Qaradawi resigns from Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy

CAIRO  

Prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Saturday resigned from Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy.

"I tender my resignation from the Islamic Research Academy to the Egyptian people," Qaradawi said in a statement.

"I don't need the membership of this weak body," he added.

The scholar lamented the academy's failure to condemn what he called "brutal massacres" committed by "coup generals" against the Egyptian people.

"The academy has neither issued a statement, nor a fatwa about what happened," said Qaradawi, the president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars.

Earlier this month, al-Qaradawi resigned from Al-Azhar Scholar Council to protest Al-Azhar Imam Ahmed Tayeb's support for the army's July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.

In his resignation letter, al-Qaradawi said he wanted to "register the position taken by free scholars."

The prominent scholar went on to assert that the post of Al-Azhar Grand Imam – like the presidency – "has been usurped by the military coup."

Al-Tayeb openly supported the military's overthrow of Morsi following mass protests against his administration.

The Qatar-based Al-Qaradawi has repeatedly criticized the move and chastised Egypt's new military-backed rulers.

He also blasted what he described as al-Tayeb's failure to invite members of the Senior Scholars Council to meet "in light of the recent massacres and grave incidents that have terrorized the Egyptian people, particularly the dispersal of the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins."

On August 14, hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators were killed when security forces violently cleared two sit-ins in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares.

By Ahmed Al-Masri

englishnews@aa.com.tr