A Message of Hope and Glad Tidings to Our People in Egypt Part 9 Why Did We Rebel Against Him?

By the Mujahid Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri, May Allah Protect Him

In the name of Allah, and all praise be to Allah, and may prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and those who followed him. O Muslim brothers everywhere, As-Salaamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuhu: This is the ninth episode of the message of hope and glad tidings to our people in Egypt. In the seventh episode I have reached the point of reviewing the British attempt to corrupt the system of governance in Egypt through the establishment of a secular tribalistic state, which claims to be democratically independent, but in fact it is running by the occupier's bayonets and cannons. I had stated that the British had sought for that through several endeavors: First: corrupting the legislative system. Second: granting Egypt a false independence. Third: creating a national tribalistic state in Egypt. Then the fourth means which is: give way to a false political life within Egypt. And this has happened through several means, the most important of it was the imposition of a secular constitution by force and power of the occupier, then authorizing a political life with three poles: the British high commissioner, the palace, and the political parties. They are keen on satisfying the British high commissioner, who is observing the game from extensively from a distance and interferes when necessary. The political life in Egypt reached the bottom of corruption in the incident of fourth of February 1942.

Then I left the historical narration in the eighth episode to congratulate those released from Israeli prisons, and to congratulate the Islamic Ummah on the martyrdom of the virtuous Sheikh Jamal Ibrahim Ishtiwi al-Misrati - known as Attiyat Allah may Allah have great mercy on him and to salute the heroes who blew up the gas pipeline to Israel, and to talk about the clashes between the army and the Christians Copts, and then I ended it with a message of support and substantiation to our brothers in the prisoners. In this episode, I also feel compelled to leave the historical narration to touch on the accelerating events in Egypt and those surrounding it. And in a way of reassuring our Muslim Ummah and all the free honest people in this world and every oppressed, aggrieved, and persecuted person by the arrogant West, I congratulate them all at the beginning of my speech on the rapid retraction of the American influence in the world. One of the latest signs of this downturn and retreat was the reduction in the budget of the American Department of Defense, and that great event obliged Obama to announce it himself in an attempt to mitigate its impact on the American people. The driving force behind the crisis facing America, which eventually forced it to reduce its defense budget, was Allah's accommodation to the Mujahideen in helping them to subdue the current evil empire. These debilitating acts began with the blessed expeditions in Washington and New York and Pennsylvania, then by the giant jihadi resistance that stood up to the American arrogance in Afghanistan and Iraq. So America was forced to accept defeat in both of them and withdraw its troops from Iraq, then begin to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, and then accept and even press for negotiation with the Islamic Emirate, which America considered a terrorist group that must be eliminated. Then came the blessed Arab uprisings to prove to the American public that they face a world-wide awakening that spread through the Muslim and Arab world, and this happened to coincide with their realization that the military arrogance only reaps losses. The popular Arab uprisings proved to have an Islamic orientation in its greater part, and they rose up and raged against America's agents who wasted their lives in suppressing the Islamic orientation of their people under the guidance, support, and planning of America and those who have turned their countries into stations of torture, detention, and persecution within the Zionist-Crusader system. With regard to the American military failure and economic crisis with the blessing of the Mujahideen's sacrifices, and to the overthrow of the regimes that were implementing America's policies, and towards the Islamic orientation of the people who took part in the uprising against the oppression, the United States decided to step backwards in an attempt to split the unity of those orienting themselves towards Islam, to defuse its robust public support, and to derail the orientation towards Islam, which opposes America, and redirect it into mazes and eddies that waste their power and dispel their driving force. In short, America began to resort to the manner of doing things like foxes after they had been dealing with us by using the manner of wolves.

