Amir Sayfullah: 'How we prepared the declaration of the Caucasus Emirate'

Commander of the Kabarda-Balkar sector of the Caucasus Front, Amir Sayfullah (Anzor Astamirov), tells about details of the preparation for the declaration of the Emirate of Caucasus. The commentary recorded in Shawwal 1428.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful!

All praise is for Allah, the Lord of the worlds. May blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all of his family and companions. To proceed:

Dear brothers, as-Salamu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatu Llahi wa-barakatuh!

The brothers have asked me to comment on the latest events that happened here, and to comment on different internet publications regarding the statement of our Amir (commander) Dokka Umar, may Allah protect him, and help him and all Mujahideen who fight on the path of Allah.

Regarding the statement itself: approximately for a year now I have been directly dealing with this subject. I prepared the statement, and apart of it, I wrote different articles that were published on the web. Those articles addressed this subject, the subject of subordination to an Amir, the subject of an Islamic state, the subject of Jihad in North Caucasus, in Chechnya and other places, therefore my stance on this issue was clear from long ago.

I will start by telling how and when we raised this question for the first time. For the first time we raised this question with the Chechen leadership, with the leadership of the Mujahideen in Chechnya, when we met in 2005 with Abu Idris (AKA Shamil Basayev, shaheed InshaAllah), may Allah be merciful to him, when he arrived here to meet us, and after Abdul-Halim Saydullayev, may Allah be merciful to him, became the Amir of the Mujahideen in Chechnya. During the conversation with Abu Idris we expressed our desire to participate in the war against Russia. In principle, we had been participating before that too, we had some groups that engaged in sabotage activities in the territories of kuffar (disbelievers, infidels), but we said that we wanted to participate on a larger scale, and we wanted to have a [separate] front opened here in our land.

Abu Idris said that the leadership of the Mujahideen in Chechnya had such an idea, and the new front can be considered already opened. We answered by telling that we wanted to clarify some questions regarding the aqeedah (creed), regarding our Religion and legitimacy of our actions here, in this territory and in other territories, legitimacy of our Jihad from the Islamic point of view.

We said that first of all we wanted to clarify questions regarding our leadership. Why Abdul-Halim, for example, was referred to as a president, why did he recognize the constitution, why the Chechen State was called a republic, while all this contradicted the Sharia (the body of Islamic religious law)? Why there was a parliament, equal voices at presidential elections, equal for all people, why there was all this which contradicts Islam, which is kufr, infidelity, and is incompatible with Islam in an way?

Abu Idris answered that, firstly, there were no underlying national causes, and nobody raised the national issue, everybody raised purely Islamic issue, and "we all fight for the sake of Allah, on the path of Allah", he said. Secondly, regarding the State system, he said that he did not support that kind of State system, that he was against it and many Mujahideen were against it, and this issue must be dealt with, people must be called to [the Truth] and our leadership should be corrected. And he said, "you must join us, become subordinate to Abdul-Halim, give him oath as an Islamic ruler and after that you should correct these shortcomings and incorrect things from the inside".

We insisted that our oath, our subordination to Abdul-Halim should be just in the military aspect, i. e. when the war is going on, when there is no possibility to sit and talk, discuss all these problems, every time there are problems with communications, with a place where we can meet, discuss all this, the time goes on, brothers become Shuhada (martyrs), and we don't have a right to sit idle watching how Muslims are being killed and wait for the resolution of this question, we must join the fight immediately. And this question is called the question of banner in Islam.

Whether we have the Islamic banner or not purely Islamic, in a time when an enemy have attacked Muslims and is killing them, during this time there are no possibilities to discuss this question, no possibilities to solve this question, to meet, gather and talk. Even if there is no purely Islamic banner, and there is a ruler who commits these mistakes, he should be corrected, he should be presented [with correct information], he should be told and explained, and Muslims do not always have such possibilities.

