Ruling on saying: The disbeliever is better than the Muslim

Question:
The phrase has become widespread among people in this age, especially among business owners, that the disbeliever is better than the Muslim. This is incorrect. In fact, most companies have come to rely exclusively on disbelievers, excluding Muslims. This is a serious matter. We ask you to issue a general Friday sermon that is sufficient to refute such ignorant people who embrace Islam in name only, so that everyone may know the danger of this phrase, especially since the Friday sermon is attended by all people.

Answer:
This was addressed in the previous lecture by Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, in the lecture on the night of last Friday, where he warned about this matter. He stated that what some people say—that the disbeliever is better than the Muslim, or that the Christians are better than the Muslims—is apostasy from Islam (may Allah protect us). This is a great evil. Whoever says that the disbelievers are better than the Muslims has imitated the Jews in their saying to the disbelievers: "You are on a better path than Muhammad and his Companions." This is a major abomination. Even if a disbeliever may strive to renew his merchandise and market his goods with honesty in some matters, he possesses disbelief, misguidance, and great corruption that indicate his wickedness, harm, and corruption, and that he is among the most impure of servants and among the most evil of servants.
The Muslim, even if he has some sins, is far better than the disbeliever; because he has faith in Allah and His Messenger, and he has the oneness of Allah. He is better than the disbeliever in many respects. Even if he has some sins in which he has contradicted his religion, Islam forbids him from sins, forbids him from betrayal, and forbids him from lying. But the disbelievers are not better than him! Rather, he is better and on a straighter path than the disbelievers, even if he has the sins he has. However, it is obligatory for him to fear Allah, and to beware of sins, lying, and betrayal.
And if the disbeliever may strive for honesty, or for improving the merchandise, or for the quality of the craft, for his immediate gain and his immediate worldly life, it is not permissible for you, O Muslim, to be lax in this so that you do not become a cause of blame for the Muslims. Rather, it is obligatory for you to also strive to perfect the craft with trustworthiness, without betrayal, with honesty, and without lying, so that you do not open a door to evil for the Muslims. Rather, it is obligatory for you to beware with the utmost caution of everything that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden. But it is not permissible for any Muslim, on this account, to say that the disbelievers are better than the Muslims, or straighter than the Muslims, or more honest than the Muslims. All of this is invalid, all of it is a great abomination. And whoever says this absolutely has committed disbelief. We ask Allah for safety.
This is a great affliction, may Allah protect us! And it is not permissible to import disbelievers to this Peninsula, nor is it permissible to employ them for service, whether women or men, nor for work. This Peninsula must be purified from disbelievers. Disbelievers must be kept away from it, and no one should be imported for it, nor employed for it, except Muslims, with scrutiny—also with scrutiny and caution—so that only a good Muslim or a good Muslim woman is employed when there is a need for it.
As for employing Jews, or Christians, or Buddhists, or others from among the disbelievers, this is all an abomination and not permissible in this Peninsula. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed to expel the polytheists from this Peninsula, and said: Then he instructed this at his death (peace and blessings be upon him), so 'Umar expelled them after that.
The point is that this Peninsula is the sanctuary of Islam and the cradle of Islam. It is not permissible for a second religion to be established in it. It is not permissible for two religions to remain in it ever. Rather, only one religion remains in it. And it is not permissible to bring disbelievers to it, except in cases of dire necessity through the path of the rulers in something that benefits the Muslims, and in a dire necessity for the Muslims, such as an engineer who is needed, or a doctor who is needed, in a rare and infrequent manner in cases of dire necessity. Just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) allowed the Jews in Khaybar for a need, and then 'Umar expelled them after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed to expel them.
The point is that this is a very serious matter from which one must beware.

Question : Is the Gulf full of churches?

Answer: Yes, it is included in the Peninsula, and it is not permissible. Yemen is included in the Peninsula according to the correct view. It is not permissible to build churches in it, nor to open Christian schools in it, nor to allow their use. And if these negligent people do so, and some princes are lax, their action is not a proof.