Various Islamic media are reporting that a two-day conference is planned for tomorrow in Istanbul titled the “World People’s Congress In Support of Palestine.” According to one report, the conference is supported by 13 Arab and Islamic foundations as well as a large number of scientists, opinion makers, and prominent public figures in the Islamic Arab and Muslim worlds. The report identifies the aim of the conference as the creation of mechanisms to prosecute Israelis, reconstruct Gaza and break the “siege”, and to fight the attempt to “Judiaze” Jerusalem. Identified sponsors of the conference include the International Union of Muslim Scholars, headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, the Turkish Association of Solidarity with Palestine (Vidar Turkey), and the Federation of Arab doctors, possibly a group linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Various other reports refer to figures expected to attend who are tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood including Youssef Qaradawi, Essam al-Bashir from the Sudan, and , Salman al-Awdah, a Saudi sheikh until recently known to be a sympathizer of Osama Bin Laden. Also featured prominently at the conference will be Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, considered to be the most extreme wing of the movement that essentially comprises the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel. In a recent report carried on Islam Onlne, Salah said that Israel has a ‘diabolical plan” to cause the Al–Aqsa Mosque to collapse “in a way that would appear as is happening as a result of natural causes, such an earthquake.”
As discussed in an earlier post, a similar conference was held last February in Istanbul where religious scholars and clerics met with senior Hamas officials to plan a “third Jihadist front” centred on Gaza. At least four global Muslim Brotherhood leaders signed a statement resulting from a weekend meeting including Daud Abdullah, Deputy Secretary General Muslim Council of Britain, who faced calls for his resignation as a result.