But before elaboration on this new reality, I would like to briefly mention two matters: The first is related to the prisoners from our Ummah in America. America repudiated all signed agreements and treaties regarding them. America has to release them, and on top of them Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. America will release them whether it wants to or not, with Allah's will and power. America is trying to find any expedient as a pretext to ignore the release, but in the end, America must release them, with Allah's will and power. This is a message that America should understand very well, but also it must understand that the world after the eleventh of September is not the same as before, and that it is not the same before the American defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The second is a greeting of respect and admiration for those who blew up the gas pipeline to Israel for the tenth time, May Allah reward these lions and give them the best of rewards for refusing and rejecting humiliation, subordination, and surrender that is imposed by the ruling regime in Egypt upon our people and our Ummah, and may Allah give them the best of rewards for keeping the spirit of jihad against Israel burning in Egypt, the country of jihad and garrisoning. I ask Allah to protect them against the plots of the Jews and those who are surrendering to them. My Muslim brothers in Egypt, a corrupt ruler has been overthrown, but the corrupt governance is still ruling. The desired goal is not to come to power either with a free, strong government or a limited, weak one, but the aim is to rule by Islam. And wasting efforts by coming to power without ruling by Islam is disaster, but the greatest disaster is coming to power and then ruling by anything except Islam or by what opposes Islam or by what antagonizes Islam. There are milestones for change that must be achieved by all the sincere and wellintentioned people in Egypt in general and among the Islamic movement in particular. Without achieving it, the corrupt regime will remain spoiling our religion and our life, and I will refer briefly here to three of the most important of these milestones, which are: Shari'ah governance, freedom from foreign domination, and putting an end to social injustice. As for the governance of Shari'ah, we have two references or two ideologies, to whom does command or judgment belong? Is it for the people or the Creator of the people? So if we concede to the opponents of Islam that sovereignty and the authority to legislate is for the people, so we are then defeated before going into battle. We should not overlook what Abdul Ghaffar Muhammad - a secular judge - realized when he confirmed that some of the evidence of the Constitution's violation of Islam are that many of its articles grant the people the right to enact legislation while in Islam the right belongs to Allah alone. Some people argue that we will accept the authority of the enemies of Islam that sovereignty is for the people and then achieve our goals part by part. This is self-deception. We cannot accept achieving partial gains by compromising or losing the basics. There is nothing wrong if we make partial gains provided that we do not give up the basics, and when these alleged gains have more harm than good.

But if the two evils occurred by losing basics then the partial gains had more harm than benefit, then we would have lost this world and the hereafter, and the corrupt regime would continue ruling and practicing authoritarianism by the legitimacy that we had accepted, and the authority that we had agreed on. Some people claim that the second article of the current Constitution is sufficient and what we need is to implement it. This is wrong. The article is a major gap that allows the secularists and opponents of Islam to continue ruling through secular laws imposed on Muslims. They refer to the constitutional court judgment in interpreting this article, and this is not evidence. This court itself issued rulings that openly contradict the Shari'ah and stand in the way of applying it. Sheikh Ahmed Ashush - may Allah protect him - cited in one of his articles egregious or rather immoral examples that contradicts Islam openly and shamelessly. There is also an earlier ruling to the Supreme Constitutional Court saying that the second article of the Constitution does not operate retroactively, i.e. all articles of the Constitution and the laws that preceded it and which form most of the Constitution and the law are legitimate and enforceable, though many of it - if not most of it are incompatible with the Islamic Shari'ah and sometimes converse it. And we should not overlook what Abdul Ghaffar Muhammad - a secular judge noticed that the Constitution contradicts the Islamic law with the presence of the second article. Here is the way out of this dispute: why isnt the rule of "Governance by Shari'ah" carefully put together in clear, concise and comprehensive words free of any loopholes and leaves no room for any manipulator to misinterpret or get around it to disable its implementation? Why do not we agree on a specific formula, a formula which states that Islamic Shari'ah is the source of legislation, and all other constitutions and laws become null and void? Furthermore, this rule supersedes the constitutions and laws and administrative orders so that it cannot be manipulated or changed or distorted. The legislative corruption is accumulated and huge, and we need to rid the Constitution and laws of all that contradicts the Shari'ah, and the corner stone and the first step in this way is confirming the rule of Shari'ah and to safeguard it against. Then, the steps of change follows. In this regard, I commend the statement issued by the Libyan Scholars Association in Benghazi, this past Dhu al-Qa'da commenting on the temporary constitutional proclamation, and I call upon the loyal, free Egyptian scholars to follow their example in pointing out the truth of the Constitution's articles conclusively without any way of manipulation or escaping. My brothers in Egypt in general and the Islamic movements in particular, ruling by Shari'ah and making it the supreme rule that governs and is not governed, orders and is not ordered, leads and is not led, is not only an issue of creed or belief, but it also is an issue of reforming politics, society, and the economy. This is because of the nature of Islam, which does not separate faith from Shari'ah. Without the implementation of the supreme Shari'ah, there will not be any reform, and we will continue to engage in idle talk in the same swamp of corruption that we suffered from for nearly two centuries. I hope

