The Islamic State’s View of Democracy and Dealing with the Tribes
Hamid al-Zawi (Abu Umar al-Baghdadi) gave a speech, published on 12 February 2010 by Al Furqan Media Foundation, entitled, ‘The Religious and Political Crime of the Elections and Our Duty Toward Them’.1 Al-Zawi was, at the time, the leader of the Islamic State movement. This was his twenty-first of what proved to be twenty-three speeches: he was killed two months later by the United States. A translation of the speech is published below.
The 34-minute speech had a lot of content specific to the then-upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections on 7 March 2010, and the Islamic State’s determination to abort the process through violence, but Al-Zawi’s speeches were always formulated to refine and promulgate the Islamic State’s doctrine, and this one was no different, consisting in its first half of a wholesale ideological assault on the premise of democracy.
The second half of the speech is largely given over to outreach to Iraqi Sunni Arabs, particularly the tribes. Al-Zawi claims the jihadists are reviving after the “Surge” and Awakening in no small part because Iraqi Sunnis have apparently seen the error they made in turning against the Islamic State to ally with a Shi’a-led, U.S.-supported government that continues to persecute them. Those Sunnis who continue to stand against the Islamic State—the Awakening militias and the politicians in Baghdad—are vilified and threatened, and Al-Zawi was not lying about the jihadists’ ability to assassinate Awakening officials. But this is paired with Al-Zawi offering an inducement: to set aside all grievances with Sunni insurgents and tribes who now join the Islamic State project, even proposing an independent committee to facilitate this unity, which would have the ability to demand payment of blood money and other debts for past wrongs (though Al-Zawi says the Islamic State waives all its claims against others). Al-Zawi is absolutely insistent, however, that the platform of this coalition holds to the Zarqawists’ version of Islam: he explicitly says a small number signing on to this is better than a broader coalition around a diluted (in his view “corrupted”) platform.
It is an interesting look at how the Islamic State rebounded from its 2008 nadir, how it held to its doctrine while taking lessons from that experience which allowed it to more successfully approach the tribes, a key modification that helped pave the way for the “caliphate” declaration in 2014.
The timing of the speech is notable, too. Al-Zawi had not spoke publicly at all for five months—which was a long time for him. The longest gap before this was three months. In much of the period since late 2006—when Al-Zawi took over after the founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed—Al-Zawi had given a speech every other month. The gap is even more striking when it is considered that the prior statement in September 2009 was merely the announcement of Al-Zawi’s second “Cabinet” and it was given in his name, not by him. The last “proper” speech had been seven months earlier, in July 2009. We have a reasonably good idea what the delay was: the Islamic State was producing a strategic document, made public a month or so before Al-Zawi gave this speech, which identified where the group had gone wrong and how to put it right, with a heavy focus on the tribes. The speech was to some extent a rollout of the concepts and tactics in the document.
[The audio file begins with a narrator:]
The Foundation of Al-Furqan is pleased to present an audio statement by Emir al-Mu’mineen [the Commander of the Faithful], Shaykh Abu-Umar al-Baghdadi, may God protect him. The speech is entitled, ‘The Religious and Political Crime of the Elections and Our Duty Toward Them’.
All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His help. Whomsoever God guides, none can misguide; and whomever He leads astray, none can guide. I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except God, alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
As for what follows:
From Abu Umar al-Baghdadi to his uncles, brothers, and sons in Iraq, the land of overflowing goodness and deeply-rooted nobility.
