Interview with Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar Sharia Committee (Part 1)

The Sharia Committee of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar has given an interview on various topics including its opinion of the Free Syrian Army.

The interview was published on JMA’s official page on VKontakte. I have translated (most of) the first half of the (very long) interview here. The second part is coming shortly.

Use of my translations or extracts is not permitted without consent!

Q: What are you fighting for, what are your aims?

A: We are fighting for a single goal, so that the Word of Allah is highest of all, as Allah said [Quran quote].

In this ayah, the Almighty Allah calls on us to fight until we have wiped from the face of the Earth all that which tempts people and prevents them from worshipping Allah alone, and considering as forbidden that which He has forbidden us and permitted that which He has permitted us.

Today, the Kuffar have not left a single Muslim country without occupying it and establishing over it their governor-apostates who rule over the Muslim nations with laws dictated by the Kuffar. However sad it is to admit that fact, however, the laws and systems like democracy and liberalism have been invented to protect the laws of the perverts and thieves who started to rule the Muslim Ummah.

Right now you won’t find a single Muslim country that is ruled by the Laws of Allah, commanding to do good and forbidding that which is blameworthy. You won’t find in the so-called Islamic countries a single ruler who could be called even a wicked Muslim. The people who are ruling over the Muslims today have sold out their religion and their souls to the Kuffar and are occupying themselves with all available means to erase the remainders of Islam in the countries they rule over.

Any call to establish the Sharia is brutally suppressed, the righteous scholars and the worshippers [dawatchiks] who speak the truth are either in jail or murdered. Shirk, zina, booze, is spreading everywhere, righteousness is considered old-fashioned, corruption is all the rage, in short, this is the contemporary reality of the Islamic world..
As far as we are concerned, we have gone out on this path and we are waging this jihad in order to eradicate these termites that are spreading throughout our pious Ummah, and with Allah’s help we are not going to turn from this path until we liberate our ancestral Muslim lands from these tyrants, and until we establish the Laws of Allah that will bring equality, justice, and purity to people, both physically and spiritually.

Q: What can you say about the allegations in your address that you are takfirists and that you do not listen to the scholars and don’t take them into account?

A: Of course all this is slander, just another attempt to discredit us, what can I say…it’s a tired, hackneyed phrase, rusty, but all the same the question was asked so with Allah’s permission we will answer.

We, praise Allah, are following the Quran and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the righteous forefathers, and we strive not to depart by a single iota from this manhaj. As for the scholars, I swear by the Lord of the Kaaba that we respect, love and listen to the righteous and true scholars who act in accordance with their knowledge, but if they (those who are accusing us) mean by scholars those donkeys who are hung around with books and who are forever loafing around the throne of the Taghut, handing out those fatwas that they want to hear from them, then really, we did not, do not and will not take any notice of those people. How can it be otherwise? After all it is they who issue fatwas, the falsity of which they know all too well, the Taghut gives them the task of justifying one or another of his vile deeds and they immediately rush to do this, giving all this stuff in a Sharia ruling….

May Allah preserve us from their evil and machinations. May Allah strengthen us in his Path with those scholars who are truthful with Allah and are not afraid to censure those who themselves censure, clarifying truth from lies… I’ll tell you honestly, we dream of seeing such scholars and those who are called on the lands of Jihad, and especially here in Syria. The people here really needs spiritual support and calling.

Q. Can you tell our readers about the work you are doing among the local population on territories that you have already liberated, how you relate to them, and how they see you and your presence in Syria?

A: Praise the Lord, in the areas we have liberated, we have opened several Islamic institutes for training preachers from the most talented students. Also, in every mosque in more or less large regions we are conducting active lessons in aqida and fiqh for parishioners, as well as Quran reading lessons for kids, after wehich we hold competitions with special gifts for the kids. Also, we plan to open a high school with both modern and Sharia subjects. Praise the Lord, the numbers of worshippers are growing, more and more are returning to their religion, more and more people every day are convinced that no one gives a stuff about them apart from the Mujahideen.

Sharia courts have been opened in order to solve disputes that arise among the local population, where everyone can come and testify if he was harmed by anything or if he was treated unfairly. This people has been entrusted to us by Allah, we must take care of them and their well being in the Dunya and Ahira. We invite all our brothers to be lenient and kind to these people because they have suffered and are suffering so much. Yes, you meet quite a few who are wicked, and even some who gave up their religion, but in a percentage of those you meet you find that there will be more Muslims who love and obey their religion, so we must not be hasty…we should be patient with them.

Of course it is sad to say this, but in our jamaat we had those who don’t have a basic understanding of the most basic questions of religion, who accused the entire Syrian nation of being Kuffar and tried to prove to us that the Syrians are all Kuffar apart from those whose Islam we have seen. These people did not undersand that they were repeating the same words that the Ayubovsty said (followers of Ayub Astrakhansky, a well known takfirist), and that the Khawarij said the same thing hundreds of years ago. They claim that if the government of some country is a Taghut and he rules by Taghut laws then the nation that lives in that country are unbelievers and in general they are considered Kuffar…

We say the same thing as the jurists about territories over which Kuffar laws prevail and where power is in the hands of the infidels, that this is called Kuffar territory. But we are sure that this term is not concerned with the position of the population of that territory… This term applies to a territory dominated by the laws of the Kuffar, even if most of the population there are Muslims…

Shaved beards and an external likeness to infidels, which is a common phenomenon, is not a reason to accuse Muslims of being unbelievers…
Sheikh Abu Katada al Falistini also wrote an entire book on this subjects and considered this issue in detail and we do not know any scholars accepted by the Mujahideen who adhered to a different opinion on this matter.

Q: What about the Free Syrian Army, is it true that they are democrats and closely tied with the West? How should we relate to them, if so?

A: Like a lot of brothers here, you’ve gotten the wrong impression of the FSA. The FSA is not an organization and it’s not an army with a single command point and a chief of staff, it’s various groups, in various parts of Syria, with various commanders, various sponsors and various views. They are usually lumped together because they call themselves free forces and add another star to the flag they had before the revolution. And that single star symbolises their revolution, nothing more.

To cut a long story short, we can’t generalize and say anything good or bad about the FSA, since it is impossible to generalize about what is divided and split by taste and color. They include groups who fight just for money, there are those who just take revenge, there are those who came out to defend their village or town, and there are no small number of those who see freedom and equality in the Western model of democracy and the West manipulates them for its geopolitical interests, and the West is putting its bets on them for when Bashar’s regime falls.

However, there are no less if not more in the FSA and those groups who have declared and proclaimed but also proved that they renounce democracy and those who seek it and that the West is a traitor and accomplice of what is happening in Syria…

Therefore our position in relation to them is simple and clear, we say that those who fight to establish Sharia and protect their lands from the Alawite invaders are our brothers and Mujahideen in the path of Allah until we see something from them that convinces us otherwise.
And as for those who fight for the sake of establishing democracy, liberalism or other idols that will re-enslave the people after the fall of Bashar, we do not consider such a Muslim and do not see any justification for this.

Source: http://www.chechensinsyria.com/?p=22181