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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Doha meeting to ask Muslims to help Hamas govt |
| 2006-05-07 |
| ISLAMIC scholars are to meet in Doha later this week to draw up a fatwa (religious edict), obliging the Muslim faithful to help the Palestinian government headed by Hamas. Influential cleric Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi said the May 10-11 meeting would help both the Palestinian people and their government, hit hard by US and EU funding cuts because of the Islamist groupÂ’s refusal to recognise Israel. Ulemas (scholars) as well as other Muslim and Palestinian leaders will "draw up a fatwa on the duty of the Ummah (Muslims) and of governments" towards the Palestinians and the Hamas cabinet, Qaradawi told a press conference yesterday. The fatwa will refer to financial aid to the Palestinians as well as offering them moral support. He slammed what he called "the duality of the West, which rejects Palestinian democracy after encouraging such a democracy just because it doesnÂ’t suit them." "This is political hypocrisy and we reject it," he said. Exiled Hamas supremo Khalid Mishal, Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan al-Shalah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command leader Ahmed Jibril would attend the Doha meeting, Qaradawi said. However, Palestinian President Mahmoud AbbasÂ’s Fatah faction, which Hamas trounced in JanuaryÂ’s vote, would not be attending, he said, citing "difficulties with Fatah representatives ... who mostly refuse to co-operate". Qaradawi, head of the International Federation of Muslim Scholars, said the conference aimed at rallying support for the Palestinian people in the backdrop of the difficult conditions they lived today. It would bring together Muslim scholars from all over the Islamic world to make known their stance on the "siege" clamped on the Palestinian people. Qaradawi said he would urge the varying Palestinian factions to stand united in one trench with the Palestinian government to tackle the siege as "such action is a religious, moral and national duty". He said he would also call on all Arab-Muslim governments and organisations not to give in to foreign pressure and to initiate support and assistance to the Palestinians. Qaradawi warned that "any failure of Hamas as a result of the siege is a failure of the entire Muslim world". "The conference will issue a final communique and a fatwa to explain the duty of the Arab and Muslim nations and the Palestinian factions on supporting the Palestinians and their government under the leadership of Hamas, because this is what the Shariah and reality dictate." The conference will also set up a committee to follow up the recommendations issued by the conference. "The silence of some of the Muslim governments toward the EU and US pressures on Hamas is treason," he said. Qaradawi rejected the idea of disbanding the Arab League, saying that the Arab and Muslim governments are not exempted from their obligations towards Palestine which he described as the "home of the Prophets". He hailed QatarÂ’s donations to the Palestinian people and appreciated the efforts of the charities in helping them. "I have given a speech via cell phone to the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate. I was told that an Egyptian donated LE1.25mn (Egyptian pounds) to the Hamas government but the banks refused to transfer the money," he said. Asked about the Islamic scholars conference, Qaradawi said the initiative was his own as well as from the scholars union. "It was a collective initiative that found a positive response from Qatar," he said. Regarding the concessions that Hamas should make to come to terms with the other Palestinian factions, he said he could not ask Hamas to do so "while Israel is encroaching upon the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people". "Hamas has offered a 50-year long truce but Israel rejected it," he said. Regarding the legitimacy of the channels that would deliver the financial aid raised by the people and governments, Qaradawi ruled that all such channels are legitimate. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 I thought he was a mere Custodian of the Two Moskkks. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-07 10:24 |
| #2 ...and Allan knows best. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-05-07 09:23 |
| #1 LOL. I guess the telethon didn't go well. They have to fatwah muzzies into donating to the Pals! Still won't work most likely. Didn't King Abdullah just make the top of Fortune's wealthiest dictator$? $25 Billion or so? Surely the "Keeper of the Two Mosques" can well afford to put food in the mouths of the rabble in the "home of the Prophets" for years to come. If he cared, that is. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-05-07 08:50 |