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On November 24, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) released issue 365 of its weekly Al-Naba' magazine, which includes an editorial about the 2022 FIFA World Cup games being held in Qatar.[1] The editorial describes the tournament as, "The filth, lust, and disgrace cup," and attacks the host country, Qatar, claiming that the part it plays in the war against Islam is even more dangerous than that of Saudi Arabia and of the UAE. It asserts that Allah called for jihad to "behead the unbelievers" and urges Muslims to fulfil the last will and testament of the Prophet Muhammad and strive to forcibly oust "the polytheists" from the Arabian Peninsula.
"Qatar Is an Enemy of Islam, Worse Than Saudi Arabia and the UAE"
Titled, "In Accordance with the Last Will and Testament of Your Prophet," the editorial opens by asserting that "the Jews and the Christians feel free to violate the Arabian Peninsula, desecrate it, and spread their polytheism and their evil within it. And they do this with the cooperation and support of the rulers of the apostate peninsula." While blaming the rulers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, it aims the bulk of its criticism at Qatar, the host of the "Filthy Cup" which therefore, it maintains, bears the responsibility for bringing "thousands of Christians, Jews and others" to the eastern Arabian Peninsula.
According to the editorial, it isn't the fact that Qatar is hosting the "evil event," that is astonishing, but the fact that this comes as a surprise to several "Islamists," as if this is the first time that they have understood the true nature of "this tyrannical emirate which has been battling against Islam since the time when it was under British patronage."
The World Cup wasn't necessary in order to understand the role played by Qatar and the danger it embodies for Islam, contends the editorial, pointing out that the U.S. Al-Udeid Air Base is located in the country. It adds that Qatar also "trained the armed movements, transferred them from the trenches to hotels,[2] and transformed the betrayal from a crime into something legitimate."
It further states that the Western "crusaders" gave Qatar the opportunity to host the games about 20 years after it sponsored the interfaith dialogue "whose aim was to disseminate total promiscuity. Nothing is permitted or forbidden, there is no truth and no lies, only 'humanism,' which treats good and evil in the same way, as well as Islam and unbelief, paradise and hell. This is how the jahiliyah[3] international system rewarded this functional 'statelet' which served the Jews and the Christians more than any other 'statelet' in the Gulf."
Only Now Have "The Deviant Movements" Warned Against the Danger Posed By Qatar, and They Believe They Can Take Advantage of the World Cup for Da'wa[4]
The editorial claims that no one in the Islamic world has proposed a "shari'a solution" for what is happening in the Arabian Peninsula, or "properly diagnosed the disease," since all those who are levelling criticism at Qatar have not encouraged an attack on "its tyrants, in the government and in the army," and some of them have even made do with the suggestion put forward by Qatar itself, to take advantage of the World Cup for da'wa – to preach the religion of Islam to the unbelievers.
Contending that the fact that a few "deviant movements" (the reference is apparently to Al-Qaeda) are ringing the alarm bells about Qatar only after the World Cup has already started, is an attempt to mislead the Muslims, Al-Naba' points out that when ISIS warned that "the danger of Qatar is equal to that of the UAE, and the danger of Turkey is equal to that of Saudi Arabia," those same movements accused ISIS of collaborating with all of the preceding. The editorial asserts that ISIS was the only one to accuse all those regimes of apostasy, not distinguishing between one tyrant and another, as those movements did.
Harsh criticism is aimed at the Qatari clerics, referred to as "preachers of evil, petty crooks," who have swindled the Muslims and attempted "to present the Lust Cup as an opportunity to support Islam, and the season of deviance as the season of da'wa."
Al-Naba' addresses "the victims of the distorted religious concept" put forward by those who they claim believe that they know better than Allah what is best for mankind. The editorial asserts that "monotheism and a total disconnection from the world of jahiliyah, in all its manifestations, are always top priority," adding that it was Allah who called for jihad in order "to behead the unbelievers and the apostates." The text further reads that, "the tyrants from the peninsula and their preachers" strive to divert the Muslims from the battle against "crusaders" and Jews, which, it states, have today become permanent residents on the peninsula and even enjoy rights denied to the original residents.
"The Only Solution Is To Remove the Polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula By Means Of Jihad"
The editorial concludes by contending that the cure for the "disease" lies in two hadiths attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, who commanded on his deathbed, "Turn the polytheists out of the Arabian Peninsula," and "I will certainly expel the Jews and the Christians from the Arabian Peninsula so as to leave only Muslims in it."
It stresses that, "This is the last will and testament of your Prophet and there is no reason to consult with anyone about the [obligation] to honor it. And who will come forward to honor this will, Oh Muslims?"
It seems that Al-Naba' is essentially confronting the Al-Qaeda organization which recently released an official statement which highlights the appeal to take advantage of the World Cup for da'wa activities, alongside a call to actively remove the "polytheists" from the Arabian Peninsula.[5] The editorial also criticizes "the late awakening" of Al-Qaeda regarding the scope of the threat which in its opinion, is posed by Qatar, and the fact that Al-Qaeda refrains from calling for an attack on the rulers of Qatar, implying, among other things, that the reason for this is role that Qatar recently played in the negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban movement to which Al-Qaeda has pledged allegiance.
[1] Telegram, November 24, 2022.
[2] This is a reference to the role played by Qatar in the negotiations between Taliban and the U.S., before the Americans withdrew from Afghanistan.
[3] The term jahiliyah refers to the state of "ignorance" in which the Arabs lived before Islam. Inspired by the writings of Sayyid Qutb, Salafi-jihadis believe that much of today's Islamic world has reverted to a state of jahiliyah.
[4] Da'wa means preaching about Islam, or issuing an invitation to Islam to non-Muslims everywhere.
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