Former Head of the Salafi Movement in Kuwait Sheik Hamed Al-Ali: Jihad against Occupiers Is the Only Option; Violence against Arab Regimes Forbidden

Following are excerpts from an interview with Hamed Al-Ali, former head of the Salafi movement in Kuwait, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on September 14, 2009.

Interviewer: Our nation suffers many crises – occupation, siege, and so on. Is Jihad the best way to handle these problems today?

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Hamed Al-Ali: I salute our great nation, which continues to wage Jihad, driving the occupation out of its land, and defending its honor with all its glory. The nation has been fighting for the past 100 years. I salute the nation in general, and especially all those who wage Jihad for the sake of Allah, from the Philippines to Palestine, including Afghanistan and the courageous Iraqi resistance. All the mujahideen - whether they use bullets, words, or even shoes – are part of the circle of Jihad, of resistance, and they are worthy of our salutation, esteem, and support.

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There are Islamic countries that are occupied – Afghanistan is occupied, Iraq is occupied, Palestine is occupied, and the Golan is occupied. We have four countries that are occupied. Is there any solution for occupation other than Jihad for the sake of Allah? There are plots to convert people to Christianity, which came with the occupation.

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We have no alternative but to wage Jihad. There is no other option. Take Palestine, for example. Is there any other option there? Everybody knows that the option of peace is a Zionist game – a mockery and a deception. Oslo 1, Oslo 2, Oslo 3 – and we keep moving backward.

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In the Zionist entity, children are not given toys for the holidays. Instead, they are taken to military shows, where they can climb tanks, and see how their forefathers implemented the words of Ben-Gurion: “In iron and fire, Israel has fallen, and in iron and fire, Israel will rise again.” Most of the Zionist prime ministers were blood-drinkers. They were arch-terrorists, who commanded the battles. The bloodthirsty, belligerent, military education and even the religious rulings... The leading rabbis issue rulings that the Arabs must be annihilated, and that they are like serpents.

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The most important issue regarding Jihad in Islam is that it will continue until Judgment Day. We warn the enemies who want to eliminate the Jihad of our nation that what they are witnessing is not real Jihad, but merely preliminary skirmishes. The real Jihad of the nation has not yet reached them, but it will, Allah willing.

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The proliferation of Jihad in Islam today proves that it is no longer under control. No one can conspire against it or stop it. Jihad will only grow. Twenty years ago, we were not familiar with martyrdom operations. Sheik Al-Qaradhawi, one of the greatest muftis in the Islamic world, ruled in favor of martyrdom operations in Palestine, in accordance with the approach of Sheik Ahmad Yassin. Today, he is not allowed to enter Britain because of this fatwa.

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The official Arab ruling regimes are no longer satisfactory, even to the garbage collectors. Everybody is indignant and feels that the honor of our nation is in the mud. Therefore, we are facing a stifling crisis. To say it bluntly, the Arab regimes are operating against the goals of the nation and against its cultural message. They have abandoned the rights of the nation, and our peoples have become poor, hungry, and displaced.

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It is the message of reform and of avoiding armed confrontation [with the regimes] that will bring about change, Allah willing, and will restore the nation to the path of its revival. This crisis will be resolved when the nation is ruled, once again, by the regime of the Islamic caliphate, and when unity is restored. Then, the nation will defend its goals, and will implement its cultural superiority. But if violence is used [against the regimes], this will destroy the revival of the nation, in my opinion. This will lead to great corruption, and will give these regimes what they are looking for.

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When there is invasion or occupation of any Islamic country, or when there is a foreign plan, which is being implemented by means of a puppet like Karzai, resistance is legitimate. But the decision when to start fighting, when to postpone the fighting, and when there is another, better, way to handle the problem – this is left up to the locals and their jurisprudents, in Somalia and elsewhere. As a rule, we cannot accept any American plan of hegemony in any Muslim country – whether under the guise of a puppet government or by means of their armies. In all cases, these are forbidden and must be fought against.

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Politically speaking, the West is hostile to our civilization and attacks it. Everybody can see this.

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The Nazi annihilation does not pertain to Hitler, as much as it [represents] Western mentality. Western politicians, and many of their theoreticians, have combined the greatest sins in history: [First,] their sense of racial supremacy. These people think that all other people are inferior to them. Second, total and complete annihilation. In the first and second world wars, almost 100 million human beings were annihilated. Now, there are one million dead Iraqis, and millions are displaced, because of a lie about WMDs, so that they could get their hands on the oil and protect the Zionist entity. Third, materialistic greed makes them crush anyone who stands in their way.