The ruling on traveling to the lands of disbelievers for one who is unable to establish the rites of Islam in the lands of Muslims

The questioner:
Benefits from the explanation of the book *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim li-Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim* by Ibn Taymiyyah. This is also related to what you mentioned, that Muslims are suffering from weak faith or ignorance of faith. Now, please allow us to address some questions. Some Muslims in foreign lands face dangers. We are, praise be to Allah, in the lands of the two Holy Sanctuaries, in goodness, abundance, and faith, and the rites of Islam are manifest. But there are Muslim lands where their people have fled to the lands of disbelief to practice the rites of their religion. Do they have a specific ruling? Then they say: We are in many Muslim groups called the minority in the West. They find religious freedom that may not be available for them to pray in their own country—may Allah protect us—so they pray in Europe or in America, and they are determined to leave, if Allah wills, hoping for any opportunity.

The Shaykh:
Fleeing to preserve one's religion is obligatory. This is an obligatory matter. Where does he flee? He flees to the lands of Muslims if possible. If there are no lands of Muslims,

The questioner:
or if he is unable to reach them,

The Shaykh:
and there are Muslim lands but they are dominated by rulers who follow the pattern of disbelievers, implementing the programs of disbelievers and adopting destructive principles, as is the case with many people today, then he migrates to the land with the least harm, the land with the least harm. If he finds a disbeliever's land that has less harm than the land he is in, he migrates, just as the Muslims migrated in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) from Makkah to the land of Abyssinia, because the Muslims did not have a place of migration at that time. So they went to repel the greater of two harms by committing the lesser of them. The lesser of them. They went to the land of Abyssinia by the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So such people apply to the Islamic minorities in foreign lands, because their lands have rejected them and they are unable to establish the rites of their religion there. So these people may have an excuse, they may have an excuse, but on the condition that they do not dissolve into disbelief, they do not dissolve with the disbelievers, but rather they hold fast to their religion and manifest their religion and hold fast to it, and that their stay is limited until the necessity is removed, and then they return to the lands of Muslims. Yes.

The presenter:
The manifesting of the rites, the actual relative aspect is that the Muslims are angry at them and say that they have dissolved, while on the other hand, at the same time, the disbelievers are angry at the Muslims and say that they do not melt into Western society. Groups from many religions and sects come and melt into Western societies, but the Muslims are resistant.

The Shaykh:
The harms of residing in the lands of disbelievers, and that even if Muslims establish the rites of their religion and take their religious freedom, one day someone will come and force them to convert from their religion to the religion of the disbelievers, as they are trying to do now with the Islamic minorities, and that they integrate with the disbelievers, and that they invent for them an Islam according to the desire of the disbelievers, an Islam according to the wish of the disbelievers. It is called Islam, but it is according to the desire of the disbelievers and the system of the disbelievers. This is the danger in residing in the lands of disbelievers.

The presenter:
But it is obligatory for the Muslim to preserve his religion and wait for any opportunity to exit the lands of shirk (associating partners with Allah).

The Shaykh:
That is it.