that we do not weaken in achieving this religious duty under the pretense that the world powers resist us and do not allow us to do so, like those excuses that Hosni Mubarak was apologizing with to prevent the applicability and implementation of Shari'ah, otherwise why did we rebel against him?! The second primary milestone in change that I wish to refer to briefly is the freedom from foreign domination, and I cite two prominent examples of this freedom: The first: the necessity of getting out of the system of American and Western political and military subordination. The central role of Egypt in the defense plans of American and Western interests in our region and the world must be stopped. We must stop all forms of this subservient role of joint maneuvers, establishing facilities, storage, provisioning, sharing information and operations and getting involved in America's war on Islam in the name of terrorism. Egypt must be cleansed of all American military bases and Egyptian people must know the size, role and number of those bases, and quality of the forces in it and the activities that they engage in and the agreements that existed to legitimize that sort of activities. We must stop making the Suez Canal and Egyptian air space available for the passage of armies, weapons, and equipment that kill our brothers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and which occupies the Arabian Peninsula. Any honest fair and free government cannot accept participating in killing their own brothers and destructing their country. We should immediately stop Egypt's participation in the historic crime launched by America in its war on Islam in the name of the war on terrorism. The details of that crime must be revealed to the people. How many secret prisons were part of this cooperation? How many detainees? What are their personal and public details? And how were they treated? What is their fate? How many executioners were involved in this crime? What are their names and their jobs? Where are they now? All security apparatuses must be cleared of all criminals who participated in oppressing, torturing, and maltreating people - they should not remain safe and secure from punishment and retribution till now. I call upon all the free and honorable ones in Egypt to collect every piece of information in this regard to issue a blacklist with the names, jobs and whereabouts of the people's executioners. The war of the Egyptian regime against the Islamic movements must be stopped immediately, and all the victims of this regime must be released immediately from prisons, and to ensure the return of thousands of persecuted from exile. Otherwise, the same crimes will be continued by the hands of the same criminals after the fall of the corrupt ruler while the corrupt ruling did not fall. This must be stopped immediately, and we should not utilize the same excuses that Hosni Mubarak used to continue serving the American and Western interests, otherwise why did

we rebel against him?! The second example: It is obligatory to renounce, reject, and repudiate the peace treaty with Israel. Some people imagine that the peace treaty with Israel is merely a truce with them, and these people - if we think well of them - did not read the treaty. The treaty is a confession of the legitimacy of the Israeli presence on the land of Palestine and accepting that this land is their land and is their right, and denying the religious personal and individual duty which is known by necessity, that is the obligation to wage Jihad against the Jewish occupiers and expel them from the land of Islam. I have covered this issue in some detail in the book "Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet, May Allah's Prayers and Peace Be Upon Him," and in the message, "Muslim Egypt between the Whips of the Torturers and the Agents of the Treacherous." The treaty confirms the end of the state of war between Egypt and Israel and the recognition of each other's borders, and emphasizes cessation of any provocative or aggressive action even if it were in the media, and punishes those who commit it. The treaty makes clear and confirms that it is superior to and supersedes any other treaty or agreement that is inconsistent with it. The target here are earlier agreements signed by Egypt against Israel such as the Joint Arab Defense Treaty and economic boycott agreements. The abolition of the peace treaty with Israel does not only concern liberalization of usurped Muslim land, but it is more serious than that. There is no security or independence and sovereignty of the peoples of the Arab world as long as Israel exists. Israel was created to be a developed military base in the heart of Arab and Islamic worlds to protect the interests of the Western Crusaders in the region, and the main target of Israel is the Islamic revival movement and the Islamic awakening movement in general and especially the Islamic movement and the jihadi movement in particular. If any Islamic movement overlooks this, then it is basically handing the knife over to its slaughterer with its own hands. Some people may argue that the abolition of the peace treaty with Israel will cause destruction, desolation, war, murder, and devastation, and these are false claims. America at the present time cannot be engaged in any new war after the Mujahideen have broken its arms and legs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Hamas movement announced that it will not recognize Israel, and America did not bury them under the ground. Even if we accept their argument as an assumption and not as a matter of endorsement, any honorable righteous ruling system in Egypt can exercise various options. It can put a freeze on the peace treaty until it is reevaluated. It can declare that Palestine is a Muslim land, and we will not accept even a span of it to be under occupation. It can break off diplomatic relations with Israel, or at least freeze them and order the closure of its embassy until further notice. It can again implement the Joint Arab Defense Treaty. It can again

