By Alexander Smoltczyk  |  Contributor Scott Allswang

He is a hypermarket of dogma, dispensing advice on subjects ranging from mother's milk to suicide bombing. But few have as much influence on Sunni Muslims as the Muslim televangelist Youssef al-Qaradawi. He says what the Muslim Brotherhood in Egpyt thinks -- and he provides clues to how they might act.   (emphasis mine)

This man is a word machine, a one-man talk show that leaves no subject unexamined. Youssef al-Qaradawi has to talk: about former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, about mothers' milk banks, and about the right of Palestinian women to blow themselves up.

He is a driven man. There are so many decisions to be made in this godforsaken modern age, and yet there is only one mufti, only one Islamic scholar like Qaradawi, who knew the Koran by heart by the time he was 10, only one man who can help the faithful understand the world.

Qaradawi is the father figure of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the country's best-organized opposition group. The Brotherhood is sure to play a part in deciding what path Egypt will now take.  (emphasis mine)

The Islamist group asked Qaradawi to be their leader in 2002, but he turned them down. Such a position would have been too limiting. He has a different mission. He feels compelled to talk.

The Al-Jazeera television network has been broadcasting Qaradawi's program "Shariah and Life" every Sunday for the past 15 years. Some 60 million Muslims watch him as he talks imploringly about the genocide in Gaza or the unique dangers of female masturbation ("the hymen is very sensitive and could tear").

Every Last One of Them

Qaradawi advocates establishing a "United Muslim Nations" as a contemporary form of the caliphate and the only alternative to the hegemony of the West. He hates Israel and would love to take up arms himself. In one of his sermons, he asked God "to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them."

In January 2009, he said: "Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler."  (emphasis mine)

Will this man encourage his brothers in Cairo to uphold the peace treaty with Israel, should the Muslim Brotherhood become part of a government now that Mubarak has resigned?

The 84-year-old is the president of the International Association of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa and Research. He has written more than 120 books and penned countless doctrines, which he distributes internationally via his website IslamOnline.net.

He is a blend of pope and service hotline, a spiritual "Dear Abby" for all instances of doubt in Muslim life.

Should a mothers' milk bank be established? Especially since the Koran forbids marriage between two people who were nursed by the same woman? "Yes," says Qaradawi, pointing out that the Koran's prohibition of incest applies only to the mother's breast, not its contents.

Hypermarket of Dogmas

He talks about everything, which makes him exhibit A for anyone seeking to demonize Islam. A justification for every stupidity can be found in Qaradawi's words, as long as one searches long enough. On the other hand, Muslims refer to the search for the appropriate dogma as "fatwa shopping." To them, Qaradawi is a hypermarket of dogmas.

During a visit to London, then Mayor Ken Livingstone asked the sheikh how he felt about the rights of homosexuals. "He told me that he was against attacks on homosexuals," Livingstone recalls. But the mufti isn't opposed to 100 lashes for gays and lesbians if that is the punishment imposed by a Sharia judge, at least according to statements he has made on his program.

It is the responsibility of any scholar to lead the faithful, and only the scholar can interpret the scriptures correctly. This is Qaradawi's mission.

He attended Al-Azhar University in Cairo, where he met Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Banna offered an Islamic alternative to the alleged ills of modern life: corruption and gambling, insolent women and provocative writings, alcohol and the neglect of the poorest members of society. In a word: godlessness. (emphasis mine)

Former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser imprisoned the sheikh three times because of his Islamist activities. In 1961, Qaradawi went into exile in Qatar, where he still lives today. With the protection of the Emir of Qatar, Qaradawi was able to build his fatwa empire, a realm of schools and various forms of media. "We too are modern," he said in a SPIEGEL interview, "and we too benefit from the great inventions of the West, from the revolution of the information age."

Equal Rights

The title of a study recently published about Qaradawi in Denmark refers to him as the first "global mufti." Qaradawi specialist Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen believes that the TV imam was behind the protests following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper -- unrest which led to the Danish embassy in Beirut being set on fire. The sheikh has been barred from entering the United States since 1999.  (emphasis mine)

The imam has also developed a reputation for himself as a moderate. Many see him as a symbol of an enlightened Islam. When speaking to the Western media, in particular, Qaradawi likes to point to Muslims' tolerance of non-Muslims and condemns the attacks of al-Qaida.  (emphasis mine) Personal comment: This is a classic example of Taqiyya, which is Sharia sanctioned deception.

He also speaks out against the systematic castigation of wives. He calls the practice unwise, saying: "Blows are not effective with every woman, but they are helpful with some." In other cases, the sheikh insists on equal rights. For example, he says, a woman does not have to ask her husband's permission to blow herself up in an Israeli café.

