilities, and it stressed that channels screened should be “compatible” with “official Saudi channels”.

In addition, the commission ruled that no individual receiver units be available inside rooms, each hotel to must have a central receiver programmed in accordance with official Saudi policy.

Blocking websites

At the end of May 2017, Egypt blocked 21 websites, including Aljazeera.net, claiming that they had content “supporting terrorism and extremism as well as publishing lies”. A source at the official Middle East News Agency said that most prominent among those blocked sites were Aljazeera.net, al-Sharq, Masr al-Arabia, al-Shaab, HuffPost Arabi, Rassd, and Hamas Online. (Literally Huffington post was blocked for supporting terrorism??)

➡➡Among the blocked sites was also Mada Masr, an Egyptian news site that works from within Egypt and describes itself as progressive and not linked to “Islamists” or to Qatar.🚩🚩🚩📣📣🤔🤔🤔HNMMMMM

The Saudi-led bloc against Qatar followed suit and blocked websites from the Al Jazeera Media Network and the Qatari newspapers al-Watan, al-Raya, al-Arab, and al-Sharq.

Saudi internet users were greeted by the statement “The requested site is in violation of the systems and directives of the Ministry of Culture and Information”.

Users within the UAE attempting to access a number of sites, including Aljazeera.net, see a message from the telecommunications regulatory authority stating that the sites’ content is restricted and does not comply with the standards of the telecommunications authority.

Closing postal services

On June 8, the Emirates Post Group, a government agency, announced that all postal services to Qatar would be halted in accordance with instructions from the government of the UAE.

The group further stated that all postal offices within the country had been informed to stop accepting any mail being sent to Qatar. Charity organisations

On June 8, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt issued a joint press release in which they designated a number of individuals and organisations of differing nationalities as “terrorist”.

The list included 59 individuals, including Yusef al-Qaradawi, chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, as well as 12 bodies including Qatar Charity and Eid Charity.

The UN responded to this statement by reiterating that they are bound only by the “terrorist designations” issued by its own agencies, not those issued by any other party.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general of the UN, said that the UN has strong cooperation with Qatar Charity, including a number of joint projects being implemented in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

An official at the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded said that accusing Qatar Charity of “terrorism” is not only a defamation of humanitarian charitable work, but also constituted a violation of international standards and rules.

He pointed out that the inclusion of a number of journalists on the list indicated that the purpose was to intimidate and to muzzle freedom of expression guaranteed by international accords.

[basilepesso]

Important addendum in end of my text on Tariq Ramadan and lapidation, about his links with the ultra-extremist Yusuf al-Qaradawi. I’m keeping on the researches. Very complex. Particularly stupendous declaration of Yusuf, read well and without vomiting : “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the Jews some people who would punish them 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 hand of the believers.” After having read a lot on Tariq Ramadan and considered that his positions were globally brilliant and possibly the unique solution of peaceful coexistence between Islam and the West, his admiring declarations on the pro-Nazi al-Qaradawi (among other extremist things that Yusef agrees with and enjoys, and the list is long), and his hidden admission at the IUMS of al-Qaradawi three years ago will lead me to be very cold towards him, and my future possible precisions on his ideas, position and role might be very cold too, informative, maybe critical. Such a duplicity is EXTREMELY frightening. Extremely.

Basile Pesso, Barcelona, 23 June 2 017.

[psycotria]

Tweeted

PoliticalIslam tweeted - RT dstlouislittle5: PoliticalIslam Islam has ruled through fear said Cleric Yusef al-Qaradawi - "Islam wouldn't exist today if that had got rid of Apostacy”.

— psycotria/gab.ai 🐸 (@psycotria) May 6, 2018