Following on from the directives and counsels the Islamic State put out in its al-Naba' newsletter infographic last week regarding epidemics (clearly in light of the spread of the coronavirus), this week's edition of the al-Naba' newsletter features an editorial on the spread of the coronavirus, even as it does not mention the virus by name.
In sum, the editorial asserts the following:
- The current pandemic is an example of God's torment against the nations of His creation, which has (praise be to God) mostly struck the idolatrous nations. May God increase the torment on the disbelievers and keep the believers safe.
- The 'Crusader' nations have become preoccupied with security in their own lands, deploying some of their own security forces and armies in light of the epidemic and its current and potential ramifications on things like the economy, prices of goods, and the potential for chaos and disorder.
- The 'Crusaders' also face the pressures of their external military deployments at a time when they have been seeking to bring their troops home, even as they seek to reduce the likelihood of 'mujahideen' attacks against them inside their own countries and elsewhere. The last thing they want is for their current tribulations with the pandemic to coincide with the attacks in their own countries like the attacks in Paris, London and Brussels, or for the 'mujahideen' to conquer parts of the Earth as occurred in the past.
- The 'Crusaders' hope the 'mujahideen' will be calm and pity their current sufferings, but they pretend to forget their own crimes against the Muslims they continue to commit to this day.
- The Muslims should not pity the disbelievers and apostates, but should use the current opportunities to continue working to free Muslim prisoners from the camps in which they face subjugation and disease, and should intensify the pressure on them however they can. They should also remember that obedience to God- the most beloved form of which is jihad- turns away the torment and wrath of God (i.e. performing jihad is the best guarantee of protecting yourself from the epidemic).
Below is the full editorial translated by me,
The worst nightmares of the Crusaders
God Almighty has imposed something of His painful torment on the nations of His creation, most of them- and praise be to God- being of the idolaters, for fear of the epidemic among them has done more than what the epidemic itself has done, for their abodes have been shut, their markets and activities suspended, and many of them confined to their homes. And they have become on the verge of a great economic catastrophe. We ask God to increase their torment and save the believers from all that. Indeed He is harsh of punishment against the one who rebels against Him, and merciful to the one who obeys Him and stands with Him.
And in the shade of this event that has occupied the entire world and the Crusader nations in particular, security has become among the most important preoccupations of the governments of those countries. This is so in the shade of the emptying of the streets of their inhabitants, and the entrusting of the security apparatuses, police forces and even armies with assignments to provide aid to combat the spread of the disease and provide people with services and protection. There is also the increase of fears in view of the likelihood of the occurrence of financial difficulties that may afflict the poorest people at the same time with an expensiveness in prices resulting from the deficiency of goods in the markets, with all that entails from the likelihood of the increase of the extent of attacks on lives and properties, and the spread of chaos and agitation, as often happens in those countries during climate disasters and political and social problems.
And the security and wars that the Crusader states are waging and their external military deployment have become among the things that most keep them awake today, for the last thing they want is to send more of their soldiers to areas where the disease is likely to spread, or to be compelled to mobilize security personnel and soldiers inside the land at the time in which they are expending their effort to minimize the mobilizations and the frictions between the people in their different jobs.
For all this, they are striving today to reduce the likelihood of the mujahideen launching attacks on them inside their Crusader countries, or their escalation of their military operations against them and against their apostate allies in the lands of the Muslims, because that- and in both cases- will constitute additional pressure and burden on the shoulder of the governments today that are oppressed today under the pressure of making available more of the needs of their peoples, in the shade of a great retreat in the economy and incomes, and inability to coordinate joint operations with allied states, and the fears that their other enemies will exploit this critical situation they are all going through in order to make gains at their expense in different fields.
And the last thing they want today is that this critical time of theirs should coincide with preparations of the soldiers of the Caliphate for new strikes on them, similar to the strikes of Paris, London, Brussels and other places. And the proportion of the preoccupation of their security and medical institutions has reached the maximum limit in some places, and what they fear above all today is that the mujahideen should greet them in the morning with a day like the days of the past conquests in any of the regions of the Earth that He gives to inherit to whomsoever He wills of His servants. And their armies have begun entering into a state of paralysis because of the restriction of their movements, and the pressure on their budgets and their preoccupation with withdrawal to their lands.
For all that, they today have every hope for a time in which the activity of the mujahideen is calm, and during which the fire of revenge for the crimes they have committed over the past years against the Muslims dwells in themselves. And they dream that the monotheists will have pity for their state of affairs that gets worse day after day, especially with the appearance of the first signs of a 'financial crisis' that is worse than that which hit them a decade ago, and to God be grace before and after.
And the enemies of God pretend to forget that in these moments in which they are keen to preserve the safety of their peoples from the illness that are highly contagious in the gatherings and closed places, they are confining tens of thousands of the Muslims in narrow prisons, and assembling them in cells in which the prisoner can hardly sit or breathe without hardship. And they imprison them in camps that do not have available the least of services that the human being needs to survival. In them have died many of the children and women and elderly from cold, hunger, illness and coercion. And God is our reliance upon them and He suffices as trustee.
And they also pretend to forget that when they confined the Muslims in Baghuz, Mosul, Sirte and other places such that disease and hunger took a fatal toll on them, they exploited their weakness and lack of a way out by annihilating them in destruction bombing and they buried them alive in homes that gave them refuge, and they burnt them with 'phosphorus' such that it entered the trenches in which they tried to protect themselves from their crimes, so they had no mercy on the incapacitated, the child, the women or the wounded. We ask God to take revenge on them and places us in authority over the necks of all of them.
And they also pretend to forget- they and whoso is deceived by their propaganda- that the Crusaders today, even as they are in the height of their tribulation, have not refrained from committing the most barbaric crimes against the Muslims in every place. And indeed they continue until now to bomb their homes and kill their children in Khorasan, Central Africa, Somalia and other places, in addition to their offering support to their allies of the idolaters to do that in other places. So they are as the Almighty said about the likes of them: "And they do not observe in the believer any pact or even covenant of protection, and those people are the transgressors" (al-Tawba 10). Imam al-Tabari (may God have mercy on him) said: "These idolaters whom I have ordered you- oh believers- to kill wherever you find them, have no qualms about killing a believer if they gain power over him, and do not have regard for a pact or even covenant of protection. So do not spare them oh believers, just as they will not spare you if they gain supremacy over you."
So the obligation on the Muslims today with their efforts to protect themselves and their people from the spreading disease is to strive also to free the Muslim prisoners in the prisons of the idolaters and the camps of humiliation in which they are threatened by disease in addition to subjugation, coercion, hunger and enmity against themselves and their religion that they face from the idolaters. And they must have no pity for the disbelievers and the apostates even as they are at the height of their tribulation, and they must intensify the pressure on them so they become more pressured and incapable of harming the Muslims by the permission of God the Lord of the Worlds. And they must take into account that the financial losses of the Crusaders and the Tawagheet and their preoccupations with protecting their countries from themselves and other enemies will have a great impact subsequently on weakening their capabilities to wage war on the mujahideen. And they must remember that what turns away the torment of God and His general wrath from the people is obedience to the Exalted. And the most beloved form of acts of obedience to God Almighty is jihad in His path, and inflicting damage on His enemies, and God will indeed support the one who supports Him. Indeed God is powerful, mighty.