Saudi Arabia signals easing of tension with Brotherhood leader
Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi attended Saudi Arabia's National Day in Qatar
Reuters , Ahram Online , Monday 5 Oct 2015
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/152111/Egypt/Politics-/Saudi-Arabia-signals-easing-of-tension-with-Brothe.aspx

The spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood attended a ceremony
organized by Saudi Arabia in Doha on Friday, signaling an easing of Riyadh's
hostility towards the Islamist movement.

Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born and Qatar-based cleric, whose
fiery sermons have strained ties with Egypt and Gulf neighbors, appeared
alongside the Qatari prime minister and the Saudi ambassador at an event in
Doha to celebrate Saudi Arabia's national day.

The accession to the Saudi throne in January of King Salman, who is more
sympathetic to religious conservatives than his predecessor King Abdullah,
sparked hope among Muslim Brotherhood exiles in Qatar that the Middle East's
political winds had started to shift in their favor, potentially giving the
Islamist group more space to act.

Salman, while stopping short of befriending the Brotherhood, has worked to
reduce tensions with the movement's own allies, strengthening Riyadh's ties
with Turkey and Qatar and reaching out to Islah, the Islamist group's
offshoot in Yemen.

"We are optimistic now," said an Egyptian Brotherhood member living in Qatar
who declined to be named.

"The new (Saudi) leadership could mean a new era for the Middle East, where
Islamists are worked with and seen as partners rather than demonised."

The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization by the
Egyptian government in November 2013.

Qaradawi, who was born in Egypt, often admonished in his sermons the
authorities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who see the
Brotherhood as an insidious threat to regional stability due to its
activities in Egypt and other Arab countries.

In May, an Egyptian court sentenced Qaradawi to death in absentia in a case
related to a mass jailbreak in 2011.

Arguments over the Brotherhood, the most influential Islamist group in the
world, were at the heart of a rift between Gulf Arab states that in 2014 saw
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain pull their ambassadors from Doha.

The ambassadors returned only after Qatar promised to not allow itself to be
used for the Brotherhood’s activities.

Back in Cairo, the invitation of Sheikh Qaradawi to the celebrations at the
Saudi embassy in Doha provoked anger and disbelief in the Egyptian media.

"Is this a personal position of the Saudi ambassador in Qatar or does it
express the position of the Saudi state? Does this mean the official
position of Saudi Arabia towards the Egyptian state and President
Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has changed?" Egyptian TV host Lamis El-Hadidy inquired
on her CBC show on Sunday.

"Will the Saudi administration accept the Egyptian ambassador in London
receiving leading figures of the Saudi Opposition on Egypt's national day?”
she asked angrily, reminding Saudis that Sheikh Qaradawi previously attacked
Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

It is worth mentioning that Qaradawi’s invitation to the Saudi embassy in
Doha comes at a time when Egypt and Saudi Arabia are taking different
stances on the Russian strikes in Syria and the future of President Bashar
Al-Assad.

Saudi Arabia rejects Russia’s strikes on Syria and believes Al-Assad has no
place in the country’s future. Egypt, however, takes a different stance.

On Sunday, Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry announced his support for
the Russian strikes, saying they will help to curtail the spread of terror
and help deal a fatal blow to the ISIS group.

Egypt also supports a political solution in Syria consisting of dialogue
with all parties, including the opposition and Al-Assad’s regime.

Edited by Ahram Online