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Following are excerpts from an address delivered by Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, Chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 21, 2011.
Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The truth is that I do not want to say anything to Al-Qadhafi, because one should only address people who are reasonable. People who are not reasonable should not be addressed. That man is no longer reasonable. He has been crazy for a long time.
Among the signs of his madness, as we have seen, he wanted to be a philosopher, and come up with theories, like Marx and Mao Tsetung... He invented the Third Theory...
We have seen his peculiar behavior. He has become the laughing stock of every Arab summit. He's the joker. He travels all over the world in his colorful clothes, carrying his tent with him all over the globe, no matter the cost, in which he hosts his visitors.
This is on top of the kind of life he imposed on Libyan society, where there is no parliament, no Shura Council, no political parties, no institutions... He himself embodies the institutions. He is everything and nothing. He says: "I am not a president." So what are you?! He is everything.
If you are indeed [the father of] the people, where is your compassion for them? You claim to be a commander and a father, but does a father ever kill his children?! Does a commander ever kill his soldiers?! And in this manner!
We haven't seen anyone... Even Israel, when it attacked Gaza... These Jews were described as cruel: "Then your hearts were hardened, and became as rocks, or even harder." Even the Jews did not do such a thing.
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This man is not even worthy of me addressing him. I thought that his son had a grain of sense or belief in him. He is called Seif Al-Islam ["Sword of Islam"), but he is one of the swords of pre-Islamic ignorance. He wants to pit the tribes against one another. Praise be to Allah, the tribes have thrown them into the garbage bin.
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Therefore, I address the Libyan army, which is definitely endowed with faith, manliness, and honor. They must not attack their own people. Who would kill their own people?! Would you sacrifice an entire people for the sake of a madman?!
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It is forbidden to obey the order of a human being in defiance of the Creator. If the army is ordered to attack the people with airplanes, I say that they must not do so. Rather, they should attack whoever gave them that order.
I hereby issue a fatwa to the officers and soldiers who can kill Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: Whoever among them can fire a bullet at him, thus relieving the country and the people of him, should do so. This man wants to annihilate the people, so I am protecting the people.
I rule that whoever can fire a bullet, and relieve us, as well as Libya and its great people, of this man's evil and danger, should do so.
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