Interview with Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman (Allah hasten his release-ALLAHUMA AMEEN)." from his prison in the US.
The imprisoned Dr. Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman is a symbol of
struggle against international tyranny. The blind Sheikh has aimed all
his life to draw the Muslims’ attention to the absolute necessity of
monotheism towards Allah through implementing His law (Sharia) and
following His Way. We shall leave the Islamic scholar to tell us himself
about the most important milestones in his life.
Alhamdulillah and peace and blessing of Allah over His Messenger.
Dear brothers and sisters; Peace, mercy and blessings from Allah be with
you (Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh).
It is evil for a person to talk about himself, his achievements or stands. Yet, a brief statement here will suffice.
When man started his life, Allah taught him how to work for struggle
and guided him to the right path. I have tried to say the word of truth
in Egypt and to face idols or dictatorship of a single ruler which
existed, and still is, in Egypt through seminars, lectures and lessons.
Al Jamaah Al Islamiah (the Islamic Group) put a great effort to let
people know better their religion. I have been arrested several times
for that in successive court cases: “president Sedat” case, resisting
the authority case, “AL Fayoum” case… We were showered with numerous
cases. Allah, however, gave us victory over the regime in those court
cases.
I traveled to Europe, passing through Britain, Denmark, Sweden and
many other countries. I met with sincere brothers and sisters, gave
numerous lectures and talks to let Muslims be aware of their obligation
to struggle for their religion and to face their enemies.We ended in
America where I visited many states, talking about the duties of Muslims
towards their religion, how to make Islam their first priority all the
time and to struggle for the sake of Allah. No single year should pass
from the life of a Muslim without living the struggle. I then went to
many countries in the world, but ended with being framed with this
fraudulent case and with a prison sentence. We ask Allah to let us stay
firm along the truth and to benefit us with the blessings and rewards He
gives his imprisoned servants. There are many rewards and blessings in
being imprisoned and we ask Him to let us benefit from it.
The Sheikh’s way is characterised with clarity and boldness,
which made you a prime target of the enemies of Allah. Would you explain
to us the main features of this way?
This way is the same way of our guided predecessors, elaborated by
our Lord’s Book (the Qur’an) and traditions of our Prophet. My way was
not far away from that way. It is the same way of our righteous
predecessors which handled Islam as a total entity, that cannot be
fragmented or partitioned. It takes all the principles of Islam, all of
its rules and does not disregard one aspect at the expense of another.
There are some ways which addresses only the area of faith, area of the
acts of worship, the area of transactions or one or other areas of
Islam. These are all wrong… Allah (s.w.t) said in the last verses of the
Qur’an:“Today, I have perfected for your religion for you,
completed my blessings over you and I am satisfied with Islam as a way
of life”.
So Allah (s.w.t) Has brought down for us an integrated way of life,
where no side overrides other sides. Among the sides neglected by many
scholars, and those in charge of Islamic movements, is the issue of
Jihad (Struggle for the sake of Allah); viz, stating the truth,
enjoining good and forbidding evil. This aspect of Islam is accompanied
with a lot of problems, suffering and pain. This aspect has been
disregarded by many. The word of truth comes with its own liabilities.
Enjoining good and, particularly, forbidding evil also has its
liabilities and is therefore neglected by many. Some may even attack
this aspect of Islam and blame those who practice it, although it is an
essentially important and vital aspect. In fact enjoining good and
forbidding evil is the dynamo and motto behind Islamic work. It is the
aspect that preserves Islamic principles. These has been neglected by
many.
These are some of the features you may attach to the way I follow.
However, it is all the way of Islam followed by the righteous
predecessors who accepted Islam as a whole and preserve the Islamic
system in its entirety without partitioning and/or fragmenting.
The US administration has recently allocated a budget of 2.3
billion dollars to strike at the Jihadi movements. What, in you opinion,
are the chances of success for this new crusade against the Islamic
world?
Confrontation between
Crusaders and Islam is an old one. In the early
years of Islam there were two super Empires, the Persian and the Roman.
It took only a few battles, ending with Al Qadeseya, to demolish the
Persian Empire for good. The Roman Empire, however, had many strands
across the centuries.When one strand is destroyed, another strand comes
in another century, as illustrated in the Hadith of Allah’s Messenger.
