What is your opinion of the article published by the Islamic Heritage Revival Society in Kuwait before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait?

The questioner : I have a question regarding a statement that was published in the Kuwaiti newspapers a few months before Iraq invaded Kuwait. The issuer of the statement was the Islamic Heritage Revival Society in Kuwait, and you know, I mean, who is in charge of this society? Have you read it?

The Shaykh : I had read it. I found in it an exaggeration in praising the Iraqi army, or rather the personality of Saddam. As for Saddam, it is sufficient for us to know that he is a Ba'athist and that he is the head of the Ba'ath Party. In our belief, whether the Ba'athist is Kuwaiti or Syrian, the Ba'ath is a disbelieving party. Although our knowledge of Islam drives us to declare a party disbeliever in general based on the detailed articles of the party, and that it is secular—at the very least that can be said of it—at the same time, we do not declare every Ba'athist a disbeliever. But it is sufficient for him to be misguided. Based on this, we say that Saddam was and still is adopting the Ba'ath Party. However, from another angle, words have come from him that were not customary from him. While we are pleased with these words, we are cautious about them because we fear—and hope that this fear is unfounded—that they may be as Allah the Exalted said, in a context other than this: . It is possible that the calamities that befell him caused him to turn back to Allah and repent to Him. In my opinion, his previous tyranny over Kuwait does not lead us to wish for him to remain in his misguidance; rather, we wish for him to have destroyed his own misguidance, because it has become clear that there is no way out, no life, and no honor for the Muslims except by returning to their religion. And so, at that time, this statement contained an exaggeration regarding the person of Saddam. Although, personally, at that time, we naturally did not wish for the Shi'ah to overcome the Iraqis. We were constantly recalling His saying, the Exalted: to the end of the verse. Because the victory of the Shi'ah would be the victory of the alliance now, completely. We feared at that time that if the Shi'ah overcame Iraq, the Arab states, let alone the non-Arab states, would become Shi'ah. Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, willed that the war laid down its arms and the Iraqi army defeated the Iranian army. Now, the same fear is what we fear: that these allies, if they defeat Iraq—and you must be planning from now on to place the hand of the disbelievers over these Islamic lands and to deal with them, not only in terms of exploiting the natural resources, but also in imposing the disbelieving ideology, whether Christian or atheist. As they say, the sweetest of them is bitter. This is my answer to this question as well.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.