The “Jihadist” projects of the Takfiris never crossed the boundaries of occupied Palestinian territories

Ahmad Farhat

The “Jihadist” projects of the Takfiris never crossed the boundaries of occupied Palestinian territories. There is no longer room for Palestine and the sacred sites in the glossaries of this approach that are used by the leaders of these groups. Seemingly, they are subjected to demolition as was the case with many of the tombs of the Prophets in Syria and Iraq, not to mention the graves and shrines of saints that were exhumed in Syria.

Not only the Zionists are threatening Al-Aqsa Mosque, but also those who follow the Takfiri approach. This raises a number of questions: suppose that those groups came to Jerusalem, what will happen to its sacred sites? Would they be demolished as well? Are these groups going to implement all the things that the Israeli entity has been afraid to do for decades?

Of course, these Takfiri groups will not enter occupied Palestine as long as it remained under the Israeli occupation’s control. This comes because we have always heard calls for “General Mobilization” and “Jihad” in almost all the Islamic countries, but not in occupied Palestine. They aim at waging a war against the Muslims only, at controlling their properties, and at demolishing their homes as well.

For instance, Jerusalem, geographically speaking, is nearer than Syria in terms of the thousands of Tunisians who came to fight in Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Aleppo, Damascus, and in other areas. Moreover, the militants of the “Salafi movement” in Jordan, those who are fighting in Syria in order to liberate Jerusalem at a later stage as they claim, are just a stone’s throw away from the West Bank, occupied by the Zionists.

ISIL leader, in his most recent message, urged his fighters to fight in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, but did not refer to Palestine, as there was no hint of it. This clearly excludes the possibility of fighting the Muslims’ primary enemy that is violating the Islamic sanctities.

Not only Al-Baghdadi kept occupied Palestine out of his “jihad-based” circle, also the leader of al-Nusra Front Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, in a recent interview with Al-Manaarah Al-Baidhaa’ Foundation that belongs to al-Nusra, did not mention occupied Palestine on purpose, and took no notice of practicing Jihad therein. According to the text of the interview, he said: “...Not forgetting as well, there is a sensitivity that reached its peak with the arrival of the Mujahideen to the border between them and Israel. This no doubt, incites fear within Israel, which is a state that all contending parties are seeking to protect. It also places fear within those who have created alliances in the fight to take control of the entire region, (if we say America and Russia). We are able to say regarding the area of Shaam; the black and white have gathered against it, various nations of Kufr (disbelief) have gathered against it”.

Al-Joulani did not use the term “occupied Palestine” when he talked about the border, but he said instead the borders of “Israel”.

Accordingly, why didn’t the scope of the war of al-Nusra militants expand to include the occupied territories to liberate them, isn’t this their goal as they claim? Perhaps al-Nusra Front that is confronting in the Levant so as to gain influence is also seeking to protect the occupation countries!

This also raises a question: is al-Nusra Front ready to move forward towards the occupied territories and to abandon the “humanitarian” services provided for it by the Israeli army such as the artillery fire directed at Syrian army positions and the treatment of its injured elements in the Israeli hospitals?

Over and above, there is also a similar group called “Jund Al-Aqsa” (the soldiers of Al-Aqsa), but it seems that it is unfamiliar with the path that could take it to Jerusalem. It began to fight in Idlib, Damascus and in other areas, as if it is searching for the road to Jerusalem or perhaps its ally state that is now controlling the crossing border with occupied Palestine is preventing it from getting there.

In fact, a quick review of the armed groups on the Syrian arena reveals that their tongues and deeds lack the concept of practicing jihad in occupied Palestine against the Zionists. Quite the opposite, they have all expressed their willingness to collaborate with the Israeli entity against the Syrian State, and they announced this in mass media and in International conferences.

Why are they perpetrating brutality against the Muslims, and restoring friendly relations with the occupiers?

Fighting the Near Enemy

They believe in a number of concepts and fatwas that provide justifications for not practicing jihad in occupied Palestine against the Zionists, at the least at the current stage. According to what they believe in, fighting the near enemy takes precedence over fighting the far enemy, and “the near” means here those who reside in a Muslim country and disagree with their standpoints. They are convinced that it isn’t yet the right time to liberate Al-Aqsa, despite the increasing number of attacks against it.

Al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the most prominent theoretician of this organization even before the killing of Osama bin Laden, says:

“The origins of the Islamic Law give high priority to fighting those apostate rulers over fighting other pure infidels for three reasons. The first reason is that a defensive jihad takes priority over the offensive jihad because those apostate rulers are enemies that dominated the Islamic countries. The second reason relies in the fact that the sin of the apostate is graver than that of the pure infidel. Whereas, the third reason comes because they are the nearby enemy”.

Although al-Zawahiri was speaking here about the rulers, yet the same goes for those who disagree with him, and thus giving priority for the near enemy over the far one is the main function of these takfiri groups. In this context, the theoretician of the takfiri tendency Hani al-Sibai says: “The near enemy is a malignant tumor destroying and devastating the body of our nation, is the root of all disease, and the origin of the scourge, and thus getting rid of it is a legal duty”. Al-Sibai in this is talking about the individuals and not the rulers.

Hence, according to them, fighting the Muslims is a legal duty that has a priority over liberating Al-Aqsa and defending the sacred sites. It has been found to displace the Muslims and to slaughter them with various justifications. In this regard, a number of fatwas authorizing the normalization of relations with the state of the Zionist occupation have been issued. For example, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, the Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1992 until his death in 1999, issued a fatwa authorizing the so-called making normalization conventions with the Israeli enemy, where he stated that “So if it in the interests of Muslims in a certain country to reconcile with the Jews, with regard to exchanging ambassadors, selling and purchasing and other transactions deemed lawful by the purified Shari’a (Islamic law), there is nothing wrong with this”.

As stressed by the advisor of the Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Ibrahim Najm, the terrorist organizations are misusing the verses of the Holy Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his household), including the Hadith that call for Jihad. He pointed out that these takfiri groups “are pretending that they are calling for jihad and are really applying the Shari’a Law, while they are conducting acts of intimidation and terrorism and distorting words from their [proper] usages”.

Based on the aforementioned, we find that the takfir groups are extending the hand of reconciliation to the state of occupation, at the same time as they are raising the sword in the face of the Muslims who are mostly carrying the banner of Palestine and defending the sacred sites. This puts emphasis on their dogmatic deviation and highlights many suspicions surrounding their proximal and distal goals.

Adopting this approach, the followers of the takfirist thought “migrate” to the battlefronts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Chechnya, Somalia and the Maghreb. It sounds as if it will never be Palestine’s turn until fighting the “Rawafid” (Shiites), the “Nusayris” (Alawites), the “Nazareth Christians”, the “Murtadeen” (Apostates), and the “Seculars” completely. This will also never happen but only after exterminating the “Abstainers” and eliminating those who are the followers of the same school in the internal battles. Just then, the Islamic Nation will not exist any longer, except for those Islamic countries upon which Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, has mercy.

Translated by: Maysa Hazimeh