Influential cleric reappears on Al Jazeera to call for assassination of those ‘who organized coup’ and ‘betrayed constitutional oath.’
DOHA – Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi reappeared on Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based, Qatar-founded and Qatar-controlled news channel, on Sunday to provoke and incite the Egyptian people against their army.
Qaradawi avoided mentioning names, but his words sounded like an explicit fatwa calling for the assassination of those who decided and carried out “the military coup” on ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
In his comments, Qaradawi referred to Quranic verses and sayings of the prophet (PBUH) that take on the question of obedience to the legitimate ruler.
He said “if he, who has disobeyed the ruler, does not repent, then he must be killed. There is a legitimate ruler (in reference to Morsi) and people must obey and listen to him.”
Qaradawi criticised the military intervention in Egypt, calling it “illegal” as the army did not have the constitutional right to take action against Morsi.
Addressing Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of Egyptian armed forces, from the platform of his popular TV show ‘Sharia and Life’, he thundered, asking: “Who made you the general commander of the military? Who made you the minister of defence? It’s the same president you have removed who elevated you. You swore to obey him and you went against your word, which is haram in Islam.”
Analysts say that Qardawi’s call for assassination targets Sisi, and senior military leaders “who organized the coup” and “betrayed the constitutional oath.”
Qaradawi also denied that he had been expelled from Qatar, and said some media reports suggesting this were false and malicious.
A viewer asked him why he had left Egypt on the eve of the “military intervention”, on June 30.
He answered, “As some sections of the media began spreading propaganda against me that I had been expelled from Qatar, I came back here to show that those reports were false”.
The cleric said that he was not trying to escape from Egypt (after Morsi’s ouster).
On July 6, Qaradawi had issued a fatwa urging all Egyptian Muslims to support Morsi and uphold the Egyptian constitution.
He had also called on Sisi to withdraw from Egyptian politics and preserve law and order and democracy in the country.