Therefore we said that we will give a military oath and we will fight while war is going on. If, for example, Abdul-Halim decides to negotiate with Russia, and Russia, let us suppose, agrees to give independence to Ichkeria and Ichkeria becomes an independent state, if it will be an Islamic state, free of democracy, free of Christianity, free of Buddhism, free of communism, free of any other additions, free of shirk (polytheism) and kufr, then we all will make hijrah there, we will move there and we will obey.

If there will be established some democratic state, with a constitution and a parliament, or a communist, or a Christian, or a Buddhist one, Allah knows best [which kind of state], any non-Islamic, or mixed, "Islamic socialism", "Islamic communism", "Islamic democracy", not essential, what [exactly] will be established there, but if anything like this, then we will continue to fight, we will continue to wage Jihad on the path of Allah. I. e. if Abdul-Halim will want to conclude a truce with Russia, we will not participate in that truce. While he is fighting, we are fighting, if he stops to fight, strikes a deal, then we do not participate in that deal.

But Abu Idris insisted, he said that "right now there is a question about stopping the war", he assured us that "everyone in Chechnya want to live in accordance to the Sharia, all Mujahideen want the Sharia [to be established], there are no those who want to live by democracy or any other kafir (ingrate/infidel) systems, if we raise this question now, during the war, it will hamper our brothers abroad, maybe this question will be very difficult for us in the international arena, but, nevertheless, of course we must rely on Allah, not on England, not on America, not on the West, not on anyone except Allah, and we must get rid of all these delusions".

He said, "you have Islamic knowledge, so work on this question, but you must become subordinate to Abdul-Halim, totally. Why? Because, if Russia will want to negotiate, for he could speak on behalf of all Mujahideen in Caucasus and give Russia a guarantee that on his order, on his decree, on his amr, all Mujahideen in Caucasus, and not only in Caucasus", but also there were Volga front and Ural front, "that all Mujahideen in territories which are currently controlled by Russia, they will stop their resistance". So Abdul-Halim had such trump to stop the war. He said that they needed some temporary cessation of the war to have some respite.

We disputed about this question, but then, when he gave us an ultimatum, saying "Either you continue Jihad together with us, or you are not with us", that is "if you don't agree to this condition, then I don't need just a military oath from you", we were afraid that a split may occur between the Muslims, between the Mujahideen, that it could become a big problem, so we gave Abdul-Halim oath as an Islamic ruler, realizing that although he was called a president, in fact he was not a president as such, because according to democratic systems, so to speak, because according to their kafir system, a president is chosen in a national election or a parliamentarian election, and [contrary to that] Abdul-Halim as if inherited this post from Maskhadov.

And realizing that in fact all Mujahideen, including Abdul-Halim (he was in the Sharia court), favored the Sharia, realizing it, we agreed to it, but made a condition that in the shortest period all things contradicting the Sharia will be removed from our terminology, and neither president, nor republic, nor anything else will be mentioned anywhere.

Regarding the name of our State, he said "You are now citizens of our state", "How it will be called", we said, "we don't care, let it be called the Chechen State, let it be called the Caucasian [State], the name does not bother us provided it will not be called a republic, or a communist state, or a democratic, or any other".

This is the first, regarding our joining the State, how we became citizens of this Islamic State.

Abu Idris told us that Dzhokhar Dudayev in 1995 in a mosque in Shali declared that Chechnya was an Islamic State and would live according to the Islamic laws, then after him Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, may Allah be merciful to him, established the Sharia as the only law, and secular courts were forbidden, closed. What happened then, that fitnah (split, disunity), that backtracking which occurred, he said that in 2002 on a Majlis (Assembly) meeting Maskhadov made taubah (repentance), renounced that kufr which he was uttering and calling to before that, and they started heading to the establishment of an Islamic State.

Taking it all into account, and after Abdul-Halim became Shahid, Abu Idris became Shahid, unfortunately we did not manage to meet with Abdul-Halim, when Dokka became the Amir, we were able to send letters to Dokka and there were knowledgeable brothers, who studied abroad, near him, and they apparently advised him and talked to him. When we exchanged letters with Amir Dokka, I wrote him, that these disgraceful things that were taking place, presidency, republic etc., everything that contradicted Islam, everything that hinders us on the path of Allah, that all this must be stopped, that we must fear Allah.

