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During a Friday sermon delivered at the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, U.K., on August 29, 2014, American-born cleric Sheik Abu Usamah At-Thahabi criticized criticized pro-ISIS preachers radicalizing Muslim youth. "Leave these innocent Muslims alone, and stop destroying their lives... You people go [to Syria] and wage Jihad," he said, addressing British Islamist Anjem Choudary and others.
Abu Usamah At-Thahabi: "What the extreme state of Israel does, and what the foreign policy of the Western countries support – hurting Muslims, harming Muslims, and doing bad in our countries... This doesn't give you the right to be a nasty person, a bad person. It doesn't give you the right to go somewhere and throw your life away. So I want to tell you youngsters, in this mosque, that one of the best ways that you can protect yourselves and save yourselves from falling into drama and unnecessary problems is to connect yourself to the people who have knowledge of this religion, especially the scholars of Islam. When I say 'the scholars,' I am not talking about that buzz word we have today – People of the Sunna, the scholars, the scholars, the scholars – and it's just blind following.
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"So we came here, my brothers, to make it clear to all our youth that ISIS of Iraq is an organization or a group of people who are from the Kharijites.
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"So the ISIS organization – that group in Iraq – is a group that no Muslim in his right mind should have any doubt in his head or in his heart whether these are people he should support, whether their da'wa should be supported. Along with them Boko Haram, the Shabab of Somalia – all of those groups are groups that make fitna and corruption, and they are extreme. The Muslims should avoid that.
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"When people connected themselves to the khawarij (in the 7th century), those companions made it their business to grab those youngsters and talk to them. That is the responsibility of the mother and the father. That is the responsibility of the mosque. I repeat to you people: the mosque. The mosque, where people come and speak in Urdu – I've nothing against Urdu – and Somali – I've nothing against the Somali language – and Arabic, and their audience, the youth, do not understand what is being said. Those days are obsolete. Those days are gone. That helps to make the problem of extremism in our children fester, because they cannot understand what is being said. So they go to the individuals screaming up and down from the Al-Muhajiroun (organization) – those individuals who don't know anything about this religion. So when the man in Leicester, the man in Slough – Slough in the U.K.... In Slough, a man stood up a few years ago and said he was the Caliph... In Slough... So when a young Muslim hears that someone is standing up in Iraq and saying that he is the Caliph, and that everyone must pledge allegiance to him, he doesn't become confused for one second, because he knows that this is just words, just da'wa.
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"When an individual now, today, goes to Syria, to Turkey, to Somalia, or wherever he goes, and he realizes that this is confusion and that he doesn't want to participate – when he comes back he is locked up at the airport. Not like Ali ibn Abi Taleb... He gets locked up at the airport.
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"I gave a sermon at Al-Furqan Mosque in Manchester. The mosque is out mosque. The majority of the people are from Somalia. Two young Muslim girls, their background and origins in Somalia, 16 years old... After this summer, they are supposed to go to college. Instead of starting college, where are they? They went to Syria. For what? For Jihad. For Jihad! I am not talking to you about nothing. I am talking to you about something. Your child may be on the verge of doing something like that. The little kid, the young boy, in Cardiff goes and does the same thing. Those are our children. When they come back – if they come back – they go to jail.
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"This issue of the Caliphate and pledging allegiance – when the Muslim hears about these issues, he should know that our religion is not based upon anarchy. We respect the speed limit, on the highway, the motorway, and around here as well. There are laws, rules, and regulations, and we respect them. But when it comes to religion – there is no respect. Anyone can just jump up and say: Hey, I'm the Caliph Abu Usamah. Everybody, pledge allegiance to me. They are going to be some people who believe that?! So concerning you young people and this issue of the Caliphate and the Caliph – I became a Muslim in 1986, and since 1986 to today, there were about 15 people whom I have heard were caliphs.
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"Mullah Omar from the Taliban declared a Caliphate and himself as Caliph. (He said): Everyone come and pledge allegiance and live in Afghanistan, or in the mountains of Peshawar. Who in his right mind follows that? So when we hear 'Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,' 'Caliph Ibrahim,' don't allow mere words to get you excited. You have to slow down and see what's going on, what the adults, the scholars, and the people around you are saying. Not what you are saying, thinking, or feeling...
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"These people from Al-Mujahiroun – Anjem Choudary and people like that... We say to these individuals: You, Abu Rumaysah (founder of Sharia Patrols), you people go over there and pledge allegiance, you people go there and wage Jihad. You, you, you go over there. As for the youngsters of the Muslims – leave these innocent Muslims alone, and stop destroying their lives. I went to Norway, last year, in the summer time. I went there this year... Seven people from Norway... Seven kids...
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"Seven of them died – killed in Syria. You ask them why. What is it about? They say: Jihad for the sake of Allah. This is not Jihad. This is corruption, fitna, anarchy."
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