Replies

Communiqué
from those adhering to the covenant in the Egyptian Islamic Group
Interview
with Abu Jihad el-Misri
(Muhammad Khalil el-Hukaymah)
Introduction by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
Rabi al-akhir 1427AH / May 2006CE
As-Sahab Media

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and prayers be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family and companions and allies.

Communiqué

From those adhering to the covenant in the Egyptian Islamic Group.

Allah said: "And hold fast, all together, to the rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves." 3:103

On behalf of myself and on behalf of those adhering to the covenant from the members of the Egyptian Islamic Group, and on behalf of all the brothers holding to the genuine methodology and line of the Group which rejects bootlicking and surrender, chief among them the symbol of determination and steadfastness and towering mountain of Jihad, His Eminence Shaykh Muhammad Shawqi el-Islambouli, may Allah protect him, I announce the merger of those adhering to the covenant from the Islamic Group with the organization Qaida al-Jihad - the symbol of the Ummah's Jihad - in conformity with the statement of Allah, "Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in ranks, as if they were a solid cemented structure." 61:4, and because the unity of the Mujahideen is today obligatory upon all the Islamic movements in this blazing battle against the Crusader forces of hate. It's either unity and Jihad or leaving the Ummah to await a new Sykes-Picot to tear up what remains of the Muslims' countries for them to become invisible dots on the map, and for the state of Israel to become an empire in the homeland of Islam.

[And I also announce this merger] to aid the noble scholar and chained lion persevering behind the walls of the American prisons, His Eminence the Shaykh Dr. Umar Abd el-Rahman - may Allah free him - in the path of whose freeing the Islamic Group - and indeed, all the Mujahideen - continues to strive and adhere to its covenant, regardless of those who have gone back and backtracked on that. And [I announce this merger] because a huge section of the Islamic Group has no connection with what has been done by a group among the leaders who changed the methodology of the Group for which it was founded, regarding which we don't know the extent of the pressure and deception which was used - and continues to be used - against them behind the scenes, which brought them to the point of denouncing fighting against the Crusaders and Jews, after which they went and issued Fatwas and research papers about events which they only knew about through newspapers and radio.

And I announce that the barrels of our guns will continue to be aimed at the enemies of Islam from the Crusaders and Jews and those of the traitorous rulers allied with them in their Third World War until the departure of all infidel armies from the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him, and until the establishment of the Caliphate according to the Prophetic methodology which will spread justice, propagate the Shura, protect rights, guard sanctities, raise the banner of Jihad, and defend the Muslims and oppressed ones everywhere, and to whose shade will retire every Muslim - nay, every wronged one and seeker of justice on the face of this earth.

And I give the good news to the members of the Islamic Group - those who have no means in their power, and are unable to find a way no matter where they are - that the Shaykh Muhammad el-Islambouli, Allah protect him, will soon announce his stance towards all of the issues and events, Allah willing.

And I dedicate this announcement to all Muslims in general and especially to my brothers in the Islamic Group and their prisoners who are steadfast on the truth, chief among them the towering mountain His Eminence the Shaykh Dr. Umar Abd el-Rahman, His Eminence the steadfast Shaykh Abu Talal Tal'at Fuaad Qasim, and His Eminence the resolute Shaykh Abu Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, and all prisoners of the Muslims steadfast on the path of Jihad in Allah's Way, may Allah free them.

"And Allah has full power and control over His affairs; but most among mankind do not know [that]." 12:21

Allah is the Greatest and Glory is for Islam.

Muhammad Khalil Hasan el-Hukaymah

Biography
Muhammad Khalil el-Hukaymah is one of the founding members of the Egyptian el-Gamaa el-Islamiyyah in the district of Aswan. He joined the Gamaa in 1979, was arrested after the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, and arrested again with Dr. Umar Abd el-Rahman in the events of el-Rahman Mosque. He would be arrested three more times due to his Dawa activities. He emigrated from Egypt to join the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union. He is one of the founders of el-Murabitun magazine, the voice of the Gamaa, and produced a number of documentary films for the group. He was arrested in Britain for his close connections with the leaders of the Gamaa abroad, and after his release, he traveled to take part in the Jihad against the Crusade in Afghanistan. As-Sahab was honored to conduct an interview with Shaykh Muhammad Khalil el-Hukaymah, which we preface with a word from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri in which he appreciates this blessed initiative to unite the ranks of the Mujahideen.

