Following are excerpts
from a Friday sermon delivered by Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, chairman
of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Qatar
TV on March 25, 2011:
Sheik 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.
[...]
