• Qatar-based Muslim scholar who supports Palestinian suicide bombings
• Prolific author
• Has issued numerous fatwas supporting Islamic extremism and denouncing Israel and the U.S.
  
  

Based in Qatar, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi is one of the most influential clerics in Sunni Islam. He currently serves as President of the European Council for Fatwa and Research.

Qaradawi was born in Egypt in 1926 and, following the early death of his father, was raised by his uncle. He memorized the Qur'an in its entirety by age nine, and was particularly drawn to the brand of extremist, anti-Western Islam advanced by Hasan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qaradawi went on to attend the Al-Azhar Theological Seminary in Cairo before moving to Qatar.

Qaradawi has frequently justified Palestinian suicide bombings as legitimate responses to alleged "Zionist" aggression and occupation. In 2004 he told BBC television, "Allah Almighty is just; through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have, and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do." During a press conference around the same time, he added that suicide bombings are "weapons to which the weak resort in order to upset the balance because the powerful have all the weapons that the weak are denied." He has further asserted that suicide bombings "are not in any way included in the framework of prohibited terrorism, even if the victims include some civilians." This, he explains, is because Israel is "a society of invaders" whose "nature" is "colonialist, occupational, [and] racist."

Qaradawi is active in the Muslim Brotherhood, which Islam expert Robert Spencer has called "the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda." At various times in his life, Qaradawi has reportedly turned down opportunities to serve as the Brotherhood's leader. His preference, he explains, is to avoid tying himself to "any movement which might constrain my actions, even if this is the Muslim Brotherhood under whose umbrella I grew and which I so defended."

Qaradawi served as Dean of the Islamic Department at the Faculties of Shariah and Education in Qatar, and as a Chairman of the Islamic Scientific Councils of Algerian Universities and Institutions. He was also a faculty member at the Michigan-based Islamic American University (IAU), a subsidiary of the Muslim American Society. Until at least June 2003 he was Chairman (in abstentia) of the IAU Board of Trustees.

In 2003 Qaradawi issued a fatwa against the Japanese video and trading-card game "Pokemon," which he believed advanced Jewish doctrines. According to Qaradawi, the gibberish uttered by the animated characters meant "Become a Jew."

In April 2004 Qaradawi issued a fatwa declaring a Muslim boycott of American- and Israeli-made products. "To buy their goods is to support tyranny, oppression and aggression," he wrote. "Buying goods from them will strengthen them; our duty is to make them as weak as we can."

That same year, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Qaradawi expressed support for the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq, endorsing the kidnapping and murder of American civilians there. Announcing a fatwa at the Egyptian Journalists' Union convention in Cairo, he stated: "All of the Americans in Iraq are combatants, there is no difference between civilians and soldiers, and one should fight them, since the American civilians came to Iraq in order to serve the occupation. The abduction and killing of Americans in Iraq is a [religious] obligation so as to cause them to leave Iraq immediately." Qaradawi later denied making the statement, but continued to claim that "fighting the American invaders is a must endorsed by heavenly religions and international agreements."

During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, Qaradawi voiced support for the terrorist group Hezbollah. Contradicting the opinion of Muslim scholar Abdullah ibn Jibreen, who had said that Muslims were prohibited from supporting Hezbollah because its members are Shia, Qaradawi declared that Muslims were obliged to support Hezbollah because "Shias agree with the Sunnis in the main principles of Islam while the differences are only over the branches."

In the summer 2007 Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) trial (which looked into evidence of HLF's fundraising on behalf of Hamas), the U.S. government released a list of approximately 300 of HLF's "unindicted co-conspirators" and "joint venturers." Among the unindicted co-conspirators were many individuals affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas, including Qaradawi, Omar Ahmad, Abdurahman Alamoudi, Abdallah Azzam, Jamal Badawi, Mohammad Jaghlit, Mousa Abu Marzook, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and Ahmed Yassin. The organizations named on the list were the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Hamas, INFOCOM, the Islamic Association for Palestine, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Arab Youth Association, the United Association for Studies and Research, and the North American Islamic Trust.

Qaradawi has authored more than 40 books, including The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam (1960) and Islamic Awakening between Rejection and Extremism (1990). He also hosts a weekly television program called "Shariah and Life" on the Arabic television station and satellite network Al Jazeera. During one particular April 2004 telecast, he praised Allah for providing Palestinians with the means to transform themselves into "human bombs."

Due to his support for Palestinian terrorism, Qaradawi has been barred from entering the United States since 1999. In February 2008, the United Kingdom also denied his visa on grounds that "[t]he UK will not tolerate the presence of those who seek to justify any act of terrorist violence..."