In his recent appearance on Al-Jazeera, global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi made a revealing criticism of the Jihadist movement in the midst of a discussion about the Caliphate and the the proper Islamic behavior when confronting oppressive rulers:
“The issue is not that if anyone becomes angry at a ruler he then should brandish his sword and revolt against him. No. It is true that Islam does not accept the culture of submissiveness and humiliation by the rulers, but it is also does not accept that if anyone becomes angry at another one he then should carry out an armed revolution, especially since this will lead to instability and pave the way for interference by others and foreigners in the country’s affairs.” Al-Qaradawi then gives examples of revolts against rulers from the Islamic history. Al-Qaradawi says: “In our age, we have seen the violence used by the Islamic groups which hold all modern rulers to be infidels and therefore they should be fought. To achieve their objectives, these groups resorted to violence and used weapons to shed blood and to confront these rulers, such as the Jihad Group in Egypt, Al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyah [Islamic Group], the Salafi Jihadist Movement, Al-Qa’idah, and the like. However, have they achieved what they wanted? They have not achieved anything. On the contrary, blood was shed, houses were destroyed, and funds were squandered. The result now was that the Al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyah has issued 12 books revising this violent past. It believes that it has made mistakes.”
It should be noted that Qaradawi’s objections to the Jihadist appear to be of a tactical nature rather than a criticism of their goals or methods. Qaradawi is arguably the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood who once turned out the offer to head the Egyptian organization. Although he considers himself to be moderate, he takes positions that can be characterized as fundamentalist, promotes anti-Semitism, and actively supports and finances Hamas terrorism and has, in the past, supported the “resistance” against the U.S. in Iraq.