An explanatory statement regarding the Shaykh’s position on the fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) in Algeria.

The questioner : Since the topic has come up and the questions have started to be scattered, we already know your position regarding Algeria in advance. Please convey it to us, and we want a word from you. They say that you praise their latest position, given that it has occurred. Do you have an explanatory statement? Did you encourage their gathering and their goal, which they desire? Or is there a veil that we do not know what it is?

The Shaykh : No, there are, I mean, many interpretations, if not numerous fabrications. We had sent them a response regarding their entry into the elections and their attempt to enter the Algerian parliaments. We advised them that Islam is not this path. Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy, welcome, welcome, please proceed. We have the response we sent them; we have a copy of it. More than one question came to me from our brothers in Yemen, and...The Shaykh : ...Miqbal himself, I mean, called me for the first time by phone and asked me about what is being said and what is being rumored. I answered him briefly. Finally, I sent with some of them a copy of six pages, which is my response to the Algerians regarding our position on parliaments and entering them, and that this does not benefit anything. And so was the outcome for them. And we have not changed our opinion at all. Although changing one’s opinion when it appears that it was a mistake is obligatory, this is a separate matter. And praise be to Allah, we have, I mean, digested it and believed in it and in its correctness since decades ago. Therefore, anything you may hear from us that we support our Algerian brothers in what they have done and what they may do is outside the line to which we call people, which is education and purification. The best we can say about it is an interpretation that is not correct. Yes.

The questioner : Two questions.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : The first question is: What is the ruling on those who work in Palestine in the Jewish lands, in building the settlements in the lands that the Jews have usurped? The Palestinians do this on the grounds that, first, they are oppressed, and second, that they are restricted in terms of work and in terms of money coming to them. And the second question is...