[Abu Umar al-Baghdadi:]
My address to you today is the address of a son to his father, a brother to his brother, and a father to his sons: filled with love, mercy, and compassion. But it is also the address of someone who sees a dark danger and a sweeping flood creeping toward his people, about to destroy crops and offspring, leaving nothing behind. A danger that brings dark hatred, blind fanaticism [or partisanship, sectarianism: ta’ssuba], and a diseased soul, driven by a corrupt and deviant creed [aqeeda], and a long-standing conflict within our deen [lifeway, Islam] and our Iraq, along with a false euphoria [because of a sense] of victory
My people and my brothers:
We, the Ahl al-Sunnah [“people of the Sunnah”, hereafter “Sunnis”] in Iraq, Arabs and non-Arabs, stand today on the threshold of a dangerous phase which, by God, will define everything that follows. Either we remain honourable, noble, dignified masters—as we have always been throughout time, Kings of the earth and knights of war—or we will be swept away by the flood: the flood of black Rafidi [“rejectionist”, derog. “Shi’is”] hatred and Crusader deceit. and the one who survives may yet see the corpses of his sons and brothers, and the traces of his crops and fields, all gone without [the possibility of] return, hoping for life in humiliation, while destruction is inevitably coming for him..
The core of the danger lies in the fact that the Rafidi Shi’a,2 who falsely claim affiliation with the qibla [Muslim direction of prayer], but whose roots lie with Al-Majus [“the Magians”, Zoroastrian priests, i.e. Iranians], have combined with the Crusader occupier, which has gathered all its sects against us. [America has been] killing our men, imprisoning our youth, plundering our wealth, and enabling the Rafidi advance into our lands—assisted by a clique of traitors and mercenaries, who have neither reason nor deen, from among the sons and bannermen of Abu Righal [a tribesman who supposedly betrayed Muhammad in Mecca], seduced by money, positions [in the Iraqi government], and [given] false prestige in the [Internet] forums and satellite channels of obscenity and vice [al-khana wal-radhilah].
Today, we observe military, media, and psychological preparations for a farcical and dangerous play [or (act of) theatre: masrahiyya] called the parliamentary elections, whose first and last goal is the consolidation of [rule by] Rafidi collaborators of the Cross over all of Iraq and the everlasting humiliation of the Sunnis, to press their noses into the mud—as is the case with the wretched Sunnis of Iran, despite their large numbers, their difficult terrain, the diversity of their tribes, the strength of their economy, and their control over almost all of Iran’s land and sea borders.
O my people, these elections are haram [forbidden] according to the law of our Lord, and they are, beyond that, political suicide and a complete political crime, with all its elements.
Slaves of God, the pressure of reality and difficult circumstances does not make that reality the source of judgement. Rather, it [reality] is the object upon which judgement is passed. If the shari’a forbids an idea or method, then it is forbidden, even if people deem it good or imagine that it offers salvation. There is no salvation except in what the shari’a has commanded.
The idea of democratic elections, the distinguishing feature it can never be separated from, the sovereignty of the people [i.e., popular sovereignty], stands in contrast to the foundation of our aqeeda and deen, which is the sovereignty of the shari’a. The sovereignty of the people in the parliamentary electoral system means that the people exercise authority once every four years, and that their authority is limited to authorising and selecting a person, in each district, to become a member of parliament, whom they call a “legislator” [or law-giver: musharri]. He then legislates rulings that please the people, even if they contradict the ruling of God. This is a clear and explicit contradiction of the Almighty’s statement: “Judge between them by what God has revealed, and do not follow their desires, but beware of them, lest they seduce you away from part of what God has revealed to you” [Qur’an 5:49].
So these MPs and legislators are idols [awathan] erected under a dome, subject to an oppressive and unjust constitution or law that contradicts the Islamic shari’a and fights it in many foundations of our noble deen. This constitution is the point of reference for judgement in disputes, and in the drafting and interpretation of any clause or legislation. It is a deen that contradicts the deen of God, the One who called us, when disputes arise, to refer the matter back to Him. As He, the Exalted, said: “If any disputes arise among you, refer them to God and the Messenger if you are [true] believers in God and the Last Day [al-Yawm al-Akhir]” [4:59].
