The issue of Al Wala'a wal Bara'a

hivizman

Someone on another thread on this board mentioned the book by David Cook Understanding Jihad (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005). Cook discusses the doctrine of al-wala' wa-l-bara' on page 141:

One cannot understand radical Islam, let alone globalist radical Islam, until one comprehends the importance of the doctrine known as al-wala' wa-l-bara' (loyalty or fealty and disloyalty or disassociation). Basically, this is a polarizing doctrine by which radicals - and this idea is emphasized almost exclusively by radicals, so virtually any book or pamphlet on the subject will be written by radicals - maintain their control over what constitutes the definition of "Islam". Islam is defined according to this doctrine not only by the willingness to fight, but also by the polarities of love and hatred: love for anything or anybody defined as Islam or Muslim, and hatred for their opposites or opponents. In other words, anybody who demonstrates what radicals define as "love" for what is a non- or an anti-Muslim position, or associates closely (or sometimes in any way) with non-Muslims, must be a non-Muslim and is excluded, by definition, from the Muslim community.

It is self-evident that this doctrine is of crucial importance for radical Muslims, not only in their war with the outside world, but also in their attempts to gain spiritual prestige and power within the Muslim world. One of the principal reasons for the ineffectiveness of moderate or anti-radical Muslims is the power of the doctrine of al-wala' wa-l-bara' over even those Muslims who do not accept the radical Muslim vision of the present or the future. Al-wala' wa-l-bara' enables radical Muslimes to assert control over the definitions of who is and who is not a Muslim and it forces those who would wish to challenge that control into silence or into being categorized as "non-Muslims". Thus, it is not a question of whether a minority or a majority of Muslims support or oppose the actions and agenda of radical Islam or globalist radical Islam. It is impossible to know in many cases what Muslims really think or feel concerning a given operation. The crucial fact is that Muslims in the vast majority are unwilling to dissociate themselves publicly from radical Islam. This passivity is the work of the doctrine of al-wala' wa-l-bara'.

This is possibly an extreme view (Cook rejects the argument that jihad refers primarily to the inward struggle against one's own personal tendencies towards wrongdoing, an interpretation that is widely held), but it provides some context for the doctrine. However, there are materials available on-line that provide some support for Cook's analysis, for example:

http://salafiyyah-jadeedah.tripod.com/wala_wal_bara/3.htm

The doctrine is basically a version of "if you are not for us, then you are against us".