Amir Dokka wrote in response that he understood all this, that he realized all this and he himself wanted to renounce all this, he just needed to put it into shape correct from the Sharia point of view and also politically correct, and he said that he would issue a strong statement on this topic, and that he did not recognize any law except the Law of Allah, and that he did not seek anybody's pleasure except the pleasure of Allah, so he said it was just a matter of time. Praise be to Allah, he has made that statement recently, I sent him some drafts earlier, I know that other brothers sent him too, they told him and admonished him and Abdul-Halim before him. So this question did not occur today and even not yesterday, this question has been discussed from long ago already.

Therefore I am very glad, I consider it a great victory, what has happened, his renouncing of these kinds of infidelity, of everything that was in those names, in the past, that leftover from a kafir way of thinking, that unfortunately, many Muslims still have of inertia. For a long time we have been fighting on the path of Allah, long time ago we have been labeled terrorists, extremists, whatever, but nevertheless, we keep clinging to those democracies, to those names, thinking that it will save us or help us, or kuffar in the West will help us, or other kuffar will help us because of that.

We see, Allah clearly shows us, that power and might belong to Him exclusively, and those who are fighting here, every day we see miracles, signs from Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, and we see that any help comes from Allah exclusively, and maybe those who are far from the battlefields and don't expose themselves to danger every day, don't witness death of dear people every day, don't see how every day Allah punishes impious ones, how Allah punishes kuffar and how Allah helps and saves the Mujahideen, maybe they fail to realize it and they do not understand that reliance can be on Allah exclusively, and those who are here, they understand, they even find it ridiculous when somebody relies on someone else besides Allah, on some kuffar etc. We see here that they ([kuffar]) are all united, they all work as one team, and if they have difference of opinions and conflicts between each other, they are capable of settling those conflicts quickly, when it comes to a threat from Muslims, they can quickly come to an agreement.

Many kuffar consider us fools, presumptuous etc., and munafiqun (hypocrites) consider so too, but it was the same during the lifetime of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and much is said about it in the Qur'an. Munafiqun were saying that the Muslims were deceived by their Religion, that they were religious and thought that the victory will suddenly fall from the sky, that they fought against such big crowds of people, declared war on everybody and thought that Allah will grant them victory. It is said in the Qur'an, that the munafiqun were saying so. It is said, that "Honor, power and glory belong to Allah, and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites know not", they are not capable to understand it.

And Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, in this way declared war on two powerful empires, Persia and Byzantium, in fact he gave them an ultimatum, practically not possessing any power, several united tribes, which did not have neither such amount of money nor might, and those kuffar had hundreds of thousands of warriors, any kind of weapon, fortresses etc., cavalry, you name it, experienced commanders. Nevertheless, they [(the Muslims)] did it.

Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, did not try to ask the Persians to protect him from the Byzantines, did not try to ask the Byzantines to protect him from the Persians. He did not say... he did not send [a messenger] to the Byzantines and say "We will observe "Islamic Christianity" or "Christian Islam", just help us against the Persians". He did not say to the Persians "We will worship the fire one day and worship Allah another day, just help us against the Byzantines". Such things did not happen, because he relied on Allah exclusively and knew that help and victory comes only from Allah.

And if we look today, all Mujahideen in Caucasus, who are fighting here, if we ask any of them, we meet ordinary Mujahideen every day, they keep asking "Why is it so?", "Why up to now it is written that we live in a republic and our Amir is a president?", "Why do we need it?", they don't understand it. Not because they are ignorant in politics or they are foolish etc., they are not ordinary shepherds, many of them are educated people, and not only Mujahideen, many of those who have some life experience, grown-up people, educated people, doctors, professors, who already have some understanding of Islam, even they are saying that all this is foolish, it is unnecessary, to try to prove anything to the West, to try to gain favor from it.

