In a new video interview, Shiekh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most respected clerics in the Muslim community and spiritual father of the Muslim Brotherhood, confirmed that the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was once a member of the Brotherhood.
But he was always “inclined to be a leader,” so after he was released from prison (for his Brotherhood activities), he joined with the Islamic State, eventually rising to be its “caliph.”
According to Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments (Awqaf), Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Gom‘a, “Qaradawi’s confession confirms that the Brotherhood is the spiritual father to every extremist group.”
Qaradawi’s confession, of course, is not meant to cast aspersions on the Brotherhood. Rather, it seems that he was trying to revive the narrative that imprisoning and suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood—most recently in Egypt’s last revolution—only leads to greater “extremism.”