[Egypt Independent] Qatar-based Sheikh Youssef 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....
resigned from his seat at al-Azhar's Senior Scholars Committee to protest the al-Azhar Grand Sheikh's stance on political developments in Egypt.
Al-Azhar is the prestigious Sunni college in Egypt that cranks out Moslem scholars.
The move by Qaradawy, an influential preacher and ardent supporter of the Moslem Brüderbund and Islamist politicians, comes hours after a committee of 50 members concluded amendments to the 2012 Constitution that had been ratified under deposed president Mohammed Morsy.
"I, Youssef Abdallah al-Qaradawy, submit my resignation from the Senior Scholars Committee to the great Egyptian people, not to the Sheikh of al-Azhar," the sheikh said in his statement.
Unlike Qaradawy, Al-Azhar's Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb sided with the popular uprising that toppled Morsy in July. He delegated representatives to the committee that amended Morsy's constitution.
"When the day comes when people restore their freedom...scholars should select their leader and their seniors according to their free will," said Qaradawy.
Like they've done in Afghanistan and Soddy Arabia and Qatar...
"We were appalled by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar's participation in the coup," he added, attacking Tayyeb for not consulting committee scholars to give its opinion on political developments.
Qaradawy urged the "free sons and scholars of al-Azhar" to announce their rejection of political developments in Egypt and to "quit that institution that has become a dead corpse."
Al-Azhar is probably the single best hope Islam has of becoming something other than a blood-thirsty moon cult. And that will be only after fifty or a hundred years of evolution.