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Al-Qaradawi’s
recent
London
visit was met with a media frenzy
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Observers
have pursued different lines of analysis in their bid to explain the
storm that accompanied Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi’s recent visit to
the United Kingdom. The Zionist lobby in Britain, (usually spoken
for by the Jewish Board of Deputies and Louise Ellman, MP, among
others) mounted a most virulent attack on the Sheikh, seeking to
kill several birds with one stone. Pro-Israel lobbyists are not
particularly fond of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), which
came to the fore of British politics as a result of its alliance
with the anti-war coalition, and which sought to have Israel’s
then-Chief of Staff and current Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
incarcerated and prosecuted for war crimes during his visit to the
United Kingdom last year. Nor do they like the fact that Israel has
been exposed more than ever before as the last remaining bastion of
racism and fascism on the face of the earth, thanks to the efforts
of peace and justice loving people in the United Kingdom and across
the world. My own analysis is that the primary target was the Mayor
of London, Mr. Ken Livingston, a man of great integrity and a
history of solidarity with and support for just and good causes,
including the Palestinian cause.
Sheikh Yusuf had been to Britain several times in the past. Never
was a visit by him met with such a furor before. The difference this
time is that he came to London at the joint invitation of the MAB
and the Mayor of London. To prove my theory, I would draw attention
to the fact that the Sheikh visited the United Kingdom in February
2003 on his way to and back from Dublin, where he chaired a session
of the European Council for Fatwa and Research. The MAB, which had
invited the Sheikh to the United Kingdom, had arranged for him to
meet the press. At a highly successful press conference, the Sheikh
answered questions put to him by the media on a variety of issues.
Channel Four News aired an exclusive interview with him, while the
Mirror, for reasons unknown to me, failed to publish its own
exclusive and lengthy interview with him.
The Sheikh’s opinions on the issues raised by the pro-Israel lobby
during his recent visit have been in the public domain for many
years, and he could have been questioned about them during his last
visit, but he was not. Furthermore, during his earlier visit the
Sheikh addressed thousands of Muslim men and women, young and old,
at the Central Mosque and then at East London Mosque in White
Chapel, advising them to strike a wise and fair balance between
maintaining their identities as Muslims and living in their country,
Britain, as law-abiding citizens.
The success of that earlier visit prompted the MAB to approach the
Sheikh several months later and invite him for another tour.
However, the Sheikh was discouraged by world events, particularly
the invasion of Iraq, and decided not to accept the invitation,
which came at a time when the US-led war on terrorism had claimed
many innocent victims.
The concern expressed by Sheikh Al-Qaradawi was not hypothetical;
there had already been several incidents where prominent Muslim
figures were turned back from airports, arrested, harassed, or
subjected to humiliating attempts to blackmail them into
collaborating with the authorities. While most of these cases happened
in the United States of America, European governments had clearly
been succumbing to pressure from their NATO master.
The Sheikh’s opinions on the issues raised by the pro-Israel lobby have been in the public domain for many years. |
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By chance, MAB communicated the Sheikh’s concerns to officers from
a Scotland Yard Special Branch unit. The officers, tasked with
improving relations between the police and the Muslim community in
the aftermath of September 11, assured the MAB that the Sheikh would
be most welcome to visit the United Kingdom. They expressed their
readiness to provide the Sheikh with a VIP reception at the airport
and protection throughout his visit, should he decide to come back
to Britain in the future. The reason, from their own perspective,
was attributed to the fact that “he is one of the most
authoritative scholars in the Sunni world of Islam today whose
moderating influence on the Muslim youth of Britain is highly
appreciated.”
It was in light of these assurances that the MAB brought to the
attention of the Mayor’s office the fact that the annual meeting
of the European Council of Fatwa and Research was due in July, and
that it would be a good PR job for the Local Government Association
to invite the Council to convene in London. The MAB explained that
although the Council had been founded in London it had not met again
in the British capital, convening instead in Paris, Dublin,
Stockholm, and a number of other European cities over the years.
Having looked into the matter and assessed the role played by the
Council in guiding European Muslims to be pro-active, law-abiding,
and fully involved citizens, the Mayor extended his invitation to
the Council to convene its meeting in London. As a result of this
invitation, two other events were immediately planned: the MAB
decided to hold its own one-day conference to benefit from the
presence of such a long list of esteemed jurists and thinkers, and
Jamiatul Ummah decided to hold their police-sponsored “Our
Children, Our Future” conference during Sheikh Al-Qaradawi’s
visit, to have the honor of his participation as a guest speaker.
Sheikh Al-Qaradawi himself decided to seize the opportunity by
inviting around two hundred Muslim jurists from around the world to
form the International Association of Muslim Scholars. It turned out
to be quite an eventful week.
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London mayor Ken Livingstone at an MAB event
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It
may well be the case that the Jewish Board of Deputies and Louise
Ellman have since come to regret stirring up this storm, since their
venomous attack achieved the exact opposite of what they were
seeking. While a segment of the press (especially the Sun, the Mail,
and the Telegraph) initially fell into their trap and were mired in
the smear campaign, the more respectable media, including the BBC
(both radio and TV), the Guardian, the Independent, Channel Four
News, and Sky News saw the smear campaign as an attempt, not to
discredit the Sheikh, but to erode what remains of the democratic
values of Britain. They decided to move in favor of the right to
free speech, which the Zionist lobby would like to see us all lose.
Following a BBC2 TV Newsnight program a couple of nights into the
campaign, the tide shifted, and the arrows of malice and contempt
turned back at those who had loosed them in the first place. The
image of the Sheikh suddenly changed dramatically from the Sun’s
“The Evil has Landed,” with an array of the best attributes ever
given to Al-Qaradawi being used by non-Muslim media, acknowledging
him as a moderate, authoritative, renowned, and learned.
Additionally, the charge that Al-Qaradawi supported suicide bombings
against Israelis in Palestine turned into a debate about the
legitimacy of these operations, with many commentators concluding
that the Palestinians have been, after all, left with no other
option. Radio and TV programs, including phone-ins and chat shows,
ended up debating the issues of suicide bombings and the right to
free speech for hours and days.
What
is truly amazing is that neither Al-Qaradawi nor the MAB had
intended to raise this issue or turn it into a subject of debate.
All the Sheikh had come to Britain to do was to stress to British
Muslims the importance of integration and living as good law-abiding
citizens of the country of which they’ve chosen to become
nationals. The Zionist lobby insisted on imposing a different
agenda; they must now be biting their fingers for having done so.
Some Muslims, including individuals involved with the preparations
for some of the events Sheikh Al-Qaradawi was attending, had indeed
been intimidated by the media frenzy. They expressed the opinion
that British Muslims, even European Muslims in general, could not
afford a battle with the Zionist lobby, being no match for it. Some
even thought that certain concessions might throw water on the fire
and save the Sheikh and his guests any embarrassment. It took only a
day and a night to prove them wrong.
A battle imposed cannot but be fought. It was the Zionist lobby that
initiated the attack, and the MAB had to resist and fight back,
winning the battle with the support of freedom lovers across the
country, and leaving the Zionist lobby defeated and disgraced.
