January 4, 2018 Special Dispatch
No.7264
Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi Calls For Resistance, Jihad And Martyrdom Following Trump's Recognition Of Jerusalem As Israel's Capital
Following the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump on December 6, 2017 recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi posted several tweets and Facebook messages urging Muslims to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem with resistance and jihad, and praising "the honor of martyrdom," noting that he himself aspires to die as a martyr.
Al-Qaradawi, who heads the International Union of Muslim Clerics (IUMS) and is a prominent authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, also criticized Arabs who do not act on behalf of Jerusalem, came out against Arab normalization with Israel, and used antisemitic expressions to emphasize the hostility toward the Jews that he claims exists in Islam.
This is not the first time that Sheikh Al-Qaradawi has preached violence and jihad, and he has also long preached in favor of perpetrating suicide attacks. MEMRI has reported extensively on his extremist ideology, on the basis of which he calls for jihad and terror attacks. In 2001, for example, in response to a religious ruling by former Saudi mufti 'Abd Al-'Aziz Bin 'Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh, who prohibited suicide attacks even against soldiers of a country occupying Muslim land, Al-Qaradawi stated that operations by Muslim suicide bombers were a legitimate form of resistance, "heroic acts of martyrdom and sacrifice," and one of the noblest kinds of jihad for the sake of Allah. He clarified: "These operations are the furthest [thing] from suicide and the ones who carry them out are not suicides by any measure. A suicide is someone who kills himself for selfish reasons, while one who sacrifices himself [a fidai] does this for the sake of his religion and ummah. [He] fights the enemies of Allah using a new weapon that God has placed in the hands of the oppressed as a means of resisting the tyranny of the strong and the haughty."[1] The Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, which Al-Qaradawi heads, [2] also encouraged the perpetration of suicide attacks, and Al-Qaradawi stated that he himself hoped to "die a virtuous death like a jihad warrior, with the head severed from the body."[3] In 2012, he ruled that suicide attacks were permissible in Syria, but said it was conditional on the approval of the "group," without clarifying what he meant by that. During his visit to Gaza in May 2013, Al-Qaradawi expressed support for jihad and martyrdom and reiterated that he hoped to die as a martyr. In 2015, after he was accused of permitting suicide attacks in Egypt following the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Al-Qardawi's office clarified that, in his 2009 book Fiqh of Jihad, he had already ruled that martyrdom attacks were permitted only in Palestine; furthermore, now that the Palestinians have acquired advanced weapons, there is no longer any need for these attacks even in Palestine. However, rulings sanctioning suicide attacks still appear on the sheikh's website and are understood as such among many Islamic circles. [4]
Home page on Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi's Twitter account (twitter.com/alqaradawy)
It should be mentioned that Al-Qaradawi has been banned from entering the U.S.s since 1999 and the U.K. since 2008. Furthermore, Al-Qaradawi and the IUMS, which he heads, are included on the lists of terror organizations published in recent months by the four countries that are boycotting Qatar: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.[5]
The following are examples of Sheikh Al-Qaradawi's recent tweets, including those that preach resistance, jihad and martyrdom:
Preaching Resistance, Jihad And Martyrdom: Israel Fears Young People Who Give Their Souls For The Sake Of Allah
On December 6, 2017, the day of Trump's Jerusalem announcement, Al-Qaradawi tweeted: "What is the meaning of Palestine without Jerusalem? Where are the Muslims? Where is the Muslim world? Where is the Islamic ummah throughout the world? We have no choice but to resist this [announcement] and respond to it with an unequivocal 'no'."[6] One day later, he tweeted: "Jerusalem is threatened by the Zionist enemy who has perfectly implemented his plan to swallow and Judaize it. I therefore wish to draw the attention of those who are oblivious [to this fact], encourage those who are afraid, strengthen those who are diffident, expose the traitors, encourage the jihad fighters, and liberate the ummah from [its] weakness. May we be strong or die as martyrs!"[7]