NOTE: Ibrāhīm bin Sulaymān al-Rubaysh is one of the senior leaders within al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula and is their chief ideologue.Prior to joining up with AQAP, al-Rubaysh was in Guantánamo Bay prison until December 2006. Following his release he entered into the Saudi rehabilitation program, which supposed to reform jihadists and transition them back into regular society. He went to Yemen, though, in 2008 and joined up with AQAP. The below English translation/transcription is unedited and came from al-Rubaysh’s Arabic audio message, which was released on September 18.
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I send this message to every sympathizer of the Ummah in the Land of the Haramain (the Two Sanctuaries: Makkah and Medinah). I send it to the scholars and the preachers, to the sermonizers on the pulpits and the imams of the mosques, to the teachers and instructors in the universities, to the caretakers in the homes and to the jealous fathers and guardians, to every Muslim man and woman who prefers the commandments of Allah over all other else, and are not among those who, if provided a salary,, pay no mind to what is occurring to the religion. To all those, I send this message asking them to take it into great consideration. I remind you of Allah who entrusted you with your Religion and granted you guardianship over what is under your hands. As the Honest and Trustworthy, prayers and peace be upon him, said
“If the shepherd to whom Allah granted guardianship dies having neglectedhis flock, Allah will ban him from Paradise.”
I remind the people of knowledge of the covenant by which Allah bound them:
“And remember Allah took a covenant from the people of the Book, to make it known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it; but they threw it away behind their backs, and purchased with it some miserable gain! And vile was the bargain they made!” (Aali Imran: 187)
If Allah had not made it a duty for us to give advice to Muslims, I would not have taken it upon myself to send this message.
To begin, I ask this question: Are you satisfied with the situation of society and its state of deterioration from which is apparent that it is heading towards an abyss? Each year brings more evil than the last.
Some will answer me by casting a hadith of the Messenger of Allah, prayers and peace be upon him and his household, in which he said:
“If a man says that people are damned, he is more damned than they.”
I will be characterized as a fear-mongerand conspiracy theorist but all this does not matter. He, who wishes to ascertain the truth, let him examine the situation without prejudice.
What will be apparent to those who study the situation is that the problems of sinfulness and corruption have increased and diversified to the point that the senses are inured to them. Inappropriate veiling of women has increased and no market is without it. Even the Masjid-ul-Haraamhas not been spared from it. Cases of impermissible seclusion and its consequences have increased manyfold, and those who sit with the Committee for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue know of these calamities!
The calamity is that our society has delivered itself to its executioner through carelessness or feigning indifference. You see society toying with it without arousing the least resentment, resulting in the appearance of all kinds of legalized sinfulness and corruption, aimed at transforming and westernizing society and effacing all that bespeaks an Islamic identity in societal customs.
As a result, we see foreign exchange programs whereby women are sent out more than men, and they are provided more jobs than men. An identification card for women has been instituted and a serious effort made to gradually enforce this upon them. We hear of a female dean of a certain college who refused to allow female students to take a test without an ID card and the judge who suspended a case until a female client was issued an ID card. It is as if they can do what they want: they will stop marriage contracts, the distribution of inheritances, the purchase or sale of property until the women clients are issued ID cards.
Another form of sinfulness and corruption, of which there is inundation of reports, is the employment of women as actresses and their work as announcers and correspondents on official networks.
Part of the legalized sinfulness and corruption that we see is the mixing of sexes in the hospitals, even though the ability to segregate the sexes is easily available to any who wish to do so. And if they claim that there is a need for men to treat women in some cases, why are the male sections filled with female doctors and nurses?
Another kind of intermingling has come, contrived by the king’s genius. He has realized his dream for which he has been waiting 25 years through the universities where men and women, male and female students mix.
Their plan is to spread corruption and transform society, but gradually so that society will not reject it. As it is said, “Slowly but surely”. Although in fact recent years have witnessed an acceleration in their measures, this will perhaps expose them quicker. Perhaps their haste is due to the fact that they feel secure. Those who think they are safe from punishment will misbehave! They do not fear Allah, and all past experiences have proven that there is no reaction from the people to be feared.
One of their cunning plots to introduce sinfulness and corruption is through claiming journalistic freedom. The beginning was when the Minister of Justice issued a circular to the Shari’ah judges requiring adherence to article 37 of the press and publication laws, stipulating that issues of publication in the newspapers are the purview of the Ministry of Information and not the Shari’ah courts. When the wolf is entrusted with the flock, the field has been opened for people to write what they want with no accountability or supervision, but of course this privilege is not given to all. It is only for certain kinds of writers. They write what they want, in violation of the Shariah, and rejected by our societal customs. Then many voices which are raised in response are disregarded, and with the passage of time, society becomes numbed to this issue.
The closest example of this is the women’s ID card. The newspapers wrote much about this issue, and much has been said about it. When the people were prepared to receive the blow, it was instituted. When its institution was accepted, the time came to gradually enforce it. The turn is coming for women’s athletic clubs and women driving cars.
Their increased audacity is derived from the weakness of those in the forefront of the Islamist movement. You see that a vast majority of the newspapers will not publish an article by them. As for those who do write in the newspapers, they do not even think of discussing these topics, because they know they will not be published. Nothing remains for them but the internet, and one or two satellite channels. As for the other networks, they seldom host them unless they feel that their words will serve their (the network’s) own benefit. When they do appear, their weakness becomes apparent. They expose themselves to shame and melt away with these changes to a shocking degree. Their words they use and the concepts they hold are almost identical to those newspaper writers from other ideologies. They now speak of nationalism, dedication to it, and identification with it, rather than jealousy for Islam. They have begun to utter that such and such is “against the regime and the law”, when previously governance was for Allah alone. You will but seldom hear from their tongues (any talk) of enforcing Allah’s law.
This calamity is not limited to the fact that they will not reject forbidden acts unless the regime also forbids them. Indeed the situation has become worse with many of them, in that they have come to advise people not to condemn forbidden acts unless the regime itself has stipulated that they be banned. And whoever openly rejects forbidden acts, they proceed to admonish him more than the ones who actually committed the forbidden acts. As for he who rejects the forbidden act by deed, this to some of them is a kind of open sin that requires public rejection of the sinner.
Sometimes you see them having discussions with the liberalists in meetings or on TV. Then you will see the weakness of their rhetoric and their lack of audacity. You will see each of the two parties claiming to be the chosen one. Each claims that the rulers back them and what they say, that the regime favors them, and they want to serve the homeland and the interest of the people. Frequently their argument in responding to an opponent is “I do not know more than those in authority” or “the people in authority know where the benefit lies”!
Before, during and after this, they try to strikes the right note to please their rulers. This is done by condemning Jihad under the name of terror. With some of them, it is like salt on food, or purification for prayer. They are afraid that if they are silent their mouths will be muzzled or their Dawah efforts impeded. The situation has reached the point where some of them slander lies against the Mujahideen. And if they talk about the liberalists, they say “My brother liberals”. You see their rulers smile upon them, but give them nothing but more restrictions and spread of sinfulness and corruption.
You see them rejoice because Nayef Ibn Abdul Aziz criticized this newspaper
