By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 March 2018

A video statement was put out on 15 October 2006 by the official spokesman of what was then called the Mujahideen Shura Council (al-Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen or MSM), the entity in which Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had nominally subsumed itself in January 2006, announcing the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). The MSM spokesman, Muharib al-Jubouri, seen above, who had not been in the job long—the first AQI/MSM spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, had been killed a few months earlier—was now the ISI spokesman,[1] and his speech made clear that a coalition of tribesmen and insurgents announced by MSM three days earlier, the Alliance of the Scented Ones (Hilf al-Mutayibeen), was also incorporated in this “State”. The transcript of Muharib’s speech, entitled (unimaginatively enough), “Announcement on the Establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq”, is translated below.

Muharib’s speech is brief and gives essentially two justifications for declaring “the State”.

The more theological reason Muharib gives is that a Muslim community needs a leader no matter how small it is. The hadith of the Prophet Muhammad saying that even if three believers go on a journey, one of them must be designated as leader, is mentioned and then repeated from the commentaries of others, including Ibn Taymiyya. Muharib also insists that ISI controls an equivalent amount of territory to that which Muhammad controlled when he created a state in Medina.

The practical reason Muharib gives for declaring “the State”—a version of which the Islamic State would ever-afterwards insist upon—is that it was necessary to protect the Sunni Arabs. The situation as Muharib depicts it is one where Iraq had already been federalised, with the Kurds breaking away in the north and the Shi’a seizing the south and the formal government in Baghdad, meaning those two communities were not only safe, but in a position to aggress against the Sunni Arab zones, where there was no unified leadership and there were Sunni “traitors” collaborating with the government. So far from the statehood declaration being a power-grab and an attempt to subordinate Sunni Arab insurgent and tribal rivals, then, Muharib is arguing the ISI is taking on the burden of being a defensive shield for the community. Needless to say, that was disputed by the ostensible beneficiaries.

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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

All praise is due to Allah, the Mighty, the Wise, who said: “The judgment is but for Allah; He has commanded that you worship none but Him. That is the upright deen, but most men know not” [Qur’an 12:40]. And who said: “Those who, if We establish them in the land, establish prayer and give zakat and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. And to Allah belongs the outcome of matters” [22:41]. And may prayers and peace be upon the one whom Allah sent to bring the people out of darkness into light [i.e., the Prophet Muhammad], and upon his family and Companions, the people of sacrifice and the frontier posts.

As for what follows:

After the Kurds in the State of the North seceded, and a federal system was approved for the Rafidites in the centre and south—with support from the Jews in the north and the Safavids in the south, protected by military militias, black in thought, heart, and action—they turned upon our people, the people of the Sunnah [i.e., Sunnis], and plunged deeply into their blood, exposing them to the ugliest forms of killing, torture, and displacement, until the people of the Sunnah became like orphans at the tables of the vile.

Thus, it became obligatory upon the honourable and free among the people of the Sunnah—from the mujahideen, the working ulema, and the dignitaries—to offer something to their brothers, sons, and especially to their women, in the shadow of this farcical play named “the State of al-Maliki”, in which, unfortunately, traitors from among the people of the Sunnah participated in various roles, misleading the people regarding their deen and deliberately throwing away the rights of their people.

Accordingly:

Your brothers in Hilf al-Mutayibeen [the Alliance of the Scented Ones] bring you the good news of the establishment and declaration of the Islamic State of Iraq—in Baghdad, al-Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Ninawa, and parts of the provinces of Babil and Wasit—as a protection for our deen and our people, and so that there will be no fitna and the blood of the martyrs and the sacrifices of your mujahideen sons not be wasted in vain.

For the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “It is not permissible for three people to be in a wilderness without appointing one among them as a leader.”

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “It must be known that the appointment of authority over the people is among the greatest of obligations; the deen and the world cannot be established without it. For the children of Adam’s interests are not fulfilled except by gathering, due to their need for one another, and when they gather there must be a leader for them. Even the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘When three go out on a journey, they must appoint one among them as a leader’.” And he said: “Thus, it is obligatory to take leadership as an act of deen and as a means of drawing nearer to Allah Almighty, for drawing nearer to Him in it—by obeying Him and His Messenger—is among the greatest acts of nearness.”

And al-Shawkani (may Allah have mercy on him) said, in the chapter “The obligation of appointing judges, rulers, and others,” regarding the previously mentioned hadith: “If this is legislated for three who are in a wilderness or on a journey, then legislating it for a larger number who inhabit villages and cities, and who require the prevention of injustice and the settling of disputes, is all the more necessary. And therein is evidence for those who say it is obligatory upon the Muslims to appoint imams, rulers, and judges.”