So judging by what God has revealed and referring the matter back to Him are among the obligations of the deen and of the tawhid [monotheism, oneness] of the Lord of the worlds. It has been authentically reported from our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that when [one of his Sahaba (Companions)] Adi ibn Hatim found him while he was reciting, “They have taken as lords beside God their rabbis and monks” [9:31], he [Adi] said: “They do not worship them, but rather, when they declare something is permissible for them, they accept it as permissible, and when they declare something is forbidden, they treat it as forbidden.” Ibn Kathir, may God have mercy on him, said: “This is also what Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, Abdullah ibn Abbas, and others said in their explanation of the verse—that they followed them in what they made halal [permissible] and haram.” Al-Suddi said: “They sought advice from men and cast the Book of God behind their backs.” End quote.
As for the legislators, they are unquestionably kuffar [infidels, disbelievers]. Ibn Kathir, may God have mercy on him, said in his tafsir [exegesis] on the Exalted’s statement, “If you obey them, then you are mushrikun [idolaters, polytheists]” [6:121], “That is, when you turn away from the command and law of God to the word of another, and give precedence to it over His word, then this is shirk [lit. “associating” (others as equivalent in worship to God), idolatry].” End quote. Al-Shinqiṭi, may God have mercy on him, said: “It is understood from these verses—clearly, without ambiguity—that whoever follows the legislation of Satan, preferring it over what the Messengers came with, is a disbeliever in God, a worshipper of Satan, one who has taken Satan as a lord—even if he calls Satan’s followers by whatever names he wishes. For realities are not altered by the labels placed upon them, as is well known.” End quote.
By God, O my people, I do indeed love you and wish goodness for you and am keen for your wellbeing—but my concern for the safety of your deen is greater than my concern for the safety of your worldly life. So if someone comes to buy your deen from you—will you sell it to him? For a barrel of oil? Or for a longer duration of lighting in your homes? Or for the whole world? The Dajjal will come one day—as the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, informed us—to buy your deen with gold, silver, rain, and grain. So will you sell it to him? And if your answer is no, then why do you accept to sell it to traitors in exchange for illusory promises of a comfortable life, when you have already known their lies time and again? A free man is not bitten from the same hole twice.
By God, O my people, I indeed love you and love goodness for you and am keen upon your protection. But my keenness for the safety of your deen is more intense than my keenness for the safety of your worldly life. If someone comes to buy your deen from you—will you sell it to him? For a barrel of oil? Or for an extension in the duration of [access to electricity for] lighting your homes? Or for the whole world? The Dajjal will come one day, as you were informed by the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, to buy your deen with gold, silver, rain, and grain. Will you sell it to him? And if the answer is “no”, then why do you accept to sell it to traitors in exchange for false promises of comfortable living, when you have already seen [the evidence of] their lying time after time? The dignified man is not stung twice from the same hole.3
Far be it—far be it from you, O most precious of people—to be deceived by these few liars when they call it the rule of the majority! Another lie! Rather, it is a system that entrenches the rule of a mercenary minority—the wealthy and those supported by them—over the majority of the people. For under this system, anyone who registers his name from a certain age is allowed to elect his representative, and even in the most entrenched democracies, no more than sixty percent of the people register, and of those, no more than seventy percent go to the polls. Moreover, more than one person competes for a single seat, resulting in someone winning whom no more than ten percent of the people voted for! It is truly the rule of a minority over a majority. The claim that democracy is the rule of the people is a lie—a great fabrication with no basis in truth. The Magian Rafidi Pharaoh today is practicing the same trick as the Pharaoh in the time of Moses [Musa] when he said about the Prophet of God, “His plan is to expel you from your land, so what do you advise?” [7:110], thus deceiving people into thinking they are partners in rule and partners in decision-making!
The political crime lies in the fact that the Magian Rafida today want from us a general authorisation for a crime being plotted against us—aimed at slaughtering us and dividing us in the name of democracy and elections. The Magians have exploited their massive media machine to convince the Sunnis that elections are their saviour and the solution to all their problems. By God, it is like the [golden] calf of the Children of Israel [Banu Israil]: a hollow idol made of glittering gold, into which the wind enters from its mouth and exits from its rear, making noise that neither benefits nor harms. So beware—beware, O my people—lest you be like Banu Israil, spending your wealth and time to create a calf that harms you and does not benefit you. Let your position regarding the liars and their idol be: “We shall burn it and scatter its ashes in the sea” [20:97].
