The interview with Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Al Jazeera television was chilling.
“If Al Jamaa [the Muslim Brotherhood] saw that there is a need for someone to blow himself up to kill others and it is something required,” Qaradawi said, “Al Jamaa will show him how to do it”, like reported by jpost.com
Qaradawi is among 59 individuals listed as terrorists by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. He joins a rogue’s gallery of terrorists who have appeared uncritically on Al Jazeera, including Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al Jazeera, launched and funded by the Qatari government in 1996, has proved itself a useful platform for disseminating radical Islamist views.
Al Jazeera is a tool for the larger Qatari effort to support terrorism and harbor terrorists and their financiers. That’s why Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE recently cut ties with Qatar and imposed sanctions on it. They have had enough.
The nations that are penalizing Qatar have tried to persuade the regime to stop its destructive policies. Unfortunately, these attempts have failed. They include the 2013 Riyadh Declaration between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which demanded Qatar stop funding radical groups, including giving them an open pass to appear on Al Jazeera.
But Qatar flouted the agreement. Qatar continued to destabilize neighboring countries by providing cash and logistical support to radical Shi’ite militias in Bahrain. The Bahraini newspaper Al Watan recently uncovered Qatari support for a radical television station that targets Bahrain managed by Saeed al-Shehabi, who is involved in various terrorist cases including attacks on policemen in Bahrain.
The Qatari regime also supports Hamas, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and al-Qaida’s offshoot the Al Nusra Front along with other radical militant groups in Syria. It even hosts the Taliban’s first overseas office.
Speaking recently at an event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) said: “The Qataris’ behavior has got to change. We cannot have Qataris funding Salafist organizations that are committing crimes that take American lives.”
August Hanning, the former head of the German intelligence service, wrote an article in Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper about Qatar’s role in supporting radical Islamist mosques and centers in Europe, especially those known for their radical imams. These mosques have influenced several European Muslims to fight with ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Some returned to Europe to carry out terrorist attacks.
The bomber in the Manchester attack, Salman Abedi, regularly attended the Didsbury Mosque, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The imam of that mosque, Mustafa Abdullah Graf, is associated with a group headed by Qaradawi, from the Al Jazeera interview mentioned above, according to a report in The Conservative Review.
Despite increased rhetoric, funding and military action by its Gulf neighbors and most of the world’s powers, Qatar continues to misread the seriousness of the war on terrorism. The world has reached critical levels of chaos and terrorism that are spreading beyond the Middle East. The US has made fighting terrorism a top priority. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE have joined the US’s call to eliminate terrorism by taking all necessary measures.
In reaction, the Qatari regime is playing the victim and refusing to accept the seriousness of the evidence against it. Instead, it is trying to manipulate the story and calling the boycott against it a blockade. This is untrue. The country’s airport and ports are open for business, but Qatari-owned airplanes and ships cannot cross the sovereign borders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE.
Qatar has become an incubator for radicals and terrorist groups. Any delay in confronting the regime will only give it more time and space to engage in terrorist activities.
