Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Syria A War Between Shiites and Sunnis

Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has called on Sunni Muslims to join the rebels fighting the Syrian regime, as he admitted that the clerics of Saudi Arabia were more mature than him, when he defended Hezbollah in the past.

"Every Muslim trained to fight and capable of doing that (must) make himself available" to support the Syrian rebels . "Iran is pushing forward arms and men (to back the Syrian regime), so why do we stand idle?" he said, branding Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which means the party of God in Arabic, as the "party of Satan". "The leader of the party of the Satan comes to fight the Sunnis... Now we know what the Iranians want... They want continued massacres to kill Sunnis," Qaradawi said. "How could 100 million Shiites (worldwide) defeat 1.7 billion (Sunnis)?" he exclaimed, "only because (Sunni) Muslims are weak." The cleric blamed himself for previously backing Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah who gained popularity after steadfastly leading his group in the fight against Israel in 2006. "I defended the so-called Nasrallah and his party, the party of tyranny... in front of clerics in Saudi Arabia." "It seems that the clerics of Saudi Arabia were more mature than me." Qaradawi said. But the cleric insisted that his call to fight Hezbollah is "not against all Shiites."