Islamic State Weighs in on Donald Trump’s Re-election
The Islamic State (IS) rendered its verdict on Donald Trump’s re-election in the main editorial of the 469th edition of its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, published on 14 November. The editorial is entitled, “The Unbelievers Will Not Be Successful”, drawn from Qur’an 23:117.
Al-Naba begins: “Politicians have overflowed with commentary about the expected changes after the taghut Trump takes power, [speaking] in a tone that suggests the world is subject to his absolute control and whim. They talk about him with a crazy, obsessive tendency, as if he was the orchestrating master of the Affairs of Creation! This is not an exaggeration, merely an unvarnished description of reality.”
There has been, Al-Naba goes on, a “frantic scramble” to prepare and adjust policies to prepare for Trump’s inauguration, “starting with the government of Qatar, which has preceded its ‘normalizing Gulf’ counterparts in renewing its offerings of obedience to appease Trump, continuing through its protégé, the ‘Taliban’, which expressed its hope to ‘open a new chapter of relations’ with his administration, and by no means ending with the positions of the governments and tawaghit of Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the [United Arab] Emirates, Jordan, and other allies, partners, and rivals.”
IS is deeply unimpressed with the “fear, dread, and wishfulness that many have expressed towards the taghut Trump after his [election] victory, as if he were the King in charge of the universe”. The problem, by IS’s reckoning, is that “their hearts were devoid of love, fear, awe, and glorification of God Almighty”, which meant there was a vacuum to be “filled with fear, awe, and glorification of idols [al-andad]. They have forgotten that the American taghut, like every other creature, is unable to stand or move a limb except with the permission of God”. God could have dispensed with Trump, as He did with Nimrod, Korah, and Pharoah, but God has a lesson in mind—and is luring in His enemies, says Al-Naba.
“When one contemplates past versions of Trump, such as Korah, for example, who collected so much treasure that a powerful group of men would struggle to carry” it, the striking thing is that all such figures were destroyed, Al-Naba contends: without God’s approval, such figures were not able to protect themselves, nor anybody else. “Muslims today direly need to meditate and reflect on the stories of those in the past who are similar to, or surpass, Trump in disbelief, wickedness, arrogance, and vanity, so they realise that the results of disbelief and arrogance are constant, just as the results of faith and submission to God Almighty are constant.”
If Muslims meditated in this way, they would “increase their certainty about the defeat of the infidels”, says Al-Naba:
God Almighty commanded His Prophet to tell the Jews after [the Battle of] Badr when they boasted of their power: “You will be vanquished and gathered into Hell, an evil resting-place” [3:12]. This is the Muslim position on disbelief and its leaders at all times.
So tell Trump and his administration, “You will be vanquished and gathered into Hell”. Tell [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his army, “You will be vanquished and gathered into Hell”. Tell Khomeini and his herd,1 and Putin and his legions, “You will be vanquished and gathered into Hell”. This is the command of God Almighty, His judgment and assurance. Whoever wishes, let him believe, and whoever wishes, let him disbelieve.
With this mentality of faith, the believer must live. It is through faith that the believer rises above the nations of disbelief and falsehood. It is the duty of the preachers and students of monotheism to instil this message in the souls of the common people, to make them listen, and to present before them the verses of the Qur’an and its conclusive textual evidence.
The Islamic State is not convinced much will change for them with Trump, not least because of their antisemitic worldview that regards America as run by Jews:
In the political realm, it has been widely said that Trump assuming power will expose American democracy!! Is there anything left in it that is hidden to be exposed?! When was it ever hidden in the first place?! Moreover, American or Jewish democracy, Western or Eastern, they are all the same, whether in the manner of their ruling [hukm] or characteristics, and differentiating between them is to approve of some of them, which is an absolute evil. Is it not the case that all the evils of the world are because of this democracy and the outcomes of its earthly, infidel doctrine [manhaj]?! …
[M]any have personalised the issue with Trump, even portraying to people that the problem lies in Trump’s “temperamental” personality and his “commercial” mentality, not in the American Crusader regime and its hostility to Islam. Therefore, some “national liberation movements” have conditioned their stance on Trump based on his position on their issue! They forgot that the “Deal of the Century”, which was a “plan” [for former Mandate Palestine] during the Trump era, has become a “reality” during the Biden era, and they ignored that the change of American Presidents and administrations, “Republican or Democratic”, “Right or Left”, does not change their “constants” regarding the war on Islam.
Observing the movement of peoples [that secured] the re-election of Trump as President of America, despite his bad reputation and precedent, it necessarily reflects the reality of the Crusader American people and the Christian peoples who support the war on Islam and vote strongly for those who will deepen it.
Underlining IS’s view, the Naba editorial says:
As for the position of the Islamic State on the American elections, it is the same position every time, because whoever the “winner” is, there is no doubt that he is an infidel “Crusader” or “Jewish Crusader” who will not hesitate to wage war on Islam, especially when it comes to the Islamic State. What Trump did during his first term in office, his successor Biden continued to do. Their war against the mujahideen has never stopped. Therefore, this is a matter of indifference for a mujahid in his trench or standing guard on the frontier. The enemy is the enemy, war is war, jihad is jihad, and God is the supporter and helper.
Al-Naba concludes:
It remains only for us to remind Trump that he ended his first Presidency claiming to have eliminated the Islamic State, and here he is again, carrying a legacy of both failure and lies. He failed to stop the jihad of the Islamic State, and lied in his claims of eliminating it, even at one point “announcing its defeat about 16 times in just 99 days”! Yet as he returns for a second Presidential term, his country and its [armed] forces are still engaged in the war against the Islamic State. His country’s planes and intelligence agencies are flying back and forth between Iraq and Syria and elsewhere for fear of the mujahideen, and they are unable to halt the danger [the jihadists pose] in Khorasan [Afghanistan] despite the dedication of the [Taliban’s] “[Islamic] Emirate,” and its [the U.S.’s] allies and opponents alike are drowning in the jungles of the African provinces [wilayat]. The war still has many remaining chapters, so let the mujahideen prepare for it as they should. “God has full control over His affairs but most people know it not” [12:21].
NOTES
Presumably, this is supposed to refer to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but the text in Al-Naba says “Khomeini”, i.e. Khamenei’s predecessor and the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Islam is awful.