Violent Jihadis v. Lawful Jihadis

The Middle East Media and Research Institute has published an interesting theological attack by a violent Islamist on a lawful Islamist. Titled "Syrian Jihadist Scholar Abu Basir Al-Tartusi: Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi is an Apostate," it sums up the argument of ‘Abd Al-Mun'im Mustafa Halima, known as Abu Basir Al-Tartusi, declaring Yousef Al-Qaradhawi an apostate.

Qaradhawi happens to be about the most prominent Sunni religious thinker alive today, someone who writes important books, heads influential organizations, and enjoys a high-profile media presence. Tartusi, however, presents several arguments to establish that Qaradhawi is no longer a Muslim. MEMRI's subheads provide the gist of his case, as Tartusi made it on his website on November 1, 2008:

• Al-Qaradhawi defended the Buddha statues in Afghanistan

• His fatwa allowing Muslims to fight in the U.S. Army is an act of apostasy

• He is making light of Allah (This one is a bit obscure; it refers to the fact that Qaradhawi ridiculed elections in some Arab countries where the ruler receives 99.99 percent of the vote, commenting that "if Allah were in the running he wouldn't receive such a share" of the vote.)

• He supported multiparty democracy

• [He advocates friendly] relations with non-Muslims

• "Heretical" Jurisprudence (Tartusi accuses Qaradhawi of substituting whim for divine law in his "jurisprudence of balances.")

Al-Tartusi concludes:

Because of all of the above, and in order to discharge my duty, and in order to advise the Islamic nation, I ruled – and I still hold to this ruling – that Yousef Al-Qaradhawi is an infidel, an apostate, and a heretic. All of the laws applying to infidels, apostates, and heretics apply to him, until he repents of the aforementioned beliefs.

Comment: This intramural hostility typifies the difference in outlook between Al-Qaeda-style Islamists and the Muslim Brethren, with the one hot-headed and the other patient, the former geared to violence, the latter working within the system. As I have often observed, the Muslim Brethren types have greater appeal and lasting power. (December 24, 2008)

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