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Monday, February 27, 2006

The religious war from Qatar

Like the UAE, Qatar is considered a great ally in our "war on terror." It seems that the current administration is havin a hard time in distinguishing between friends and enemies.

Qatar is where the infamous Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi resides, and he is given many opportunities to spew hate on Qatar TV - not against Zionists but against Jews as well as Christians, Americans and whoever else is on his radar screen that week. Here's his latest:
Our war with the Jews is over land, brothers. We must understand this. If they had not plundered our land, there wouldn't be a war between us."
[...]
"We are fighting them in the name of Islam, because Islam commands us to fight whoever plunders our land, and occupies our country. All the school of Islamic jurisprudence - the Sunni, the Shi'ite, the Ibadhiya – and all the ancient and modern schools of jurisprudence – agree that any invader who occupies even an inch of land of the Muslims must face resistance. The Muslims of that country must carry out the resistance, and the rest of the Muslims must help them. If the people of that country are incapable or reluctant, we must fight to defend the land of Islam, even if the local [Muslims] give it up.

"They must not allow anyone to take a single piece of land away from Islam. That is what we are fighting the Jews for. We are fighting them... Our religion commands us... We are fighting in the name of religion, in the name of Islam, which makes this Jihad an individual duty, in which the entire nation takes part, and whoever is killed in this [Jihad] is a martyr. This is why I ruled that martyrdom operations are permitted, because he commits martyrdom for the sake of Allah, and sacrifices his soul for the sake of Allah.

"We do not disassociate Islam from the war. On the contrary, disassociating Islam from the war is the reason for our defeat. We are fighting in the name of Islam."
[...]
"They fight us with Judaism, so we should fight them with Islam. They fight us with the Torah, so we should fight them with the Koran. If they say 'the Temple,' we should say 'the Al-Aqsa Mosque.' If they say: 'We glorify the Sabbath,' we should say: 'We glorify the Friday.' This is how it should be. Religion must lead the war. This is the only way we can win."
[...]
"Everything will be on our side and against Jews on [Judgment Day]; at that time, even the stones and the trees will speak, with or without words, and say: 'Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there's a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' They will point to the Jews. It says 'servant of Allah,' not 'servant of desires,' 'servant of women,' 'servant of the bottle,' 'servant of Marxism,' or 'servant of liberalism'... It said 'servant of Allah.'

"When the Muslims, the Arabs, and the Palestinians enter a war, they do it to worship Allah. They enter it as Muslims. The hadith says: 'Oh Muslim.' It says 'oh Muslim,' not 'oh Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, or Arab nationalist.' No, it says: 'Oh Muslim.' When we enter [a war] under the banner of Islam, and under the banner of serving Allah, we will be victorious."
Also out of this great friendly land comes Dr. Ali Al Quradaghi, who claims that the Christians and Jews are uniting to fight against Islam:
Jews and Christians were now preparing to wage the third world war with Muslims as the target, Doha-based Islamic scholar Dr Ali Al Quradaghi, said here on Thursday. Muslims of the world, he said, should unite against such forces that try to denigrate the great Islam faith, he added.
Funny that no one but Muslims noticed.

The Qatar newspaper also lightheartedly describes Qatar and Bahrain-based Muslim Brotherhood sheikh Wajdi Ghunaim in these terms:
For a Muslim, Friday sermons are a serious business, but a Doha-based Egyptian cleric makes the devout laugh with his witty remarks.

Wajdi Ghunaim is an independent scholar (not attached to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs) and is occasionally invited to deliver Friday sermons and lead prayers.

Last Friday, he delivered the sermon at Bukhari Mosque in Al Hilal area, pulling large crowds.

Ghunaim, who frequently appears on Arabic TV channels, told a local Arabic daily in an interview yesterday that while (the Israeli Premier) Ariel Sharon can enter Egypt, he cannot, despite Egypt being his home country.

A member of the feared Islamic outfit Muslim Brotherhood, Ghunaim says he suspects he may be put in jail if he lands in Cairo.
What a riot! Guess what he says about Jews?
In 1998, CAIR and the American Muslim Council (AMC) cosponsored a rally at Brooklyn College, which included a diatribe by Wagdi Ghuniem, an Egyptian extremist. Ghuniem led 500 people in singing a ditty with the chorus: ‘No to the Jews, descendants of the apes.’
So, these are the sorts of people on Qatari TV, written about in glowing terms by the mainstream English-language Qatari media. And all of them are popular and clearly describe their conflict in purely religious terms, not political.

We are still looking for moderate Muslims from Qatar who denounce their hate. After all, they are our close allies.