implement the economic boycott treaties against Israel. It can declare that Egypt has the right to act as authorized by the terms of the Joint Arab Defense Treaty in the event Gaza was assaulted by Israeli aggression. It can establish official offices in Egypt for all the jihadi movements whose activities are directed against Israel. It can lift all bans or blockade against Gaza, and it can stop the Israeli tourism and ban the entry of Israelis to Egypt and the Egyptians to Israel. It is grievous and shameful that on the one hand our people in Gaza face severity and siege, and on the other hand there is an obscene leniency in welcoming thousands of Israeli tourists into Sinai without visas. It can also stop supplying Israel with gas. It can stop all the economic, research, and cultural cooperation activities with Israel. It can withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons because Israel did not sign it. The government of Pakistan, for example, with all their betrayal and treason refuses to sign an agreement banning the production of atomic weapons as long as India does not sign. Shall we offer the same excuses that were invoked by Hosni Mubarak to maintain the security of Israel? So why did we rebel against him?! The third basic milestone in change is solving the problem of poverty and social injustice, we must achieve solidarity and justice for all categories and classes of people, we must reconsider the minimum wage and we must eliminate the huge discrepancy (difference) between salaries in government and public sector. It is inconceivable that few senior staff collect several salaries and allowances that exceed hundreds of thousands of Egyptian pounds while tens of thousands of junior officials cannot afford their basic necessities. We must set ourselves as examples and role models and be on the side of the oppressed and marginalized classes and not to be involved with the exploiters. We must remember that there is a widespread brutal state of corruption in Egypt that sells obscene and taboo things under multiple covers and exploits the poverty of thousands of young men and women. Many senior corrupters will fight in order not to destroy this state because this will have a negative effect on tourism, art, creativity, and similar things under which the corrupt state practices its activities. It is inconceivable for a fair and above board state to be established in Egypt and yet accept the continuation of the use of impermissible wealth to freely trade the dignity and honor of Egyptians and turn Muslim and Arab Egypt to dissolute satellite channels, night clubs, gambling casinos, and nude beaches. Shall we employ the same excuses that Mubarak gave as a pretext to uphold the state of corruption and impermissible wealth? So why did we rebel against him?! Every free, honest man in Egypt generally and in the Islamic movement particularly must remember Egypt's role as a pioneer and a leader of the Arab and Islamic world, and that

Egypt is not a free trade zone or an agent to America or a broker to Israel or a night club for tourism. Egypt is the citadel of Islam, the bulwark of Arabism and the land of vanguards, jihad, knowledge and Da'wa. Egypt must not turn into another image of the corrupt and corruptive Saudi regime which claims to defend the doctrine of monotheism and implement Shari'ah, while in fact, it is an agent for the Crusader's occupation forces. And it only implements some prescribed penalties on the weak and exploits the wealth, lands, coasts and airspace of Muslims to serve the occupying Zionist-Crusader project where the oligarchy is stealing the wealth of the country and using it to satisfy their licentious and dissolute habits and behavior. The Islamic movement must rise above organizational disagreement and partisanship in order to achieve the basic demands of the Ummah. The most important of them are: applying the Shari'ah, getting rid of foreign influence, and removing the injustice that is imposed on the poor classes. The Islamic movement must unite on these goals. If the Islamic movement splits or agrees with less than these goals or gathers between the two evils, the popular support for it will disperse and the governance will continue its state of being corrupted and corrupting others and before this and most important of all of this they will be held accountable before Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, then before history and the Ummah as to its negligence in the establishment of these religious obligations. We support the Islamic movement in being together and unified in these goals. We hope to meet soon, with Allah's permission, when the Shari'ah has prevailed and became the law of the land, our countries have been liberated, and consultation and justice have become dominant.

On that Day shall the Believers rejoice with the help of Allah. He helps whom He will, and He is exalted in might, most merciful. (Ar-Room: 4-5)

And our final prayer is that all praise be to Allah, the Lord of all that exists, and may Allah's prayers and peace be upon our master, Muhammad, and all of his family and companions.
As-Sahab Foundation for Media Production Rabi' al-Thani 1433 February 2012 Source: Al-Fajr Media Center

Translated by:

The Global Islamic Media Front Observing Mujahideen News and Inspiring the Believers