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Interviewer: Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Doctor, based on your observations, can you describe the actual reality and what is happening now between the "Islamic State" and some of the fighting brigades on the ground?
Dr. Iyad Qunaybi: In the name of Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. Brother, the roots of the problem begin with the accumulation of disputes between the group of the "Islamic State" on one hand, and some of the fighting brigades—Islamic in orientation and others—on the other hand. These disputes were not resolved from the beginning with an appropriate mechanism, which led to the escalation of tensions and the outbreak of fighting.
One of the main problems in this matter is that there are those who exploited the situation, such as corrupt gangs that had no real contribution to the revolution in Syria, but rather the people of Syria suffered from them and from their imposition of extortion and tyranny over the people. These groups exploited the state of chaos to regain their control or settle accounts with some of the Islamic brigades that had put an end to them.
They even went beyond that by attacking migrants, even those not belonging to the "Islamic State," which led to the confusion of the matter, such that the issue was no longer under the control of the different brigades with the "Islamic State." At the same time, many of the fighting and jihadi factions remained neutral and did not participate in this conflict, but rather remained in their fight against the regime's forces.
Interviewer: Doctor, can what happened be considered a fitna among the fighting brigades on the fronts, and is this matter "politicized" in the sense that the beneficiary is the global system and the Syrian regime?
Dr. Iyad Qunaybi: Brother, it is a fitna in the sense that it is originally a battle between two Muslim parties, and not a battle of disbelief and Islam, unlike the battle with the regime's militia and its allies. These two fighting parties are considered, in general, to be those who want to serve Islam, but their methods of achieving that differed; thus, with this description, it is a fitna.
However, on the other hand, there are evil parties that intervened, as we mentioned earlier, and these have now begun to practice aggression for their own account, and some of them are carrying out external agendas. This threatens both sides of the dispute—the revolutionary and jihadi brigades—that have been conspired against by international and regional powers.
The Syrian Jihad is particularly targeted due to the sensitivity of Syria's position between the "functional regimes" that oversee the interests of the international system in the region, as well as Syria's proximity to the Zionist entity. There is a declared desire from all the enemies of Islam to eliminate jihad in Syria, divert its course, and subjugate it, so that people lose hope in jihad as a means to freedom, dignity, and honor, and to prepare for the "Geneva 2" conference.
The conclusion of this conference is to perpetuate and entrench the Nusayri regime and inject it with some faces that have accepted to sell the Muslims' revolution in Syria and offer their country to the international system in exchange for positions in a slave state. Now, some of the Arab and global media outlets are shedding light on the disputes among the fighters as they have not shed light on the crimes of the Nusayri regime before, which indicates this premeditated conspiracy.
Hundreds of billions have been spent, and all regional countries have participated, and intelligence agencies have been deployed, and the factions have agreed (Russia, China, America, Iran); they have united as they have never united before in conspiring against the jihad in Syria. In contrast, the Islamic Ummah has not taken the required stance regarding the jihad in Syria, so the Mujahideen have fallen between the conspiracy of their enemies and the abandonment of their Ummah.
The scholars and preachers have not fulfilled the required role—and I do not absolve myself. All the Islamic factions have called upon the scholars and preachers to migrate to the land of Syria to guide the jihad and resolve disputes, and hardly anyone responds. Even the scholars in their own countries can contribute to resolving disputes and uniting the ranks; for many of the disputes needed well-founded legal research to convince both parties, as the liberated areas needed competent and experienced people to manage them properly.
Some of the disputes among the fighters are caused by a shortage of financial resources and differences over accepting or rejecting support from dubious parties. In conclusion, our enemies want us, the Ummah of Islam, to become negative critics, criticizing the fighters when they make mistakes and not thinking about fulfilling our required role.
Interviewer: Doctor, what message do you have for the public who are outside this turmoil and who are now in confusion, especially with the mixing of news and reports coming from the lands where these clashes are taking place?
Dr. Iyad Qunaybi: Brother, the message I convey is that everyone should support the Islamic project in Syria to the best of their ability, so that this project, by the permission of Allah, becomes the beginning of glory, dignity, and honor for the Islamic Ummah once again, instead of becoming another sad story that is added to the tragic stories and causes despair for change among the Islamic peoples.
And I take this opportunity to warn my brothers, the commentators on social media pages, or those who are related to the fighters in Syria and those who see that one of the parties to the conflict is right; I remind them of Allah and warn them against "demonizing" the other party, for neither of the two parties is entirely right, nor is either entirely wrong. It is necessary now to work towards stopping the fighting, and at the same time, to take action against the gangs that are trying to exploit the situation to achieve their ambitions.
Interviewer: Yes, okay, Doctor, a message to the fighters and brigades who have fallen into this fitna?
Dr. Iyad Qunaybi: My message—of course, the hidden parties will not hear my words and will not act upon them, and we have tried to solve it and defuse the time bomb and strive to defuse the problem—but I say: Brothers, fighting in this manner will not justify the right nor nullify the wrong, but the good will be taken with the sin of the sinner.
And the hidden parties—this is a very serious point—legitimize for themselves a war against migrants under the cover of the presence of good Islamic brigades among those fighting the "Islamic State." So I remind my brother from any faction: You may be fighting, seeing yourself as right and your opponent as wrong in some darkness, and this may indeed be the case (you are right in this matter), but your fighting will be exploited by the malicious to oppress those who are not guilty, so that they can attack those who are not originally part of the disputing parties.
And I appeal to my brothers to stop the hand of the aggressor, whoever he may be, and to preserve blood and honor, and to confront these opportunists and the mentioned gangs. And their preoccupation with pushing back the criminality of the regime's militia and its allies is the best guarantee for uniting the word and stopping internal fighting.
Finally, I say to the fighters: God, God, O assembly of Muslims! I remind you of your Muslim sister, the prisoner in the dungeon of the Nusayri prisons—and there are many of these sisters—your sister was waiting for the day when her Mujahideen brothers would liberate her, or at least bomb the prison because she prefers death to daily rape.
Imagine, my brothers, her condition if she heard that her fighting brothers, whom she was waiting for, were fighting among themselves! How would her condition be? And what would she invoke upon them at that time, if Allah wills? I ask Allah the Almighty to spare the blood and unite the word, O Allah, amen.
Interviewer: Thank you very much, Doctor. We were with you via Skype, Dr. Iyad Qunaybi, the Islamic preacher interested in Islamic affairs.