By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 24 November 2017

Abdul Munim al-Badawi (Abu Hamza al-Muhajir), the “war minister” of the Islamic State of Iraq, the predecessor to ISIS, made a brief five-minute speech on 30 April 2007, entitled “Nada ila Ulema al-Umma” (نِدَاءٌ إِلَى عُلَمَاءِ الأُمَّةِ). “Ulema” refers to Islamic scholars, sometimes translated as “clerics”, a slightly misleading comparison with Christianity, and “umma” refers to the worldwide community of Muslims, so the title of the speech translates as, “An Appeal to the Community’s Scholars”. Al-Badawi’s basic point—made at a time when the Islamic State movement was beginning to suffer under the pressure of the Surge and Sahwa—was to condemn the regional ulema for not supporting, and not having supported, the jihadists in Iraq against the Americans and the Shi’is. Implicitly, Al-Badawi is criticising the ulema for holding back Muslims in regional States who might otherwise have joined the Iraqi jihad as foreign fighters and suicide bombers, potentially making a difference to the Islamic State’s military fortunes. A rough translation of the speech is reproduced below.

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In the name of God, praise be to God, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace.

As for what follows:

This is an appeal from a weak slave to his masters among the scholars.

Oh, scholars [ulema]:

I ask you, by the God who raised the sky without pillars, don’t you know that if an inch of Muslim land is occupied, jihad becomes an individual obligation [fard ayn] on the people of this camp [lit. “district”: al-mahala], especially when not enough is being done?

Oh, scholars:

I ask you, by God who raised the sky without pillars, isn’t our jihad in Iraq a legitimate jihad? If the answer is “yes”, then why did you neglect us in Al-Qa’im, Rawa, and Husaybah, just as you neglected us in Fallujah, Samarra and Tal Afar? Did it not occur to your minds, honourable ones, [to condemn] what the Americans and their allies among al-Rawafid [derog. “Shi’is”] did to our sisters in Tal Afar? Have you not heard about the violations of honour [i.e., rape] and killing of children and women, in addition to the slaughter of the mujahideen in Fallujah?

By God, besides whom there is no god, I say in complete sincerity: In Fallujah, we ate tree leaves and urinated blood from extreme thirst, while many of our brothers died from this extreme thirst. As this was happening, we were listening to hear the world’s reaction, seeking a ray of hope from the scholars, [who should have been] defending their brothers who kill and slaughter, and taking up the weapons given by God, the Blessed and Most High. Instead, these scholars came out against us in their Eid sermons saying we are the Khawarij of the present day!

Are those [i.e., the Islamic State] who rebelled against the Americans, and fought them, and defended the umma’s honour, Kharijites? Have we strayed into disbelief, oh distinguished ones? Have we declared ordinary Muslims to be infidels? Or did we fight for you, for your honour, for your women, and for your children?

Oh, scholars:

Why did you lacerate our flesh and attack our honour? By God, if you are not our fortress and our impregnable dam, then who is?!

Oh, scholars:

By God, we will not be merciful to you on the Day of Resurrection [Yawm al-Qiyamah]. We will hang what you have done around your necks and demand the true shar’i of God be imposed on you. Did you not give a covenant to God that you would explain the Book [i.e., the Qur’an] to the people? Why did you abandon us for the ignorant and base people?

As was said by others, who were weak and simple like us, in verses of poetry:

Ulema al-deen [scholars of the faith], oh salt of the land / Who are the captain’s guide at the sails

A person reaps only what he sows / The best seeds are the pinnacle of faith [iman]

The Almighty [Al-A’az] is alive and His interpreters are among you / No one who revives the creed [aqeeda] will perish a second time

The doctrine is jihad, not women’s menstruation [aqeeda al-jihad la hayd al-nusa’a] / The sword is useless without the Qur’an

You never bow to the Sultan / And your arrows will not make mistakes about Brotherhood

Truth is clear and falsehood is dull / For how long will the doctrine of betrayal [aqeeda al-khadhlan] last?

The youth of unbelief engages in fortune-telling / To find the path, marchers are counting on the spearhead

When treachery aimed her arrows / [It was] insidiously from the scholars and God-fearers [al-ruhban]

Kharijites are ignorant of the deen / There is a reward for killing them, annihilating the offenders

The eminence of the true deen requires / Detering the Kharijites everywhere

Be patient, imams of misguidance, be patient / At the All-Knowing meeting place of the two adversaries

May God grant you a covenant / That you will make clear without concealment

So you rejected it just like they rejected it / You have sold your deen cheaply

God will judge between us, so prepare / With our blood, we were created for the Day of Resurrection

The word of our Lord has come to us / And it is the truth, blessed be the Beneficent [Al-Manan].

There is an explicit command to fight our enemy / To strike at them with every fingertip [banan]