Meryem Göktaş
June 15, 2017•Update: June 15, 2017
By Etem Geylan
ISTANBUL
Leading Muslim scholars from Turkey published a statement on Thursday, in support of chairman of the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars Yousef al-Qaradawi.
"We declare that we are with the Qatari state and scholars like Qaradawi, who are against imperialism. We demand that the irrational action against them ends," the statement said.
It described the treatment which Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas received as unjust.
"Accusing these two distinguished movements [Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas] as terrorists, and counting everyone close to them as enemy, is tantamount to wanting to destroy everyone who thinks of the Ummah and opposes imperialism," the statement said.
"Yousef al-Qaradawi and other scholars like him are the honor and the conscience of this Ummah," the statement added.
It was also stated that U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia became the reason for the blockade against Qatar.
The signature included those by famous scholars Ahmet Agirakca, Yusuf Ziya Kavakci, Ramazan Kayan, Nureddin Yildiz, Ahmet Tasgetiren and Ali Riza Demircan.
On June 9, a joint statement by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the U.A.E. accused 59 individuals and 12 charity organizations in Qatar of being “linked to terror”.
The list included Qaradawi, and Qatar’s former interior minister Abdullah bin Khalid.
Qatar hit back on Friday in a foreign ministry statement which described the accusations as “baseless and slanderous”.
