Leading Islamic scholar backs revolutionaries across the Arab world

A leading Islamic scholar has announced his support for the popular revolutions in Libya, Yemen and Syria. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, Sheikh Dr. Ahmed El Tayeb, said: “What is going on [against the revolutionaries] is not right from neither a religious nor a Shari’ah perspective, and all ruling positions are not worth one drop of blood.”

In his meeting on 14 June with a delegation of young Libyan revolutionaries, Sheikh El Tayeb said that Al-Azhar “will not stand still vis-a-vis the bloodbath in Libya”; he promised the Libyan revolutionaries that he will form a group of Imams tasked to pressure the Libyan regime into “stopping the bloodbath in Libya”.

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The Grand Imam called on Arab rulers to be grateful to the Arab peoples for enduring injustices with patience. He added that the leaders should leave their positions if staying in power means that more blood will be shed.

During the meeting, the Libyan delegation presented a number of videos and pictures showing the misery in which Libyans are living and the massacres committed by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces against the revolutionaries. Youssef Abu Alim, one of Libya’s young revolutionaries, said that he brought with him a message of gratitude and appreciation from the Libyan interim council and the municipal council in Misrata to the Grand Imam “for his historic stance in support of the Libyan Revolution, and for the statement he released asking the Libyan Army not to obey Qaddafi”