Qaradawi's press conference

In a press conference in Qatar today (yesterday? time zones are tricky things...), Yusuf al Qaradawi again denied having issued a fatwa calling for the killing of American civilians in Iraq, but at the same time he affirmed the necessity of resisting the American occupation in Iraq. He further stated clearly that attacks on civilians in Iraq was not permissible. And he condemned the kidnappings - again - decrying them for unacceptably terrorizing and frightening the people, while denouncing those parties claiming to speak for Islam in Iraq who in fact do nothing but tarnish the image of Islam and distort its teachings.

Meanwhile, the fine fellows at Elaph - a liberal internet publication which is a major critic and rival of al Jazeera and long-time critic of Qaradawi (in the same sense that I, the aardvark, am a major critic and rival of the Bush White House, in terms of proportional power and influence) - report that Qaradawi has recanted his fatwa, which is a rather dishonest way of reporting that he denied ever having issued a fatwa. Meanwhile, they report, the American Embassy in Egypt has - to their credit - declined to take up the call of Elaph writer Shakir al Nabulsi to arrest Qaradawi and bring him up on terrorism charges. Nabulsi also evidently is enlisting a "wide range" of figures supporting referring Qaradawi to the International Criminal Court for his role in promoting terrorism. Elaph quotes an embassy official as rather sensibly noting that such a lawsuit would undoubtedly work to Qaradawi's benefit and make him even more popular.

As I pointed out in response to Abu Frank in comments below, this whole controversy revolves around a statement attributed to one of Qaradawi's aides - every article and report I've been able to find, in Arabic and English, refers back to the same source. Nobody has offered a direct quote from Qaradawi, and Qaradawi himself has now both informally and formally denied having said it. Since this is entirely in line with his long-standing position, and there hasn't been any evidence to the contrary offered beyond the quote attributed to his assistant, this seems as close to settled as it's going to be. I could be wrong, and new evidence could emerge - it's always possible. But it hasn't yet.

UPDATE: according to Google News, Qaradawi's press conference has not been covered in English by anyone. Still some two dozen stories about the original allegation, but not a single story on his denial - how odd.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This Christian Science Monitor piece is better - it pairs Rashed's column with the rebuttal - also published in al Sharq al Awsat - by Fahmy Huwaydi, and also notes Huwaydi's remark that Qaradawi denied the remark and does not support killing civilians. No such nuance for Jeff Jacoby, though.

ONE LAST UPDATE: Here is Islam Online's report on the press conference - its the same as my account of it, but this one you can link and quote without the understandable embarrassment of citing an aardvark!

Comments

[praktike]

"he affirmed the necessity of resisting the American occupation in Iraq."

What does he mean by that, though? Resist us with spitballs?

[Donald Johnson]

You know, this is another reason for you to identify yourself. I've been thinking of writing the NYT a complaint about their Qaradawi story, but am not sure I want to, given that I'd have to give as my source an anonymous blogger named Abu Aardvark.

Though maybe you might want to consider typing up a standard letter and sending it off to various news organizations with your evidence attached.

[Abu Frank]

I found this AFP report interesting:

'"Every single American who is in Iraq is an invader who must be fought," Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi was quoting as saying by his office director Essam Talima.

Talima said Qaradawi, a Sunni Muslim regarded as a moderate, meant both US military and civilians, but he noted that the sheikh had used the word fight and not kill in his decree.'

http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=26161">http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=26161

Maybe the story was a beat-up right from the start.

It would be good to have an English translation not just paraphrase of the highlights of the Arabic-language Jazeera article you referred to at the beginning of your post. Also, any elucidation of "fight" in "fight not kill" if that statement is available in the original Arabic.

[praktike]

OK, this appears to be the bumper-sticker version:

"If there are US civilians in Iraq, they are treated in accordance with the Islamic tenets which stipulate the killing of civilians is forbidden, but those who fight the Iraqis must be killed as they are invaders."