Mali and the torch of freedom

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.

We would like to review the motivations behind the conflict in Mali, its future prospects, and our duty towards it in this message.

The History of Islamic Mali and Western Occupation

Firstly, Mali is one of the ancient centers of Islam. The Islamic University of Timbuktu was established there approximately 900 years ago, making it one of the oldest universities in the world. Mali lived under Muslim states for centuries, including the Songhai Kingdom, which the Sultan of Morocco allied with Queen Elizabeth I of Britain to invade in 1591 AD. They destroyed its civilization and enslaved its people and scholars, such as Ahmad Baba of Timbuktu.

What many do not know is that a number of those enslaved by the Western Crusaders in Mali and other African countries were graduates of universities and Muslim scholars, such as Omar ibn Said of Senegal, who died in 1864 AD, and whose images still exist in the American historical archives.

Later, France occupied Mali in the late 19th century and committed atrocities there, only leaving after implanting a puppet system that ensured the continuation of its control over Mali and the plundering of its resources. The successive regimes oppressed the sons of the Muslim people, especially the Tuaregs and Arabs, who are distributed.

The Islamic Awakening and the Emergence of Liberation Groups

The regimes used the method of containment and called for negotiations with the central government, suspending them with promises that quickly revealed their falsity. Then, an Islamic awakening emerged among the Tuaregs, and groups appeared whose vision became clear, knowing that there is no salvation for them except by applying the Sharia, which unites the sons of different ethnicities on a single word, liberates the country from subservience to France and from the corruption and oppression of the central puppet governments, and achieves for the Muslims the good of this world and the hereafter.

Among these groups is Ansar al-Din, led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, may Allah preserve him, who had previously tried diplomatic means and worked as a consul for the state of Mali in Saudi Arabia, then withdrew from these methods and founded Ansar al-Din, which allied with other Islamic groups with the same liberating vision.

The Method and Goals of Ansar al-Din

The literature of Ansar al-Din is characterized, my brothers, by the purity of its methodology, balance, wisdom, mercy, steadfastness, and realism, all of which indicate the presence of great scholars in this group and the existence of a comprehensive civilizational project despite the scarcity of resources. This is evident in the interviews with Sanda Ould Bouamama, the official spokesman for the group, where he stated that among the goals of Ansar al-Din are:

• Building the Islamic project and resuming Islamic life in the land under our control in all fields of life.
• Focusing on urgent aspects such as the field of Sharia judiciary, education, call, and guidance.
• Educating generations on Islamic character and correcting the beliefs and actions of Muslims.
• Protecting them from the advocates of disbelief and misguidance.
• Spreading security and tranquility in cities and deserts.
• Meeting the minimum living needs of the people.
• Involving people in the creation of this project and convincing them that contributing to it is a mandatory act of worship that the Muslim cannot escape from performing what he is capable of.

The International Community's Rejection of Dialogue

Here, my brothers, we begin to understand why the international community deals with such violence and bloodshed and rejects dialogue with Ansar al-Din and its allies.

The former British Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, in his speech on terrorism at the Hertog Foundation in Washington on 25/10/2005, said: "What drives these terrorists is ideas. The liberation movements that arose in many parts of the world after World War II were based on political ideas such as independence, equality, and freedom of expression. Such aspirations are negotiable and have been negotiated many times. But what is unacceptable and cannot be negotiated, in their expression and in ours, is the re-establishment of the caliphate. What is unacceptable is the imposition of Sharia. What is unacceptable is gender inequality."

Of course, these are false justifications they utter in every context. "What is unacceptable is the prevention of freedom of expression. These values are the foundations of our civilization and are simply non-negotiable." Exactly the same was said by the French Prime Minister after the current campaign: "Who do we negotiate with? With terrorists who have settled in northern Mali and impose Sharia law, cut off hands, and destroy buildings considered part of human heritage" referring to the shrines that are worshipped besides Allah.

Of course, my brothers, no longer does a sensible person deceive himself with the international community's concern for women's rights while their dignity is violated in Syria for two years, and their concern for freedom of expression while the Syrian is slaughtered with knives to chants that were shouted, and the Muslims of Burma are burned and cut.

The Success of the Islamic Model in Mali

The media issue that has long worked to tarnish the concept of Sharia. Our brothers in Ansar al-Din, when they entered an area, spread security, showed mercy to the people, stopped taxes and exploitation, distributed resources equally, preserved the rights of people of other religions, and preferred the weak over themselves.

The success of this model in the land of Mali allows the peoples the opportunity to compare it with the secular systems that have failed humanely and have been afflicted with misfortunes, and prevents the West from stealing the country's wealth. Likewise, the Arab systems cannot bear the success of this model, which will become a beacon and an example to be emulated by the peoples seeking dignity, and will expose the falsity of the fatwas of the ruling authority and the stage of weakness, interest, and harm, and "it is not possible to have better than what was."