In setting the stage for this crime, the Rafida, with support from the Crusader occupiers, worked to unify themselves into strong blocs to secure for themselves continued rule. Meanwhile, the Sunnis entered this play fragmented, torn into pieces. The Sunni traitors and their agents crossed all limits and red lines. They threw themselves into the arms of those who killed their sons and violated the honour of their women.
Here we find the leaders of the Sahwat [Awakening], whom the media has long promoted as enemies of the Iranian Safavids. Some of our poor folk believed them; all of them [who signed up on this basis]—without question—[thereby] agreeing to become slaves in Persian Magian parties. The one the media has called the Emir of the Dulaym, Ali al-Hatem, joined the evil Hizb al-Da’wa [Da’wa Party] led by Nuri al-Maliki and his [United Iraqi] Alliance. The lying face, Hamid al-Hayes, joined the bloodsucker in the Iraqi Alliance and the Badr Organisation led by [Ammar] al-Hakim.4 Meanwhile, the one nurtured upon treachery and suckled on betrayal, Ahmad Abu Risha, chose to align himself with Jawad al-Bulani, the criminal of the Interior Ministry, who killed—and still kills—our people and violates our sanctities.5 Following him into this cursed Alliance was Ahmad Abd al-Ghafur al-Samarra’i.
As for Saleh al-Mutlaq, he made an explosive move in aligning with the killer of the Sunnis in Fallujah, Iyad Allawi.6 They were joined by the liar of Mosul, the Rafidi collaborator Usama al-Nujayfi, who stirred the emotions of our people in the north with his words about the Kurds, while he is in reality a shoe beneath the feet of the Rafida.
As for the traitors of the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood], as we have known for some time, their deen is utilitarianism, lying, and deceit. Here are their heads, their leaders, and their eyes: Tariq al-Hashemi, Rafi al-Issawi, Dhafir al-Ani, Abd al-Karim al-Samarra’i, and Salam al-Zuba’i, may their noble tribes be exempted. All of them accepted being part of this pathetic play within a gang led by a Rafidi whose fangs and claws drip with the blood of noble Fallujah. They all dance to the sounds of the cries of our children and women, while the skies of their “Iraqiya Bloc” are lit with white phosphorus bombs and the smoke of chemical shells.
What is strange is that they all went as followers and subdued soldiers into these alliances led by cunning Rafida. How astonishing it is from these people—do they really want to protect the Sunnis and their rights?!
As for the Tawafuq Front [Accord Front], for which the muftis gave fatwas and the simpletons beat drums, it is today empty of all who entered its sack. Not one of its three well-known leaders remains. The [Muslim Brotherhood’s Iraqi] Islamic Party [that created Tawafuq] is like the speckled snake: anyone who enters its sack exits alarmed at the severity of its plotting and the intensity of its poison. The party went and allied with a group of small vipers it had raised in its lap from the remnants of the Sahwa, and the outcome is inevitable. Either the scorpion will devour its young, or they will flee before it is too late.
This is the condition in which the Sunnis will enter these elections, along with the fraud that has already been prepared for them—just as happened all the previous times. So what do you think the result will be?
The inevitable result, if the Sunnis participate in these elections, is the solidification of the principle that the Sunnis in Iraq are a minority who must be ruled by the Rafidi majority, along with the entrenchment of fragmentation and dependency in the souls of the Sunnis and their politicians, and the loss of all their political and economic rights. The result will be that the Persians, the collaborators with Iran, will emerge from these elections stronger and more dominant, and we will come out weaker and less influential. What do you expect from the Majus except more criminality, theft of wealth, and insults to our honour? They did this when our condition was better—so what if our condition worsens after this electoral play is completed?
