... ... But in a setback for the effort to portray the campaign as a partnership with Muslim-majority states rather than a Western intervention, an influential Muslim scholar on Sunday declared his opposition to the American action even though he said he was also against ISIS. “I disagree completely with ISIS in thought and means, but I do not accept that America fights them,” said the scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, leader of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, in a Twitter message reported around the region. The United States, he said, “is not moved by Islamic values but by its own interests, even if it spills blood.” Sheikh Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born cleric based in Doha, Qatar, who is a popular television preacher and close to the Muslim Brotherhood, has been a vocal opponent of ISIS for months. In July, his scholars’ union declared ISIS’ self-proclaimed caliphate “null and void,” arguing that its extremism stigmatized more mainstream Islamists and undermined broader Sunni opposition movements in Syria and Iraq. Now his criticism of the American role may increase the fears of a backlash against Arab governments that publicly join the campaign.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 16:31:45 +0000
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