The Salvation Front's position on the Gulf trial and its method of dealing with this trial.

The Shaykh : I think I alluded to it in the previous session, and therefore the brevity I presented to us just now did not satisfy our hearts, because of the departure of the Muslim youth, and I do not know if it is permissible for me to say "Salafi," or perhaps there are Salafis or perhaps there are Khalafis, or does politics prevent us from using these two terms?

The questioner : We have in the Shari'ah, which is itself politics.

The Shaykh : Yes, and politics...

The questioner : As some of the brothers used to say,The Shaykh : Al-Albani always says, "Part of politics is leaving politics." I said, and this is also politics; this is politics.The Shaykh : .

The Shaykh : It is so. The evidence: we say now, "Part of politics is leaving politics," but we do not say it absolutely. "La ilaha illa Allah" was the topic of the previous session, and time was tight. How do you imagine the departure of the Muslim youth? And I return to say: is he Salafi, or Salafi and Khalafi, or do we say neither Salafi nor Khalafi, but only "the Muslim youth"?

The questioner : This is based on another question, O Shaykh, it is necessary...

The Shaykh : If it is not possible to answer such a clear question by posing another question, then pose it, and there is no harm on you.

The questioner : Is it a condition of repelling the aggressor that we classify this youth as Salafi and this one as non-Salafi? If he is a Muslim, in any case, he is ignorant of some issues like the rest of the Muslims; he should be taught and called to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with gentleness and wisdom. Is it a condition of repelling the aggressor, according to the Shari'ah, that we make this division, so that some are repelled and some are not? This is the question, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : You asked something that does not benefit us, because the answer is not a condition. So what do you gain?

The questioner : I do not gain, of course, if the answer is not a condition.

The Shaykh : It is finished, O Professor. Since I have answered your question, if I return to the previous question.

The questioner : And I leave the answer.

The Shaykh : So if I return, now, from the political aspect, I said from the verbal aspect, what do you want us to say? This youth that you will direct, and I say perhaps, according to what I understood from your words, to Iraq for jihad, if Allah wills, in the path of Allah. Is it the Salafi youth, or is it the Muslim youth in general?

The questioner : The Muslim youth in general.

The Shaykh : Okay. Is this Muslim youth in general organized in applying the rulings of the Shari'ah in the state of security and residence, let alone in the state of war, fighting, and jihad?

The questioner : Repeat the question, O Shaykh, one more time so that I can be precise in it.

The Shaykh : We have reached, regarding the question, an answer that the intended meaning is the Muslims in general. You do not mean what we, the Salafi Muslims, specifically mean, namely those who were raised on the methodology that we believe in with you: the Book, the Sunnah, and the methodology of the righteous Salaf. You do not mean this type of Muslims, but you meant by your words all Muslims. So my previous question was: have these all Muslims learned Islam and its rulings related to the state of residence, let alone the state of travel, jihad, and fighting, especially since the means of fighting today differ completely from the means known in the past? Have these people learned and been educated while in their country in the state of residence and tranquility, and so on? What do you imagine your answer to be?

The questioner : In reality, they know many of the Islamic rulings and apply them, and some other rulings they must learn, because by nature, there is a youth who is new to Islam, and there is one who has been a Muslim for a year, and there is one who has culture; they differ in their level of knowledge and their level of application as well. Because not everyone who has knowledge means he applies the knowledge. So in this framework, yes.

The Shaykh : When you say, O Shaykh, "they are so," are you supervising them? Do you know them?

The questioner : Most of them, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : What do you mean by "most of them"?

The questioner : Most of the youth.

The Shaykh : I mean, in the thousands? In the hundreds? In the tens? I want to imagine how you know them, so that we learn how to get to know people, whether in a small or large quantity, so that we can select them for jihad in the path of Allah.

The questioner : If there is a process of selection.

The Shaykh : I do not know, I mean, I am asking you: what is the situation that you have described and you want to implement?

The questioner : Now, there are approximately more than one million Algerian youth who have volunteered for jihad in Palestine, and after the events in Iraq, the number increased for volunteering for Iraq, by virtue of the fact that the Iraqi issue is linked to the Palestinian issue. This youth, in terms of methodology, their methodology is upright upon the Book and the Sunnah and the understanding of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). There is a large number of them whom we know and know their morals.

