For years before their aggression against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Western imperialists, led by the government of the United States, had been fighting a covert and undeclared war against Islam. For they knew and understood that Islam - the true Islam of those who through Jihaad sought to do their Islamic duty and re-establish an Islamic way of life - was and would be the most significant threat to their so-called New World Order and the decadent, materialistic global capitalist-consumer culture which was part of it.

The war against the Taliban was preceded by a years long propaganda campaign by the Western Media, which campaign sought to not only discredit the Taliban through lies and dis-information about the conditions in Afghanistan, but which also sought to portray the Taliban as "extremists" (or "fundamentalists") who were unrepresentative of Islam. By doing this, the propagandists and those behind them hoped to further dominate the Islamic world.

For this propaganda campaign was itself part of the longer-term campaign by those behind the New World Order: a campaign whose aim was to weaken the Muslim Ummah and to undermine Islam itself through a process of "modernization". That is, through secularizing Islam: through trying to make it into some sort of Western-style "religion" where there is a division into "Mosque" and "State" and where this "State" itself is based upon Western-derived ideas such as "democracy" and the division of the world into "nations" governed according to Western laws.

In this campaign, the West had enlisted the aid and support of many governments in Muslim countries, as well as many so-called Muslim "intellectuals".

But the truth behind their campaign - and the campaign itself - was exposed for all Muslims to see when the American led infidel killing campaign against the Taliban began. Muslims had to choose: to either support, either directly or through inaction and silence, the infidels who were engaged in killing Muslims and who sought to destroy the Islamic government of the Taliban, or to support, in whatever way they could, their fellow Muslims. They could either accept or reject the Western version of events, which was of Sheikh Osama bin Laden as "terrorist" and Taliban as supporters of "terrorism".

Accepting the Western version of events, and accepting the demonization of Sheikh Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, meant accepting Western standards and Western concepts of law, for the crux, the essence, of the Western argument was that the West, and especially America, had or should have jurisdiction over the entire world. That is, that Western laws, Western treaties, Western procedures applied to every country even if a particular country (as in the case of Afghanistan) did not accept Western law and did not have any treaties or agreements of any kind with the West and its world-wide enforcer, the United Nations.

The West demanded - without producing any credible evidence to support their case, and on threat of war - that the Taliban hand-over Sheikh Osama bin Laden, and Mullah Mohammad 'Umar quite honourably, and reasonably, refused.

Thus the Islamic world became clearly divided into two groups: those who agreed with or supported with West, and those who agreed with or supported the stand taken by Mullah Mohammad 'Umar.
 

What Allah's laws and even the man-made laws of earth have agreed upon is that an individual is innocent until proven guilty.... but they fight us because we have established a unique Islamic system, and this in reality is worse for them than the attack upon New York and Washington. (Mullah Mohammed 'Umar)

It is fair to say that right from the very beginning a clear majority of ordinary Muslims opposed the arrogance of the West, while every single government of every Muslim country either actively supported the West or did nothing to oppose them. This in itself starkly revealed the great division which now exists in Islam: a division into two irreconcilable and competing Movements. For many ordinary Muslims, Sheikh Osama bin Laden became a symbol of Muslim defiance and Muslim pride, the "conscience of the Muslims": speaking truths about Western imperialism, and especially about the role of America in undermining Islam and supporting the oppression and dispossession of Muslims, truths which the governments of Muslim countries either dared not speak or refused to believe.
 

Muslims must understand the nature and truth of this conflict so that it will be easy for them to know where they stand. ( Statement from Sheikh Osama bin Laden: 15 Sha`ban 1422.)

The Two Movements:
 

One movement consists of those who believe that Islam means the establishment of an Islamic way of life: that is, the creation of an Islamic society where everything is judged by criteria established by the Quran, the Sunnah, the Shari'ah. Such a society means that what is permitted, what is tolerated, is what is Islamic, and that what is forbidden, and outlawed, is what is un-Islamic. In such an Islamic society, there is clear distinction between Imaan and Kufr, between Islam and Ignorance, with their being a striving to avoid imitating the kuffar in any way, for such imitation of the kuffar, through deeds, intention, ways, laws, manners, ideas, is considered haram.

This is the movement for Aqeedah and Imaan; the movement against the ways of the kuffar. In practical terms, it is the movement for the reestablishment of the Khilafah.

The other movement consists of those who support or accept or who by their inaction condone the Western secular version of Islam: the "Islam" of modern type States governed and ruled according to Western laws, which States uphold (or pretend or purport to uphold) kuffar concepts such as democracy and "human rights". This is the "Islam" of most governments Muslim countries, which governments accept kuffar organizations such as the United Nations, and the Western laws of the UN, and which governments often actively suppress and even outlaws Muslim organizations and Muslim groups who belong to the movement for Aqeedah and Imaan and whose members and supporters thus refuse to imitate, or compromise with, the kuffar and their un-Islamic way of life.

