Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Qatar TV on March 25, 2011.
To view the clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/0/0/0/0/0/0/2877.
Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: "In the past few weeks, we have witnessed four revolutions. Two of them lived up to expectations – the Tunisian revolution and the Egyptian revolution. We are still witnessing two revolutions, and we pray that Allah will fulfill our hopes and grant them success – the Libyan revolution and the Yemeni revolution. Today, the train of revolution has arrived at an inevitable station – the Syrian station.
"Syria cannot be left out of the history of the Arab nation. Some have said that Syria is safe from these revolutions. How can it possibly be safe from these revolutions? Is it not part of the nation? Is it not part of the law of Allah? Do Allah's laws for the world and its societies not apply to it? Syria is just like the other countries. In fact, it is even more in need of a revolution than other countries. [...]
"These people [the regime] did not care about the sanctity of the mosques. They killed people in a mosque. All these revolutions are peaceful. They carry no swords, guns, sticks, or stones. They carry nothing but the Koran. They say nothing but: 'There is no god but Allah' and 'Allah Akbar.' Despite this, the merciless [regime] turned its machine-guns, cannons, and rifles against them, killing some of them in public and others in their homes. The people dragged their dead to their homes, out of fear that the corpses would be mutilated. Consequentially, the true number of casualties is unknown.
"When is a revolution victorious? When the oppressors direct their bullets against the protesters. Know that if some people are killed, the revolution has already triumphed. [...]
"Now they are trying to play down the crime. They have said that President Bashar Al-Assad has given orders to dismiss the governor of Dar'a. Is this enough?! The president's advisor has said that the president has instructed to increase the wages, and that the Higher National Committee of the Arab Socialist Ba'th Party is considering the abolishment of the Emergency Law, and the legislation of a law allowing political parties, and so on... What is this committee?! Who appointed it to rule Syria? The Ba'th Party has come to an end throughout the Arab world. All these ancient parties are a thing of the past – the RCD in Tunisia, the NDP in Egypt... These parties are over and done with. The constitutional courts annulled them.
"How come the Higher National Committee of the Ba'th Pary still rules Syria? Who the hell is the Committee of the Arab Ba'th Party? Is Syria an estate that you inherited from your father or grandfather, so that you could steer the political activity and control the Emergency Law? These people are backward – they live in a different age than us. We live in an era of the Arab revolutions. [...]
"The problem of Dr. Bashar Al-Assad is that although he is intellectual, open-minded, and young, and could have done a lot, he is held prisoner by his entourage and [Alawite] sect. He cannot get rid of them. He sees with their eyes and hears with their ears." [...]