The Shaykh : Do I understand from your words, may Allah bless you, that the million were raised on the call of the Book and the Sunnah?

The questioner : In my knowledge, that is the case.

The Shaykh : I say this is a great opening. And when did this happen?

The questioner : Since several years, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : How many years, I mean?

The questioner : More than perhaps nine years or more.

The Shaykh : Nine years, you were able to raise one million Muslims? No, not you alone, but you and those who take refuge in you. Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, was with the ten promised Paradise.

The questioner : The Algerian country, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. In the Algerian country, in every province, there are youth, praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. An opening has been made for them to understand the upright methodology, and they work to spread this. And mostly, those who volunteer are those who understand Islam with the correct understanding, mostly. I am not speaking about the other movements. And mostly, even those who went to Afghanistan, most of them were the upright youth who understand the Book and the Sunnah with a correct understanding.

The Shaykh : But the other movements must be with you in the jihad.

The questioner : Yes, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : This is it. So if you have a million, how many are the other movements?

The questioner : I did not count, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Approximately, O Professor, may Allah bless you. Approximately, not exactly?

The questioner : The important thing is the issue. I am shy to mention the number, as there is a kind of displaying a side...

The Shaykh : The number is not recorded against you, because we say, and you say, "approximately one hundred, five thousand?"

The questioner : Most of the youth present in Algeria who want to volunteer, meaning the majority of the youth, are those who are committed to the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the upright methodology. Most of them are so, and they represent the largest segment in Algeria. They have an influence on their brothers in Tunisia, and they have an influence on their brothers in the Maghreb.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner : Whereas the other movements, with their effort and work, do not reach the level of...

Another questioner : Clarification for the Shaykh: one million volunteers compared to thirty million in Algeria, because one million is in perspective.

The Shaykh : No, no. It is understood that the number, may Allah bless the Algerian brothers, is in the millions. This is known in any case. This is a good clarification. Yes, this million, may Allah bless you. I had previously raised this with you. Have you studied this issue? How can these people be sent for jihad in the path of defending the Iraqi people who are being attacked by these disbelievers? How can they be sent without being exposed to a fierce attack before they reach the land of jihad? Have you studied this point?

The questioner : Yes, we have studied it.

The Shaykh : And solutions were placed?

The questioner : Solutions were placed, but the implementation is still pending. The solutions are placed, but sometimes you find that they exist, but the implementation is difficult. The difficulty comes in the implementation, so we see when we implement.

The Shaykh : Is knowing some of the solutions at least among the matters that it is permissible to speak about, or not?

The questioner : With you, but it is not on the tape.

The Shaykh : Okay, we tell him.

The questioner : These are also among the questions raised there in Algeria, perhaps due to their lack of contact with reality and their failure to observe the conditions. They leave them fearful when we say, "Train immediately. Now the government will clash with you, and so-and-so will happen, and what happened in Hama will happen, and what happened in the Islamic world will happen." They raise these issues. But the other organized work, perhaps they have no knowledge of it. So, as soon as we called for training in Algeria, we said, "Either you train the people, or we will train them by force." The brothers came to us and asked, "How do you do this?" We said, "We have two ways of training. There is military training, which we requested the government to open the barracks for. And there is another type of physical training, because the municipalities in the Algerian territory—we currently have sixty-five percent of all the municipalities belonging to the Islamic Salvation Front, located throughout the territory, with actual organization and supervision. The municipality has sports halls and fields. This type of training is what they feared. And indeed, when the state banned military training, we started training in the fields and halls, and nothing happened."

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. In my opinion, this does not cause fear. What causes fear is your saying to the officials there, "Either you train, or we will train." That is what causes fear. So, I may be one of those who feared this word. But if you clarified to the one threatened by this word, which is the state, the speech would not be straight. That is, either you train the people in weapons and fighting and jihad, and so on, or we will train them in physical exercise. This is not what is implied by your speech, so that you return and understand the people. No, we are not going to clash with the state and create enmity between us and our government. Because if they do not train us in weapons, we will train in strengthening the body. If the offer were like this, it would not frighten anyone, neither the state nor the people you refer to who do not know the reality. So, in truth, I say that your saying to the rulers there, "Either you train, or we will train," I think this is contrary to the policy of the Shari'ah. What is your opinion?