Accordingly, to protect the Sunnis, their deen, and their worldly life—and before the opportunity is lost and we are left biting our fingers in regret as we try to patch-up a garment whose fabric has been worn out—and after lengthy consultation with ahl al-ra’y [the people of (sound) judgment/opinion] from among the ulema, tribal shaykhs, and the mujahideen in the Islamic State, we have decided to prevent the elections by all possible legitimate means, foremost among them the military means. Friend and enemy know of our ability, by the help of God, to reach any location, no matter how fortified it is and how strong its guards are. Ask the ministries we demolished in Baghdad, the hands we severed in Anbar, the Sahwat we eliminated in Mada’in and everywhere else.7 Ask, too, the leaders of the security forces, whose heads roll at the hands of our men by the dozens daily. What we have prepared—by the help of God and His granting of success—to prevent the elections is of greater danger and the most intense advance yet.
So we call on everyone who sees in this opinion of ours correctness to stand with us—from among the ulema, the tribal shaykhs, and the intellectuals. We have shown you that the shari’a and the intellect both require the prevention of this ridiculous electoral farce. So, O my people, place the burden upon my neck at this time, and answer our call to proceed this way. You will not regret it, by the help of God, and you will see all goodness and blessing in this [choice of] action.
None has advised you, except one man from among you, one from whom you have known no lies nor betrayal—and praise be to God. For I—whether you are pleased or displeased by the fact—am the son, the brother, and the father. I drank the water of the Euphrates, was raised on its dates, grew up on its banks. The time has come for loyalty in counsel to you, repairing our reality, and raising our condition—in deen and dunya [worldly matters]. Every person of sound reason knows that when division befalls the Muslims, the deen is corrupted, the world is lost, the judgement of the Book is gone, and punishment descends upon the divided.
So fear God, O slaves of God. God the Exalted said: “O you who believe! Fear God as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [i.e., in a state of submission to Allah]” [3:102]. He also said: “Hold fast, all of you, to the rope of God, and do not become divided” [3:103]. And He the Exalted said: “O you who believe! Obey God, and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you; and then, if any disputes arise among you, refer them to God and the Messenger if you are [true] believers in God and the Last Day. That is the best and most commendable [method of] resolution” [4:59].
These Qur’anic verses point clearly to the path of salvation and the rope of deliverance from what has afflicted the land and the slaves of God: by clinging to the Book and the Sunnah that guided the Salaf [“ancestors”, first generations] of the umma [Muslim community], in knowledge and action. Unity and collectiveness are divine obligations. We have learned—with [the shedding of] our blood—how trying to repair a bitter reality using something other than the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Messenger of God just corrupts it further. How many times have groups of differing inclinations and aims come together for a battle, only for a group driven by its own desires [rather than Islam] or corrupt [ideological] foundations to lay down their weapons—when a gain appears close, or some war booty seems easy [at hand], or some hardship befalls [the mission]—leaving the backs of their brothers exposed to the enemy. And if you try to prevent them taking what they regard as booty, or ruin it for them, they turn into your enemy—and perhaps even ally with your enemy! That is what has happened—and will always happen—with every gathering that is not built upon the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger.
Therefore, a call to bring together the people of truth, the bearers of its banner, with the people of falsehood and the keepers of its temple, is manifest misguidance, and a great dilution of the shari’a. God the Exalted said: “Shall We treat those who believe and do righteous deeds the same as those who spread corruption on the earth? Shall We treat the God-fearing [or pious: al-muttaqin] the same as evil-doers [or the wicked: al-fujjar]?” [Sad 38:28]
We call all the mujahideen to unite under one banner—the banner of “la ilaha illa God, Muhammad rasul God” [There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God], and upon one manhaj [methodology], [under] one emir, in one army, and for one objective: [to establish] the sovereignty of the shari’a, so that the word of God is the highest, and the word of those who disbelieve is the lowest. This is the solution for getting out of the impasse. We will not see any good—in deen or dunya—without it because the liberation of the land and uprooting corruption are merely means toward achieving the objective and reaching the great goal; they cannot be ends in themselves. Indeed, we—Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaa—if we commit to the Sunnah but do not unite upon it, then we will become divided upon the Sunnah, without doubt. And if we unite upon something other than the guidance and Sunnah of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, and what he and his Companions—may God be pleased with them all—were upon, under any justification, then we have united upon misguidance, and not upon guidance.
