Stop Terror Sheikhs, Muslim Academics Demand

If true, this could be good news but the devil may be in the fine print.

The Arab News is reporting "Over 2,500 Muslim intellectuals from 23 countries have signed a petition to the United Nations calling for an international treaty to ban the use of religion for incitement to violence."

Nablusi said hundreds of Arab writers and academics were collecting more signatures and hope to have “tens of thousands” by next month. Among those collecting signatures are Jawad Hashem, a former Iraqi minister of planning, and Alafif Al-Akdhar, a leading Tunisian writer and academic. Most of the signatories are from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states plus Iraq, Jordan and Palestine.

The signatories describe those who use religion for inciting violence as “the sheikhs of death”. Among those mentioned by name is Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian preacher working in Qatar. The signatories accuse him of “providing a religious cover for terrorism.”

Last year Qaradawi raised a storm when he issued a fatwa allowing the killing of Israeli pregnant women and their unborn babies on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army. Last September, Qaradawi in a fatwa in response to a question from the Egyptian Union of Journalists said killing “all Americans, civilian or military” in Iraq was allowed.

Nice fellow this Qaradawi and you may remember him from his visit to the UK.

The BBC reports,

Home Secretary David Blunkett was asked earlier this week to ban the Egyptian from entering Britain because of his provocative views, including alleged support of suicide bombers and the beating of women.

["alleged"? The BBC's defence of terrorists never ends. Qaradawi issued Fatwas calling for the killing of innocent people including pregnant women. ed]

He has said the cleric will be closely monitored but that preaching at a mosque that had completely reformed itself did not make him a threat.

Riiiiight.

The signatories of the petition also want the UN to order its member states to stop broadcasting the “mad musings of the theologians of terror.”

Are they referring to the BBC or Al Jazeera? Oh, my bad, they are one and the same.
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