[Jpost] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, gives Egyptian holy man diplomatic passport; PA leadership in Ramallah critical of holy man for deepening Paleostinian divisions.The Paleostinian Authority announced over the weekend that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi
...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program
Shariah and Lifeon Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including
Islam: The Future Civilization.Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving
Islam a bad name....
, one of the world's leading Islamic scholars, is carrying a forged Paleostinian passport.
Qaradawi was granted the Paleostinian diplomatic passport by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
during his two-day visit to the Gazoo Strip, which ended on Friday.
The PA leadership, which had opposed Qaradawi's visit, said that it has notified all countries that the Egyptian-born scholar was carrying a forged passport.The PA Interior Ministry in Ramallah called upon all countries "to take legal measures to seize the holder of the passport in accordance with international law."
An official in Ramallah was quoted on Saturday as saying that Interpol has contacted the PA leadership to ask for more details about the passport.
Qaradawi arrived in the Gazoo Strip on Wednesday at the head of a delegation of 50 top Islamic scholars from 14 countries.
The visit drew sharp criticism from the PA leadership in Ramallah, whose representatives accused Qaradawi of working to deepen Paleostinian divisions by recognizing Hamas as the legitimate government in the Gazoo Strip.
During the visit, Qaradawi expressed full support for Hamas. He expressed opposition to "giving up one inch of the land of Paleostine."
Qaradawi called for Paleostinian unity and refrained from directly attacking PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
Hamas said the PA's call for confiscating Qaradawi's passport was "rude."
A statement by Hamas said the call was issued by a PA ministry that "derives its legitimacy from Israeli occupation."
Ezat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas official, expressed regret over the PA's opposition to Qaradawi's visit. The scholar was granted a Paleostinian passport in honor of his "big and leading role in serving Paleostine and the causes of the Islamic nation," he said.
Risheq said the PA's stance on the passport was unjustified and harmful to all Paleostinians and would deepen divisions among the Paleostinians.