Political Islamic groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, have long attempted attaining general control over the religion.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s International Union of Muslim Scholars is one of the many other shots at taking over Muslims and directing them towards a narrow political agenda.
The Doha-based theologian has put serious efforts into having influence across the Muslim scope, accusing other renowned religious authorities such as Al-Azhar to the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars of failing Islam.
Through its activities, the institution has served more or less as a political beacon.
Qaradawi’s initiative was aimed at establishing a paradoxical political reference which disrupts the Islamic world—exploiting challenging times the Muslim nation is pushing against as religious institutions suffer from a crisis of representation, emergent political rages, and Arab Spring waves.
The Egyptian scholar tried hard to keep his title as a top Sunni reference through using grouping tactics inspired by political Islam movements.
His attempts at salvaging his influence comes at a time the organization he chairs, the International Union of Muslim Scholars, has witnessed a great decline in terms of contributing to or affecting Islam’s worldwide platform.
Incessantly, the International Union of Muslim Scholars reached out for pulling the rug from under established religious institutions that accuse it on political grounds of bias to power.
Qaradawi's unwavering dominance over the union shortly resulted in the surprise exit of Salafist scholar Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, known for his scientific strength, from the group.
“The path towards reform and reconciliation requires a delivering speeches that do not fit my position in the Union,” Bin Bayyah had explained upon his resignation.
“The union has taken a politically-driven unidirectional approach," he warned in an address to Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars.
In his warning, Bin Bayyah warned the council of unions that label themselves as ‘scientific’ and ‘moderate’ and are essentially “based on party ideas and political purposes” such as the Qaradawi-founded union.
Qaradawi is considered the spiritual leader of the alt-right Muslim Brotherhood.
Similarly, Mauritanian scientists followed suit and withdrew from the union, citing that it has divorced its role of being a religious movement to play political roles that have only increased strife among Muslims.
Qaradawi, who earned his Qatari citizen in the1970s, established momentum in the West which he describes as arrogant, specifically in London in 2004.
It is worth noting that the political Islam which Qaradawi preached views the United Kingdom as a colonial empire hostile to Islam.
Qaradawi, in his speeches and books, was never shy to propagate anti-secularism and anti-West sentiment—ironically, no place but London was welcoming enough to establish Qaradawi’s union.
Qaradawi gathered in his union and Muslim Brotherhood figures from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others.
The union, with its headquarters in Doha, later became the official outpost for deploying the Brotherhood's ideologies to the world.