The West knows perfectly well who we are, what we are etc., trying to fool them we only fool ourselves. They know perfectly well that we favor the Sharia. If we will say between each other "We favor the Sharia", while at the same time issuing public statements "No, we favor the democracy", we will not fool anyone with it. Firstly, it is not lawful by the Sharia, and secondly, it is simply stupid.

Therefore these issues are clear, just some people keep clinging to this life, they hope that they will have some benefit from those kuffar who are financing, supporting, hiding and covering them. In fact they will not have any benefit from the kuffar, maybe they will have worldly benefit, money, status, protection from [other] kuffar, but they will not find any cover and shelter from Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, and Allah is quick in His reckoning. We, if Allah the Most High wills, during our lifetime already, maybe during our lifetime we will witness the end of those people, when everybody will turn away from them, their supporters, munafiqun and others, so the end of those people is clear and evident.

Regarding the claim that the declaration of the Islamic State in Caucasus and renunciation of democracy are beneficial for Russia. If we take into consideration the political situation etc., then maybe it is beneficial for Russia, nobody denies that. Those who are against [the Islamic State] call us to a logical reasoning, but we must know, that apart from the simple logic, apart from being humans, we are Muslims in the first place, and we must know that power and might belong to Allah exclusively. And let us assume, that the West will turn away from us, while in fact it turned away long time ago, even if Russia will have some additional grounds or variants to say anything against the Mujahideen in Caucasus, they have been saying [everything possible] from long ago already, every day they talk about "international terrorists", "al-Qaida" etc. I don't know what else can change, what can they do worse. They already abduct people, kill them, abduct relatives, they transgress all possible boundaries, and those who are here see it.

The only thing that can really change, the real threat that we can face, is that our brothers abroad, those who are in Western countries or countries under the Western influence, can be subjected to a danger. Such danger exists, but we rely on Allah exclusively and we know that protection and help come from Allah exclusively.

The war is going on, it is not easy for anyone, everybody must show some patience. We, who are actually working here, we consider those who are abroad and help the Mujahideen, we consider them being Mujahideen also, the same as we are. They are also in danger, they are also risking their lives, their families, therefore, because they are Mujahideen, they are risking, therefore they receive ajr (blessing/good from Allah) for it. If they all would live there peacefully, in security, not risking anything, they would not be considered Mujahideen. We are risking here, our brothers are risking there, abroad, and let Allah write them down ajr and increase it.

Regarding families of Mujahideen that live abroad. It is also real that they are in danger or their position can become dangerous, it also really exists, but today our families are here, few Mujahideen managed to send their families abroad, and similarly they are also risking and any moment they can be abducted, tortured, they can disappear etc., but because of that we don't stop our Jihad, we don't surrender to kuffar's discretion because of that, praise be to Allah, we rely on Allah and we left our families under the protection of Allah and we did not hope on anyone else. And even those brothers, those several brothers who managed to send their families abroad, they knew perfectly well that any moment tomorrow the situation abroad could change and maybe it would even be harder for their families. We understand it all, we know it all. This can be the only hardship.

Praise be to Allah, it is important for us to realize that the we all, the Islamic Ummah (community, nation), are one nation. When Hamas who are fighting against the Jews, arrive to Moscow and negotiate or condemn, when they say, the Palestinian authority says, for example, that Chechnya is Russia's internal business, those local democrats in Caucasus are offended and say "How could they negotiate with Russia?" etc. And Hamas justifies its actions saying "We are sorry but we are in such situation, we are under American pressure etc., so we are forced to seek Russia's protection".

The same thing when Mujahideen in Iraq abduct Russian diplomats and demand from Russia to withdraw its troops from Chechnya, and these local democrats here start issuing statements saying "No, we have nothing to do with it, we have nothing to do with the international terrorism" etc. If you ask them they can say "We just use cunning, in fact we support the Iraqi brothers, but we just have to issue such statements" etc. so it turns out that everybody are free to issue any statements and justify them with anything. So let's then put crosses on our necks, put on cassocks, dress like priests, declare that we are "Christian Muslims" or "Muslim Christians", maybe be then orthodox Christians or other kuffar will pity us and help us. Or let's put on Jewish clothes, let's appear like Jews and say that we are "Muslim Jews", or Judaists, or Buddhists, or communists, or whatever. Let's declare that we are communists to get support from communists all over the world. If it would be allowed to commit all this, then the first person to do it would be the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, but in this case nothing would be left of our Religion. If we are Muslims then we must stand firm on our Islam.

