In a July 21, 2010 article on the liberal website Elaph, Ahmad Rasoul, a Kurdish political analyst who resides in Germany, condemned recent statements by Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), in support of Turkey's war on Kurdish terror. Rasoul said that Al-Qaradhawi's statements, made at an IUMS conference in Istanbul, granted the regimes of Turkey, Iran, and Syria a religious license to persecute the Kurds, who Rasoul said are only fighting for freedom and equality.[1] He added that the "new Ottomans" (i.e., the Turks) were using the slogans of "saving Jerusalem" and "breaking the siege on Gaza" to invade the Arab and Muslim world and spread their culture in it.
The following are excerpts:[2]
Al-Qaradhawi Has Violated the Shari'a
"Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi chose Istanbul as the place from which to come out against the oppressed Kurdish people and draw closer to the Turkish regime. At the IUMS conference [in Istanbul], he expressed his support for the new Ottomans, who are invading the Arab and Muslim world in the guise of 'saving Jerusalem' and of 'breaking the siege on Gaza' by means of the freedom flotilla, which has become a myth meant to justify [the Turkish] economic, political, and Islamist invasion, and [their campaign] to spread Turkish culture throughout the [Muslim and Arab] worlds.
"The fatwa that Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi presented on behalf of the IUMS in Turkish Istanbul, in the presence of Kurdish [IUMS member] Sheikh 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi, which referred to the Kurdish people's struggle for its legal and national rights as 'terrorism,' comes to harm the Kurdish liberation movement and [also] to support Turkey's persecution of other national and religious groups. This fatwa provides a religious cover for the depraved acts and operations of Erdogan's government against the Kurds.
"By taking this position, Al-Qaradhawi has turned a blind eye to the oppression and dispossession of a people that strives [only] for peace, equality, and recognition of its national and legal rights. [Moreover, he has] violated the Islamic shari'a, which stipulates that mediation between people must be done justly and piously. Al-Qaradhawi presented the Kurdish struggle as heresy, and accused [the Kurds] of terrorism, [thereby] supporting Erdogan in his struggle against the oppressed Kurds, who are [merely] defending themselves, their land, and their national identity.
"The Kurdish Muslim sheikh 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi sat beside Al-Qaradhawi and listened to [him presenting] this fatwa – which discriminates against the Kurds, violates their honor, and [disdains] their sacrifices – and refrained from giving a courageous and logical answer... His tongue [cleaved to the roof of his mouth], restrained by Al-Qaradhawi's poisoned shackles, and he refused to defend his oppressed people against the oppressing Muslims or to walk out of the conference [in protest] in order to defend the honor and moral [principles] of the Kurds and out of compassion for the Kurds who have fallen [in the struggle]."
"The Politicized Islam of Tehran and Turkey Is a Colonialist, Imperialist, and Oppressive [Brand of] Islam"
"Uttering lies is a depravity forbidden by the faith, which is offensive to Islam and the Muslims, and therefore it is a national, religious, and jurisprudential duty to respond to Al-Qaradhawi's fatwa. Even Sheikh 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi knows that the politicized Islam of Tehran and Turkey is a colonialist, imperialist, and oppressive [brand of] Islam, whereas the Kurdish political thinking is one of liberation, democracy, and peace – and is as far away from terrorism as can possibly be...
"I say to Kurdish sheikh 'Ali Al-Qaradaghi: Had the Kurds adhered to their land as they adhere to their religions, they would have never reached this tragic and painful situation. We must advance the cause of [an independent] Kurdistan to the same extent that we adhere to our religion, whether we are Sunni, 'Alawi, Shi'ite, Naqshabandi, Yazidi, Christian, or Jewish. Throughout history, the Kurds have had a distorted perception of nationality, namely, 'it is inconceivable that I should agree with a non-Muslim and disagree with my Muslim brothers, or act with the infidels against the Muslims.' What the Kurds fail to grasp is that these extremist Muslims, who are fanatically [loyal] to their [own Muslim] nation and racist [in their attitude] towards all other nations – they are the true infidels: they are the ones who persecuted and humiliated the Kurds, and killed the Kurdish people to the point of extermination, and they were one of the factors that led to the partition of its land, Kurdistan.
"The martyred teacher Dr. Muhammad Ma'shouq Al-Haznawi[3] said to the Kurdish people: 'Many of your Muslim brothers who are oppressing you today are hoping to see you abandon your faith and become apostates, so that they can speak to their compatriots in Arabic, Turkish, or Persian and say to them: Look at these [people]! You used to [scold us for] oppressing them, but they are [nothing but] apostates who have left the fold of Islam... [Using this argument, the Muslims] can once again goad their peoples to persecute this wretched Kurdish nation in the name of Islam, Allah and the [true] faith and belief. Beware, oh Kurds, lest you fulfill the goals of your oppressors and enemies...'
"It seems that the martyred teacher Dr. Ma'shouq Al-Haznawi anticipated the plans and plots of the [Iranian] Mullah regime and of Erdogan's Islamist and racist government against the Kurdish people...
"I condemn the position of Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, and his silence in the face of the cruel crimes that the regimes of Ankara, Damascus and Tehran perpetrate against the oppressed Kurdish people."
[1] At the conference, which took place in late June 2010, Al-Qaradhawi called to condemn the terrorist deeds of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
[2] www.elaph.com, July 21, 2010.
[3] A Kurdish Syrian cleric who fought for Kurdish rights, and died in 2005 in unclear circumstances. Some Kurds accuse the Syrian regime of responsibility for his death.
