FIFA’s has chosen Qatar over the United States to host the 2022 World Cup, and the internationally renowned “reformist” Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is crowing that it represents a victory for Muslims over America. Interestingly enough, the English-language stories on Qaradawi’s Friday sermon say nothing about Muslims; in the Arabic, however, it’s a different story. Here is my rough translation of a piece on this from Elaph.com:
“Qaradawi: Qatar’s grab of the first World Cup victory for the Muslims for America,” from Elaph.com, December 4 (thanks to Emad):
The scholar Dr Yusuf Qaradawi, head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, said that Qatar’s success in hosting the 2022 World Cup competition is the first made by Muslim countries over the United States of America.
He said Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, in his Friday sermon in the Mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab, said yesterday that the country’s insistence on success and excellence led him to follow the developments on the issue, and that he “and sat in front of the screen watching the results of the vote like the rest of the country.”
Al-Qaradawi said that Qatar’s victory was a slap in the face of the United States, and criticized President Barack Obama on the results of the free vote, and described his comments as “very bad.”
Qaradawi said that Obama’s resentment of Qatar’s victory reveals that America wants to monopolize everything about Arabs and Muslims in all walks of life: military, economic and even sports….