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Opinion | Al-Qaradawi's policies stand against democracy

Jason Rembrandt, rembrajn@muohio.edu

Unless you have been on Mars for the past month or so, (and even Mars gets CNN, I think) you are aware of what has been and is still happening in Egypt today. On Jan. 25, protests began against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime. These escalated until Feb. 11 when Mubarak stepped down from office and the Egyptian military took control of the nation. At first glance, it appears as if all is beginning to bode well for the Egyptian people, as they begin to establish democracy. But the loss of Mubarak may come at a price.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a man who left Egypt in 1961 after numerous imprisonments by former president Gamal Abdul Nasser for hateful language and affiliation with terrorist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and was banned from the U.S. and the U.K. for the very same reasons, has returned to Egypt. He spoke to the crowds at Tahrir Square Friday, Feb. 18 about the rebellion won by the Egyptians and on the future of the region. On the same day, The New York Times reported that Qaradawi has come to stand in Egypt for democracy and pluralism. But his record of hateful speech and actions around the world tell a much different story about him.

On Al-Jazeera TV in January 2009, al-Qaradawi was quoted as saying Hitler was a "divine tool" sent against the Jewish people. Later in the same sermon, he called upon Allah to "take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one." And in January 1998, the Associated Press quoted al-Qaradawi as writing, "There should be no dialogue with these people (Israelis) except with swords."

Al-Qaradawi has not only spoken out against the Jews and Israel, he was also instrumental in the formation of the riots that occurred across the Middle East in 2005 and 2006 in response to the Danish Muhammad cartoon. On Sept. 30, 2005, Denmark's biggest daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published a series of 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. One, which was perceived as highly offensive, showed the Prophet with a bomb on top of his turban.

In response, the Arab world protested heavily and violently against Denmark. These protests resulted in many deaths, including 127 people in Nigeria as a result of church burnings. As several Arab leaders tried to calm the populace, al-Qaradawi rejected calming the violence and in a sermon on Feb. 3, 2006, he declared that day as an international day of rage. He also rejected Denmark's official apology and declared that, "We say to those Europeans: We can get by without you, but you cannot get by without us. We can get by without your products."

He also has spoken out in support of the "right" of Muslim men to beat their wives, and has publicly supported the practice of female genital mutilation. Qaradawi writes that "a father who finds it serving the interest of his daughters should do it, and I personally support this under the current circumstances in the modern world."

Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a hateful man who has called for violent action against Israel and the American Armed Forces. He has spoken out against women's rights, against religious freedom and against our American values of free speech and freedom of the press. To say that Yusuf al-Qaradawi and others like him, who are now resurfacing in Egypt, are here to support democracy and pluralism is to be blind to the dangers that these radicals present to a country that is to rebuild and create a true democracy for themselves.


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