Compared with this guardian of the faith, Pope Benedict XVI is positively enlightened.

Otherwise, however, the two elderly men have a few things in common. Qaradawi and the pope were born within the same six months from each other, both in rural areas, one in Lower Egypt and the other in Upper Bavaria. Both feel that the Western world is godforsaken. Both have written enough to fill an entire theological library. And both are determined not to be what they are perceived to be: stern teachers. Qaradawi says that he merely wants to offer "alleviation" in a world of confusion. Benedict XVI says more or less the same thing.

Both Devout and Modern

But many feel that the TV imam is more dangerous than those like the Taliban who teach the Koran to the letter. Qaradawi does not demand anything impossible from his contemporaries. Instead, he stresses that his followers can be devout and modern at the same time.

Critics see Qaradawi's caution as nothing but a ruse. In the German blog "Die Achse des Guten" ("The Axis of Good"), Christoph Spielberger writes about the "Islamic principle of Taqiyya, or misrepresentation to achieve a higher goal." According to Islamic tradition, concealing one's faith is permissible, but only in the face of a massive threat.  (emphasis mine)

The TV imam's followers in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood share his intangibility. For some, they are the dyed-in-the-wool Islamists, while others see them as champions of democracy on the Nile.

"There is no question that true democracy must gain the upper hand," Mohammed Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, wrote recently. "The Brotherhood adheres to its roots in Islamic thought. It refuses to accept any attempt to impose any ideological line on the Egyptian people." (emphasis mine) Read my comments on this at the end of this article.

This sounds good. But as an underground organization, the Muslim Brothers had no opportunity to try out their religious principles on everyday political life, and on tolerance and the balance of interests. They experienced the meaning of human rights firsthand during the years of repression. It changed them.

"Caution is the watchword," writes Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, referring to the tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Ramadan, its leaders know that "now is not the time to expose itself."  (emphasis mine) 

Now everyone wants to know who the Muslim Brothers really are. The question is as pointless as asking whether Yusuf al-Qaradawi is moderate or not. He is both himself and the opposite of himself, depending on one's perspective -- and the circumstances.

But what is acceptable in quantum physics can be extremely dangerous in the business of politics.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

What did Mohammed Mursi (a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman), mean when he stated above, "There is no question that true democracy must gain the upper hand"?  I feel it is very important that we in the West understand that the Islamists meaning of democracy is not the same as ours!!  I shake my head when I see people in the West getting all excited because "democracy is breaking out all over the Middle East" Really?  It's not what you think, folks!  The vast majority of people in the West don't understand Islamic culture, society, and history.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't pretend for a minute to be an expert on these matters, but I'm learning and I do understand a few basic things. Also, I try to quote from experts who do know and understand these matters. Consider this quote taken from Slate.com in an article entitled, "One Imam, One Vote: What Do Islamists Mean When They Talk About Democracy."

"Nevertheless, recent books like Noah Feldman's After Jihad and Graham Fuller's The Future of Political Islam suggest that the Islamist movement may indeed be compatible with democracy. They find that while there are holdouts like Osama Bin Laden dead set against anything like democracy, there are many, perhaps even a majority of Islamists who favor free elections. Unfortunately, that's about as far as the Islamists go when it comes to democracy. Free elections are OK, since they see that they would do very well in polling places across the region. However, it's not at all clear that the Islamists have any interest in the broad array of liberties—like freedom of speech and equal rights—that most people, certainly most citizens of liberal democracies, associate with democracy.  (emphasis mine)

To be sure, there are a number of strange ideas about democracy in Islamist circles. For instance, Dr. Azzam al-Tamimi, a Palestinian-born, London-based academic who has written and spoken frequently about Islamism and democracy, explains here how non-Muslims would be "protected" in an Islamic Palestine. This is in line with Islam's traditional tolerance toward "people of the book," Jews and Christians. The problem, however, is that being a protected person is not the same as being equal to all other persons, and it's not clear how Tamimi understands that distinction. Tamimi, who like virtually every Islamist calls for the destruction of Israel, describes himself as a friend and supporter of the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, which he describes as democratic, because "[t]he executive bodies are all chosen democratically." Hamas is many things to many people, but it's no more democratic than the Catholic Church is when the college of cardinals elects a new pope, or the Cosa Nostra was when the families formed a commission to adjudicate disputes. In other words, when Islamists talk about democracy, they most likely do not mean what the citizens of liberal democracies mean." (emphasis mine)

To be continued.