Erdogan, Qaradawy’s Most Vocal Defender
Azzurra Meringolo 19 December 2014

“I did not kill and I never incited to murder, so that Interpol should not have put me on the wanted list,” Qaradawi wrote on his page. “Those who killed thousands of innocent people at the Republican Guard headquarters – Manassa and Rabaa, al-Nahda, Ramsis [the places in Cairo that hosted the pro Morsi sit-in in 2013] – and others are well-known and are still being invited to Western capitals,” he added, pointing the finger at the Egyptian “new” authorities who had asked Interpol to put his name on the wanted list.

In his late 80s, Qaradawy, an Egyptian who also possesses Qatari nationality, is seen as a spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood – from which the ousted Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi hails from – and is the head of the affiliated International Federation of Muslim Scholars. Better known as the global mufti for his successful religious show on Al-Jazeera, Shariah and Life, Qaradawy is the preacher who gave the sermon in Tahrir square on February 18, 2011, one week after Mubarak’s fall.

He is also known for his passionate hatred of Israel and his interpretation of jihad. Even if in his book, Fiqh and Jihad, Qaradawy condemned the 9/11 attack fuelling an argument against Al-Qaeda leader Al-Zawahiri and distancing himself from the Qaedist interpretation of jihad, he is far from denying that Islam cannot use war as a weapon of resistance. Until now, he has never retracted from what he said in the 90s and in 2009 when he justified the use of suicide bombings against Israel. In 2004 he issued another fatwa declaring a Muslim boycott of US-and Israeli made products because “to buy their goods is to support tyranny, oppression and aggression and will increase their power. Our duty is to make them as weak as we can.” One of his most incendiary fatwas is when he declared in 2004 that he said “there is no dialogue between us (Muslim and Jews) expect by the sword and the rifle”. In addition, in 2005 he supported the killing of Jewish foetuses, with the logic that when Jews grow up they might join the Israeli military.

Recently, Qaradawy’s most dangerous fatwa was the one in which he called on all Muslims to head to Syria to join the jihad against the regime. According to some Arab columnists, some of those who responded to his call are now killing the Syrians he wanted to help.

In response to Interpol’s decision to issue a “red alert” for Qaradawi, at the behest of the Egyptian government, the Western Cape’s flagship Ulama body, the Muslim Judicial Council, has launched a widespread campaign to combat the Egyptian regime’s “demonization” of Qaradawi.

Nonetheless, none of Qaradawy defenders are as vocal as Racep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, well-known for his strong opposition to “new” Egyptian regime. After being one of the few leaders to define Morsi’s ouster as a “military coup”, Erdogan made it a habit to slam and belittle Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and his government at every turn. As a result, both the government and a large percentage of Egyptians consider Erdogan to be directly interfering in their domestic affairs. The ever more damaged relationship between Cairo and Ankara escalated to the point that Egypt decided that all its citizens between the age of 18-40 will be banned from travelling to Turkey without prior approval from the state security. The Egyptian Interior Ministry justifies the decision as a measure to prevent Egyptians from joying militant groups in Syria and Iraq by traveling through Turkey. According to the Associated Press, as a result of these measures, over 200 Egyptians were prevented from traveling to Turkey just last week.

If Qaradawy’s opposition to the current regime is one of the reasons behind Erdogan’s support of the cleric, another is that, in June 2013, Qaradawy released a written statement in response to the Gezi Park protests and called on everyone to support Erdogan against what he described as a minority driven by “foreign conspiracies.” The global mufti also stressed that Erdogan’s success was because of the help of Allah, underling how, by prohibiting the use of alcohol, Erdogan had stopped moral corruption and a destruction of Islamic society.

There is a rumour in Ankara that Erdogan could allow Qaradawy, who is now in Qatar, to find safe refuge in Turkey, despite Interpol’s arrest warrant. This would not surprise those who remember that Ankara has already allowed entry to a number of Muslim Brotherhood members who were banished from Egypt and Qatar and that Turkey is the only country that is still hosting Brotherhood TV channels.

If Turkey allows Qaradawy to enter its borders, the relationship with Egypt risks to collapse. It could also impact upon Turkey’s cooperation with Interpol. Last but not least, in spite of the resurging interest in resuming the negotiations for entry into the European Union, the Qaradawy file could create Erdogan some additional troubles with the EU.

Read the italian version of this article

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