Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10DOHA25
2010-01-21 08:46:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Doha
Cable title:  

PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR GIVES EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF

Tags:  PREL KPAL WBG QA 
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VZCZCXRO3767
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHDO #0025 0210846
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 210846Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9642
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000025 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2020
TAGS: PREL KPAL WBG QA
SUBJECT: PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR GIVES EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF
QARADAWI REMARKS ON ABBAS

Classified By: Ambassador Joseph E. LeBaron for reasons 1.4 (b and d).

--------------
(C) KEY POINTS
--------------

-- At a January 14 meeting with Ambassador, Palestinian
Ambassador Mounir Abdullah Ghanim gave an eyewitness
account of Imam Youssef Al-Qaradawi's January 8 sermon
condemning Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

-- Ghanim said that Qaradawi called for Abbas to be stoned
in Mecca only if/if an investigation and trial found him
guilty of collaborating with Israel.

-- Ambassador Ghanim criticized the news media for choosing
to focus on the nature of the allegations and not the fact
that Qaradawi had first called for an investigation into
Abbas's action. The result was that Islamists now hate
Abbas for collaborating with Israel.

------------
(C) COMMENTS
------------

-- Given the opportunity to lay all the blame on Qaradawi,
the Palestinian Ambassador did not, choosing instead to
fault the media for not reporting the full extent of
Qaradawi's remarks.

-- Since Ambassador Ghanim has criticized Qaradawi to us in
the past, his account of the sermon strikes us as at least
credible.

End Key Points and Comments.

C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000025

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2020
TAGS: PREL KPAL WBG QA
SUBJECT: PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR GIVES EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF
QARADAWI REMARKS ON ABBAS

Classified By: Ambassador Joseph E. LeBaron for reasons 1.4 (b and d).

--------------
(C) KEY POINTS
--------------

-- At a January 14 meeting with Ambassador, Palestinian
Ambassador Mounir Abdullah Ghanim gave an eyewitness
account of Imam Youssef Al-Qaradawi's January 8 sermon
condemning Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

-- Ghanim said that Qaradawi called for Abbas to be stoned
in Mecca only if/if an investigation and trial found him
guilty of collaborating with Israel.

-- Ambassador Ghanim criticized the news media for choosing
to focus on the nature of the allegations and not the fact
that Qaradawi had first called for an investigation into
Abbas's action. The result was that Islamists now hate
Abbas for collaborating with Israel.

--------------
(C) COMMENTS
--------------

-- Given the opportunity to lay all the blame on Qaradawi,
the Palestinian Ambassador did not, choosing instead to
fault the media for not reporting the full extent of
Qaradawi's remarks.

-- Since Ambassador Ghanim has criticized Qaradawi to us in
the past, his account of the sermon strikes us as at least
credible.

End Key Points and Comments.


1. (C) At a January 14 meeting with Ambassador, Palestinian
Ambassador Mounir Abdullah Ghanim offered a firsthand
account of Imam Yousef Al-Qaradawi's January 8 sermon in
which he called for the death of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas. The remarks were delivered during Friday
prayers at Doha's Omar bin Al-Khattab mosque.


2. (C) According to Ghanim, Qaradawi railed against
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his sermon, accusing
him of opposing the Goldstone Report because of an Israeli
threaten to withhold contracts from a mobile communications
company co-owned by one of Abbas's sons. He further
alleged that Al Jazeera had aired proof that Abbas had
acted under Israeli pressure in responding to the Goldstone
report. Ghanim reported that these accusations made the
worshippers in the mosque furious with Abbas.


3. (C) Qaradawi went on to call for an investigation and a
trial into the Palestinian President's actions. "If found
guilty", he said, not only should Abbas be executed, but he
should be stoned in Mecca. Ghanim condemned media reports
of this sermon for, he alleged, not including the words "if
found guilty".


4. (C) The Palestinian Ambassador said that the media, by
downplaying the fact that Qaradawi's call for Abbas's death
had been conditioned on a finding of guilt, had inflamed
Islamic extremists. "Islamists now hate Abu Maazen and the
Palestinian Authority for collaborating with crusaders and
Jews," he said.
LeBaron