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The latest issue of "Khurasan Ghag [Voice of Khurasan]," the Pashtu-language magazine published by Al-Azaim Foundation, which is the media arm of the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISKP), has a cover article criticizing Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia for having "relations with Jews and Israel." The magazine's latest issue came out before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel.
The magazine also targets the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) for making contacts with these Arab countries and the United States, notably via the negotiations in Doha. The Pashtu magazine lauds the mujahideen of the Islamic State (ISIS), calling them heroes and stable mountains of the Caliphate led by ISIS.
Issue 26 of the magazine is dated Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1445, in the Hijri calendar, which corresponds with October 9, 2023.
The Pashtu-language magazine is divided into religious, historical, political, literary, and current affairs sections and Issue 26 has 94 pages. Its cover has an article titled "Brothers of Compromisers."
The magazine has two main parts: political and religious. The political part has four articles:
"Eastern Turkestan and the Apostate Taliban"; "People of Shame"; "Be Strong, People of the Time"; and "Mountains of Stability." The magazine's religious part has also four articles: "The Traits of the Hypocrites and Keeping Oneself from Them"; "Who are the Deobandis?"; "Gaining Honor by Destroying the Foundation of Sufism"; and "Means for Victory and Empowerment."
The cover article "Brothers of Compromisers" is featured on Pages 3-6, and appears to be written in the context of Saudi Arabia's move for normalizations of relations with Israel, a diplomatic process now suspended after the Hamas attacks in Israel. The article says the Arabs and the Taliban have divided the Jews into two groups: one is those with whom they want to compromise like ordinary Jews and America; and the other is those with whom they do not compromise such as the Palestinian Jews and armed Jews.
The author wants to shame the Arab countries for their relations with Israel and Jews. "All of [the Arabs'] enmity with the Jews was not based on shari'a, but rather had other national, ethnic, short-term political and incomplete forms. However, they also made a distinction between armed Jews (Zionists) and ordinary Jews, and between Palestinian Jews and Jews from the rest of the world," it says.
"Many people criticize the UAE and Saudi Arabia's compromise or building of relations with the Jews, but refrain from criticizing Turkey's and Qatar's compromise and relation building. However, the compromise of Qatar and Turkey is very dangerous and full of evil," the author writes. He continues: "Taghut [tyrant] Erdoğan, who is the core of the hearts and eyes of the apostate Muslim Brotherhood, is clearly doing the same thing with the Jews that Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are doing."
The Afghan Taliban's current goal is to compromise with the Crusader America and restore relations and they are also striving for international legitimacy of their government in Kabul, a legitimacy that cannot be achieved without the consent of the United States and its allies, the article says. It further notes that every time the Taliban fails to gain U.S. approval, they immediately work to restore relations with America's enemies such as China, Russia, and Iran, all of who are enemies of Islam.
In the public and formal statements by the Taliban, the Arab countries that have good relations with the Jews are called brothers, but then the Taliban condemn the compromise with the Jews, it says. The article observes: "War with the friends of the Jews and Christians is a war with them. The wound of the Muslims is the same, the enemy is the same, the way of salvation is also the same, and the standard, which is allegiance and disavowal, is the same." Allegiance and disavowal refers to the shari'a principle of Al-Wala Wal-Bara, meaning friendship and enmity for the sake of Allah alone, not for worldly reasons.
In the article titled "East Turkestan and the Apostate Taliban," the early achievements and history of Islam are discussed, but it questions the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan for their silence on China's state repression of Muslims in Xinjiang province (i.e., "East Turkestan"). In the early days of Islam, all Muslims were united, and if a Muslim was oppressed in one corner of the world, other Muslims would come to defend him from another corner of the world, it notes. "At that time, unbelief and unbelievers were humiliated, they paid jizya [poll tax] to the children of Islam, and whoever disobeyed, their heads fell on the horses of the leaders of Islam," it adds.
But when this Ummah abandoned its responsibility and put the swords of its leaders, which used to be covered with the blood of unbelievers, back in their sheaths and turned to the luxuries of worldly life, that is when, due to the continuous efforts of the enemies of Islam, the great nation of Islam was torn apart by the hands of the unbelievers and the great castles of Islam collapsed, and the vast Islamic lands were either physically occupied or divided by the unbelievers under the names of countries and homelands, the article says.