The centuries are successive. The Roman Empire means the international
Crusade and the international Zionism. War with the Crusades is ongoing
until the Day of Judgement. The sums of money you mentioned is but a
fraction of what the enemies of Islam are allocating to fight Islam.
This is a ferocious and ongoing war.Whenever the Muslims hold on to
their religion, they manage to defeat their enemies. But when they are
fragmented and disunited, as they are now, their enemies manage to
defeat them.
Let it be 2, 3, 10 or even more billion dollars allocated. They are
only the declared amounts. The undeclared secret budgets are very much
larger. That is only one part of the resources. The other resources are
also numerous. Allah (s.w.t) Has shown us what they allocate to fight
Islam: “The disbelievers spend their money to keep people away from the
way of Allah. They will spend it, yet will deeply regret it and will
finally be defeated. The disbelievers shall be assembled into Hell”.
Allah (s.w.t) also says: “Tell the disbelievers: You shall be defeated
and thrown into Hell”. What a miserable end! These are only few
resources of many others in the past and in the future which they shall
spend and shall live to regret it.
They sent missionaries to Africa and said that Africa will be
Christianised in centuries or even decades. Decades and centuries have
passed, however, Africa is even better, from the Islamic religion point
of view, than ever before. Why? Their money has been lost, their efforts
have been wasted and their missionaries have achieved very little, if
at all. They manage to Christianise one, but ten new embrace Islam. They
Christianise ten, and one hundred new embrace Islam.
This allocated money does not scare us at all, no matter how much
they collect and how much they allocate. Let me remind you, in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Muslims were fragmented and
powerless, when the Western British and French colonialism was in
command and Islam had no power, Who preserved Islam? And Who preserved
Muslims? Allah (s.w.t) says: “Today, the disbelievers gave up on your
religion, so do not fear them”… Gave up… Gave up fourteen centuries ago…
Gave up in the fourteenth century, gave up in the thirteenth century,
the twelfth century… And so on… The disbelievers gave up on your
religion, so do not fear them, fear Me. Despair is an ongoing phenomena.
Despair to change or alter Islam. They have allocated huge amounts of
money in the Conference on habitation in Egypt to come out
with resolutions allowing adultery, abortion and homosexuality,
resolutions encouraging girls to give their honour and chastity,
resolutions to weaken the authority and influence of parents over
children. They spent billions to hold that conference. They allocated
huge budgets for those goals. That does not scare us. What really scare
us is to be split from within.We cannot be defeated from without, we are
not concerned from the numbers of our enemies nor by their resources.We
are only concerned to be defeated from within, for some of us to be our
enemies, declaring war against each other. We, the Muslims, have to
hold on to our religion and be steadfast and united around our faith,
our Qibla (Makkah) and primarily around our Lord’s Book and our
Prophet’s teachings.
Let us now move to the Crusades media blitz against Islam
which is frequently using words like terrorism, fundamentalism and
extremism. Would you define those terms from the Islamic law (Sharia)
perspective?
I do not define those terms from the Sharia point of view, these are
just words. What really concerns me is that they took those words:
extremism, terrorism and fundamentalism to mean every committed Muslim.
That is what really concerns me. The original linguistic appears in what
Allah (s.w.t) says: “and prepare for them whatever you can of power and
horses to terrorise the enemy of Allah and your enemy”. What is
important is their use of the word. Everyone who is steadfast to his
religion, everyone who holds on to his religion, everyone who defends
his religion became a terrorist and he is the extremist and he is the
fundamentalist!
Fundamentalism is taken from the Christian use of the word. But here
we find their media attacking Muslims who do not let go of their
religion, who hold on to that religion, who work for that religion and
who preserve that religion. The West and the so called “Islamic”
governments hit hard the fundamentalist movements and extremist
movements. What is the meaning of extremist movements? The Islamic
movements which preserve their religion and hold the Book of their Lord
and the teachings of their Prophet. These are the target of Western
media and those behind it.
How did you find the claims of democracy and freedom of
expression and religion in the so-called democratic and free Western
world?
