28 April 2011
Norwegian media reports that Yusuf al-Qaradawi is coming to Norway. He and his team are to settle on prayer times for Muslims living in the most northern hemisphere where the sun doesn’t set during summer time and never rises during parts of the winter. The knowledge of the starting and ending times for prayers is of critical importance to Muslims and also concern the religious obligation of fasting, according to the Turkish-English paper Zaman.
This has created quite a stir in Norwegian media. The daily Dagbladet, for example, refers to an article by the Iraqi-Norwegian writer Walid al-Kubaisi in which Qaradawi is said to be “more dangerous than Usama bin Ladin”. Even though Qaradawi has legitimated wife beating, female circumcision, men marrying 9-year-old girls, called the holocaust God’s punishment on the Jews and that he wants to die a martyr in an attack on the Jews, Muslims in general consider him to be moderate, according to Dagbladet.
Members of the Norwegian parliament representing the Christian Democratic Party calls Qaradawi the “sheikh of death” and demands of the Islamic Council in Norway to account for their relations with him. From what is reported it is unclear, however, if the Islamic Council in Norway has invited Qaradawi to come.
The information regarding Qaradawi coming to Norway originates from the Turkish paper Zaman.
