Saturday, January 19, 2013

Mali Crisis- International Union Of Muslim Scholars Head Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Criticizes French Military For Intervention In Mali, Calls For Peaceful Resolution!


Mali Conflict
The top reported news over the past few days has all be surrounding the conflict in Mail.
The crisis in Mali, West Africa, is about the advancement of the Islamist Jihad militant in the country with the intention to take over the nation. The movement of the Jihad group into Mali started a while ago but it wasn't consider a SERIOUS issue until the Jihad group took over half of Mali earlier this month.

The French, who have a colonial ties to Mali decided to intervene in order to prevent Mali from becoming a complete prey to the Islamist Jihad militant and from turning Mali into a pro Al-Qaeda control nation.  

So far in class, we have been trying to see and learn about the Middle East from two different points of view, the view from the people of the Middle East and that of the people from the West.  If I must admit, all of the news that I have been reading about the Mali crisis are all from Western Media.  Because of this, I decided to find news about the Mali crisis that is at least from the lens or perceptive of a non-Westerner.  Fortunately, I stumble across a news article in “The Middle East Media Research Institute” (MEMRI).

In this article, Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) criticizes the French for interfering in Mali Crisis.  The IUMS mention that the French decision of deploying troops to fight against the Jihad group is not a thorough and well think decision.  Yousuf Al-Qarahawi wrote that None can foresee how [this intervention] will end and what will be its consequences in terms of killing, destruction, uprooting [of civilians], and [other] humanitarian disasters [such as] the increase of poverty, unemployment, and famine – from which Mali suffers to begin with”. The IUMS said that the French and other West African nations could have handled the situation in a peaceful manner – reconciliation –rather than handling it through the act of war.

-Lawuo 

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