Turkish President Erdoğan criticizes Egypt for Interpol bid on Muslim scholar

ANKARA – Agence France-Presse

Erdoğan again targeted Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi while criticizing an arrest warrant for a Muslim scholar. REUTERS Photo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 8 criticized Egypt’s military rulers for having Interpol issue an arrest warrant for a Muslim scholar.

Islamist scholar Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, whose fiery sermons have caused tensions with Cairo’s military rulers, is a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has regularly launched tirades against Egypt’s authorities since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July last year.

Egypt had approached Interpol seeking Qaradawi’s arrest and in November Interpol put him on its wanted list.

“Look, a person who came to power through a coup is giving instructions to Interpol. A step is being taken for arrest of Youssef al-Qaradawi, the president of the Union of Muslim Scholars. What kind of a business is this? Science cannot be at the disposal of politics. Politics is the servant of science,” Erdoğan told a meeting of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in Ankara.

“Things have turned upside down. All of these developments show the world is unfortunately going not for the good but for the bad," he added.

Qaradawi, 88, is an Egyptian-Qatari national and a prominent Sunni cleric based in Doha. He has been named as a defendant in several trials along with many Muslim Brotherhood members, including one that has Morsi as a co-defendant.

The Turkish government has good relations with the Brotherhood, and Erdoğan has repeatedly slammed Morsi’s removal from power as a “coup.”