In internet forums you can quite often read posts like "I want to go to Jihad, who will help me? Where can we meet?" They are posted either by agent provocateurs from security services, or by sincere, but naive Muslims. And we want to address this work to such [naive] brothers.
Jihad is a personal duty, but, as prayer, it demands fulfilling of certain conditions. What will we say about a man who stands for prayer in trunks, in a filthy place and without performing an ablution, [and who is] justifying it by the fact that the prayer is obligatory and the time has come? But some brothers, who have realized the obligation of Jihad, allow themselves to spend much time in front of a computer display, while they do not prepare themselves at all morally, physically and intellectually to the war in Allah's path.
At the same time, today's Jihad is a surveillance and sabotage activity, which, in all armies of the world, is carried out only by specially selected, elite fighters. Do you imagine a special forces soldier who does not know the multiplication table, hardly pulls himself up five times, doesn't know how to shoot, and even is not familiar with his weapon, is not able to perform first aid to a wounded, and does not fulfill security demands?
Discipline in disbelieving armies is maintained by fear of punishment. For a Mujahid, the main reason for observing rules of war is his piety. A lack of piety can cause casualties and even defeat, and it will not be an excuse on the Judgment Day. Relying on Allah implies fulfilling all necessary conditions we are able to fulfill, in the best way possible, and it is not neglect of actions while saying "we rely on Allah".
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Ribat
Part 1. General security
Jihad in Caucasus has been going on for many years, yet we continue to witness poor preparedness of young Mujahideen, as well as neglect of security rules by more experienced warriors. The military science was written by blood, and Muslim blood is too precious to be shed because of a bad preparedness, carelessness or foolishness.
We want to present some rules for preparation and waging of Jihad, based on the contemporary experience of Mujahideen in North Caucasus.
First of all, it needs to be understood that Jihad in a territory that is controlled by security services of the enemy requires extra security measures from Mujahideen, and an ability to disguise not only your actions, but also intentions. In particular, a Muslim who has made a firm decision to participate in Jihad must be able to keep his decision in secret, because all security services of disbelievers try to prevent appearance of Mujahideen and emerging of new centers of Jihad, rather than dealing with consequences.
Main exposing factors [of a Mujahid] are:
- Exposing features of Mujahid himself.
- Wrong usage of means of communication.
- Leaking of information through relatives or close friends.
Let's review these factors in more detail.
- Exposing features of a Mujahid (both potential and active) include:
- Visiting a mosque (it is better to avoid mosques altogether, because they are places where controlling Muslims and spying over them is easiest: everything is visible, who associates with whom, absence of anyone is noticeable).
- Talking about Jihad with unreliable (i. e. those who are not on the same path as you) people, even if it is "masha'Allah, very good brother".
- Outer appearance, for example, growing beard, even stubble, if only it is not a norm or a trend in the society. Also, use of [verbal] expressions, clothes and accessories (Casio watch, Arabian perfume, miswak) that are associated in public opinion with "militants" or "Wahhabists".
All these issues were reviewed by the Mujahideen many times, an inquiry was even made regarding possibility to ban wearing of headscarf by wives of Mujahideen, because it was an exposing factor, but someone else's experience and even someone else's error still does not teach us. For example, after the failed [assassination] attempt on R. Kadyrov, he ordered to detain all young men based on "stubble and long hair" features, and check whether they had any connection to militants, and a first one in a group of detained men had happened to be a Mujahid.
Many Mujahideen are careless about taking photos. We have to admit that photos and videos, especially posted on the internet, serve as an excellent source of information for disbelievers. An example is a story of a youth, son of a policeman, who, "as a prank", posed on a webcam, talking about Jihad and holding his father's handgun, and posted that video on the internet. It was not hard for security services to find him by the handgun's number, which was caught by the webcam.
Mujahideen often start to take photos and even make [videotaped] statements, supposing they are [already] on the wanted list, thus limiting their opportunities in undercover activity on the plain. But we can say that the most needed Mujahideen are exactly those who can act on the plain, hitting disbelievers and apostates where they do not expect. Mujahid who is unknown to anybody, and who doesn't raise suspicions, can gather more intelligence and inflict more casualties to the enemy, than the one who is forced to hide constantly and care only for his safety.
- Wrong usage of means of communication
Extremely dangerous factor for a Muslim is the wrong usage of means of communication, such as phone, internet etc. Any person who has realized the obligation of Jihad becomes an object of attention for security services. Enemies are not able to read our thoughts, [or] look into our hearts, but they can eavesdrop on our conversations, read [our] e-mails etc.
- The easiest way to know a person's mood and thoughts is to tap and analyze what he says and writes, an elementary phone tapping and internet wiretap, to intercept telephone conversations, e-mails, chat [messages] and forum [posts]...
- A mobile phone is also a source of signal for means of surveillance, therefore it is necessary to completely turn off the phone at secret locations (apartments, houses, meeting places etc.) by removing the battery and the SIM card, because the phone usually contains an additional energy source for saving its settings. The phone may be turned on only in the case of extreme necessity, and only during movement (in a car, bus etc.).
