Yasir Qadhi & Hamza Yusuf (middle) |
ISIS has targeted two Middle East studies academics, Yasir Qadhi of Rhodes College (Memphis, Tennessee) and Hamza Yusuf of Zaytuna College (Berkeley, California), for condemning the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The problem is, although both have denounced ISIS, they’re also apologists for radical Islam. In his Facebook statement on the ISIS threats, Qadhi took pains to remind readers that, “the root cause of all violence from Muslim groups is the political grievances caused by American foreign policy.” Meanwhile, Yusuf, an advocate of Sharia law, explained last year that American Muslims are joining ISIS because “they’re fed up with seeing Palestinians massacred, Muslims massacred. . . . They talk about the Christians in Iraq. What about all the Muslims?”
ISIS’s threats allow Qadhi and Yusuf to portray themselves as moderates under assault by radicals, when nothing could be further from the truth.
