Al-Qaradawi: Al-Sisi has lost his relevance and will not be president of Egypt

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who is considered the spiritual reference for the Muslim Brotherhood, has said that General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has lost his relevance and will not be president of Egypt. He also suggested that the upcoming constitutional referendum is “absurd”, and said that the Muslim Brotherhood will emerge stronger from this confrontation, after having already defied two previous presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Hosni Mubarak.

Al-Qaradawi stated that Al-Azhar has turned into “a cover for political trends and guidance”, adding that he resigned from the Senior Scholars Committee after he found that the institution was “supporting people who resented the fact that the country was living under a free and democratic system”. Moreover, he said that his dispute with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, and the former Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, was due to “their support for the military coup and their silence and involvement in legitimising the murder of people in the streets.”

In an interview with Qatar’s Al-Watan newspaper, Al-Qaradawi mocked the exaggerated figures, which reached as high as 30 million people, for the number of opponents who took to the streets during the coup in opposition to President Mohammed Morsi and his government. He said that, “anyone who says this is a liar; this number would mean that every Egyptian, with the exception of children and the elderly, took to the streets that day.”

As for the upcoming constitutional referendum, Al-Qaradawi remarked that, “I believe that the new constitution and the referendum are both pointless.” He also commented on the possibility of General Al-Sisi being nominated for the presidency by saying: “Al-Sisi has lost his credibility and is no longer suitable as a president or a minister of defence. Look at the leaked information involving him; is this a minister of defence fit for Egypt, let alone president? Al-Sisi will not be the president of Egypt, even if he wanted to; the same goes for Gamal Mubarak.”

With regards to his vision of the Muslim Brotherhood’s future, Al-Qaradawi told his interviewer: “look at the opinion polls…look at the future of the Brotherhood now, after defying Abdel Nasser and Mubarak, and you will see what their future holds. The Brotherhood has now spread to over 70 countries in the world.”

This news is translated from Palestinians 48