In order that we may present a practical initiative for implementation, in which we hope from God for acceptance, we call for the formation of a committee [lajna] composed of ulema or advanced students of knowledge [talabat al-ilm al-mutaqaddimin], to serve as a nucleus for uniting the mujahideen and rectifying the condition of the resistance. We ask that God grant us success. We set [the following] conditions for whoever wishes to be in this committee from among the ulema:
a. They must be committed to the Sunnah as the pious ancestors [al-salaf al-salih] were.
b. They must have reputations for justice, fairness, boldness in the preaching of God, be distant from [personal] desire, and of good character.
c. They must have [personally] fought and still be fighting in the path of God, and be practiced in jihad as an act of worship. This is a very important condition, for those who have confined themselves to the corners of libraries, bent over papers, trying to produce solutions for problems of rifles and bombs without ever having seen them or even practiced with them for a day—there is no doubt they will cause them to explode in their own faces and the faces of those who listen to them. As for matters outside of jihad, we consider such scholars our imams and honour them.
d. They must be accepted by all the parties, or [at least] most of them. It is not necessary that he be from Iraq. They can be from any of the lands of the Muslims that are witnessing a jihad movement and a struggle between disbelief and faith, such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya, Algeria, the Arabian Peninsula, and other lands. Among those regions, by God’s grace, there are many people of knowledge who are acting upon their knowledge.
[When it comes to] The committee’s work, we propose that this committee undertake the following:
a. To examine the condition of each group or entity on the Iraqi field—in terms of methodology, leadership, funding, and support. Whoever among the groups or coalitions is deserving of being described as from Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaa, let them [the committee] announce it. And whoever has a flaw in his aqeeda or manhaj, let them judge it as such and call him to repentance from the bid’a [innovation] or shirk he has engaged in, and to disavow it before God—demonstrating it to the umma and the people so that the error is not repeated. Then after that, they would be welcome as an honoured brother for whom we would sacrifice our blood, even if they had previously spilled our blood.
b. To agree upon a final binding opinion for all parties regarding how to deal with the mushrik sects present in Iraq—whether those falsely claiming affiliation with the qibla, like the Rafida, or those who are disbelievers in origin, like the devil-worshipping Yazidis, the Mandaean Sabians, and the Crusader Christians.
c. To define the position of the entities and groups toward the currently ruling regimes—especially in the Arab and Muslim countries—and to clarify the ruling of God regarding international institutions, and what is required of all in how to deal with them and with their representatives.
d. To establish the necessary rules and guidelines for determining the legitimate means for expelling the occupier and purifying the land of corruption.
e. If unity requires revisiting past events and issuing rulings concerning every drop of blood that was shed or wealth that was taken without right, then the committee would have that authority, and it must be enabled to fulfil its duty and right wrongs, even if it concerns the blood of the emir of any group or entity, including the speaker himself. From our side—and on behalf of my brothers, and for the sake of unity and the collective—we relinquish all claims on blood of ours that was shed, whether based on interpretation or not. And we commit to paying the diya [blood money] to anyone who is due it from our men, as soon as our material circumstances allow, God willing.
We hope that a gathering adhering to these rules and conditions will be granted success, even if those who participate are few. For what matters is the truth they carry, not the number of participants. If we agree upon the aforementioned principles and conditions, then putting in place the administrative, judicial, military, and media arrangements necessary to reach full unity is easy, by the permission of God. We ask God that the dominance of the mujahideen and their State returns better than ever.
