The day when our magnanimous Imam announced Unity Week and the day when he announced the unity of Islamic denominations in their general, political and social orientations, many real addressees of the message could not understand its significance. Many officials in Islamic countries did not understand how important the message was. Many did not understand it and many defied it. In other words, they tended to ignore it because of their various ulterior motives. However, today we understand how important the message was.
The events that have taken place today, the differences that exist among Islamic countries and the horrible incidents that have taken place in some regional countries – including in Syria, in Iraq, and at a certain point in time, in Libya, in Yemen, and Afghanistan – help us understand how important the unity of the world of Islam was and how precious the solidarity of the Islamic Ummah was, as announced and demanded by Imam. If that unity had existed, many of these incidents would not have occurred.
What I want to say is that many Muslim governments and many true addressees of the message did not, unfortunately, grasp the significance of Imam’s initiative, but the enemy did. He understood how important our late Imam’s recommendation to create unity among Islamic denominations in their general orientations – not in their beliefs as everyone has their own beliefs and opinions – was for the Islamic Ummah. The enemy understood that unity would undermine his influence in Islamic countries. Because he understood it, he began to devise schemes against it. The enemy implemented plans of action to confront our magnanimous Imam’s message of unity. For example, he established centers to produce anti-unity thought. We speak of bringing Islamic denominations close to one another. However, they established certain centers and hired some mercenaries to produce thoughts and ideas against the idea of bringing Islamic denominations close to one another. They demanded that the mercenaries do something to foil Imam’s great policy, and magnificent and divine measure: centers to produce thoughts.
Another thing that they did was to create takfiri groups. It was the enemies of Islam who created that lethal group called “DAESH”. The Americans have acknowledged this. Of course, we had reliable information, but if we had spoken about it, it might have been doubted. However, the Americans themselves acknowledged it. Certain individuals in the administration that had created DAESH acknowledged it and also in the subsequent administration, the person who is now in charge [Donald Trump] explicitly said that it was they who created and who supported DAESH. They ordered their mercenaries in the region – the governments that follow their orders – to pay DAESH money and they bought weapons for them as well as giving them all kinds of equipment and ammunition.
Therefore, they created centers for producing thoughts, they created terrorist orientations and they did something to involve the elements who were not well-informed or who did not want to enter into this game. They made them angry and they provoked them into insulting one another. For example, you witness that in such and such a neighboring country, someone takes the minbar and begins to insult the holy beliefs of another denomination and after he steps down the minbar, he goes and seeks asylum in an English embassy. This is what has happened, which is a recent development. There are many such examples. They provoke certain individuals to enrage people and audiences and to pit them against one another. Well, they have explicitly said that they had done these things. However, what I want to say is that those regional governments who have undertaken the effort to provide financial support to these groups are more to blame than the individuals who have joined such groups. In other words, those who leave home from such and such a part of the world of Islam – based on their religious zeal and ignorance – to join such terrorist groups are less to blame than the chief, politician, and king who pays and organizes them and who provides them with weapons. Of course, the main crime has been committed by the Americans. This is really the case. [Nov 3, 2020]