Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: "These polytheist pagan invaders were joined by the Jews - the Jews of the Banu Qurayza tribe, who remained in Al-Madina, and who did to the Prophet Muhammad things that require punishment, by forging an alliance with the Banu Nazir tribe against the Prophet. But the Prophet forgave them and allowed them to remain in Al-Madina. Nevertheless, their nature got the better of them, and they violated the treaty and the covenant of protection between them and the Prophet...

How great is the similarity between past and present, brothers. We Muslims are besieged by many forces that want to uproot the Muslims under various pretexts - the pretext of terrorism, the pretext of fundamentalism, this pretext or that pretext. The goal is to fight this nation. They want to eradicate the nation of Islam... We are now under a siege that resembles the Siege of the Trench, the Siege of Akhzab. But we will be victorious, Allah willing - despite the traps set by Judaism and the Crusaders, and despite the deeds of those who set traps and who deceive. ... The Prophet besieged them for 25 days until they surrendered and agreed to accept his reign. The Prophet called upon them to choose a judge, and they chose Sa'd bin Mu'az, who had been their ally in the Jahiliyya [the pre-Islamic era]. ... He decided that the only treatment they merited was to have their fighters killed, their women taken captive, and their property seized as booty... Some Orientalists claim that Muhammad was cruel to the Jews, but this is how determination should be. One must be firm when firmness is warranted, and gentle when gentleness is warranted...

"I place the responsibility on the Shi'ite brothers more than on the Sunnis, because they are the ones who control the army, the police, the security forces, the regime, and the ministries. They have things the Sunnis don't have. They must not exploit this to kill their [Sunni] brothers, as they do. We want the great Shi'ite clerics, the ayatollahs, the Shi'ite sources of authority, the great authority Ayatollah Ali Sistani... We want the sheikhs of the Houza to issue fatwas forbidding the killing of Muslims by Muslims, fatwas forbidding the killing of Sunnis. The Sunnis issued such fatwas, but we haven't seen the Shi'ite brothers, their clerics, or their ayatollahs issuing similar fatwas. We want them to issue unequivocal fatwas forbidding Muslims from fighting Muslims and killing them on the basis of their identity...

"Soon, on December 15, parliamentary elections will be held. The new parliament members will be elected. In the past, the Sunnis boycotted the elections because they bore the burden of resisting the occupation, and their circumstances prevented them from [participating]. There was no security, and there were many things that prevented them from doing so. Now I call upon the Sunnis to participate en masse in the next elections, to present their candidacy, and to vote. Some clerics issued fatwas saying that elections under the American occupation are forbidden. I say: No! Necessity makes them permissible, especially in light of the fact that the occupation does not appear to be intervening in these elections. If these are free and fair elections, we should participate in them, instead of watching from the sidelines. Then the pie will be divided between those who participated in the elections, and we will continue to fight, and a civil war will break out, and blood will be spilled. For what? I say to my Sunni brothers in Iraq: Participate in these elections en masse...

"In the previous elections, they promised to amend the constitution after the coming elections. There are many things in the constitution opposed by the Sunnis, such as expanding the federations, the distribution of resources, and so on. This is your chance to say your piece and to amend this constitution. I call upon my brothers to join the political battle. We should not ignore the political aspect. I call upon my brothers, members of the Association of [Sunni] Muslim Clerics, headed by Sheikh Hareth al-Dhari and his brothers... I call upon them not to be extremist in this matter, to look at all sides of the issue, and to try to take advantage of this opportunity, so that others [the Shi'ites] won't later say: We gave them an opportunity, but they refused to take it. No. We don't want them to say that. We want to take advantage of this opportunity, and we insist upon realizing our right and not missing this opportunity.

"I pray for Allah to open our brothers' eyes, to make the present in Iraq better than the past, and the future better than the present. I pray for Allah to protect Iraq from overt and covert civil strife, to protect it from the evils of divisiveness and racism, and to protect it from the whispers of all satans, the human satans, the satans among the djinn, the American satans, and other satans."