Do ‘Wahhabis’ Like Osama Bin Laden?

“So my advice to al-Masari, al-Faqih, Bin Laden, and all those who traverse their way is to leave alone this disastrous path, and to fear Allah and to beware of His vengeance and His anger, and to return to guidance and to repent to Allah for what has preceded from them…”

- Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Bin Baz, Saudi Arabia

Long before today’s journalists had even heard of the word Qutbist or Khawarij, the orthodox, senior Salafi scholars throughout the Muslim lands had warned the people about the threat of ideological terrorism and what would necessarily emanate from it.

Warning about the evils of Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and Qutbism in general, Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Hadi al-Madkhali, a professor at the Islamic University of Madina said:

“Those who set off the explosions in the Kingdom admitted with their own mouths, that they were affected by the Jamaa’atut-Takfir (one of the Egyptian Qutbist groups) and that they were from the group of Osama Bin Laden and al-Masari, and they were spreading their literature. Osama Bin Laden – who taught this man? Who educated him about the Shariah (Islamic laws)? He is a businessman, this is his field of specialization… they admitted, as we said, with their own mouths, we saw it and read it in the newspapers, and I have it here with me recorded with their own voices, that they were affected by some of the people of takfir (from the Qutbist groups) of Afghanistan.

The majority of our youth that returned from the jihad in Afghanistan to our country were affected, either by the ideology of the Ikhwan (the group al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) in general, or by the revolutionary, takfiri ideology. So they left us believing that we were Muslims, and they returned to us believing that we were disbelievers. So with that, they saw us as being disbelievers, the rulers, and the scholars, not to mention the common folk. They labeled the (Saudi) state apostate, and they rendered the major scholars apostate. They admitted this with their own mouths. They declared the scholars to be disbelievers, and mentioned specifically the two Shaykhs, Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Bin Baz and Shaykh Muhammad Bin al-Uthaymin, may Allah preserve them. They mentioned their connection with al-Masari and Osama Bin Laden. Did they get this from the scholars of Salafism? No! Rather they got it from the people of takfir.”

As such, it becomes clear for all to see that this revolutionary ideology of Qutbism was something new and imported to the lands of the “Wahhabis”, and it is a call which is in direct confrontation with the call of the Salafis/“Wahhabis”. The “Wahhabis” have been the first to be expelled from the fold of Islam by the Qutbists.

- abridged from the book: The ‘Wahhabi’ Myth

 


The British based Muhammad al-Masari (Mohammed al-Massari) was the founder of the Saudi Arabian wing of Hizb At-Tahrir (The Party of Liberation) in Saudi Arabia, one of the most light-headed of activist groups which has arisen in this century. Al-Masari set up the CDLR (The Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights), which was refuted by Shaykh al-Uthaymin, one of the great Salafi scholars of this century. Al-Masari reviled Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahhab (and thus, “Wahhabism”), calling him a “simpleton, and not a scholar” only because he centered his call around tawhid (true monotheism) and following the Sunnah (way) of the Prophet (may Allah raise his rank and grant him security), as opposed to calling people to insurgency. Ironically, al-Masari, Bin Laden and others who follow this revolutionary ideology are somehow still being linked to “Wahhabism”!

Amongst the ideological figureheads of the Khawaarij, al-Masari and his likes operate at a doctrinal level, inciting the common people against the rulers, by publicizing their faults, shortcomings and sins, in order to effect a revolution.

Al-Masari’s statement that Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdul-Wahhab (i.e. “Wahhabism”) “was a simpleton, and not a scholar” can be found in his declaration which he issued from London entitled, “A Clarification from the Chief Spokesman for CDLR” (23/3/1995). Refer to al-Qutbiyyah (p. 204).

Abul-Hasan Maalik, In Defense of Islam, T.R.O.I.D. Publications 2002, p. 97.

“The Qutbists of Arabia echoed the beliefs and misconceptions of Qutb and were preaching his extremist doctrines to the youth – with the claim that Saudi Arabia does not judge by the Islamic legislation. Takfir of the rulers was ripe amongst the movement’s youth – and was justified by the same doctrinal misconceptions that Qutb first propagated decades ago. Saudi Arabia is the only country that has Islamic legislation, even though it is not perfect, and is actually built upon the foundation of tawhid (true monotheism). (This is) a reality that is being denied by Qutb’s modern day disciples within the Saudi Kingdom. The Qutbists of Arabia were in fact declared “the Neo-Kharijites” (Khaarijiyyah ‘Asriyyah) by Shaykh al-Albani in 1997, and their extremist doctrines refuted by the likes of Shaykh Ibn Baz, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymin, Shaykh al-Fawzan and others, all of whom affirmed that the country does in fact rule by the Shariah – even though there may be shortcomings therein – and that it is obligatory to preserve and maintain the peace and sanctuary therein.”

From Salafi Publications’ commentary on the Guardian’s November 1, 2001 article, entitled “Is this the man who inspired Bin Laden?” www.salafipublications.com, Article ID : GRV070025

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