Transcript of Qaradawi's Speech in Cairo

Transcript of Qaradawi's Speech in Cairo

From Translating Jihad:

The spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, triumphantly entered Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, February 18, just days after former president Hosni Mubarak, the man Qaradawi had disparagingly referred to as 'Pharaoh', stepped down and relinquished power. Qaradawi, who is originally from Egypt, had been banned from speaking in the country for more than 30 years prior to this occasion. An estimated 1-2 million Egyptians packed into the square to hear Qaradawi, who has been called by some the Khomeini of Egypt's revolution. Truly if Egypt's revolution has a Khomeini, Qaradawi is that man. What follows is the first-available English transcript of his historic speech.

As I reported previously, Qaradawi closed this landmark speech by calling for the conquest of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which can only mean the conquest of Jerusalem itself. This portion of the speech was met with loud cheers of "Amen!" from the 1-2 million Egyptians packed into the square. It seems certain that the victory of this revolution will usher in a new chapter in Egyptian-Israeli relations, which could very well be marked with renewed violence.

A note about the transcript:  this is the only transcript available anywhere, as far as I know, in either English or Arabic. This is probably at least partly due to the fact that the available audio for the speech is very choppy, and there are words and phrases in the video that are simply inaudible. Throughout the transcript, you'll see some places marked with an ellipsis or an "[inaudible]" tag, representing those parts that I could not make out. In other places, which are also marked accordingly, I provide only a gist of what is said. In sum, this transcript is not complete, but instead represents a best effort on my part to bring the text of this speech to the English-speaking audience.

Praise be to Allah. [...] I testify that there is no god but Allah.  I testify that He has no associate.  I testify that there is no god but Thee.  [...] Thou art capable over all things.  I testify that our lord and Imam, our example and friend, Muhammad, is the slave and prophet of Allah.  Peace be upon him ...

Go read the whole thing at Translating Jihad.