Qatar-based Egyptian Muslim scholar Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi denied inciting murder on his Facebook page, after international police agency Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest requested by Egypt.
“I did not kill, and I never incited to murder so that Interpol would put me on the wanted list,” Al-Qaradawi said according to Ahram Online.
Qaradawi is the chief of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, a union of Muslim academics from across the world.
Interpol said the charges as listed by Egypt are “agreement, incitement and assistance to commit intentional murder, helping prisoners to escape, arson, vandalism and theft.”
Al-Qaradawi has close links to the Muslim Brotherhood and is a critic of the coup against former President Mohamed Morsi.
“Those who killed thousands of innocent people at the Republican Guard headquarters, Manassa, Rabaa, Al-Nahda, Ramsis and others, are known, and are being invited to Western capitals, Russia, the United Nations, just like they are presidents,” Qaradawi said.
“There is no consideration for justice or the law.”
Hundreds of Morsi supporters were killed in August 2013 during the dispersal of Rabaa and Al-Nahda sit-ins and in clashes with security forces at Nasr City’s Manassa Memorial and Republican Guard headquarters areas.
Al-Qaradawi also said in a phone call on Rabaa channel that he cannot possibly have been involved in the storming of prisons in 2011, given his age, 88, and his health situation, as he can only travel with the help of a companion.
The International Union of Muslim Scholars launched a campaign entitled “Al-Qaradawi is not a terrorist” to support Al-Qaradawi on social media.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also criticized Egypt’s military rulers for having Interpol issue the arrest warrant, the Daily Star reported.
“Look, a person who came to power through a coup is giving instructions to Interpol,” Erdogan told a religious council in Ankara.
“A step is being taken for arrest of Youssef al-Qaradawi, president of the Union of Muslim Scholars,” he said.
“What kind of a business is this? Science cannot be at the disposal of politics. Politics is the servant of science,” he added.
“Things have turned upside down. All of these developments show the world is unfortunately going not for the good but for the bad.”
