The Shaykh’s remarks on Algeria and its experience with parliaments, and the lesson to be drawn from it.

The Shaykh : The Algerians now, whom you hear and I hear every night, with regret, this recurring tragedy. Yesterday, one of the Algerians told me that a decision has just been issued by the Algerian government requiring every employee to shave his beard. Not just those who are being pursued, the Islamists, but every employee in the state must shave his beard. The point is: what is the name of this organization? The Islamic Renaissance?
The student : The Renaissance Party.

The Shaykh : Huh?
The student : The Islamic Renaissance Party.

The Shaykh : Yes, we had advised them after the Gulf crisis, because they passed through here and went to Iraq. Their well-known leader, Ali Belhadj, sat with me here for a few hours. I tried to understand from him why he was fleeing to Iraq, as he told us. I said to him frankly: O Shaykh, you say that you are a Salafi and you are with us, so I assume you do not consider the people you are going to as Salafis. So why do you keep this from us, when advice is a duty, so that we might cooperate? He did not say a single word. We cannot say what he did with Saddam Hussein, but he returned there and they ran for the elections. They succeeded, and you know the story. From here we take a lesson and make it a decisive argument against these Muslim parliamentarians. O people, the parliament is in the hand of this ruler. Today he establishes it, and tomorrow he destroys it. So what do you gain? And the closest example is Algeria. The Islamists succeeded, then this success was overturned, and this Ali and others like him were imprisoned, by the thousands. And today, there is no day but the one after it is worse than it.
The student : Allah is the One to be sought for help, O Shaykh. Even the brothers in... even the Salafis, the brother says, meaning he is observing the conditions: they have split into two groups: a Salafi group that says one thing, and a Salafi group of declaring disbelief and emigration. To the extent that the brothers who participated in the parliament went to Iran and placed flowers on the grave of Khomeini.

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!!
The student : This is the words of one of the brothers. It is reported that he placed flowers on the grave of Khomeini.

The Shaykh : A mujahid, because, Allahu Akbar! Allah is the One to be sought for help, and there is no power or strength except with Allah. And we advise that we continue to learn knowledge and act upon it, until we meet the Face of Allah and have excused ourselves. As for guiding people, the whole matter is in the hand of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).