CAIRO, August 27 (IslamOnline.net) - Prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi stressed that reform in Arab and Islamic countries has now become a religious obligation, rejecting claims the Islamic faith was to blame for backwardness.

"Reform has become a religious obligation and a necessity pushed by a deep deterioration gripping the Islamic nation on the ground," Sheikh Qaradawi said during a lecture in Cairo Thursday, August 26.

"All people feel the brunt of our current crisis of weakness and rampant corruption, from intelligentsia to ordinary people," he told the well-attended gathering.

The renowned Muslim scholar was delivering a lecture entitled "The Reform We Desire.. American or Muslim?", at the headquarters of Egyptian Pharmaceutical Syndicate in Cairo, at the invitation of Dr. Zakeriya Hamid, chief of the Syndicate.

Sheikh Qaradawi further dismissed claims that Islam is an obstacle to cherished reforms in Islamic countries, reiterating that democracy is compatible with the spirit and teachings of Islam.

He had more than once repudiated largely-propagated allegations that democracy is ruled as act of kufr (disbelief) in Islam.

"Those weak-minded individuals deliberately forget the fact that Islam did not stop in the way of the use of mind or march to progress, as had been the case for Europeans (against the church)," Sheikh Qaradawi said.

A trustee of the Oxford Center of Islamic Studies, (OCIS), he recalled that such big names at the heyday of the Islamic civilization as Averos - who was a renowned philosopher and a Shari'ah expert as well.

Khawarezmy, the inventor of Algebra, had authored books also on Shari'ah rules of inheritance.

"Islam always respects the mind, and Qur’an and Hadith (sayings and traditions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) call for using it in all aspects.

"The two main issues in Islam, presence of God and revelations, had been proven via the use of mind."

Sheikh Qaradawi urged Arabs and Muslims to make progress as a goal and reform as a principle be allied in all aspects of life - much to strengthen "our belief in God."

He criticized the distorted form of democracy applied in some countries where the ruler would get 99.99% in elections, saying: "If democracy is synonymous with the rule of people, it is thus running counter to the rule of one man not the rule of God".

Sheikh Qaradawi admitted the United States is heaping pressures on Arab ruling cliques for reform, but he said Washington "seeks a kind of change serving its own interests" in the oil-rich region.

"Americans want a reform to wash our brains through curricula change and pushing through new traditions in Muslim countries," he said.

"They seek to create new minds turning a blind eye on Israeli aggressions and massacres," he added.

The moderate Muslim scholar said that reform cherished by Muslims is the one "which is emanating from inside, and that serves their own interests and visions".

"Radical reform is now badly needed, as improprieties are getting larger and the crisis more complicated".