Qaradawi - Islamonline - "the jihad of our era" - opens office in DC

On December 27, 2008, the Islamist news organization Islamonline.net (IOL), which is overseen by prominent Sunni sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, announced that it had opened an office in Washington, D.C. Following is information about the new office, and about Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's connection to it:

IOL "Aims to Contribute to Projecting Much-Needed True Image of Muslims"

According to the announcement, the new Washington office, located in the National Press Building, was opened "in an effort to reach out to its wider audience and larger readership."

IOL English managing editor Muhammad Zidan said, "This new office stands as a step forward in realizing part of the aims and objectives of IOL - that is, promoting awareness about important events in the Arab, Muslim and larger world, in addition to providing services to Muslims and non-Muslims in several languages."
.....

IOL Founded, Supported, Supervised By Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi

IOL was, according to PBS, founded by prominent Sunni sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi. In its early stages, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi personally "adopted" IOL, supported it, and supervised it, and, according to The Guardian, it has remained under his supervision. Al-Qaradawi has promoted IOL in the media, especially on his weekly Al-Jazeera TV program.

Al-Qaradhawi, who is banned from entering the U.S. and the U.K., is among the top spiritual leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and serves as a spiritual guide for many other Islamist organizations across the world. He heads the European Council for Fatwa and Research, and is founder and director of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS).

Al-Qaradhawi's activity in recent months has included preaching against Shi'ites and the spread of the Shi'a in the Sunni Arab world. Most recently, in his Friday sermon of January 9, 2009 he promoted boycotting U.S. goods, including the Starbucks chain, as well as the U.K. chain Marks and Spencer, stressing to his audience, "[P]ut the boycott against the nation's enemies into action. Every riyal you pay turns into a bullet in the heart of your brothers in Gaza and in other Islamic countries." In the same sermon, he also said, "Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people... and kill them, down to the very last one.'"

Al-Qaradhawi: IOL is "The Jihad of Our Era"

According to Arab Media and Society, a publication of the Middle East Centre of St. Antony's College, Oxford University, and the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at The American University in Cairo, IOL is "one of the most-visited Arabic/English Islamic web portals which issue fatwas." In a promotional brochure for IOL, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi said of its mission: "This project is neither nationalistic nor one aiming at a grouping or a group of people; it is a project for the entire Islamic community. It is the jihad of our era."