On January 15, 2013, on behalf of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), Youssef Qaradawi criticized the military support given by France to the Malian army who is fighting numerous groups linked with al-Qaeda. On January 22, European media RTL reported that the leader of the main Malian Muslim organization, the High Islamic Council, denounced Qaradawi’s position.
On January 15, 2013, on behalf of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), Youssef Qaradawi criticized the military support given by France to the Malian army who is fighting numerous groups linked with al-Qaeda. Nova Scotia-based Jamal Badawi, a CAIR-CAN director and a leader of many more Muslim Brotherhood organizations in North America is also on the IUMS board of directors.
Qaradawi’s communiqué was translated by MEMRI and archived by GMBDR.
On January 22, European media RTL reported that the leader of the main Malian Muslim organization, the High Islamic Council, denounced Qaradawi’s position. The article does not refer to Qaradawi by name but identifies him by saying that he is “the most influential leader in the Muslim world” and that “(he) is based in Qatar.”
In 2010, Qaradawi’s disciple, Tariq Ramadan organized a meeting in Bamako with the above-mentioned Malian High Islamic Council. The event was covered in English by GMBDR.
RTL.be (January 22, 2013): Mali: The French intervention “is not an aggression against Islam” (Mali: l’intervention française “n’est pas une agression contre l’islam” – Archived on PdeB)
English translation by Point de Bascule
The intervention of the French army in support of the Malian army who is fighting against armed jihadist groups “is not an aggression against Islam”, stated the president of the Malian High Islamic Council (HCIM) on Tuesday. He was refuting statements “made by some Muslims countries”.
The HCIM, the main Islamic organization in a country whose population is 90% Muslim, “denounce vigorously the campaign of denigration coming from certain Muslim countries and some influential religious leaders in the Muslim world who consider the French intervention beside the Malian troops like an aggression against Islam”, stated Mahmoud Dicko during a press conference in Bamako. Asked to specify which Muslim countries he was talking about, Mr. Dicko answered: “I am thinking about countries like Qatar, because the most influential leader in the Muslim world denouncing the intervention is based in Qatar today.” Breaking with a quasi-unanimity that was prevailing in the international community until then, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi also opposed the intervention in Mali last Monday. “It is France that went helping a people in distress that had been abandoned to its own fate by all these Muslim countries,” stated Mahmoud Dicko. Since northern Mali became a haven for armed Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda in 2012, the HCIM tried to mediate between these groups and the government in Bamako without success. In the last few days, it urged jihadists to “put down their arms, to stop fighting” and to accept dialogue.
In 2009, the Malian High Islamic Council threatened to resort to violence in order to stop a reform of the Malian Family code that was favourable to women and children and that had been adopted by an overwhelming majority of parliamentarians. Point de Bascule covered the issue in the section Tariq Ramadan’s democracy of an article dedicated to Ramadan’s understanding of Islam.
