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the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: Interview With The
Islam Administrator Of The Islamic Emirate Website
Thursday, 17 February 2011 16:50 -
PASHTO
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: Interview With The Administrator
Of The Islamic Emirate Website, Esteemed
Arabic
Brother Abdul Sattar Maiwandi
 
Urdu
Dear Readers!

Farsi
In the series of al-Somood interviews with officials of the Emirates, we present to you this time an exclusive interview
about the Jihadist media activities of the Islamic Emirate with esteemed brother Abdul Sattar Maiwandi, who is
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responsible for the al-Emarah website on the global internet. We invite you to read it.

Alsomod Website In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful.

Al-Somood: To begin, we wish you to provide the readers of al-Somood with a summary of
the media activities of the Islamic Emirate.
LOGIN
Maiwandi: Praise be to Allah. Blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and
upon his family, his companions and all those who followed him. Thereafter:

LOGIN Among other committees, the Islamic Emirates established a special Media Committee to
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spread (news) about Jihadist activities in different fields and chase away the voice of the
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unjust enemy who, before the entire world, was distorting the image of the Jihad in
Afghanistan and was claiming false victories here and there over the Mujahideen. Need
called for the existence of a media agency to take responsibility for the Mujahideen in
Afghanistan; speaking on behalf of the Islamic Emirate; delivering news of its victories on
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the battlefield to its friends and to the world; exposing the falsehood of its enemies and
their media; responding to the claims and its daily changing deceptions; and delivering to
the world the voice of truth and jihad and its point of view about current Jihadist events in
the land of Afghanistan.

Wars today cannot be won without media. (Media) is directed to the heart rather than the
body. The weapon is directed to the body. If the heart is defeated the battle is won and
the body is defeated. In the beginning, with the fall of the Islamic Emirate, the enemy
thought that the field was completely open before them, and they spread their lies and
 US reconstruction in  falsehoods that they had destroyed the Islamic Emirate and its Mujahideen and that their
afghanistan in victory in the land of Afghanistan was complete. All of their resources, especially their media
Afghanistan
were directed towards changing the ideas of Afghans and injecting defeatist thought into
them and instilling in them a petrifying fear of the new occupiers. First through the grace of
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, then through the victories of the Mujahideen and their rightly
guided leadership; and after defeats were inflicted on the enemy on the field of battle, a
media committee was established to contest with the enemy in the (media) field.

Therefore, the media ranks of the Islamic Emirate were re-formed under a special
committee that reflects the tangible reality on the ground in Afghanistan. Among its most
important accomplishments in the beginning period was the inauguration of the Islamic
Emirate website under the name “Voice of Jihad”.

The website specializes in conveying field reports from the combat zones and publishing
the statements of the Ameer ul-Momineen and the statements of the Command Shura
Council about different issues pertaining to Jihad, in addition to articles and official analysis.
They have many sections: for example there’s an Islam page, a magazines page, and a
page for films produced by official studios. We also print magazines and statements and
distribute them in popular circles at home and abroad. Additionally, we produce different
publications and regulations and distribute them among the Mujahideen. There is also a
“Voice of Shari’ah” that broadcasts news and official statements day and night.

The Media Committee has also appointed official spokesmen to speak in the name of the
Islamic Emirate to local and global media regarding the course of affairs.

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 Al-Somood: How do you gather news and field reports from Afghanistan and publish them
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on the website?

Maiwandi: Yes, through the grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the Committee employees
correspondents in all the provinces of Afghanistan to cover news of events and prepare
reports on them.

They make every effort to follow news of operations in detail and keep abreast of
developing situations, and they send reliable and precise reports of ongoing operations
immediately to the official spokesmen of the Emirate; Zabihullah Mujahid and Qari Yusuf,
who review the news and then send it to the news department of the website after an in-
depth scrutiny and examination.

Al-Somood: News, official statements and analysis are published simultaneously or in near
time in five different languages. How is that so?

Maiwandi: Yes, as you were so kind (to mention), news and other things are published in
five different languages almost simultaneously. These include local languages such as
Pashtu and Farsi as well as Urdu, Arabic and English. The website first publishes new and
other media in Pashtu and after that, translates it directly into these other languages and
publishes in their special sections.

Al-Somood: Are there ways to publish the news other than through the al-Emarah
website?

Maiwandi: Yes brother, we send the news to journalists and global news agencies
immediately after it occurs and is posted on the website. We have many email lists to which
we distribute news and official statements. These lists include journalists and others
concerned with the issue of Afghanistan. We are also active on Facebook and Twitter
where we publish the news every day and reach thousands of people. We also daily send
news via cell phone text messages to many people.

Al-Somood: Could you please clarify that last sentence? How do you send news to many
people via cell phone?

