“ ‘Conscience of the Ummah’ was how he (Yusuf al-Qaradawi) was described by his one-time deputy and former close associate the Mauritanian scholar Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah.”
The American Jewish Committee, in September, 2023, gave its “Human Dignity Award” to Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, ignoring the Sheikh’s longstanding association with jihad championing theologian, and pious Muslim Jew-hater par excellence, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. That relationship included Bin Bayyah serving as deputy head of Qaradawi’s International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a tenure which only ended, coincidentally, after a 2013 exposé by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Bin Bayyah paid homage to al-Qaradawi’s scholarly stature in a 1996 encomium celebrating the Muslim Brotherhood Spiritual Guide’s 70th birthday. Bin Bayyah’s tribute dubbed Qaradawi an “oceanic scholar” who embodied “moderation (wasaṭiyya),” and addressed the concerns of modern Muslims beyond theoretical knowledge to practicalities of establishing “research centers, and organizations, and charitable trusts.” Subsequently, Bin Bayyah assisted Qaradawi in establishing two very important transnational institutions in 1997, and 2004, namely the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and the IUMS, respectively. In 2008, Bin Bayyah referred to Qaradawi, fawningly, as “a mountain upon whose peak there is light,” and as “a great reformer” who “spreads knowledge and wisdom.” As recently as October, 2011, Bin Bayyah acknowledged Qaradawi as his “Sheikh.” An examination of Bin Bayyah’s own formal “fatwas,” and other pronouncements reveals:
—In a pronouncement on the jurisprudence of jihad, Bin Bayyah acknowledged (referencing Ibn Khaldun, whose aggressive, open-ended formulation I cited earlier): “As for the first meaning [of jihad]… [that] includes what is done by physical power… which is striving against people, this is the most widespread meaning. It is jihad against non-Muslims in the sense of fighting and engaging in war. There are many qur’anic verses and prophetic hadith concerning its merits, conditions, and regulations…. two kinds are just wars: one waged out of anger for the sake of Almighty Allah and His religion, which is the meaning of jihad, and the other waged against those who rebel against authorities, which is a war to safeguard the regime.”
—A 2011 fatwa condemning the West for associating Palestinian jihad terror, which he terms “resistance,” to “transnational” jihadism: “placing the Palestinian resistance that defends internationally recognized rights on an equal footing with transcontinental terrorist organizations that are not based on any moral principle would harm the cause of combating terrorism, confuse the cards, raise questions to the global conscience, and serve the terrorists.”
—A 2013 fatwa urging all the Palestinian Muslim factions to align their jihadist “resistance movements,” creating “one entity.” He added, “They have to join hands in the same name and under the same banner. And it is the duty of all Arabs to help them in the name of Islam, logic, pan-Arabism and humanity.” Bin Bayyah further exhorted “Muslim leaders” to assist this anti-Israel jihad, “through financial, military, and diplomatic support.”
—A 2012 pronouncement demanding the imposition of international “blasphemy law,” which called upon the United Nations, “to issue a resolution criminalizing the impingement of religious symbols. We request all religious and political authorities, as well as people of reason to join us in putting a stop to this (alleged blasphemous behavior)…”
—Support for the restoration of Islam’s transnational caliphate system the, “solidarity…known as the caliphate,” which he averred was, “the basic principle that the ummah ought to be under one banner and one ruler…the basic principle prescribed by Islam.”
Bin Bayyah has been lauded for his role in helping produce the 2016 Marrakesh Declaration, relying upon the so-called 7th century “Charter of Medina,” to ostensibly guarantee non-Muslim minority rights in modern Muslim societies. This historically failed Sharia-based paradigm for “human rights”—which begot instead the oppressive system of dhimmitude for non-Muslims—was championed decades earlier by Bin Bayyah’s former colleague (through 2013), Yusuf al-Qaradawi. A stinging critique of the Marrakesh Declaration called for the removal (point by point) of its inherent Sharia-based discriminations, annulled by modern Western human rights constructs (such as those rights enshrined in the U.S. Bill of Rights), declaring,
“Unless the Marrakech Declaration is interpreted in this spirit at the legislative level, this declaration is pure propaganda with no significance, and is a waste of time.”
Through early November 2023, as head of the United Arab Emirates Fatwa Council, Abdallah bin Bayyah issued no condemnation of Hamas October 7, 2023 jihad carnage against Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly, non-combatant Jews.