Therefore, these systems have gone deep into treachery and collusion with France against Ansar al-Din. The officials in the rich Muslim countries who were wasting money in luxury while the Muslims of Mali and others were dying of hunger, finally noticed the existence of these hungry people on the map, and provided money not to support them but to aid France in killing them and relieving them of hunger.

War and Sifting

The international community that supervised the defusing of revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya and supervised their democratic elections, knowing that they will spend the ages of the peoples in their labyrinths and will not liberate them from slavery to the West, is the same one that moved with violence, bloodshed, and rejection of negotiation in Mali, as it did before in Afghanistan and Somalia, for these regions all want to apply Sharia.

The spokesman for Ansar al-Din, Sanda Bouamama, said: "Ansar al-Din is in a phase that imposes on it the acceptance of negotiation and the search for a solution with any party that has influence in this land, but with one condition that it does not relinquish, which is that it does not become an obstacle in the way of the rule of God's religion, for which we took up arms and waged war, and anything below that, we accept to discuss it out of mercy for the people, an excuse to God, and kindness to our mujahideen brothers who are new to joining." Indeed, the group had praised Algeria's mediation in previous negotiations, although it is fully aware that Algeria is ultimately part of the international system and an implementer of its policies, but Ansar al-Din was showing every initiative to avoid provoking neighboring regimes. However, regarding the international community, the rule of God's religion simply does not accept negotiation.

The war began, and the mujahideen withdrew from the cities with the people, because the Crusaders and their allies bomb the cities indiscriminately as long as the mujahideen are there. The same scenes were repeated that we saw before in Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Chechnya. Whenever the regular forces entered a city that had hosted the mujahideen, they dealt harshly with the people, executed them in the streets, and violated their dignity as punishment for their support of the mujahideen.

Continuity of the Islamic Project

But my brothers, upon reviewing the dark history of Western enslavement in Mali, then the oppression of the puppet government against the Tuareg and Arabs, and its corruption in dealing with its people in general, and after the Muslims of Mali have tasted the sweetness of life under the shade of Sharia for a few months, it is not expected that the campaign will succeed in uprooting the Islamic project in Mali, even if it eliminates the majority of the Ansar al-Din elements and other Islamic groups. For, "the wombs of the women of Mali who chose dignity will continue to give birth to heroes, by the will of God."

This is a new arena of conflict between truth and falsehood, and they will continue to struggle until God extinguishes falsehood and the volcano of Islam erupts anew, by the will of God. At the same time, we expect our brothers in Mali to face severe trials that will test them. Indeed, gold is purified when it is put into the crucible.

Lessons from Afghanistan

Eleven years ago, when the world invaded Afghanistan, we thought, as did many Muslims, that God Almighty would swiftly decide the matter with a miracle from Him and would grant victory to His servants in the Taliban. Then, behold, the cities fell, the mujahideen were captured and killed by the thousands, and painful images were circulated, such as the image of a mujahid who was pulled out of his trench by the agents of the Northern Alliance on the outskirts of Kabul after they shot him in the lower abdomen, then dragged him on the ground, removed his pants, and finished him off with gunfire. These images were a shock to us, for we did not practically understand the laws of God Almighty in testing His servants, educating them, and choosing martyrs from among them. And it seemed to many that Islam would not prevail in that land for decades.

Then here we are today, seeing the world begging the mujahideen of Afghanistan to sit at the negotiating table, and 139 countries gathering in the Bonn Conference a year ago to discuss their predicament with the mujahideen after the planned withdrawal of international forces next year. And we ask God the Great to steadfast the mujahideen in refusing any negotiation that comes at the expense of establishing the religion.

Perhaps most of the Taliban elements have been killed during these years, but they have ignited with their blood the flame of liberation and love for Sharia in the hearts of many of the Afghan people. Likewise, our brothers in Mali will remain, by the will of God, champions of truth, unharmed by those who oppose them, betray them, or abandon them. They have ignited the flame of Sharia and liberation from the shackles of human slavery. Even if God chooses the majority of His servant mujahideen to be with Him, the flame they have ignited will not be extinguished, by the will of God, until it touches the oil of innate nature in the hearts of Muslims, and the volcano of dignity erupts to burn the earth from under the ruling tyrants, the enemies of humanity, and their lackeys, and to lead Muslims to a new glory.

Call to Action

Let each of us choose his place in this flame. He who contributes a good arrow to it, congratulations. He who tries to extinguish it, God will extinguish his light, even if the disbeliever dislikes it. He who stands as a spectator, let him prepare his answer to God for his stance.

Let us work, my brothers, to clarify the truth of this crusader war and the betrayal of those participating in it from our own people, and to support our brothers who have a right over us, a right over us for all that we can do to support them.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of God.