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Muslim outrage as Yusuf al-Qaradawi refused UK visa

Feb 7, 2008 8:29 am By Robert Spencer

Stunning and unexpected good news, a sign of some sanity in Britain (and that has been hard to come by lately; just scroll down this page, or go through the Dhimmi Watch archives for February and January, and see how many times some outlandish accommodation is being made in Britain). And of course, the predictable outrage is ensuing on behalf of this man who has validated suicide terror attacks — and of course, it’s the fault of…the Jews.

From the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a controversial Muslim cleric who defends suicide attacks, has been refused a visa to enter to the UK after a campaign by David Cameron.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said that it deplored the decision and accused the government of caving in to “unreasonable demands spearheaded by the Tory leader”.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the MCB, said that Dr al-Qaradawi enjoyed respect as a scholar throughout the Muslim world.

“I am afraid this decision will send the wrong message to Muslims everywhere about the state of British society and culture,” he said.

“Britain has had a long and established tradition of free speech, debate and intellectual pursuit. These principles are worth defending, especially if we would like to see them spread throughout the world.”

If you’re so concerned about free speech, debate and intellectual pursuit, why not spread them in the Islamic world?

The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) described the decision to bar al-Qaradawi, an “eminent scholar”, as “an unwarranted insult to British Muslims”.

Muhammad Sawalha, the BMI president, said: “We would have to go as far back as the medieval age when scholars were hounded and vilified in order to find a similar retrograde decision.”

No we don’t, Muhammad. Here are a couple of worse examples. How about Suliman Bashear, who according to the New York Times “argued that Islam developed as a religion gradually rather than emerging fully formed from the mouth of the Prophet.” For this his Muslim students in the University of Nablus in the West Bank threw him out of a second-story window. How about scholar Christoph Luxenberg, who wrote a scholarly book suggesting that the Qur’an has been mistranslated and misinterpreted by Muslims themselves? The Times notes that “Christoph Luxenberg is a pseudonym, and his scholarly tome “˜The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran” had trouble finding a publisher, although it is considered a major new work by several leading scholars in the field.” Why must Luxenberg use a pseudonym, and why do publishers hesitate to take his work?

The 81-year-old Egyptian-born preacher is now based in Qatar and makes regular appearances on al-Jazeera television, clad in white robes, where he denounces anti-Muslim sentiment in the European media.

Sources close to Dr al- Qaradawi said that his visa application had had support within the Home and Foreign Offices. “But the Zionist lobby placed huge pressures to block the visa application and Prime Minister Gordon Brown eventually backed that position,” they added. […]

In a fax from the British embassy in Doha, his application was refused, reportedly citing Article 41 of the United Nations charter, which relates to threats to peace and security.

The cleric last visited the UK in 2004, where he was welcomed by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, and chaired the annual meeting of the European Council of Fatwa and Research at London’s City Hall.

His visit prompted protests from Jewish groups and gay people, who regard him as anti-Semitic and homophobic. He has called for the death penalty for homosexuality and the destruction of the state of Israel.

In the same year, the cleric defended suicide attacks on Israelis during a BBC interview, saying: “It’s not suicide, it is martyrdom in the name of God.” He added that it did not matter if women and children were the victims of such attacks.

The cleric is also said to preach that husbands should beat disobedient wives….

Those Zionists. How dare they stand against a man of such noble character?

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