Regarding the military cunning. The military cunning is not something those democrats should teach us. We are here, on the war, every day we practice military cunning, deceive the enemies, if we would not do it, we would be martyred long ago, but we also don't desperately put ourselves in the harm's way. "War is deception", said Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and we use deception, we have enormous possibilities for waging this war.

The only thing we needed was the final determination of our policy and banner, and now our Amir has done it, praise be to Allah, and it is something we lacked in order to achieve the victory, because if we would win a victory being in our previous state, we would come back to the same problem we began with, we would start building a democratic state or democracy in Caucasus.

And what is the difference between building democracy under patronage or leadership of Russia, the Russian democracy, and building the English democracy etc.? Why trade kufr for kufr? And why did people fight then? Why so many Shuhada'? Why so many people died, so much efforts, so much of everything? For the sake of replacing a democracy by another democracy? This is what they are offering us, again election, again nationwide presidential election etc. What is the difference, who will be a president, a Russian democrat, or a Chechen democrat, or a Kabardinian, or a Dagestani? All those democrats, they are a single gang, they share one din, one religion, they are all kuffar.

Any of those democrats, even if he performs prayers and observes fast, is a kafir, he has nothing to do with Islam at all. The one who openly calls to misguidance, while he was called to the Truth before that and told to stop, and he continues to call to misguidance, that person must be killed. Even if it was not proven in the court that he is a kafir, the harm caused by that person is so great that he must be killed as soon as possible, any Muslim who meets him must eliminate him.

Kuffar, an external enemy can't do any harm to us with, by the mercy of Allah, it was promised by Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that Muslims will never lose because of their small number. Therefore Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, until now did not grant us the victory out if His mercy, for we could make use of the victory after winning it. If we would win [in our previous state], we would use it in a wrong way and an infighting would begin, hostilities would begin between us, like it unfortunately happened after the first war. [That time] it reached a point where the Muslims, the Mujahideen started shooting at each other, killing each other.

Why did it happen? Because we moved away from the Law of Allah, moved away from the Sharia, held elections, elected a president, and it was the greatest injustice, the greatest zulm (offense, unfairness). It is like, when Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, says us how to perform prayer, when to raise hands, how to make sujud and ruku and when to give salam, but we come and say "The people decided that the prayer must be performed differently, we held an election and the people decreed that from now we should perform it differently".

There is no difference, exactly like Allah prescribed the certain way to perform the prayer, He sent down the Laws and ordered us how to live, but we come and say "The people said that we should do it differently". Allah said and the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, showed us how an amir must be appointed, how he must be chosen etc., and we were not told that all people have a right of equal voice, females and males, a clever person and a foolish person, a drinker and a pious, such approach [of equal voice] is the greatest injustice, and it has no place in Islam, it is forbidden in Islam. It is the religion of mushrikin (polytheists, pagans), the Greeks, who invented this democracy, and it is not unique to them, other kafir nations also had it. It is their religion. Religion is not limited by rites and rituals, religion is a complete way of life. Laws are also religion. If a person adopts other laws besides the Law of Allah, [it means that] he has chosen another religion, he is not a Muslim any more.

I will return to the discussion whether it was beneficial to Russia or not. I already said that more than a year ago we started writing articles on this topic. Our stance is known, my personal stance and the stance of the brother who was with me, he was martyred, Dawud. He was in Guantanamo, imprisoned by kuffar. He fought for the Taliban, then he fought against the Americans, he was wounded several times, was taken prisoner, then by the mercy of Allah, he was transferred to Russia, and Russia freed him after giving the Americans a guarantee that sooner or later they would or imprison him, but he, by the mercy of Allah, went underground after a short period of time, and the kuffar could not get him.

