Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who has endorsed suicide attacks, wants to return to Britain. So we’ll see how stiff the upper lip of those blighters really is, eh wot? “Extremist cleric puts terror laws to the test,” from The Guardian, with thanks to Filtrat:
A planned visit to Britain next month by a Muslim cleric who has praised suicide bombings against Israel will become the first test of the Government’s promised clampdown on extremist preachers after the London terrorist attacks.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79, who is due to speak at a conference in Manchester, is banned from visiting America because of his links with the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
But although Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has the power to exclude individuals whose presence is judged not to be conducive to the public good, there is no suggestion that the controversial Qatar-based imam is to be banned.
Last Friday the Home Office outlined proposals aimed at restraining militants by making it a crime to glorify or condone terrorism. Ministers said that would cover statements suggesting that suicide bombers were martyrs.
Although Qaradawi’s supporters said he had condemned the Tube and bus attacks, he has praised suicide bombings against Israel.
Last year he told the BBC’s Newsnight: “It is not suicide; it is martyrdom in the name of God. I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an indication of the justice of Allah almighty. Allah is just.
“Through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak what the strong do not possess and that is the ability to turn their bodies into bombs as the Palestinians do.”
Qaradawi’s visit to London last year at the invitation of Ken Livingstone, the mayor, outraged gay and Jewish groups because of his attitude to homosexuals and Jews.
He is due to address the Muslim Unity Convention in Manchester on Aug 7 unless Mr Clarke excludes him.
Show some spine, Mr. Clarke. This will be good opportunity to make some important moral distinctions that are currently obscured.