Mick Hartley

Sheikh Qaradawi (yes, that one: Ken's pal) has been stirring up controversy in Egypt with his call for Western intervention to bring back deposed president Mohamed Morsi:

Senior Al-Azhar scholars have lashed out at influential Muslim cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi for his pro-Muslim Brotherhood statements, with some calling for prosecuting him for 'high treason,' according to Ahram Daily.

Qaradawi, one of the most prominent Egyptian Sunni academics in modern history, who chairs the International Union of Muslim Scholars, has recently come under fire for backing toppled Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as his perceived sedition against Egypt's army and police.

Abbas Shoman, under-secretary of Al-Azhar – the highest institutional authority in Sunni Islam, has hit out at Qaradawi for what he has termed "hysterical" statements calling for intervention from the West following Morsi's overthrow and in response to the interim-government's recent crackdown on Islamists.

What could account for this extraordinary behaviour? Egyptian actor Hassan Youssef, who claims to be a personal friend of the Sheikh, is quite sure. He explains all in an interview on Egyptian TV: either the Zionists have replaced him with a double, or they've planted a chip in his brain.

Hassan Youssef: The Al-Qaradhawi I know is dead. Israel is capable of anything. That's a double, it's not him.

Interviewer: I like it when you use cinema talk… A double is someone who takes a beating instead of the real hero…

Hassan Youssef: I am angry at him – if it is really him. But I am very angry that he is being cursed on all the TV channels. One gets angry when his friend is cursed. […]

Sheik Al-Qaradhawi is very moderate, and is not an extremist. That is why I cannot believe my ears.

Interviewer: He shocked you. When you say that the Sheik Al-Qaradhawi you know is dead, and you even suspect that Israel has planted a chip in his brain – which is a metaphoric way of saying that it has taken control over his mind…

Hassan Youssef: It's not a metaphor. Let me give you an example. King Faisal's nephew, who assassinated him… King Faisal was a great monarch, who stood by Egypt in the 1973 war, and was one of the principal reasons for Israel's defeat. He said [to the West]: "We are used to desert life. We have no problem living in tents, drinking goat milk, and eating dates. We don't want anything from you. Don't want anything from you. Don't take our oil. Goodbye."

How can someone kill his own uncle? He met a Jewish woman abroad and fell in love with her. She took him to Israel, where they operated on him and planted a chip in his brain, and they remote-controlled him, until he killed his uncle.

Interviewer: I'm afraid many people have got chips in their brains recently…

[From Al-Qaradhawi's statements], it seems that the story about the Israeli chip is true.