An international body of Muslim scholars has dismissed United Arab Emirates decision to designate the group as “terrorist”, expressing “astonishment” over the charges.
Share It :
The inclusion of the group was "not based on any analysis or investigation, whether legal, logical or rational,” said the statement of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), co-signed by the union's chairman, Egyptian-born scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Reuters reported.
"The Union expresses its complete and extreme astonishment of its inclusion by the UAE among the terrorists groups and rejects this description completely," said the group, which says it seeks to promote scholarship and awareness of Islam.
On Saturday, November 15, Emirati officials released a new terror list that included the names of 83 organizations.
The UAE Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Islah (or Da'wat Al-Islah), and Fatah al-Islam (Lebanon) are at the top of the UAE terror list.
Other groups like Al-Qaeda, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) in Syria are also branded terrorist.
Yemen's Houthi rebels, Nigeria's Boko Haram and Afghanistan's Taliban are also in the blacklist.
International bodies representing world Muslims such as the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and Islamic Relief have been also banned.
The UAE blacklist included the names of several American and European Muslims organization like the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, the Islamic Relief, a UK-registered charity that is working with the British government and Muslim Association of Britain.
Two US-based groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society, are also included in the list, sending a shockwave among thousands of their members.
The union said the UAE list ignored groups engaged in what it called "non-Islamic terrorism" against Muslims, saying this raised questions about the motives behind the designations.
“Immature”
Along with Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Moroccan scholar Dr. Ahmad Raissouni, Vice President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, is also included in the “terror” list.
Commenting on the UAE government’s list, the Raissouni told Alyoum24, “These illiterates have been trying for several years to make for themselves a better place and an important role in this world.”
Raissounni, who is also the leader of the Tawheed (unification) Movement and Reform, added that the Emirati authorities, whom he described as “politically illiterate,” have “exhausted all their tools, and now began to resort to suicidal operations against all that is Islamic, fair, and noble, so they might draw the world’s attention.”
Launched in July 2004, the IUMS is an independent body comprising Muslim scholars from all over the world and representing different schools of Islamic thought in a bid to provide a reference for all Muslims around the globe. /SR
