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Erdogan defends Brotherhood's Qaradawi after arrest warrant

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Egypt for requesting an arrest warrant from Interpol for Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the ideological leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars Youssef al-Qaradawi speaks during a news conference in Doha June 23, 2014. The influential Sunni Muslim cleric said on Monday that only dialogue could solve Iraq's crisis, sounding a conciliatory note on the threat posed by Sunni Islamist insurgents that could further polarise the Middle East along sectarian lines. Picture taken June 23.     REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous (QATAR - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3VSK2

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was angered when Interpol issued an arrest warrant Dec. 5 for Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the ideological leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Expressing his resentment publicly at the Fifth Religious Council in Ankara Dec. 8, Erdogan said: “Look, a person who came to power through a coup is giving instructions to Interpol. Based on this instruction a step is being taken for the arrest of Youssef al-Qaradawi, president of the [International] Union of Muslim Scholars. What kind of a business is this?” 

In July, an Egyptian news report of unknown reliability wrote that Qaradawi had ruled that a declaration of a caliphate by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is “void under Sharia,” but that he declared Turkey to be the capital of the caliphate.

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