The following are excerpts from Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi's Friday
December 2, 2005, which aired the same date on Qatar TV. Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi
is head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, president of the
International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), and the spiritual guide
of many other Islamist organizations across the world (including the Muslim
Brotherhood). In this sermon, hediscusses the Jews at the time of Muhammad,
as well as the situation in Iraq, calling for Iraq to be protected from the
"American Satan."
Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: "These polytheist pagan invaders were joined by the
Jews - the Jews of the Banu Qurayza tribe, who remained in Al-Madina, and
who did to the Prophet Muhammad things that require punishment, by forging
an alliance with the Banu Nazir tribe against the Prophet. But the Prophet
forgave them and allowed them to remain in Al-Madina. Nevertheless, their
nature got the better of them, and they violated the treaty and the covenant
of protection between them and the Prophet.

[...]

"How great is the similarity between past and present, brothers. We Muslims
are besieged by many forces that want to uproot the Muslims under various
pretexts - the pretext of terrorism, the pretext of fundamentalism, this
pretext or that pretext. The goal is to fight this nation. They want to
eradicate the nation of Islam.

[...]

"We are now under a siege that resembles the Siege of the Trench, the Siege
of Akhzab.

"But we will be victorious, Allah willing - despite the traps set by Judaism
and the Crusaders, and despite the deeds of those who set traps and who
deceive.

[...]

"The Prophet besieged them for 25 days until they surrendered and agreed to
accept his reign. The Prophet called upon them to choose a judge, and they
chose Sa'd bin Mu'az, who had been their ally in the Jahiliyya [the
pre-Islamic era].

[...]

"He decided that the only treatment they merited was to have their fighters
killed, their women taken captive, and their property seized as booty.

[...]

"Some Orientalists claim that Muhammad was cruel to the Jews, but this is
how determination should be. One must be firm when firmness is warranted,
and gentle when gentleness is warranted.

[...]

"I place the responsibility on the Shi'ite brothers more than on the Sunnis,
because they are the ones who control the army, the police, the security
forces, the regime, and the ministries. They have things the Sunnis don't
have. They must not exploit this to kill their [Sunni] brothers, as they do.
We want the great Shi'ite clerics, the ayatollahs, the Shi'ite sources of
authority, the great authority Ayatollah Ali Sistani... We want the sheikhs
of the Houza to issue fatwas forbidding the killing of Muslims by Muslims,
fatwas forbidding the killing of Sunnis. The Sunnis issued such fatwas, but
we haven't seen the Shi'ite brothers, their clerics, or their ayatollahs
issuing similar fatwas. We want them to issue unequivocal fatwas forbidding
Muslims from fighting Muslims and killing them on the basis of their
identity.

[...]

"Soon, on December 15, parliamentary elections will be held. The new
parliament members will be elected. In the past, the Sunnis boycotted the
elections because they bore the burden of resisting the occupation, and
their circumstances prevented them from [participating]. There was no
security, and there were many things that prevented them from doing so. Now
I call upon the Sunnis to participate en masse in the next elections, to
present their candidacy, and to vote. Some clerics issued fatwas saying that
elections under the American occupation are forbidden. I say: No! Necessity
makes them permissible, especially in light of the fact that the occupation
does not appear to be intervening in these elections. If these are free and
fair elections, we should participate in them, instead of watching from the
sidelines. Then the pie will be divided between those who participated in
the elections, and we will continue to fight, and a civil war will break
out, and blood will be spilled. For what? I say to my Sunni brothers in
Iraq: Participate in these elections en masse.

[...]

"In the previous elections, they promised to amend the constitution after
the coming elections. There are many things in the constitution opposed by
the Sunnis, such as expanding the federations, the distribution of
resources, and so on. This is your chance to say your piece and to amend
this constitution. I call upon my brothers to join the political battle. We
should not ignore the political aspect. I call upon my brothers, members of
the Association of [Sunni] Muslim Clerics, headed by Sheikh Hareth al-Dhari
and his brothers... I call upon them not to be extremist in this matter, to
look at all sides of the issue, and to try to take advantage of this
opportunity, so that others [the Shi'ites] won't later say: We gave them an
opportunity, but they refused to take it. No. We don't want them to say
that. We want to take advantage of this opportunity, and we insist upon
realizing our right and not missing this opportunity.

"I pray for Allah to open our brothers' eyes, to make the present in Iraq
better than the past, and the future better than the present. I pray for
Allah to protect Iraq from overt and covert civil strife, to protect it from
the evils of divisiveness and racism, and to protect it from the whispers of
all satans, the human satans, the satans among the djinn, the American
satans, and other satans."



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