Introduction by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri

In the Name of Allah, and all praise is due to Allah, and may peace and prayers be on the Messenger of Allah and on his family, companions and allies. Muslim brothers everywhere: peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Imam Muslim related that Jabir ibn Abdullah said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say, 'A party from my Ummah will continue to fight for the truth and be victorious until the Day of Resurrection.'" And in another narration, also from Muslim, Muawiyah - with whom Allah was pleased - said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say, 'A party from my Ummah will continue to carry out the order of Allah, unharmed by those who betray them or oppose them, until the decree of Allah comes while they are victorious over the people.'" And from this Mujahid party in this era is a large group from our brothers in the Islamic Group of Egypt - and Allah is their Reckoner - especially their persevering, Mujahid, Murabit emir, His Eminence the laboring scholar Shaykh Umar Abd el-Rahman, may Allah free him, to whom applies the saying of Ahmad Shawqi:

The lions roar in iron and never shall you see
In the prison a lion sobbing in submission

And from them is the hero of Islam in this age, Khalid al-Islambouli and his righteous companions, may Allah bestow His all-embracing mercy upon them. And from them are the numerous communities of martyrs, Mujahideen, callers, and emigrant Murabiteen fleeing to Allah with their religion, in Egypt, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other fields of Dawah and Jihad.

But because perfection is for Allah alone, as al-Bukhari related in the Hadeeth of Anas, who said, "The Messenger of Allah said, 'It is the duty of Allah that He not elevate something from the world without degrading it,'" a faction of the brothers of the Islamic Group were affected by pressures and influences the truth about which only Allah knows, and agreed with the Egyptian government and America in their claims, thus deviating from the pure, genuine line of the Islamic Group which is grounded in the Book of Allah and Sunnah of his Messenger, peace be upon him.

However, Allah willed that the main bloc of the brothers in the Egyptian Islamic Group -chief among them His Eminence Shaykh Umar Abd el-Rahman and His Eminence Shaykh Rifa'i Taha, Allah free them both, and Shaykh Muhammad el-Islambouli, Shaykh Abd el-Aakhir Hammad, and Shaykh Muhammad Mustafa Muqri, Allah preserve them, and other notables of the Islamic Group and distinguished figures of Jihad and Dawah in this era - Allah willed that they remain committed to their clear, pure, pristine fundamentals.

And from this steadfast, Murabit group is our brother Abu Jihad el-Misri, Muhammad Khalil el-Hukaymah, who, in this talk, reassures the Muslim Ummah of the faithfulness of the larger part of the Islamic Group to the line of Jihad against the enemies of Islam from the Crusaders, Jews and their traitorous agents. And he gives the good news to the Muslim Ummah of the uniting of a great faction of the knights of the Islamic Group - chief among them the scholar of Jihad and Dawah, Shaykh Muhammad el-Islambouli, Allah protect him - with the group Qaida al-Jihad, to bring together the powers of the Muslim Ummah in a single rank in the face of its enemies in the fiercest Crusade ever waged in the history of Islam.

So may Allah reward our brother Abu Jihad el-Misri for this declaration of truth, and may Allah reward our brothers from the Islamic Group for this blessed initiative, and may Allah bestow upon us and the Muslims His powerful victory and manifest conquest with His Help and Power. Allah said, "Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in ranks, as if they were a solid cemented structure." 61:4

I leave you with Abu Jihad's good, blessed words, and I ask Allah to reward him well for them and benefit with them all Muslims. And our last prayer is that all praise is due to Allah, and may peace and prayers be upon the Messenger of Allah and on his family, companions.

