A CONTROVERSIAL Muslim Brotherhood-linked cleric who is banned in the
US and Britain has cancelled plans to attend a conference of Islamic
scholars in Ireland next week due to ill-health.
Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born religious scholar who is based in Qatar
and is considered a spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, was due
to attend the annual meeting of the European Council for Fatwa and
Research.
The event, which rotates between countries, takes place in
Dublin this year.
Mr Qaradawi, who presents a popular TV programme
on al-Jazeera’s Arabic language channel, has prompted controversy in
the US and Europe for his pronouncements, including the sanctioning of
Palestinian suicide bombing.
The octogenarian cleric returned to
Egypt in February after decades in exile, and led tens of thousands in
prayer in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
In the late 1990s, Mr Qaradawi
established the council – a group of scholars that issues religious
opinions, or fatwas, on practical matters specific to Muslims in Europe.
The council is headquartered at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland
in Clonskeagh, Dublin, and the imam there, Egyptian-born Hussein Halawa,
is the council’s secretary.
“With the [cultural centre] hosting
the secretariat of this leading body of Islamic jurisprudence, Ireland
has become the centre of one of the most influential ideological and
intellectual trends of the contemporary Muslim world,” Dr Oliver
Scharbrodt, who is leading a research project on Islam in Ireland at
University College Cork, wrote in a recent volume on the country’s new
religious movements.
The role of the centre as headquarters of the
council has drawn the attention of the US embassy in Dublin. In a 2006
diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, then ambassador James Kenny
concluded the council was “little more than a paper tiger”.
Mr
Qaradawi has visited Ireland several times due to his links with the
council. Its last annual meeting to be held in Dublin took place more
than five years ago.
More than 30 religious scholars from Europe,
the Middle East and Africa will attend next week’s conference at the
Clonskeagh centre.
The theme of the five-day event is “The Islamic
Attitude towards Other Religions”.
Delegates will discuss the question
of dialogue with non-Muslims on a range of issues.
Those present will
include former government ministers from Sudan and Mauritania.
The head
of Mauritania’s constitutional court is also expected to attend.