The questioner : The policy of the Shari'ah is the flexible aspect of the Islamic Shari'ah. And I think that the policy of the Shari'ah is not what the Shari'ah has explicitly stated, but rather what does not contradict the Shari'ah. This is my understanding of the policy of the Shari'ah.

The Shaykh : This is not the place for research now. I am saying this is not from the policy of the Shari'ah.
Al-Halabi : Even with this meaning.

The Shaykh : This means that you say to the rulers as a threat, while you are the one being threatened, not the rulers. As the experience has unfortunately shown, as you quoted from some of the brothers that they feared that what happened in Syria would happen to you. When you say to the ruler, "Either you train the people, or we will take over the training," it means you look at yourself in terms of strength and power as being above, and the rulers are below. We hope that is the case, but I do not think it is, unless you think, as you said earlier, "The people of Makkah know its valleys best." Is that the case?

The questioner : Yes, that is the case.

The Shaykh : Inform us and clarify for us.

The questioner : That is the case, meaning we can say that the matters, meaning the Muslims in Algeria, meaning they constitute the state. It is the state that fears them, not the other way around, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : O Shaykh, may Allah bless you. I hope you are cautious in this matter. Indeed, we fear that what happened to us Syrians will happen to our Algerian brothers, what happened to our Egyptian brothers, what happened to our Hijazi brothers, and all these news, incidents, and trials that have occurred, which you are aware of. And therefore...

The questioner : And therefore, since I am aware of them, I must benefit from them, for the happy one is the one who learns from the experience of others. How can I proceed with a failed experiment? We want to repeat a failed experiment. We must benefit from the experiences of others and move forward one step. This is what we are doing, meaning all the brothers, whether in the Front or the brothers who are not affiliated with the Front, because we do not require that a person be in the Islamic Salvation Front for us to deal with him. We have no partisanship, and praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. We are all brothers. This one is convinced by the system and organization, so he is also our brother. The others are the same; they have what we have, and they bear what we bear. There is no partisanship or anything of that sort.

The Shaykh : No, no, this is not our research.

The questioner : No, no, O Shaykh, this is a digression. Sometimes, O Shaykh, a person digresses, no more and no less.

The Shaykh : True, but the digression should not be so long that it diverts us from what we were dealing with. You are not recording what is not sugar now. Record it. It means it is a word of truth intended for falsehood.

The questioner : From before them.

The Shaykh : It needs to be noted.

The questioner : And if you want to write, write, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : No, no, not like this, so that some of our brothers do not understand from you what you do not intend.

The questioner : I said at the beginning, I know, meaning...

The Shaykh : The question said that the phrase was not like this. We told him, "This is how we heard it from you from the source." He said, "It has a context and a preceding part." We told him, "Let us hear the preceding part and the context." So the intervening sentence came, I do not know its number, three or two. Anyway, let us return to what we were doing. Do you hear how it was?

The questioner : In any case, when we visited the Gulf countries, specifically the Hijaz, then Iraq, and we met King Fahd and we met President Saddam, and we saw the state of the two peoples together and the disagreement between them, and we came here to Jordan and we prayed the midday prayer, because as we were in transit on the plane, anyway, we prayed here in one of the mosques. We found a state of alertness among the people, as if there was a readiness. When we returned to Algeria, this was about seven months ago, we said that the youth should train, and of course, we did not mention weapons. Even if we wanted weapons, there is another way and another method. Do not reveal all your actions to your enemy, from the perspective of preparation. But this time, we truly felt the danger, and the Ummah also felt the danger. So we said, we went to the Minister of Defense and told him, "In your capacity as the person responsible for the National Popular Army, you should open centers for training the youth. If you are unable to open centers for training the youth and you say that they are narrow and you fear that weapons will leak from you and end up in the hands of the general public, causing fitnah, then at least, instead of music in the schools and instead of dancing in the schools, send a person to each school to train them at least in disarming, controlling weapons, and training." He told him, "We will see." We said, "But we are determined, by the will of Allah the Exalted, if you do not train the people, we will take over their training with what is good for this Ummah." This is the scope. And of course, he said, "We will inform you in a few days." But he informed us after one day, not directly, but through the media, that military training is forbidden, and so-and-so is forbidden. We have a plan to train in physical and sports training in martial arts like wrestling, which contains no stick, no knife, no weapon, and nothing of that sort. And indeed, this was done, and the government truly felt that we did not enter with weapons, and they left the brothers alone and no one interfered with them.

