Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars and a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Sunday that the confrontation with Israel on the Temple Mount should be defined as a religious campaign.
“It must be clearly stated that this is an Islamic campaign, since Al-Quds is not only a Palestinian issue or an Arab one. Al-Quds is the interest of the Islamic nation from the west to the east,” Qaradawi wrote on Twitter.
Qaradawi is considered the supreme religious authority of the Sunni Muslim world and the spiritual leader of both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. During the period of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Qaradawi issued a fatwa permitting suicide attacks against Israel.
On the religious level, Qaradawi advocates for a gradual Islamic revolution until the Islamic rule and the rule of the caliphate are fully implemented. He predicted that Islamic immigration to Europe would eventually lead to the Islamization of the continent.
Qaradawi is among one of several individuals and institutions that were recently blacklisted by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The Palestine Religious Scholars Association later condemned Arab states for including Qaradawi on the blacklist, claiming he is a moderate who acts against heresy, extremism and terrorism.