- It needs to be known that surveillance through mobile phone may be tuned on a certain voice, therefore there is no sense to change phone number and phone itself for a person who is kept under surveillance "by voice". To prevent it, SMS should be used [instead].
- A Mujahid whose statement was published, should know that his voice will be saved in a database of the electromagnetic intelligence of disbelievers, and his every phone conversation will be tapped automatically.
- It needs to be firmly remembered that there are no secure phones: your phone for contacting your relatives, phone used only for internet access, [they] serve the enemy as the same source of information about your location. Remember: it is not the phone that is insecure, it is you who is insecure. Anytime you turn on your phone, it can be enough reason to target you.
- According to statistics of Russian security services, during the last several years, around 80-90% successful operations against Mujahideen have been carried out due to surveillance and tapping of mobile phones.
- All Mujahideen should be instructed regarding use of means pf communication, and any violation of the instruction should be punished strictly. A place where a phone was turned on in violation of the instructions, is by then considered unsafe.
- Internet activity also should be regulated by security rules. Visiting web-sites like kavkazcenter.com is strictly controlled by security services. What is more, even if a visitor of non-Muslim information resources, such as ingushetia.org or kavkaz-uzel.ru, reads only news about military actions and similar incidents, it also attracts attention of security services.
- E-mail is also easily accessible source of information. Cracking an e-mail account's password is not hard for more or less experienced hacker. All your mail that stored on servers located in Russia is accessible for any [Russian] policeman. Therefore you should use non-Russian e-mail services and regularly (at least once in two weeks) change passwords.And don't write anything that can attract attention of the enemy! All e-mail in the world passes through the automatic system that reveals so called keywords. Be sure that phrase "SubhanAllah" is included in those keywords.
- If a person is not able to fulfill security requirements, it is easier to expel him from a Jama`ah, than to expose other Muslims to fatal danger.
For example, a young Mujahid who arrived at a secret apartment and was waiting to go to the woods, was warned that he should not call anywhere from his phone, but then he was heard talking on the phone similar to: "No, brother, I can't tell you where I am now, it is unsafe, I can't endanger the brothers". From the outside it could appear like this Mujahid was just foolish, but the problem is that many brothers who consider themselves smart, behave like this. Such conversation will not leave any doubt in any policeman, let alone specialists who conduct surveillance. We will just add, that some time later that apartment was raided, and three experienced and cautious Mujahideen inside were martyred. And if senseless phone talk of that young Mujahid caused their killing, then he should think, what he will say in his excuse on the Judgment Day.
- Deteriorating quality of mobile communication is a sign of danger. If all of a sudden you can't make mobile calls from a place where previously you did not have problems calling, then possibly there is a surveillance station working in your area, and you need to leave the area urgently.
- If you are calling someone and the calls reach, but nobody answers, it could be a sign that the person was detained, and disbelievers are checking who is calling him.
- First thing that disbelievers check after detaining someone suspected of links to Mujahideen, are SIM cards of their mobile phones. For this [purpose] they use a whole laboratory based on GAZelle [van], stuffed with various hardware.
- All secret locations, as well as objects of work (disbelievers, apostates, weapon types, car types, names of Mujahideen groups etc.) should be encrypted by a previously agreed code, in order to prevent conversations such as: "let's meet where you have met our other friends the day before yesterday" - "what friends?" - "those who work with Abdulla" - "what Abdulla, senior or junior?" - "the one whose hand is not working enough" - "the one whose brother has been married... and where should we meet?..." etc.
- It needs to be known that disbelievers may use tools for distant eavesdropping, that allow listening to a conversation in a house or a passing car from 80-100 meters. Therefore in places where such eavesdropping is possible, you should be silent or talk in a misleading way. In general, it is better to be silent more and talk less!
- Leaking of information through relatives or close friends
The issue seems obvious, but nevertheless, many brothers still can't solve it. You should remember once and for all: if you yourself could not keep your own secret, then a person to whom you revealed it, all the more will not keep your secret.
Secrets of Jihad, military secrets are forbidden to tell anyone, even most trustworthy people. Mujahid can just blurt out, or he will be forced to talk after being tortured or drugged. Wife can share with her mother, and she will tell her friends or relatives...
Variants are countless, but all they lead to one thing: what is known by two people, is known by everybody.
In any case, any exchange of information should be substantiated (it is not allowed to tell secrets as an example or to raise morale) and minimized (if you can't hide something from your wife, then she should be warned not to tell it to her mother or reliable friends).
Sometimes some Muslims are so naive that they think that ties of kinship will prevent members of disbelieving forces from harming them. It should be clearly understood, that bitterness of war in Caucasus reached such high degree, that local "cops" do not hesitate to shoot, abduct and torture their "militant" relatives or those "suspected in links to militants".
Prepared by Abu Anas of Khacharoy
Source: Hunafa.com
Translated by The Caucasus Blog
Kavkaz Center