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Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Sunni scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Qatar TV on June 5, 2009.
Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The man [Obama] tried to quote from the Koran, as well as from the Torah and the New Testament. He drew a parallel between the Koran and the Torah in their call for peace. He quoted the Talmud and the Torah as saying that the Torah calls for peace. Never have I seen a single verse, paragraph, or sentence in the Torah which calls for peace. Everything in the Torah constitutes a call for war. They even call God "Lord of Hosts" – they don't call Him "Lord of the Universe" or "the Compassionate, the Merciful."
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[The Torah contains] the notion of annihilation. We saw it when the Europeans went to America – they tried to annihilate the Indians. When they went to Australia, they tried to annihilate the aboriginal people. Indeed, they annihilated them. This is a biblical notion – annihilate them totally, do not leave a living soul among them. How could Obama draw a parallel between the Koran and the Torah?
In any case, we must not be too optimistic about his speech, but perhaps it is a step [forward]. Perhaps the man will change American policy, even if partially and in stages. Unfortunately, however, we have seen him pulling the soldiers out from Iraq, only to send them to Afghanistan. He replaces one war with another – both against the Muslims.
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