Recent events in Tunisia, which has seen the parliament suspended and the prime minister dismissed by the president, have prompted talk of a 'coup' in the country. The editorial in this week's issue of the Islamic State's newsletter al-Naba' has decided to focus on Tunisia as supposed proof of the failure of democracy. The editorial attacks the Muslim Brotherhood (dubbed 'the apostate Ikhwan') and al-Qa'ida for accepting the democratic process that emerged in Tunisia in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution. The Muslims should realise that the correct path does not lie in democracy and peaceful means, but rather Tawheed (pure monotheism), jihad and implementing the rule of Shari'a (Islamic law). Events have only proved the correctness of the Islamic State's path, and even if guidance to the truth were the only thing the Islamic State soldiers and its supporters had left, it would suffice for them.
Below is the editorial translated by me in full.
Tunisia and the Harvest of Democracy
The precept of God Almighty has judged that glory belongs to God Almighty, His Messenger and the believers, and humiliation and lowliness and degradation belong to the disbelievers, apostates and hypocrites who have opposed God and His Messenger and have contravened His command: and among most of those who have opposed God and His Messenger in this time are the seekers, advocates and followers of democracy who have professed it and taking it up as a path and course, and thus have contravened the Sunna and precepts, so God has imposed on them humiliation, destitution and the labyrinth, and that has become appended them in all of their circumstances like the collar on their necks.
And this is the very thing that has happened today to the apostate Ikhwan in Tunisia after they contravened the path of the believers and followed democracy and sought help in it, glorified it and made it a ruling system among them and guide for them to the path of Hellfire, so the result resembled what happened to them before, when those they were content with as a Taghut for themselves turned on them, so he suspended their parliament, removed their leaders and flouted their revolution, peacefulness and democracy, only for the circle of Ikhwani failure to be complemented with another fall for their democratic fortresses, and another failure of their political experiments, and the worst of them and most numerous of them is waging war on the Shari'a of al-Rahman.
The Almighty has said: 'And whoso contravenes the Messenger after the guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a path besides that of the believers, We will let him assume what he has assumed, and convey him to Hell, and evil it is as a destination'- (al-Nisa' 115). Ibn Kathir (may God have mercy on him) said: 'That is: and whoso pursues the the path besides that of the Shari'a that the Messenger (SAWS) brought, he has gone on one path while the law is on another opposite path, and that is deliberately on his part after the truth has appeared to him and been made clear to him and clarified; so We have made him pay for that, in that We make it appear good in him and adorn it for him, to lure him, and the fire has been made his fate in the Hereafter, because whoso goes out from the guidance has no path except to the fire on the Day of Judgment.' And al-Tabari (may God have mercy on him) said: 'And that is disbelief in God, because disbelief in God and His Messenger is what is besides the path of the believers and besides their methodology. And His words: 'We will let him assume what he has assumed.' That is: We will make his supporter what he has sought support and help in from idols and false gods, and they will not avail him or ward off from him the torment of God, and they will not benefit him.' So what benefit has democracy brought to its servants in this world?! And what use will it be to them in the Hereafter?! But this imposed labyrinth was not confined to the parties of the apostate Ikhwan, but also it has applied to the theorists of al-Qa'ida and its deviant movement! So they were the first who praised the Tunisian Taghut and considered his victory 'a good indicator of the work of the callers to God, and the spread of Tawheed and statement of the religion of Truth!' And they drew up delusions from the spider's web, which can only be explained as minimising kufr and deeming democracy good and accepting it in one form or another, which confirms that the few remaining divisions between the Ikhwan and the al-Qa'ida movement are divisions in the fated and the unfated, that is all, with the evidence that they have deemed good this Taghut that the elections of kufr have brought, even as they know that he is a 'professor in law' of kufr! Not in the Shari'a and not in the principles of jurisprudence, so what were they expecting from him besides kufr and democracy?!
Indeed the stance of the charlatans of al-Qa'ida regarding the Tunisian Taghut in praising him is no less than the stance of the apostate Ikhwan who likened him on the day of his election to Omar bin al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him)! So if you are going to wonder at the apostate Ikhwan for the lowliness of their minds, your wonder at al-Qa'ida is all the more necessary.
