The importance of a merger and unity in Syria

By Shaykh Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani – The leader of Jabhat Fath Shaam





“First of all, the issue of a merger is a Sharia order, Allah the Almighty said “And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided.” And the pure human nature automatically leans towards a merger and unity. As for its motivations, there are Sharia motivations in the first place, and natural motivations, and there is an urgent necessity on the arena. On the military level in terms of coordination and military efforts, when some factions merged in one military entity many good results appeared on the arena. The fruits of unity are very big. The arena today has very great capabilities, military, human resources, weaponry, and so forth. This needs organization and order, all of these capabilities need to be gathered in one melting-pot. If this happens then with the permission of Allah the overall power that the arena possesses will surpass that of the regime in many folds. And it is able with the permission of Allah to solve all the military problems, the sieges of territories and the like, and the capability to advance on regime territories. Such a results demands from the factions that they have a great determination to take this step. This from one perspective.



From another perspective, as we known from the condition of military stability, it is necessary for the rear ranks in the territories in which we are present to have a kind of stability. We the Sunnis are in a stage of defending our existence, we are not defending villages and town anymore, we are today in a stage in which we are defending our existence. This is the situation of the Sunnis in Syria. If the Rawifid (expansionist) project succeeds, may Allah prevent it, who are hostile against the Sunnis, if their project succeeds in Syria, then this will threaten the Sunnis in the whole region. Maybe after ten years, what we hear today in Syria we will hear it in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. What we did not expect in Yemen happened just recently. And what we feared in Iraq twenty years ago happened just like the Rawifid projected wanted it, with the scheme of America, as it was America who handed Iraq over to the Rawafid. And this is also what they are trying to do in Syria. The battle to defend our existence has become a very important battle and every person in Syria must be aware of that.



It is one of the most important motivations to unite and establish a strong entity for the Sunnis which unites the Sunnis, and it defends their rights, and it represents them, and it is capable of mobilizing military. There must not be a gap between the part that demands the rights of the people in Syria and the part that operates military on the ground. This must be under one united strong entity which benefits from all the capacities present on the arena. And we must ignore some differences which do not harm the general principals, that which unites us is more than that which divides us. We today for example face great challenges on a social level, after a Jihaad of five years we have children today who are illiterate, there is no organized educational system. Every group oversees some schools. If this continues for another five years we will have a generation who do not know anything except extortion and theft, we will have a generation of gangsters. So this is a very important issue. If there is an authoritative ruling entity which is concerned over the matters of the region, we will overcome these tragedies, which we do not sense today but we will sense them after the liberation.



Another matter is the economic level, there is no ruling system over the economy in Syria. These are vast territories and the economic exchanges in it are very strong, relative to the ratio that is present. We also have many cases of unemployment, and there are many cases of unusual currency rates. The regime for example, because of the lack of an economic ruling system present in the territories which we control, there are hostile parties who take advantage from this situation. There are many hard currencies for example that go to the regime territories without the people who are present in the liberated territories sensing it.



And there is the political motivation. The people of Syria need a united character which is respected abroad. They need a character that deals skilfully and not with subordination or serviceability. This will not happen except with the unity of factions. The projects that come from abroad come with the consideration that the domestic is divided in factions, schools, methodologies, etc. So every foreign side tries to single out according to the division of factions in the domestic. This is very harmful, as the people of Syria are made insignificant. Like the Russian-American agreement for example (before the Russian-Turkish agreement), they try to divide and portion. But not if this entity was united and strong, and imposes its existence on society. Because the pressure card is present in the domestic, it is not the abroad that can pressure us. As everyone in the region surrounding us needs the domestic, it is not the domestic who needs the abroad. For the fate of the Sunnis, are these people in the surrounding region, and they are dependent on the degree of steadfastness of the Syrians.



As for the stages, we took steps in consultations that are still in progress, they are in their advanced stage not in their beginning. Everyone or the overall agree over the necessity to unite all the people of the factions in Syria on the principals and standards which everyone approves of, that protect the Sharia and safeguard the Sunnis and continues to wage Jihaad until this regime falls. At this stage everyone is agreed and gathered over these principals and I am convinced that there are only a few small steps left and maybe we will reach a general and overall unity which pleases the Muslims in Syria with the permission of Allah.”

- Taken from an interview given to Al-Jazeera on 17 September 2016 (Youtube Link) before the fall of Aleppo and before the failed merger with Ahraar Shaam and before the Turkish-Russian ceasefire. Translated by Al-Maqalaat. Follow our new (!) channel: https://t.me/Al_Maqalaat_P