Interview with Abu Jihad el-Misri

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and prayers be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his families and companions until the Day of Judgment.

We are pleased to have with us one of the leaders of the Egyptian el-Gamaa el-Islamiyyah, Shaykh Muhammad Khalil el-Hukaymah, Allah protect him.

Welcome to this interview. In the sea of trials and tribulations which the Gamaa has gone through, the last few years have seen retractions appear from some of the symbols of the Gamaa. We would like you, as one of the leaders of the group, to clarify for us the extent of the concessions and retractions made by some of the historical leadership.

All praise is due to Allah, and may prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and on his family, companions, and all who have allied themselves to him.

I extend my thanks to the brothers in al-Sahab Foundation for Media Production and ask Allah the Exalted to guide us to what He loves and is pleased with.

Concerning your question: regrettably, the extent of the retractions made by some of the leaders of the Gamaa is very large in comparison to some of the retractions issued by other groups throughout the history of the Islamic movements, so much so that these retractions have become an example to be followed by anyone who wants to condemn or discourage the Muslim youth in our Islamic world. And if we take a look at the stages and progression which the retractions and concessions of these brothers went through, we find that the matter in the beginning was merely an agreement to implement a ceasefire.

Then this position developed into statements and communiqués from the brothers in which they resolved that they would never again return to Jihad in Allah's Cause. Then they turned these retractions into fundamentals through legal studies in which they opposed and diverged from the ideology and basic methodology of the Gamaa. Then some senior brothers stated - in communiqués reissued after every operation carried out by the Mujahideen - that [these operations] are not permitted in the Shari'ah. Then they developed these communiqués into legal studies, until [in the end] they took the position that it is impermissible to fight the Jews and Christians anywhere in the world in our modern era. And might and power is with Allah alone.

Are these retractions related to legal and methodological invariables of the Gamaa, or are they mere jurisprudential (Fiqhi) differences which are open to dispute?

The new ideology discussed in the books of the brothers who retracted is a new ideology of a new group which is not the Gamaa Islamiyyah we have known for 25 years, because el-Gamaa el-Islamiyyah had produced studies which set out its unchanging methodology and set out its legal principles on the basis of this ideology and these studies which were approved by His Eminence Dr. Umar Abd el-Rahman, may Allah relieve his suffering, and we showed the same studies to some of the members of the Grand Council of Scholars in Makkah the Venerated, and they also approved it. We showed them in the form of doctoral and master's theses, and they endorsed them, so it's not right for these brothers to come now and replace this methodology and its unchanging principles which the entire Gamaa had agreed upon. And furthermore, I believe that this new ideology, to this very moment, hasn't been put before all the leaders of the Gamaa. Many of them were either absent from these studies or weren't given the opportunity to give their opinion about them.

What is your stance as one of the leaders towards these retractions?

If the Gamaa, in an attempt to contain the problem and conflict and reach a harmonious solution, consented to a ceasefire with the government in exchange for the release of its members from the prisons of America's agents in Egypt, we will never agree, with Allah's Help, to back down so much as a hair's breadth from Jihad in Allah's Cause or from our basic principles with which we seek to establish a Islamic Caliphate according to the methodology of the Prophet. And we emphasize the Jihad against the idol-kings, puppets, and leading Jewish/Crusader war criminals, and emphasize that it is not possible for el-Gamaa el-Islamiyyah to ever agree to apologize for the heroic actions with which Allah has honored it, including the killing of the agent of the Jews, Anwar Sadat, and all of its glorious deeds in Jihad in Allah's Cause. Whoever wants to apologize for that can apologize, but he should do it far away from the name of el-Gamaa el-Islamiyyah and shouldn't speak in its name.

Are there any historical leaders of the Gamaa who have objected to these retractions?

