Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the general manager at Al Arabiya TV, writes:

Perhaps Sheikh al-Qaradawi would be right to resort to the dangerous weapon of fatwas if there were a large number of citizens being granted naturalization, or if there were forced relocations to America, or if the Iraqi nationality was being revoked, but none of this is happening. In fact, the opposite is true, for of the thousands of Iraqi citizens who queue up to apply for visas to Western countries, only a few are granted.

Suspiciously, this fatwa report is being eagerly promoted by groups opposed to Muslim political power and Muslim immigration, such as MEMRI and “Refugee Resettlement Watch.”

According to MEMRI, “the ruling was inspired by similar rulings issued by Muslim clerics during France’s occupation of Tunisia.” Over at RRW, where a gleeful response might have been expected, the writer casts a pall over her nativist readership instead with a slip of wisdom, “I don’t get the impression that most Iraqi immigrants are ruled by faraway Imams.“