If I say that the central African countries have more freedom than
the United States I shall not be wrong. Those words are like a hollow
drum from which you here echo and high sound without any real meaning or
benefit. Those are hollow words, because it is freedom for themselves
but they do not allow any freedom to others. It is democracy for them to
enjoy but they do not allow others to have an opinion or separate
thoughts. I came running away from prison to the country of freedom, but
I was imprisoned. I came running away from lack of freedom and
prevention of expression, but I was shocked with what is even worse in
America. Those words are only for a specific race or specific groups to
enjoy, but others are denied them.
How did the human rights, which they sing day and night, reflect on you being in prison?
My situation in prison here is worse than my situation in Egypt’s
prison, it is worse than my situation in other prisons in many
countries. In the prison of the United States there is no freedom of
expression, no freedom of worship and no social freedom. I cannot
practice freedom of worship, there is no Friday “Jum’ah” prayer, there
is no congregation, there is no mixing with Muslims, there is no
celebration of Islamic festivities and there is not a single
manifestation of Islam. I am denied all of this. They justify that
denial by false and baseless justifications. They are skilled in
uttering lies. You find lies in their leadership, in their officers and
in all their situations. They perfect the issue of lies. As far as
mixing, I am in a solitary confinement since I was imprisoned in 1993
and until now. I am living alone with no one to look after me. I am the
one who washes my clothes. They justify this by claiming that a blind
person needs solitary imprisonment… The one who does not learn English
needs solitary imprisonment! So the reasons that actually requires
mixing are claimed to be the reasons for solitary confinement!! So much
for moral values. I also suffer in prison from lack of any media, no
radio, no tape recorder, no interpreting reader. I am denied all this.
No reading, no one to read newspapers, books or anything to me. In this
solitary prison I am suffering many hardships and troubles. They put
above my cell strong and violent noises that disturb my comfort and wake
me from my sleep. They are also tightening my visiting schedule as well
as many aspects of my day-to-day living conditions.
What is really worth attention, as far as what I said about human
rights, is that many human rights organisations sent to the prison
administration and to the heads of prisons in the United States
inquiring about what is claimed of me being denied many freedom and the
many nuisances I face in prison. They sent to the prison administration
requesting answers or responses. What did the human rights organisations
get? They did not get any answer until now. Where are those human
rights they brag about? And where are the Muslims’ rights which they
give?
I keep knocking at the door for a long time so that they will bring
me something I need, but I find no response. I might take hours knocking
at the door, while other prisoners knock few times or call the officer
who rush to bring what they want, while for me I need many hours to get
something I need. Racism exists in the treatment. And you still find
people bragging about freedom!
What are the responsibilities of Muslims in the West towards their religion?
The responsibilities of Muslims in the west towards their religion is
to unite and develop themselves financially. They must have money.
Money is the element for life, the mainstay of life. A strong Muslim is
better and more beloved by Allah than a weak Muslim. Muslims must get
the strength of money, to have their media outlets, to have strong
productivity and to unite in industrial and agricultural organisations.
They have to preserve their religion, their families and not to mix in a
way that will make them let go of their religion. They must remain
distinguished, to have their strong Islamic entity and never lose any of
these.
Is there a final word you want to give to Muslims across the pages of this magazine?
My last word is for Muslims to stop sleeping and to shake off the
stupor that engulfed their heads for so long, to remember the words of
their Prophet to his wife: “O Khadijah! the time for sleep is over”.
They have to come up as one man, to work hard for their religion, to put
Islam as their highest priority and never to forget it. If a person is
concerned about an issue, he/she will sleep and wake up thinking about
it. Let Muslims make Islam their issue. Let their hearts burn for what
happens to Muslims, let them suffer for the Muslims in Bosnia, in
Afghanistan, in Turkey, in the Philippines and before that in Palestine.
Their hearts must ache to help those Muslims and cry for not doing
their duty towards them. Muslims should care for their brothers and
sisters everywhere, they should be concerned for the imprisoned and
should try to get them released, to continuously demonstrate loudly, to
write to everyone and to put the case of the imprisoned like myself in
their issues and writings.
Muslims have also to continue the call to Allah (s.w.t), and never
tire of it, to struggle relentlessly for the sake of Allah (s.w.t) and
never to stop it. Should Muslims, God forbid, stop struggling for the
sake of Allah, Allah will drown them in humiliation that He shall never
remove until they go back to Jihad for the sake of Allah. And may Allah
(s.w.t) shower His blessings and peace over our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w,
his family, companions and his followers… Ameen.
No comments:
Post a Comment