Yes, many of the founding leaders of the Gamaa have objected, and moreover, many of our brothers who are adhering to the methodology of the Gamaa have resolved to challenge these retractions. The emir of el-Gamaa el-Islamiyyah, Dr. Umar Abd el-Rahman, withdrew his support from the initiative, and the first founder of the Gamaa, Engineer Salaah Hashim, contacted us and stated his objection to these retractions and said that a solution must be found, after which he was arrested. His Eminence Shaykh Abd el-Aakhir Hammad has rebutted the juristic mistakes in which these historical brothers fell, in a number of articles published on the el-Mahrusah site on the Internet. And the captive Shaykh Rifa'i Taha, may Allah relieve his suffering, registered his objection to the initiative from the outset. As for the Mujahid Shaykh Muhammad el-Islambouli, he released a communiqué in which he denounced the statements made to the press by the backtracking leaders. The communiqué was published in ash-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper on July 4th, 2002, and I have with me here several paragraphs of the communiqué, which I will read to you here. The communiqué says, "Despite my deep appreciation of their status, the brothers in prison have no right to make decisions as crucial as these ideological retractions are to the history of the Gamaa without consulting their brothers on the outside and without the approval of Dr. Umar Abd el-Rahman, emir of the Gamaa. Accordingly, I say with confidence that the statements made by the leaders in prison reflect [the stance of] those who made them and not [the stance of] the Gamaa, because they only represent part of the leadership."
In your opinion, was political pressure behind those studies in which the historical leadership criticized the Jihadi operations which occur around the world?

Of course the Americans apply pressure on the Egyptian government, and it in turn applies pressure upon the leadership in prison to disown all Jihadi operations in order for them to escape the accusation of terrorism, lest focus be directed on Egypt as a center for terrorism.

You announced in your declaration that you have decided to unite with the group Qaida al-Jihad. What motivated you to take this decision?

As we mentioned in the declaration, in conformance with the statement of Allah, the Exalted, "And hold fast, all together, to the rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves" (3:103), and His statement, "And if they seek your aid in religion, it is your duty to help them" (8:72), and to help our great scholar, His Eminence the unshakeable Shaykh Umar Abd el-Rahman, languishing in the dungeons of the American prisons, and to repel the attacking enemy which is occupying the countries of the Muslims, a large number of the brothers adhering to the methodology of the Gamaa and its original line of approach, foremost among them the Mujahid Shaykh Muhammad el-Islambouli, resolved to unite with the group Qaida al-Jihad in its capacity as one of the most important vanguards of Jihad against the enemies of Islam in this era.

What advice do you have for your backtracking brothers in Egypt?

Despite our respect for the history and sacrifices of our backtracking brothers, and despite our appreciation of the amount of pressure they may have been exposed to, the truth remains more beloved to us then their love, and Allah's pleasure is dearer to us then their pleasure. We call on them by the right of Islam, Tawheed, and Jihad, and we remind them of the blood of our righteous martyrs and a quarter-century of trials and sacrifices, for them to stop this farcical game which has garnered them the derision of their friends before their foes. And we call on them to follow the example of their patient, reward-seeking, truth-adhering emir, Shaykh Umar Abd el-Rahman. And let them know that Allah's religion is victorious no matter how much the backtrackers backtrack.

Do you have a word of invitation for the Islamic groups around the Islamic world?

I invite all leaders and members of the Islamic movements in the Islamic world to unite and come together under one banner to confront the Zionist/Crusader assault on Islam and Muslims, and I call on them to pay no heed to anyone who discourages under the pretense of inability. And I call on them, if they are looking for rulings on the Jihad against the Americans, to refer to the legal studies and fatwas published by the scholars at the time of the Jihad against the Soviet Union, because in truth, there isn't any difference between the Jihad against the Soviet Union and the Jihad against the American Union. And I call on our brothers the Mujahideen everywhere to work for the freeing of the persevering Shaykh Umar Abd el-Rahman from captivity in the Americans' prisons, and to do the same for all our captives, because it is a legal obligation on every Muslim.

May Allah send His prayers, peace and blessings upon Muhammad, and may He reward you well.

And may He reward you well.

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