When we began to act, when we carried out the Nalchik operation and before that the attack on the drug agency, when we issued the statement calling to Jihad, of course Russia began writing about us that we were Western spies, they wrote about Dawud that 100% he was an English spy, they all spoke about it between each other, they were sure that he was recruited in Guantanamo by Englishmen or Americans. They were saying about me that I was also a spy, worked for America, that our goal was to disintegrate Russia etc. Such things they wrote and said and under such conviction they sent their dogs against us.

And when we wrote those articles we called to give up ingratiating with the West, called for raising purely Islamic banner etc. Our stance was known to the kuffar. If, as one of the democrats says, they indeed invested 500 millions of dollars in a project to build this Emirate, or under any pretext, as it was said, " to deprive Chechnya of democracy", or to deprive Chechnya of the democratic statehood or pro-Western orientation etc., then why didn't they contact us, while they, the Russians, had such possibility? They could say, not necessarily directly, but through somebody else: "We like your stance, you have a good stance, let us finance you, start influencing Dokka, or anybody else" etc. They did not do it, on the contrary, they continued fiercely and intentionally hunting us. Many times they tried to kill me, they painstakingly hunted Dawud, and Dawud was martyred last summer. I was expected to visit that place too, after it they made several attempts upon my life, one after another. If they liked so much our stance or what we were calling for, why did they do what they did?

Therefore what they say is not logical. Why would Russia give money to somebody abroad for his efforts in influencing [the Mujahideen leadership], while we are near, we have contacts and connections, it would be easy for us to lobby or promote this idea without any problems. Nevertheless, we see, that knowing our stance, knowing that we strive for it, nevertheless, the Russians continued to hunt us, continued and continue to chase us.

In fact kuffar are one nation, and they don't realize themselves what they do in many cases, because they don't always follow logic, they follow what shaytan (Satan) tells them. They don't know themselves, when they see that we strive to correct the situation, to act, to make Jihad purely Islamic in order to please Allah and to anger shaytan, and shaytan incites them to fight against it. Beneficial or not beneficial, they don't think about it, shaytan can adorn it for them in any way.

Therefore thinking that kuffar follow only logic, it is not true. They use sorcerers, they try to practice witchcraft, they are influenced by their priests, they have many, besides these visible or tangible factors used in their policy etc., they have many things that are not visible, not shown on TV and shown in passing only. They have black dogs, they have sorcerers, as one person said, the world is ruled by occultists. For the most part they do what shaytan tells them to do, and not what the logic tells. If all of them would carefully weigh their moves, if they would be such logical, they would not do those stupid actions they did towards the Muslims, they would not invade Iraq etc.

Therefore Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, made our Religion easy and comprehensible for every human, even for a shepherd, I mean the aqeedah. What is good and what is bad, what is truth and what is falsehood, what is black and what is white, all this is clear and evident for any human. You don't need to philosophize here and you don't need to be a super-politician, or a very smart person etc. It is enough to simply fulfill the will of Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, in order to be saved. And if you will try to outwit kuffar using your mind, or you think that you are clever enough to outwit them, that you can win over them this way and that, in fact this is all deception of shaytan and waswasah (the whispering of the devil).

We are fighting only by the mercy of Allah, only with Him, without Him we have neither power, nor might, nothing, and we see it every day. If we would only follow logic, then it is foolish to fight against Russia in the first place, because they excel us in many, many things, in military power, equipment etc. If everything would be explained only by the logic, then we all would be dead long ago. Every day we witness it.

If we escape their bullets, if we escape them when they chase us, then it is only by a miracle. During the last month it happened several times, I saw with my own eyes, how Allah made their eyes shut, how men who were just 30 meters away from them, came out from an encirclement. By Allah, I saw with my own eyes, when kuffar surrounded a brother, several men stood half a meter from him, pointing their weapons at him, he ran between them and ran away, glory be to Allah, on my eyes. I still have that picture before my eyes. Although shooting, exchange of fire, explosions were taking place there, they surrounded him and stood, between them, literally pushing them aside, he ran away, they even did not chase him, they were confused and stood following him with their eyes. Many many other things, every day they happen and we are not surprised by them and we see that only Allah helps us.

