Sarkozy Says Qaradawi Not Welcome in France
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that influential Qatar-based Sunni Muslim cleric Yousuf al-Qaradawi was not welcome in France.
Egyptian-born Qaradawi, 86, has been invited to visit next month by the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF).
"I told the emir of Qatar himself that this gentleman was not welcome in the territory of the French Republic," Sarkozy told France Info radio.
Qaradawi, who hosts a popular show on al-Jazeera satellite television, backed Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and has launched a fund-raising effort for the Syrian opposition.
He had been due to attend the UOIF congress at Le Bourget near Paris on April 6 alongside renowned Egyptian preacher Mahmoud al-Masri.
"I said that a certain number of people, who have been invited to this congress and who maintain or who would like to take positions that are incompatible with the republican ideal, would not be welcome," Sarkozy said.
Qaradawi, who has close ties with the leadership of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, left the country in the 1960s after being imprisoned by the regime of president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
He is accused of having made anti-Semitic and homophobic statements and was banned from entering Britain in 2008. He has been banned from entering the United States since 1999.
26 March 2012, 11:52
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There is no doubt that Youssuf Karadawi is a Muslim Fundamentalist who despises the West and everything has to do with Freedom, Democracy and Human Right. The West should blacklist him from entering any Western country. All he does is enrage Western Muslims against their Western hosts. He is Demagogue whose mouth is full of curses and insults to anything that is NON-Muslim. Shame on those Muslims who live in the West, yet they embrace a racist and a bigot like Karadawi. To those Muslims who live in the West, I advise them to Shut people like Karadawi or leave their host country. You cannot live and benefit from a country, yet curse it in the same time. If you do not like the Kuffars, then get the Hell out of the Western Countries, or you will be creating a future full of Discrimination for you and your children.
27 March 2012, 08:13
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As a matter of fact I do. The fact that you are inspired by Yousef Karadawi, shows it well in your writing. You curse well the same way your Karadawi does. What a bunch of Bigots. Why don't the bigots of Jihadies and Sharia brainwashed idiots go to some other planet other than Earth and live there, for the sake of saving Humanity from your primitive and Tribal beliefs.
