Free Republic

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni cleric who is banned from the United States and Britain for supporting violence against Israel and American forces in Iraq, delivered his first public sermon here in 50 years on Friday, emerging as a powerful voice in the struggle to shape what kind of Egyptian state emerges from the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. [....] Sheik Qaradawi, a popular television cleric whose program reaches an audience of tens of millions worldwide, addressed a rapt audience of more than a million Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square to celebrate the uprising and honor those who died....

Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so. Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag. Qaradawi gave a Friday sermon in the square, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered a...

For the first time since he was banned from leading weekly friday prayers in Egypt 30 years ago, prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi will lead thousands in the weekly prayers from Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday. Sources told Al Arabiya that a military force will accompany the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars from his home to Tahrir Square, provide security for the prayers and accompany him back to his residence. Al-Qaradawi last delivered a Friday prayer sermon in Egypt in 1981 after the assassination of former President Anwar el-Sadat.

The Islamic organization poised to build the largest mosque in the Northeast on a site in Roxbury has long-standing ties to an Egyptian cleric who praises suicide bombings and a Muslim activist indicted last week in a terrorism financing probe. The Islamic Society of Boston, which has city approval to build a sprawling $22 million Islamic cultural center and mosque on Malcolm X Boulevard, has had a long association with Dr. Yusuf Abdullah al-Qaradawi, whose vocal support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas prompted the State Department to bar him from entering the U.S. four years ago. The local religious...

(CNSNews.com) - London Mayor Ken Livingstone's previous support of a Muslim cleric who advocates suicide bombings may cause him some embarrasment as he now must speak for the city in the wake of Thursday's terrorist bombings.Livingstone condemned the Thursday attacks as "mass murder," and added that "this was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners."Yet Livingstone has in the past labeled Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi a "man of peace" and a "moderate" despite the fact that Al-Qaradawi has supported suicide bombings and...

Interesting.... This muslim Cleric visited london EXACTLY one year ago from the date of the attacks, July 7, 2004 CNSNews.com) - London Mayor Ken Livingstone's previous support of a Muslim cleric who advocates suicide bombings may cause him some embarrassment as he now must speak for the city in the wake of Thursday's terrorist bombings. Livingstone condemned the Thursday attacks as "mass murder," and added that "this was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners." Yet Livingstone has in the past...

Controversial cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was set to address worshippers at a London mosque but was expected to shy away from using it as a platform to voice his extremist views. Dr al-Qaradawi, whose week-long visit to the country has attracted widespread criticism, was speaking at the Central London Mosque but is expected to preach mainstream Muslim views. The Egyptian-born cleric will tell worshippers "that preserving Islamic identity does not contradict with being law-abiding citizens", a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain said. The Crown Prosecution Service is considering a file against Dr al-Qaradawi for his inflammatory comments after he...

LONDON (Reuters) - A leading Muslim theologian who condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and the Bali bombing but condones some suicide bombings will have his speeches monitored while in Britain, Home Secretary David Blunkett said on Wednesday. Blunkett, under mounting pressure to expel outspoken Egyptian-born cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, said his comments while on a speaking tour of Britain would be scrutinized for any indications of preaching race hate or intolerance. "We will certainly monitor what he has got to say and what he has got to do," Blunkett told BBC radio on the same day he said he planned to...

A disparate mix of Egyptians packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square for Friday’s prayer service-cum-political rally: young and old, secular and devout, Muslims and Christians. At least a million people filled the now-emblematic square, but the event was most remarkable for the presence of one man – Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, arguably the most influential Sunni Muslim cleric in the world, making his first public appearance in Egypt in 50 years. [....] As often in the past, Qaradawi spoke of democracy and pluralism. He urged the army officers temporarily ruling Egypt to deliver on their promises of handing power to a civil...

You can also peruse Tahrir Square in Cairo, where as many as a million Egyptians turned out for the triumphant — dare we say Khomeini-esque — return to the homeland of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi. He is the sharia compass of the Muslim Brotherhood and, for that matter, millions of Muslims the world over. As John Rosenthal has been reporting...the anti-Mubarak protesters whom the mainstream media and the Obama administration paint as the vanguard of “democracy,” continue to display visceral contempt for Israel and Jews. Rosenthal observes, “the numerous portraits of Mubarak with a Star of David scrawled on his face...

Today in Cairo's Al-Tahrir Square, prominent Sunni cleric and International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) head Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi led Friday prayers. Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi has not been allowed to lead Friday prayers in Egypt for the past 31 years;[1] he last delivered a Friday prayer sermon in Egypt in 1981 following the assassination of President Anwar Al-Sadat.[2] The following is a report on the sermon, compiled by MEMRI; following that are links to MEMRI's extensive research on Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi. Al-Qaradhawi: Revolution Against "Tyrannical Pharaoh" Belongs To All Egyptians During a massive gathering at Cairo's Tahrir Square, where crowds were...