Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian actor Hassan, Youssef, a personal friend of Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Dream 2 TV on September 28, 2013:
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
Hassan Youssef: "The Al-Qaradhawi I know is dead. Israel is capable of anything. That's a double, it's not him."Interviewer: "I like it when you use cinema talk... A double is someone who takes a beating instead of the real hero..."
Hassan Youssef: "I am angry at him – if it is really him. But I am very angry that he is being cursed on all the TV channels. One gets angry when his friend is cursed." [...]
"Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi is very moderate, and is not an extremist. That is why I cannot believe my ears."
Interviewer: "He shocked you. When you say that the Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi you know is dead, and you even suspect that Israel has planted a chip in his brain – which is a metaphoric way of saying that it has taken control over his mind..."
Hassan Youssef: "It's not a metaphor. Let me give you an example. King Faisal's nephew, who assassinated him... King Faisal was a great monarch, who stood by Egypt in the 1973 war, and was one of the principal reasons for Israel's defeat. He said [to the West]: 'We are used to desert life. We have no problem living in tents, drinking goat milk, and eating dates. We don't want anything from you. Don't want anything from you. Don't take our oil. Goodbye.'"
"How can someone kill his own uncle? He met a Jewish woman abroad and fell in love with her. She took him to Israel, where they operated on him and planted a chip in his brain, and they remote-controlled him, until he killed his uncle."
Interviewer: "I'm afraid many people have got chips in their brains recently..." [...]
"[From Al-Qaradhawi's statements], it seems that the story about the Israeli chip is true..."
Hassan Youssef: "That was not Dr. Al-Qaradhawi. What we just heard could not have been said by the Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi I knew. The voice was superimposed over the video of Dr. Al-Qaradhawi. Even his features have changed, compared to what I saw when I prayed with him in Doha. He's changed. These are not the features of Dr. Al-Qaradhawi."
Interviewer: "But it is him who said those things, and you are saying, as a metaphor, that this is not the real Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi."
Hassan Youssef: "I cannot believe that Dr. Al-Qaradhawi would tell lies." [...]
"To this day, I respect, honor, and admire the Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi I used to know, and I kiss his hands and his feet."
Interviewer: "But when you see the Al-Qaradhawi of recent days – you say he is dead."
Hassan Youssef: "I wash my hands of him. I don't know that man. Al-Qaradhawi is dead. The voice was superimposed."
Interviewer: "No, that's his real voice..."
Hassan Youssef: "Is it conceivable that Al-Qaradhawi would lie?!" [...]
Interviewer: "So what happened to him?"
Hassan Youssef: "It's a double. Or a chip. There can be no other explanation. But I advise his sons, who I know very well, to have him declared legally incompetent, if this is due to a disease." [...]
"Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi is being cursed and humiliated from sunrise to sunset on all [Arab] TV stations, with the exception of Al-Jazeera, of course. [His sons] should not let this go on."
Interviewer: "So you say that if this is due to disease, they should have him declared incompetent."
Hassan Youssef: "Yes, they should prevent him from coming out and saying such things." [...]
