Discussion regarding the possibility of entering parliament (repelling a greater evil with a lesser evil).

The Shaykh : The question is not important now. We were sitting there when the discussion first started. The important point is that if a young man does not mention it, he must mention it. The important thing is that assessing the harm behind acting in accordance with the Sunnah varies from place to place, from person to person, from a person with certain people to a person with other people, and so on. If it is more likely in the mind of the one following the Sunnah that his adherence to the Sunnah will result in a matter greater than this Sunnah, then he may leave it. This is the detail I wanted to explain to you.The Shaykh : In this regard, we strongly condemn the Muslim youth, regardless of their orientation or their party affiliation, from nominating themselves to be representatives in the parliaments that exist today. However, I say this: if we are in a country like this one, where there are many parties, some of which are Islamic parties but they are just parties, and some of which are non-Islamic parties—communists, Ba'athists, materialists, and so on—and we find that in the arena where people are nominating themselves, candidates are coming from these groups and those groups, then I say to our brothers, from the perspective of repelling a greater evil with a lesser evil, vote for the Islamic groups. Then, weigh these groups against each other. For example, there might be a Salafi man who is at the forefront, thinking that he must nominate himself because he thinks he can reform the parliament. We prefer that they choose the best option, rather than choosing an Islamist (Ikhwan) or a liberal party member or the like. This is not because we support nomination and contradict it, but rather from the perspective of repelling a greater evil with a lesser evil. On this occasion, I say two things. The first is that there is a bulletin of about six pages, which is the answer to a question from Algeria, before our brothers there were afflicted with the setback they suffered regarding the elections. It reached you.The questioner : It reached us, O Shaykh.