The Shaykh : Why did the state announce that training with weapons is forbidden?

The questioner : O Shaykh, out of fear for itself, out of fear that the weapons would turn against it.

The Shaykh : Does this mean that you asked them to train the people in weapons, or else you would do it yourselves?

The questioner : Not in weapons, O Shaykh. We did not mention weapons.

The Shaykh : If this was not the case, why was this announcement made? I mean, I imagine from a distance.

The questioner : They announced about military training, not the other one.

The Shaykh : I know, I mean this. I imagine that the state understood from those who approached them to train the people in the use of weapons that they would train the people in weapons. They understood it that way, and therefore they announced the ban.

The questioner : They were not unaware that we did not intend to train on weapons; they were aware of this. However, there were discussions between the minister and members of the Islamic Salvation Front, and the Minister of the Interior was present. They knew about this, but they truly wanted to mislead public opinion. Therefore, after the announcement, we clarified our position regarding the type of training. We stated, and we remain insistent to this day, on demanding that the government open the military barracks, or assign officers or soldiers to train youth in schools, universities, and secondary schools, in place of music, dance, and singing lessons. We have only one hour of religious education in our educational program, but dance and singing take up more than four hours.

The Shaykh : Is the whole country like this? Now, regarding the rulers in your country, most of them are praying, if Allah wills, right?

The questioner : As for prayer, we do not know; we only see them praying on the two festivals. That is what we see on television. As for in the mosques where they are present, we have not seen any of them.

The Shaykh : Not even on Friday?

The questioner : Not even on Friday. In fact, the Prime Minister, at one point, wanted to set a limit on building mosques and said, "We do not need anyone to teach us the Islamic religion; we know it, and we do not need lessons from any group."

The Shaykh : This confirms that you must be on your guard.

Another questioner : Just for clarification, you mentioned that the government’s ban, and often its focus, is on the government’s position regarding the training issue. It must be known that America, specifically, as well as France and Britain, in these circumstances—after the war and before the start of the war—carefully study the reactions of Arab governments to the Gulf issue. If they notice that a government has become entangled with Iraq and has intervened beyond diplomatic intervention, they will take a stance against it, specifically by cutting off economic relations. Algeria is currently going through a suffocating economic crisis, which has opened several doors to obtain funds from France, America, and even the Gulf states. The government did not agree to military training, even though it was reassured by the Islamic Salvation Front, so that its position would not become clear to the Americans, to Israel, and to the Western countries, and so that the diplomatic or economic position would not be compromised. In this context, the Saudi state objected to the position or the manner in which the Algerian newspapers wrote, and objected to the demonstrations carried out by the people in the streets, meaning public opinion. Then an official message came from the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that it justified public opinion and the journalists’ statements, saying that this represents only public opinion and the press, while the government’s position will come to you through diplomatic channels. That is, the government, as a government, did not want to clarify its official position, which the Islamic Salvation Front adopted, and which is a legitimate position in this context. However, it is reassured, and the position taken by the Front is in its favor as a government that is reassured on this side. This is just for clarification.

The Shaykh : What did Kuwait send to your country?

Another questioner : Saudi Arabia.

The Shaykh : Saudi Arabia or Kuwait? Saudi Arabia.

Another questioner : The Gulf states. There are contracts and financial aid.

The Shaykh : Now, what is behind this? In your opinion.

Another questioner : Behind this is that the Algerian government, specifically, is very reserved, and it is between the hammer and the anvil, as they say, between the position of the people, which is a legitimate position...