Good Advice to all Muslims Living in the West: Shaikh al-Uthaimeen & Shaykh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais: How Muslims Should Behave in Non-Muslim Societies

Sources: Islamic Monitor, Islam Against Extremism


The esteemed and late Shaikh Muhammad bin Salih al-'Uthaimin of Saudi Arabia stated, during a tele-link in the evening of Friday, 28th July 2000, to an audience in the city of Birmingham, UK:

... Likewise I invite you to have respect for those people who have the right that they should be respected, those between whom there is an agreement (of protection) for you. For the land in which you are living is such that there is an agreement between you and them. If this were not the case they would have killed you or expelled you. So preserve this agreement, and do not prove treacherous to it, since treachery is a sign of the hypocrites, and it is not from the way of the Believers. And know that it is authentically reported from the Prophet that he said,

Whoever kills one who is under and agreement of protection will not smell the fragrance of Paradise.

Do not be fooled by those sayings of the foolish people, those who say "Those people are Non-Muslims, so their wealth is lawful for us (to misappropriate or take by way of murder and killing)." For by Allaah - this is a lie. A lie about Allaah's Religion, and a lie about Islamic societies.

So we may not say that it is lawful to be treacherous towards people whom we have an agreement with.

O my brothers. O youth. O Muslims. Be truthful in your buying and selling, and renting, and leasing, and in all mutual transactions. Because truthfulness is from the characteristics of the Believers, and Allaah - the Most High - has commanded truthfulness - in the saying of Allaah - the Most High -

O you who believe - fear and keep you duty to Allaah and be with the truthful

And the Prophet encouraged truthfulness and said,

Adhere to truthfulness, because truthfulness leads to goodness, and goodness leads to Paradise. And a person will continue to be truthful, and strive to be truthful until he will be written down with Allaah as a truthful person.

And he warned against falsehood, and said,

Beware of falsehood, because falsehood leads to wickedness, and wickedness leads to the Fire. And a person will continue lying, and striving to lie until he is written down with Allaah as a great liar.

O my brother Muslims. O youth. Be true in your sayings with your brothers, and with those Non-Muslims whom you live along with - so that you will be inviters to the Religion of Islaam, by your actions and in reality. So how many people there are who first entered into Islaam because of the behaviour and manners of the Muslims, and their truthfulness, and their being true in their dealings.

On his recent visit to East London Masjid, London, Shaykh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the Head Imam of the Masjid Al-Haram of Makkah al-Mukarramah, mentioned in his khutba that "Muslims should be proactive positively in our communities and work for all humanity."

Good advice overall, methinks. Yeah, I know these things are old, but still, given current climate, it is always good to remind ourselves of some decent advice.

Dov Weissglass: "Israel is dependent economically on Europe"

In a little-publicised speech, Dov Weissglass,former advisor and bureau chief to prime minister Ariel Sharon, clearly explained the thinking behind the Israel's change of heart over marking the products produced in Occupied Territories as such rather than stamping them with the "Made in Israel" logo.

The original position was as follows:

Weissglas ... said Israel had been ignoring the European Union and European Economic Area (EEA) demand that it mark such products [Ed. - as being made in Occupied Territories] out of "national pride, and based on the position that all our producers are citizens of Israel, and we must not yield to the political discrimination Europe was demanding."

However, when that bastion of the Zionist commercial support, Marks & Spencers, returned millions of Israeli goods, presumably due to non-compliance with the EU demands, the Zionist regime quickly capitulated ordering the marking of "the products in keeping with European demands".

There is also in that speech some interesting points concerning the recognition that the EU plays a major role in keeping the Zionist Entity "alive" economically:

Weissglas said Israel is dependent economically on Europe, and militarily on the United States. "$4 billion, a quarter of all American military aid, goes to Israel.

Without Europe and the States we'd be like the Palestinians, surviving on $200 a month," he said.

In light of this, it would seem that, in fact, political activism in Europe as well in the United States does have a chance, if properly directed, to affect the conduct of the Zionist entity.

There is also appears to be a seeming support for evacuation of the settlements:

"Only one state out of 188 supports the settlement project, and that's Israel. The world doesn't care about historic rights, it cares about reality. The reality is that there are 2 million Palestinians living in the territories, but only 300,000 Israelis."

"Now that we've left the Gaza Strip, we will give back the rest of the territories sooner or later, and every single settler will have to leave," he said.

Well, let's hope this would come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, some political organising and activism would go a long way in making this a reality.

Living in the dark

A new trend has emerged in my daily pattern. Now, from around 13:00 until about 18:00 the whole building is without electricity and that has been going on for about a week now...

I also managed to film an end of a fight today. Don't know if I mentioned this, but on average a major fight happens outside my building at least once a week. Today, I only remembered about the camera after all the "exciting" bits were finished... Hence the video is not worth showing. Nonetheless, I have not seen so much street violence since, well, since never really...