In conclusion, we say to the soldiers of the Islamic State:
May God bless you. Remain steadfast, remain united. We do not doubt—praise be to God—even for the blink of an eye that you are the group fighting for the cause of God in this land. God has given us glad tidings concerning you: that no matter how many schemes your enemy devises, no matter how much trickery he deploys, and no matter what numbers or weapons he brings—he will not harm you except with minor injury. He will never prevail over your ultimate outcome, so long as you remain upon the command of God and in accordance with His will. This is affirmed by the Hadith of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, as narrated in [Sahih] Muslim from Uqbah ibn Amir, who said: “I heard the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, say: ‘A group from my umma will continue to fight upon the command of God, prevailing over their enemy. Those who oppose them will not harm them until the Hour comes and they are upon that’.”
Then we say to the Rafidi mushrikeen, and those who walk in their path and the criminal traitors who beautify their cause:
We are the decree of [fate from] God upon you. We are the swords of God against you. We are the soldiers of God. We are the free sons of the Sunnah. You will not be able to deceive us, nor weaken our cause. The Sunnis are the rightly-guided, the steadfast ones, the people of might, of jihad, of sacrifice, and of giving. Their history speaks for itself—with you and with your Crusader ally. America did not frighten them with its sword and steel. They made it and its army a laughingstock before the world—a subject of mockery and ridicule. And you—by God—compared to them are more insignificant, weak, and contemptible. We have fought you, O traitorous Rafida, in the past and in the present, for many long years. You have never won a war against us on your own—not on a single day. Turn to the pages of history, and you will see.
Today, we—the soldiers of the Islamic State, the soldiers of proud the proud Sunni people—are striking your fortresses and breaking your bones. We were a bow’s length or nearer away from killing or capturing a large number of senior figures in the Maliki regime in a daring operation, but God decreed [as He did], and what He wills, He does. Yet we promise you things more disastrous and more bitter [to come], for we have returned once again, and our people—the Sunnis—have begun rallying around their mujahideen sons after they came to realise the lies of the traitors, their deception, and the wickedness of their intentions. They have understood well the lessons of Maliki and his government. They have seen how a gang of criminals from Faylaq Badr [the Badr Corps] and Hizb al-Da’wa, wearing official uniforms, go to Mosul, Anbar, Salah al-Din, Diyala, and the Sunni areas of Baghdad, to abduct whomever they want, whenever they want, without any deterrent from the so-called local governments, apart from a cheap request: “Just inform us that you want our sons and our women.”
They [Iraqi Sunni Arabs] have understood well the lesson of Maliki and his government their sons were failed in the final school exams under the pretext of cheating and forgery, while the sons of Najaf and Karbala are presented as noble and diligent! The Sunnis have understood the lessons of the humiliation of Al-Hashemi and Al-Mutlaq, and before them [Mahmud] al-Mashadani and [Adnan] al-Dulaymi, and before them [Adnan] al-Janabi and [Muhammad] al-Dayni—and the procession continues. They have seen how accusations are hurled at the dearest of their sons and the best of their men under, with allegations of “Baʿthism” and suchlike. All have now come to realise that the execution blade [i.e., guillotine] of the Rafida is coming for them—sooner or later—in revenge for the blood of al-Husayn, as they claim. So they [the Sunnis] rallied around their mujahideen sons, who today are in every city and village, receiving honour from their tribes and their people: “It is He who supported you with His help and with [the company of] the believers, and brought their hearts together. If you had spent all the riches of the earth, you could not have united their hearts—but God brought them together, for He is Mighty and Wise” [8:62-63].
O God, preserve Your slaves—the people of the Sunnah—their deen and worldly life. O Bestower, O Possessor of Majesty and Honour, preserve their men, their honour, their sons, and their wealth. Protect them, our Lord, from the plotting of the spiteful Rafida, and the evil of their treacherous, criminal collaborators. Unite their [Sunnis’] hearts, mend what is between them, and guide them by the paths of Al-Salam [“Peace”, one of the names of God].
Our final supplication is: praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.
“God has full power over His affairs, but most men know not” [12:21]
Your brother, Abu Umar al-Baghdadi.