It is correct to say that the Taliban - and Sheikh Osama bin Laden and his supporters - belong to the movement for Aqeedah and Imaan, just as the active supporters of this movement regard themselves as true believers.
 
 

The Taliban:

The Taliban never set out to become the government of Afghanistan. In the beginning, they - then mostly students - took up arms against the lawless armed gangs and groups who had been raping, looting, killing, torturing and maiming people for years.

The Taliban inherited a divided, war-torn, poverty-stricken country on the verge of widespread famine. Given their meagre resources, they strived hard - in accordance with Islamic guidelines - to make life better for the people. But in this they were greatly hampered by the sanctions which the Western nations imposed and by the lack of support from the governments of most Muslim countries who preferred to put the interests and demands of the West before their Islamic duty.
 

There are now, and will continue to be, those who will blame the Taliban for the conditions that existed, and exist now, in Afghanistan, whereas these conditions were and are the direct result of: (1) decade upon decade of corrupt, un-Islamic rulers and governments; (2) eighty years of Western intervention and imperialism in the region; (2) the Soviet invasion and its aftermath which included a years-long civil war; (3) Western sanctions and restrictions imposed after the Taliban took control of most the country; (4) a severe drought which exacerbated the famine which already existed.

Given their inheritance, it is remarkable that the Taliban achieved what they did: establishing a relatively peaceful, almost "crime-free", country and beginning the work of rebuilding the infrastructure devastated through years of war, corruption and neglect.
 

The War Against the Infidels:
 

There is clearly now a declared war between Imaan and Kufr: between the true believers, and the infidels. The infidels will wage war upon us until they have achieved their aims, which are to force us to submit to them and their ways:
 

Allah (SWT) says: "Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with you unless you follow their ways."

"Take not Jews and Christians as your protectors or friends, they are allies of one another. Whosoever allies with them, amongst you, then he is one of them ... "

In practical terms, the kuffar - led by America - demand that Muslims adopt kuffar ways, as they will use force to undermine and destroy any Islamic government which does not adopt Western laws and Western ways (such as "democracy") just as they demand that all governments, Islamic or otherwise, obey the Western laws made by the United Nations.

In practical terms, the Taliban sought to establish a true Islamic society where the standard of both behaviour and judgement was an Islamic one. The West, and especially America, ridiculed this society, and sought to discredit it through dis-information, Media propaganda and outright lies. In addition, the infidels sought to bribe and blackmail other Muslims, especially Muslim governments, into not supporting the Taliban, just as these infidels imposed harsh economic sanctions against the people of Afghanistan.
 
 

Our system is a true example of an Islamic system. For the enemies of our way of life and our Ummah, this system is like a thorn in their eyes, and they are trying to destroy it under various pretexts. (Mullah Mohammad 'Umar.)

When the infidel boycott, propaganda, sanctions and campaign of intimidation, bribery and blackmail failed to dislodge the Taliban, the infidels used the attacks on America as a pretext to begin a real, practical, crusade against authentic Islam, hypocritically rallying others of their kind under the banner of a so-called "war on terrorism" whereas in truth the infidels themselves, especially America, are the greatest sponsors of world terrorism the world has ever known.
 

You should know that America is a Kufr State that is totally against Islâm and Muslims. ( Fatwa on Recent Events by Shaykh Humûd al-'Uqlâ.)

The true nature of this conflict, this war, this crusade is that it is not confined to Afghanistan, just as the defeat of the Taliban, by infidel forces, will not end this war. This war will only end with the defeat or downfall, or collapse, of America. For the chief enemy of the true believers in this war is America, and all true believers are, knowingly or unknowingly, at war with America: with the American government, its people and its military forces.

This defeat or downfall or collapse of the kufr State of America may take a few years, or several decades or longer. It may even, Insha'Allah, collapse or fall or be destroyed suddenly. But, however long it takes, it will - Insha'Allah - occur.
 

The stark truth of these times is that while the kufr State of America remains there can be no stable, long-lasting truly Islamic society. All that there will be is submission to the kuffar, imitation of the kuffar or hypocrisy. The lessons of Afghanistan are clear just as it is clear from the evidence of the Quran and the Sunnah that the establishment of Islamic law and Islamic authority amongst Muslims is fard - an obligation. Thus, our Islamic duty is to strive to establish an Islamic way of life for ourselves and our brothers, and to do this we must strive in the way of Allah against the infidels, for however long it takes.
 
 

Allah (SWT) knows best.
 
 
 Abdul Aziz