Qaradawi Criticizes Christmas Celebrations In Qatar

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Gulf media is reporting that global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi has criticized public celebrations of Christmas in Qatar where he resides. According to one report:

Prominent Islamic scholar Shaykh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday criticized the public celebrations of Christmas in Qatar, saying that such celebrations would “undermine” the country’s Islamic identity.In his Friday sermon, Shaykh Qaradawi called the current practice of displaying Christmas trees and other Christmas-related decorations by local stores “un-Islamic”. “This is not the image of the Muslim capital city of Doha,” Shaykh Qaradawi told a congregation of faithful at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque at the Khalifa town. “I don’t know if we are in a Muslim or Christian community. It is unreasonable that such celebrations can take place in Qatar which lies in the Arab peninsula and whose native population is Muslim,” he said. Qaradawi, who is the head of International Union for Muslim Scholars, blamed the practice mainly on local stores which, he said, were owned by Muslim businessmen. The recent Id al-Adha festival of Muslims, he said, had not seen such exaggerated celebration in stores. “I wonder how owners of these stores, who belong to famous Muslim families, accept their stores participating in Christmas celebrations and putting up four or five-metre high Christmas trees,” he said. This would only undermine the Islamic image of the community. “Such appearances are prohibited by Islam and Muslims participating in them are ignorant of Islamic teachings in this regard,” he said. “According to the Holy Qur’an, Jesus Christ’s birth was not in the winter season,” he added. The scholar expressed his surprise that such public celebrations of Christmas could go on at a time when a European country banned the minarets of mosques and others were thinking of following suit. He was referring to the recent Swiss ban on new minarets in the country. “How could store owners accept to celebrate a religious occasion that has nothing to do with their religion,” he wondered. “This means that they are ignorant of how to deal with others. There was a poll in France that showed that 41 per cent of the surveyed had opposed more mosques and 46 per cent opposed more minarets,” he said, quoting the result of a recent survey published in a French newspaper.

As an earlier post discussed, Qaradawi and an organization of scholars which he leads had said “extremists and far-right racists” had exploited fears of Muslims resulting in the Swiss decision to ban new minaret construction and that the decision threatened interfaith dialogue.

The same media report also says that Qaradawi criticized the decision to award President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize:

The scholar also criticised US President Barack Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace prize days after ordering a surge in the number of American troops fighting in Afghanistan. “I don’t know for what achievement Obama has won the Peace Prize. Obama pulled some of his troops out of Iraq only to send them to Afghanistan. He even failed to force Israel to suspend the building of settlements in Palestine so that peace talks could be resumed,” he said. “How come that several countries of the world are still embroiled in war and conflict and Obama is getting the Peace Prize?”

Youssef Qaradawi is often referred to here as the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, an acknowledgement of his role as the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to lead the Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide. Based in Qatar, Sheikh Qaradawi has reportedly amassed substantial wealth through his role as Shari’ah adviser to many important Islamic banks and funds. He is also considered to be the “spiritual guide” for Hamas and his fatwas in support of suicide bombings against Israeli citizens were instrumental in the development of the phenomenon. Qaradawi has written that all Jews and all Muslims will fight each other in a final battle in which Muslims will emerge victorious. Qaradawi has also written that Israel plots against the Al-Aqsa mosque are harbingers of this coming conflict.

(Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political December 12, 2009 Saturday “Cleric Al-Qaradawi criticizes Christmas celebration in Qatar” Source: Gulf Times website, Doha, in English 12 Dec 09 tText of report in English by Qatari newspaper Gulf Times website on 12 December [Report by Anwar al-Shami: “Scholar Criticizes Public Celebrations of Christmas”])

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