NOTES
The title of the speech is: “جَرِيمَةُ الانْتِخَابَاتِ الشَّرْعِيَّةُ وَالسِّيَاسِيَّةُ وَوَاجِبُنَا نَحْوَهَا” (Jarima al-intikhabat al-shar’iyya wal-siyasiyya wa-wajibuna nahwaha).
Abu Umar actually uses the word “Shi’a”, which is unusual.
The phrase “dignified man” is a translation of “al-hurr”, which literally means “the free”, but its meaning goes beyond a counterpoint to a slave, referring—depending on context—to someone of dignity, honour, even wisdom. Here, “wise man” would have worked, too.
The phrase about a believer not being stung twice from the same hole is supposedly from the Prophet Muhammad himself, passed down by Abu Hurayra—one of the original Companions—who is the single largest source of Hadith. Or so the isnad (chain of transmission) records, along with the claim that Abu Hurayra had effectively a photographic memory. A sceptic with some knowledge of the origins of Islam will not be surprised that the earliest documentation of this saying appears in the mid-ninth century, in Sahih al-Bukhari, two centuries after everybody involved was dead.
Ammar al-Hakim took over in August 2009 as leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). It is a dynastic role: Ammar’s father, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, was assassinated in August 2003—one of the events marking the onset of the Zarqawist insurgency—and his brother, Abdul Aziz, was leader for six years after that, until his death. SIIC—as its original name, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), makes clearer—is a wing of the Iranian theocracy, and until 2007 it was formally attached to an “armed wing”, the Badr Corps, which is the oldest of the Iraqi units of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Badr was the seedbed from which the IRGC created most of the other Shi’a militias or “Special Groups” in Iraq that killed thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of Coalition soldiers. Badr and its leader, Hadi al-Ameri, were notorious in the civil war in Iraq in the mid-2000s for horrific sectarian violence against Sunni civilians. In tying Al-Hakim to Badr, and the Sunni Sahwa leaders to him, Abu Umar was playing to an Iraqi Sunni Arab audience that regards such a thing as disgraceful and treacherous.
Jawad al-Bulani, the Iraqi Interior Minister from May 2006 to December 2010, was not, in fact, that deeply associated with the sectarian bloodshed. To the contrary, Al-Bulani was appointed precisely to remove someone who was, Baqir Jabr al-Zubaydi (or Bayan Solagh), a “former” Badr commander, who was in office when the infamous Jadriya bunker was discovered and when the Shi’a militias initiated large-scale atrocities after the Askari Mosque was blown up in February 2006. However, Abu Umar’s point will have still landed with his audience because, Al-Bulani’s intentions notwithstanding, his Ministry became a fiefdom of the Iranians early on after Saddam Husayn’s fall and has remained so: much of the worst of the post-2006 IRGC militia rampage against Sunni civilians was carried out by men wearing official uniforms.
Iyad Allawi was the first (interim) leader of Iraq after the restoration of sovereignty in 2004, meaning he was Prime Minister when the IS movement’s first experiment with jihadist governance was terminated in Fallujah in November 2004. Allawi led the Iraqi National Movement (or Iraqiya) bloc into the 2010 Iraqi elections, which tried to present itself on cross-confessional nationalism, and actually won the most seats. Missteps (and misapprehensions) by the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama ended up sustaining Nuri al-Maliki in office, despite his increasingly brazen sectarianism and authoritarianism. Allawi is Shi’a by birth, but his political make-up is much more Ba’thist than anything else: marked by Arab nationalism and a hostility to the Shi’a Islamists that dominate in Baghdad, with a vision—as he showed in his brief period in power—of a strong, centralised State. Unsurprisingly, Allawi has old connections with, and was a favourite of, the CIA and SIS/MI6, the people for whom—if the old regime in Iraq had to be removed—the ideal was “Saddamism without Saddam”.
The phrase translated as “we eliminated” is “qatafna”, literally “we plucked”, which means to kill. This was common in the IS movement’s rhetoric, specifically about the targeted assassination campaign against the Awakening, where it was often said the jihadists had “plucked the heads” (qatf al-ru’ws).