The Guardian’s “democratic” Islamist leader: Kill every last Jew on earth

H/T Just Journalism

We have posted previously about the Sunni cleric, Sheik Yousuf al-Qaradawi – a radical religious extremist, and Holocaust supporter, who’s also considered to be the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader. 

However, al-Qaradawi’s extremism was characteristically white washed by the Guardian in their Middle East Live Blog back in February.

“Al-Qaradawi might be familiar to many in Britain. The government was criticised back in 2008 by moderate Muslim groups after it banned him from entering Britain and branded him an extremist.

Qaradawi, who was banned from entering the United States, had previously visited the UK in 2004 at the invitation of the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, sparking protests from Jewish groups and gay people, who regard him as anti-Semitic and homophobic.

However, he is also arguably the most influential Sunni Muslim cleric in the world and has regularly spoken in the past in support of democracy.

A  March 18, 2011 post by the Guardian’s Middle East Editor, Ian Black, included this benign description:

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the popular preacher who appears regularly on al-Jazeera,

Back in 2005, a Guardian column by Naima Bouteldja  characterized al-Qaradawi, thusly:

“[al-Qaradawi is] a widely regarded as a moderate and one of the most respected scholars in the Muslim world.”

She further noted that describing him as an extremist – merely because he supports Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis -is “absurd.”

Now, per a recently released WikiLeaks cable:

‘In a Friday, January 9, sermon broadcast on Al Jazeera Arabic, Imam Yousef Al-Qaradawi condemned Jews for spreading “corruption in the land,” and for victimizing the Muslim people. He cited the Babylonian Captivity and the Roman conquest as historical examples of God’s punishment of Israel. He said “We wait for the revenge of Allah to descend upon them, and, Allah willing, it will be by our own hands…Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.” [emphasis mine]

No doubt, al-Qaradawi’s CiF column, contextualizing his explicit call for genocide against Jews, will likely appear soon. 

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