Jeddah: Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the extremist Muslim cleric labelled a "Preacher of Hate" by Arab News, died on Monday at the age of 96.
Al-Qaradawi, who was born in Egypt, was the spiritual leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which he joined as a young man and rose to prominence through a series of incendiary sermons broadcast on television.
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In 2019, he was one of the first subjects of "Preachers of Hate," a weekly print and online series in which Arab News profiled, contextualised, and analysed extremist preachers of all religions, backgrounds, and nationalities.
The profile of Al-Qaradawi detailed how he justified suicide bombings, particularly in Palestine, spoke out against Jews as a community on numerous occasions, and issued fatwas that denigrated women.
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He described martyrdom as a higher form of jihad in a fatwa on his website, and in a 2005 TV interview, he praised suicide bombings in Israeli-occupied Palestine as martyrdom in the name of God. "I was not the only one who supported martyrdom operations," he said.
Al-Qaradawi also issued fatwas authorising all Jewish attacks. "Oh, take the treacherous Jewish aggressors..." "Oh God, count their numbers, slay them one by one, and spare no one," he commanded.
Al-Qaradawi slammed Muslim countries as weak and urged citizens to overthrow their governments and wage war on all opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Al-Qaradawi was a Muslim supremacist who despised Europe and its culture. In a television lecture in 2007, he stated, "I believe that Islam will conquer Europe without the use of the sword or fighting." Europe is unhappy because of materialism, the philosophy of promiscuity, and the world's immoral considerations — considerations of self-interest and self-indulgence.
It's past time for Europe to wake up and find a way out of this, and the only lifesaver or lifeboat available is Islam."
Al-Qaradawi was accused of sowing discord among Gulf Arab states, and he targeted Egypt and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in particular. In 2015, an Egyptian court sentenced him to death in absentia, along with other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.