Moi? Surely not!

Sheikh Qaradawi has been in self-righteous mode on al-Jazeera recently. According to MEMRI (free registration required), he has criticised preachers who call for Jews and Christians to be killed:

I denounced some contemporary religious preachers, who curse the Jews and the Christians, saying: "Allah, annihilate the Jews and the Christians." Where did this come from? There are Jews and Christians in our Muslim countries. There are Copts in Egypt, and Christians in Syria. So how can you curse them? Not only that, but they curse: "Allah, turn their children in orphans," "Allah, destroy their homes." Who sanctioned such prayers? The Koran does not call to turn children into orphans or to destroy homes. There are no such things in the prayers of the Prophet Muhammad.

Who on earth are these "contemporary religious preachers" who say this? Where indeed did this idea come from? Perhaps the answer can be found in these quotes from sermons given by Sheikh Qaradawi himself, at the Umar Bin-al-Khattab mosque in Doha, Qatar, and translated by BBC Monitoring:

O God, support our brothers in Palestine. O God, protect them and show them the right path. O God, destroy the usurper Jews, the vile Crusaders, and infidels. O God, destroy them along with their supporters. (13 June 2003)

O God, deal with the treacherous, usurper, and unjust Jews. O God, deal with them and their supporters with your power. O God, blow away their wind, remove their states and rule, and do not make them affect any of Your faithful subjects. O God, O revealer of the book, O mover of the clouds, and O vanquisher of the infidels, defeat them and grant us victory over them. (13 February 2004)

O God, support our mujahideen brothers on the land of Palestine. O God, strengthen them, unite them, and help them score a victory. O God, turn against the arrogant, usurper, unjust, aggressor Jews and their wicked Crusader allies. (20 February 2004)

O God, deal with your enemies, the enemies of Islam. O God, deal with the usurper, oppressor, and tyrannical Jews. O God, deal with the plotter and rancorous crusaders. (4 June 2004)

O God, deal with the usurper, aggressor and treacherous Jews and their allies. O God, turn against them and spare us their evil. (25 November 2005)