The British Muslim Initiative (BMI), a new U.K Muslim Brotherhood organization, has harshly attacked British Conservative leader David Cameron’s call for a ban to prevent global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi from entering the U.K. for medical treatment. The BMI statement reveals the full range of Muslim Brotherhood sophistry and distortions employed against its critics. For example, the statement attempts to refute Mr. Cameron’s statement that Qaradawi preaches hatred and sows division by alleging that he was the victim of a “mis-briefing” by one of his aides:
No doubt Mr Cameron’s ignorant statements on Dr. Qaradawi are the result of mis-briefing by his neo-Conservative aides – foremost among them being Michael Gove. What is curious is that Gove has been active in “preaching hatred and sowing division” himself. A right-wing think tank of which he is a Patron, Policy Exchange, has been at the forefront of efforts to promote the familiar neo-con agenda of stigmatising Muslims and was only recently exposed as fabricating evidence in order to smear the Muslim community and its places of worship.
Aside from the attempt to associate Mr. Cameron with “neo-cons”, a previous post has already discussed the attempt by BMI to discredit the report of the Policy Exchange.
The BMI statement goes on to attack the association of Qaradawi with terrorism by asserting that Qaradawi is a “prominent and staunch critic of terrorism” and cites his statements condemning Al Qaeda:
Mr. Cameron’s comments on Qaradawi show a similar disregard for evidence. If he cared to look more closely at Dr. Qaradawi’s own writings and track record, he would see that Qaradawi has been a prominent and staunch critic of terrorism, condemning it as a “heinous crime” and an act of “total barbarism”. He condemned the attacks of September 11 2001 as “a grave sin” and was a leading member of the panel of prominent Muslim scholars which issued a fatwa deploring the attacks and stating that it was the duty of all Muslims to attempt to bring the terrorists to justice.
In fact, while Qaradawi and the rest of the global Muslim Brotherhood are critical of Al Qaeda, he is known also for his support of suicide bombings in Israel and for attacks on Coalition forces in Iraq.
The BMI statement also refers to Mr. Cameron’s characterization of Qaradawi as an anti-Semite by talking about Qaradawi’s view that Muslims had a “special relationship” with Jews in the past while they were being persecuted in the West:
Cameron’s efforts to portray Dr Qaradawi as an anti-semite are disproved by Dr. Qaradawi’s constant emphasis on the special relations Muslims have had with Jews down the centuries, notably when the west persecuted and expelled them. Indeed, his work to promote understanding between Islam and other faiths has led him to share platforms and meet with such prominent figures as former-US President Bill Clinton, the French Foreign Minister, the Italian Foreign Minister and the Spanish royal family.
In reality, Qaradawi has made statements which appear to question the Holocaust, chaired a theological body that used the notorious anti-Semitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its deliberations, and has sponsored the extremist cult known as the Natura Kartei, a group of “anti-Zionist” Jewish rabbis.
The BMI statement closes by citing the remarks of BMI President Mohammad Sawalha which claim that Qaradawi “has absolutely no involvement in violence”:
It is astounding that Mr. Cameron is so perturbed by Dr. Qaradawi who has absolutely no involvement in violence entering the UK while apparently finding no difficulty in staunchly supporting the Israeli government’s policy of systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.
The statement but fails to disclose that Mr. Sawalha is a former Hamas military commander or that Qaradawi helps to raise millions of dollars for Hamas through his worldwide coalition of charities known as the Union of Good.