Therefore I call myself firstly, and then you, brothers, to rely on Allah exclusively, to hope on Allah exclusively. I say once more that the Religion is clear and simple, you do not need to graduate from universities, get diplomas, study entire life etc. in order to understand these things. These things are simple, clear and understandable by anyone. Allah sent this Religion on the Bedouins who pastured camels and sheep, and did not know anything else, they even could not read and write, Subhanallah (Glorified is Allah). With regards to more detailed knowledge, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), different details, the Sharia etc., of course, we have little knowledge on these issues, so we refer to knowledgeable people, read books, tafasir, books of scholars, commentators etc. Those details are well explained by them, and they give us instructions and knowledge in regards to those cases. In this case, of course we don't take much responsibility on ourselves, but regarding the aqeedah, our creed and ideology, it is clear and simple. Anyone understands where is the truth and where is lies. If you ask any shepherd, any Muslim "What must we do, what Allah said or what a parliament decided?", of course he will tell you "What Allah said", if he has at least a smallest part of iman (faith) in his heart.

And taking this decision, our Amir made our Jihad, our fight fully legitimate from the Sharia point of view. And now we have all prerequisites and all means to win this victory over kuffar. If Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, did not give us victory up to now out of His mercy, because we were not ready for the victory, then now we have made a step towards that victory. 99.9% of the Mujahideen who are fighting on the path of Allah will greet this decision with a lot of pleasure. There are no among the Mujahideen such people who do not understand or do not know such things. They all know, praise be to Allah, as Amir Dokka said, not only the brothers perform the prayer, but any Mujahid (struggler) can explain you tafasir, cite ahadith, everyone has memorized at least one juz (portion of the Qur'an) from the Qur'an, many speak Arabic, praise be to Allah.

Therefore the victory from Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High, is already near, and do not think that we need support of people, whether the people will support us or not etc. Even kuffar say that it is nonsense, that nothing ever depended and nothing depends on people. In any state, in any society, everything is always decided by a small group of people, tiny tiny percent. And the people look at them and imitate them.

[It is enough for] those who have power in their hands, those strong men, that small group, to comprise 5% [of population], according to a kafir science. One of the FSB agents, one of the kuffar who interrogated us, told us: "Your percentage, Muslims, as they say, with the right aqeedah, reaches 5% of the society, and it is written in our KGB instructions that if any group of people reaches 5% of a society, that group can completely rule that society. You are already close to completely subdue Kabardino-Balkaria. It is done very simply, you can receive money from all business men, like it is done by mafia clans who rule different districts, you can bribe politicians, intimidate them etc., and very quickly, though not officially, you will take the power into your hands". Of course, nobody mentioned the people, because the people submit to those whom they see as having the power.

We saw and heard it back then, when we were half-legal, when we were put in jail and released, and now we see it clearly too. The more power Mujahideen have, the more they kill kuffar and munafiqin, the more people support the Mujahideen. And the people realize and understand that if Mujahideen will win, then they will have to live by the Sharia. They are talking about it, we know perfectly well what mood the people have.

I say once more that the victory and help comes only from Allah and not from the people, not from England, not from America, not from Russia, not from anybody else. We have firm confidence in it and we are fighting on this path and don't want to sacrifice our lives for the sake of anything except for the sake of Allah, Glorified be He, the Most High.

May Allah reward you with good!

May Allah bless you!

Glory be to you, Oh Allah, and praise be to you, I witness that none has the right to be worshiped except You Alone, I ask You for forgiveness and direct to You my repentance.

Your brother in Allah, Sayfullah

Kabarda-Balkar, Nalchik
as-Salamu 'alaykum wa-rahmatu Llahi wa-barakatuh!