Egyptian cleric revered by Muslim Brotherhood dies at 96

By JOSEPH KRAUSS and LUJAIN JO
Associated Press

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric seen as the spiritual leader of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood, has died at the age of 96. He died in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar, where he had been living in exile following the military’s overthrow of a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt in 2013. Al-Qaradawi had been tried and sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt. For many years while living in exile, he had a popular talk show on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera network and often weighed in on controversial political topics. He had expressed support for Palestinian militants and the insurgency that erupted after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but also backed the Brotherhood’s embrace of democratic elections.