And it is wondrous also that we see them preoccupied with distinguishing and separating between the two sides of 'revolution' and 'counter-revolution,' and distinguishing between the Tawagheet who support each of the two sides! And this undoubtedly reflects the depth of deviation that has struck these people as they have been comparing between the two sides, each of which sees in peacefulness a means, and in democracy a system of rule, and in jihad a crime!
And the slaves of democracy have admitted that all of the experiments of the so-called 'Arab Spring' have failed, but they have attributed that to reasons that are 'internal and external,' and the truth that they have not arrived at and will not arrive at is that all of these experiments have failed because they have contravened the Shari'a of Islam and the precepts of God Almighty for His creation, and we were not awaiting their failure in Tunisia so we could judge on their failure in totality, but it suffices that their masters have admitted their failure as a lesson for the one who is tempted by the glitter of the 'Jasmine and Spring revolutions' and, as soon as these revolutions turned on them to winter with wind, chirps that there is no nurturing or water in them.
And among the lessons of what has happened, is that despite the clear kufr that the apostate Ikhwan committed in Tunisia and in their waging war on the Shari'a without equivocation in order to please 'international and local partners,' that did not prevent the coup against them, and it is the fate that all the neglectful ones and back-trackers await, for they will onl attain loss and will only harvest failure and the Ikhwan are no exception in that.
And among the lessons also, is the departure of the nursemaids applauding and singing the praises of the Taghut after his coup against their claimed democracy, and in that is a message for the one who relies on these nursemaids and makes them and their revolutions bear what is not possible! For the nursemaids and revolutions are mobilised by the interests of this world and the agendas of the supporters, and not the considerations of the religion, and this is one of the reasons for the deviation of those deceived by them like al-Qa'ida and its sisters.
Therefore the Muslims must know for certain that democracy and peacefulness are not the path of the believers, for the path of the believers is jihad that works for the Shari'a to be the ruling system, and not democracy and other methodologies of kufr that have corrupted humanity and brought it to this comprehensive decline in all aspects of life.
Sheikh al-Adnani (may God have mercy on him) says: 'The Islamic State has known that the truth is not regained except through force, so it has chosen the boxes of ammunition, not the ballot boxes, and that removing oppression and change are only by the sword, so it has insisted on negotiation in the trenches, and not in the hotels, so it has abandoned the lights of conferences and it has lit up the fire of raids.'
Indeed might and guidance are connected with jihad in the path of God Almighty, as the Exalted says: 'And those who have waged jihad for Us, We will guide them to our paths.' So the guidance of God Almighty to the mujahideen has been to the path of Truth, while He has set back the hypocrites and those who cause abandonment- for what they have earned- and has deprived them of guidance, so they have begun to contradict themselves in all their theorisations such that they have overstrained their followers and brought them into the unmistakable abyss of the labyrinth and stumbling.
Indeed the rapid events and changes in the world prove the correctness of the Islamic State in its orientations in law, politics and rule, because it has proceeded on the path of God Almighty who created creation and knows what makes them just. The Almighty has said: 'Does not the One who created know, and He is the pleasant and knowing?' For indeed the justice of this world and the religion is in Tawheed and jihad and the Shari'a, not in the Trinity of evil: democracy, peacefulness and their step-daughter the revolutions!
So be proud, oh soldiers of the Caliphate and its supporters in every place, for if you only had soundness of course and correctness of way, that would suffice for you, so it is all the more so as you today are spear-tip leading the Muslims to their salvation and the disbelievers to their demise. Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Qurashi (may God protect him) said: 'You must realise oh soldiers of the Caliphate, your place, and the great bounties that God Almighty has granted you without others besides you, and you must thank the Exalted and Almighty for His external and internal bounties, in what you have known and have not known of them, in thanks that does not distinguish between the tongues and hearts. And by God may the bounty of guidance suffice were it to remain alone among the bounties, for were it to be placed in one palm, and the world would be placed opposite it in another palm, the palm of guidance would outweigh. For this world is transient and worn, while the guidance conveys to Paradise that remains and is lofty.'
So may there be more steadfastness in your path and more calling to it and more patience over it, for you have begun to see the fruits of this steadfastness in the east and west of the Earth, while the apostates and replacers swallow the agony of humiliation, grief and degradation, as a result of their neglect and replacing and following of the paths of the disbelievers and the methodologies of the deviant ones, and your Lord does wrong to no-one.