And why should it not be so, when—by the will and aid of Allah—we are more widespread, have longer reach, and are more fortified in our abode than the government of Palestine, whose legitimacy many recognised even though the Zionist occupier kills and arrests whomever it wills, whenever and wherever it wills?

Nothing shows this more than the arrest of more than sixty individuals from the ministers and officials of their state, while the American occupier cannot reach any of our soldiers without us shedding much of its blood, and many testify to that.

As we announce the establishment of this State, we do so relying upon the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he left Mecca for Medina and established the Islamic State there despite the coalition of the mushrikeen [polytheists, idolaters] and the People of the Book against him. The Jews lived in separate residential clusters with the highest degrees of military and administrative training and organisation, in addition to the gathering of the munafiqun [hypocrites] and those who aligned with them from the mushrikeen, headed by Ibn Salul, who coveted the kingship of Medina. Despite the challenges facing that fledgling state—to the point that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was willing to give [the tribe of Banu] Thaqif a third of the fruits of Medina—and despite the scarcity of men and equipment, it was a matter that had to happen, so that this state would be a refuge for the Muslims, preserving their rights and repelling the avarice of the greedy against them.

Today—by the will and strength of Allah—we impose our control over many areas whose size equals that of the first State of Medina, in which the enemies have neither a share [of power] nor presence, and the mujahideen establish therein the limits of the shari’a and the deen, at the request and insistence of the people of the Sunnah themselves.

Let the invading aggressors and the spiteful Rafidites know that the blood of the people of the Sunnah is precious and dear, and will not be wasted in vain after today. By the power of Allah, we will meet any aggression against it with the utmost, harshest, and most severe response, many times greater, with no limit to our retaliation. Let them know that Baghdad of [Harun] al-Rashid, the abode of the caliphate, was built by our ancestors, and will not leave our hands except over our corpses and skulls. We shall, with the permission of Allah, once again raise the banner of tawhid—the banner of the State of Islam—there anew.

Today, we call upon all the mujahideen, ulema, tribal shaykhs, and the general people of the Sunnah in Iraq to pledge allegiance to the Commander of the Faithful, the virtuous shaykh Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, to hear and obey him in ease and hardship, and to strive with all our efforts to strengthen the pillars of this State and to sacrifice for it our souls and our wealth.

We promise you that we shall be loyal and sincere, establishing among you justice and benevolence, proceeding according to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), not deviating from them by even the span of a hair, expelling the invaders, bringing security and safety to the people, and ensuring for you a dignified life. We will not withhold from you the blessings of your land, for they are from it and for you.

Further, we shall extend our hands to our Muslim brothers across the world, especially in the region around our beloved country, offering them our goodness and expertise and benefiting from their goodness and knowledge.

Moreover, we call upon all Muslims, the people of the Sunnah throughout the world, to support us, beginning with words and ending with blood, for you are our greatest resource and the source of our strength, and upon you we place our hope after Allah. Do not forsake us. Stand with us. Defend us. Burn the ground beneath the feet of those who wish us harm.

We direct a special appeal to the people of knowledge to fear Allah Almighty concerning us, to support us, to incite the umma to defend us, and to supplicate for us.

And Allah is the Greatest, and to Allah belongs honour, and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the munafiqeen know not.

Spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq

Ministry of Information

Media Commission of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq

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NOTES

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[1] Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri was the full name of the first “proper” Islamic State spokesman, who seems to have been chosen very soon before this announcement (he also led the oath-taking in the video showing the formation of Hilf al-Mutayibeen). Muharib was one of the few senior IS officials who used his real name from the get-go, though his known kunyas include Abu Bakr al-Jubouri and Abu Abdullah al-Jubouri.

Muharib was emblematic of the way the IS movement was expanding the dominance it had had over the insurgency for about a year by October 2006. At a time when many Ba’thi-Islamist insurgents were testing engagement with Baghdad, IS(I) was hoovering up the remaining Sunni rejectionists. Muharib was such a case, having been the leader of an independent Salafi unit, Saraya al-Ghuraba, until he joined with the IS movement to create MSM. IS’s growing breadth and depth in Sunni Arab Iraqi society was bringing it to a peak of popularity and prestige in late 2006—ironically just before the backlash that would take it (briefly) to its lowest ebb—and this process brought the bulk of the longtime Salafi Trend, the veterans of underground militancy from the Saddam Husayn days, under IS’s banner. Again, Muharib exemplified this: he was a popular academic with religious extremists, part of the “same Salafi circuit” based around Saddam University for Islamic Studies in Baghdad that produced his predecessor, Abu Maysara, and the current caliph, Ibrahim al-Badri (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi).