Unnamed Israeli officials, quoted by The Jerusalem Post, have urged the Qatari government to deport a top Egyptian cleric who lives and works in the Gulf emirate.
The prominent Islamic scholar Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi is an outspoken critic of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands and its practices against the Palestinian people.
The officials accused Qaradawi of holding anti-Semitic views, claiming that he was voicing views incompatible with the interests of the ruling family in Qatar.
The Gulf state has commercial relations with Israel.
According to Iran's official news agency (IRNA), “Qaradawi had criticized the relations between Qatar and the apartheid Jewish state.”
“He argued that it was disgraceful for any Muslim country to have diplomatic or any other form of representation with a state that occupies Muslim land, murders Muslim children, and desecrates Muslim holy places,” said the agency.
Sheikh Qaradawi is almost a permanent guest on a religious talk show on the Doha-based Al Jazeera satellite channel.
The cleric has taken a tough stand against the terrorist attacks on the US in September, denouncing them as contrary to the spirit of Islam.
He is active in a campaign to raise donations for the Palestinian people, and is widely respected in the Muslim world – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
