After a relative long period of seeming quiet, Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi has emerged with an interesting twist on his rulings concerning suicide bombings.. According to a MEMRI translation, Qaradawi has ruled that contrary to his earlier rulings on the subject, suicide attacks against Israel are no longer permissible since “Palestinians have missiles capable of striking deep inside Israeli territory”:
July 28, 2015 Special Dispatch No.6116 Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: Permission Previously Given To Palestinians To Carry Out Suicide Attacks – No Longer Valid; They Now Have Missiles That Can Strike Deep Inside Israel On July 27, 2015, the office of International Union of Muslim Scholars head Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi posted on his website an announcement clarifying the sheikh’s position on suicide attacks, in response to the airing by Egyptian television channels of a 2013 video of statements by him that can be interpreted as a call to carry out suicide attacks in Egypt. The announcement cited passages from Al-Qaradhawi’s 2009 book Fiqh Al-Jihad (‘The Laws of Jihad’), in which he ruled that suicide attacks are prohibited by Islamic law, but were permitted at this time in Palestine because of its unique circumstances. However, it stated, now that the Palestinians have missiles capable of striking deep inside Israeli territory, this permission is no longer valid. This ruling by Al-Qaradhawi banning suicide attacks in Palestine marked a reversal in his position on the matter, as he had previously referred to suicide attacks as ‘the most sublime jihad.’ He had also attacked other clerics with different views on the matter, such as Saudi Mufti ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz bin ‘Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh who held that such acts were prohibited since they were suicide, which is banned in Islam.[1]
Banner of Al-Qaradhawi’s website. Below are translated excerpts from the announcement:[2] ‘A clarification on the great scholar Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi’s position regarding martyrdom operations: ‘The media channels supporting the [Al-Sisi] military coup [in Egypt]have published an edited video of the great scholar Al-Qaradhawi regarding martyrdom operations, in an attempt to mislead [the viewers]into thinking that he was speaking in it about Egypt – which is undoubtedly a lie and falsehood.[3] This video was produced on March 21, 2013, before the [July 2013[ coup, and anyone following the declarations and announcements of His Excellency the Sheikh will find that he vehemently stresses the matter of a coup that is nonviolent and congratulates the noble rebels for adhering to this despite the murder, torture, violations [of rights], arrests, expulsions, and horrific acts of aggression [by the Egyptian authorities]that they face.”
Read the rest here.
Youssef Qaradawi is the most important leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and is the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. He is also considered to be the “spiritual guide” for Hamas and his fatwas in support of suicide bombings against Israeli citizens were utilized by Hamas to justify their operations.
For more on Qaradawi, go here.