The Arab world's influential cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Saturday urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down for the good of the country, as his ouster was the only solution to Egypt's crisis. The widely respected Sunni Muslim cleric who holds Egyptian and Qatari nationalities, also encouraged Egyptians to keep up peaceful protests, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television.
"President Mubarak ... I advise you to depart from Egypt. There is no other solution to this problem but for Mubarak to go," Qaradawi said. The cleric, a resident of Qatar who has a popular programme on Al-Jazeera to advise on Islamic laws, heads the International Union for Muslim Scholars. He is considered one of the world's top Sunni preachers.
"Go Mubarak, have mercy on this people and leave so as not to increase the destruction of Egypt," he added. "There is no staying longer, Mubarak, I advise you (to learn) the lesson of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali," he said, referring to Tunisia's deposed president who fled to Saudi Arabia.
Qaradawi, a spiritual leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, has in the past defended "violence carried out by certain Muslims." "Some violence is legitimate in the eyes of both religion and law, such as resistance to the occupation in Palestine, Lebanon or in Iraq," Qaradawi said last September. "We call for peace because our religion orders it, but if war is imposed on us we will take it to our hearts."
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