The article bemoans how the places that used to be the holy places of Muslims are now turned into nightclubs of Russians; the places where the call of adhan ("call to prayer") was once sounded are now used for entertainment. Now the unbelievers have divided Muslims into tribes, territory-based nations, and divisions to prevent the establishment of an Islamic state, it says.
"Because Russia has tightened its brutal grip on Mavarlanhar [i.e., Central Asia], America and Europe have built successive churches from the historical mosques of Andalus [Spain]. To maintain the project of implementing democracy in the world, the barbaric Chinese in Eastern Turkestan seem to be draining the blood of Uyghur Muslims even more. One of the groups that came under the name of Islam that were connected with the intelligence agencies of the region was called the Islamic Emirate, and its slogans for the establishment of the Islamic system led many people astray," it says.
The article reminds readers that the power and authority of the Afghan Taliban leaders is with the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The article says that the Taliban have sold their honor, faith, and sacrifice for power and dollars.
When the real mujahideen found out about the Taliban's goals, they left the ranks of the Islamic Emirate, it says, adding: "After all, Allah did a great favor to the pure and holy mujahideen and muhajireen [i.e., foreign fighters] of the whole world [by making] the Islamic Caliphate [ISIS] appear, and the light of the Islamic Caliphate was also seen on the mountains of Khurasan, where many organizations, tribes, and different languages, regions, countries, and independent mujahideen pledged allegiance to the Muslim caliph [of ISIS]."
The magazine argues that the Taliban were brought to power with the help of the United States and the Doha Agreement, and by destroying the republican system, and now the Taliban are an American militia that is trying to destroy the Islamic Caliphate.
The author describes the Taliban as selfish and points out that the Taliban leaders have ordered all their officers and soldiers to expel all the foreign mujahideen, who had sheltered them from unbelievers, from their ranks. The Taliban openly say that they will no longer be a threat to the unbelievers and that no one will be harmed from their land, the article lements.
The author has a message for the Taliban: "We say to the Taliban militias: If power and dollars have made you a coward and apostate, then let the lions of the Islamic State – and do not prevent the mujahideen... hit Chinese atheists with missiles, and commit martyrdom attacks on them."
"We call to all the condemned Muslims of the world, including the Uyghurs, [saying] that the arms of the Islamic State are open to you; join the ranks of the Islamic State to eliminate these unbeliever proxy militias from occupied Islamic territory, including the Taliban," the article states.
The table of contents of Issue 26
In the article titled "People of Shame," the Taliban are severely criticized and the author says that the Taliban's war was only for territory, and now having taken a country the Taliban leaders are helping the world and the unbelievers, and the unbelievers are their friends and allies. Their leader Mullah Haibbatullah Akhundzada and Mullah Yaqoob, who is defense minister and son of late Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, said that jihad outside Afghanistan was forbidden, noting a reference to such a stipulation not being allowed by shari'a.
"Ever since the United States and the international community handed over the war against terrorism (Islamic State) to the Taliban militias in Afghanistan, the militias have been showing their sincerity in this war day by day, giving satisfaction that they stand firm on their promises to the unbeliever world," the article says.
In the article titled "Be Strong, People of the Time!" the author calls upon the members of the Islamic State to wage jihad and tells them that it is the mujahid who will defeat the unbelievers. Also, there are stories of the first battles of Islam and jihad, and the author tells ISIS fighters: You will give victory to the Uyghurs, Palestinians, and other oppressed Muslims.
The Pashtu magazine's cover
The magazine criticizes and rejects the deeds and methods of the Deobandis and Sufis, citing reasons. It says that Sufis in particular are idolaters and unbelievers.
The author says that even if the polytheists and the unbelievers end everything, the mujahideen of the Islamic State will stand firm, they want to wage jihad against unbelievers. "Those who want to establish a caliphate in the world devise new plans for success every moment," it says, adding: "Now we see these mountains of stability, which are the mujahideen of the [ISIS-led] Caliphat – the enemy is trying to harm them in every way, but they cannot harm them."
In the last pages of this magazine, it is stated that videos titled "East Turkestan And The Apostate Taliban"; "You Cannot Close The Issue Of Hijrat [Migration] And Jihad"; and "The Taliban's Religious Deviations And Myths" will soon be broadcast by Al-Azaim Media Foundation.
Source: Telegram, October 9, 2023
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