Maiwandi: The news that is posted on the website is converted to SMS messages and sent
to a number of people, who send it to other people. Each of them sends it to his
acquaintances inside and outside Afghanistan and so a chain of dissemination begins. Each
ones tries to spread the news more and more. We have seen many people requesting their
friends and relatives to forward the news they receive to at least 20 other people, etc…and
so this news becomes widely circulated in popular circles. Through the grace of Allah, we
have seen many among the general populace rejoice when news reaches them of the
victories of the Mujahideen over their enemies.

Al-Somood: Could you please explain for us some of the other activities of the Media
Committee beyond the Islamic Emirate website?

Maiwandi: The Media Committee has other media pulpits including: the Jihadi Studio which
publishes Mujahideen operations in live video. Through the grace of Allah Almighty it has
created some good products in this field.

In addition to publishing live images of Jihad and battles, the Jihadi Studio also produces
films to preach (da’wa) and reform with the goal of illuminating the minds of the Mujahideen
and making them ideologically aware. These films have so far had a good impact in
Mujahideen circles.

There is also a Pashtu-language radio broadcast called “Voice of Shari’ah”, which is

transmitted via the internet. It broadcasts daily news and reports, political commentary,
Islamic and Jihadi nasheeds which have a direct impact in raising the morale of the
Mujahideen. The Voice of Shari’ah programs are broadcast during morning and evening
periods. In addition to audio and video information there is print information in Arabic,
Pashtu and Farsi languages. The print media is represented by the monthly magazine al-
Somood (Steadfastness) in Arabic; and the Shahamat (Gallantry), Sarrak (Gleam of Light)
and Morgil (The Trench) magazines in Pashtu and Farsi languages, also published monthly.
The al-Somood magazine, of which staff you are a member has for five years provided a
true picture of the Islamic Jihad and hot events occurring on the Afghan battlefield to the
Islamic and Arab world. It is concerned with publishing articles, political analysis and news
reports, in addition to comprehensive statistics of monthly Mujahideen operations and their
impact, in addition to the series “Our Heroic Martyrs” to introduce people to the Mujahideen
military commanders who were killed fi sabeel Allah ta’ala.

As for the magazines, Shahamat and Sharrak, they have been published for seven years in
the local languages Pashtu and Farsi. They have many readers in educated circles,
especially among madrassa and university students. The Jihadist articles published in those
magazines have had a tangible impact within these circles.

As for the Morgil magazine, it is dedicated to publishing news of the battles, reports of

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 enemy crimes, statistics of enemy losses in lives and equipment and related issues. Its
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Jihadist source to determine enemy losses.

All of these media capabilities are presented via the Islamic Emirate website on the
worldwide web and everyone can view them on the website.

Al-Somood: How do you find specialized staff to carry out these media activities?

Maiwandi: When the Mujahideen enjoy the presence of people among them whom, first
through the grace of Allah Almighty then through their capability and military experience,
have been able to defeat NATO generals of great experience and expertise, it also is easy
for them to conduct these media activities with their proficiency in the media field.

Since the Media Jihad has today become one of its most important responsibilities, the
Islamic Emirate has not neglected to prepare specialized media cadres. Rather it has, in the
fields of Jihad, prepared Mujahideen media workers who resist the enemy in the media field
just like their brother fighters resists them in the military field.

Yes, I say with full confidence that with our simple and limited means, we have, through the
grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, defeated the enemy in the media field. The enemy has
been unable to redress this defeat despite the existence of their advanced means and
specialist cadre and their vast expenditure of funds in this field.

It is possible for everyone throughout the world to view all of our publications on the
internet. Indeed, all the workers in the Karzai government who have internet access in
their offices, universities and government administrations and even those who work in the
American military and political administration view our publications and are affected by
them.

There are many residents of Kabul city who listen to the Voice of Shari’ah programs via the
internet and inform us by email of how they were favorably impressed by those programs.
They tell us that hearing the nasheed la Allah ila Allah recalls to their minds memories of the
rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Even though the Americans, NATO troops and the security forces of the lackey government
all exert great efforts to impede the activities of the Islamic Emirate, it frequently occurs
that members of families from the upper class in the Karzai administration display their
sympathy with the Mujahideen.

The Americans also admit that the Islamic Emirate has defeated them in the media field.
This confession was made in an article published on the 22nd of May last year in the well-
known American magazine Foreign Policy entitled “Losing the Media War to the Taliban”.
The author of the article was the well-known American writer Robert Haddick who
mentioned details of Taliban media activities and their media superiority over the
Americans. The author advised his people, saying “In their media battle against the Taliban,
the Americans must use more effective methods and tactics, because the Taliban have won the
media war using existing methods”.

A report by the American Council of Foreign Relations corroborated Taliban media

superiority over the Americans in the media field. The report mentioned one reason the
Taliban have moved ahead of the Americans in the media field is that they do not wait for
appointed dates to publish news of events, but publish them as soon as they occur.

The progress of the Islamic Emirate and its media superiority over the Americans has
become today’s news to the Western press, which has begun to write articles and
commentary about it everywhere.

Regarding Taliban excellence in this field, Michael Doran, the former American deputy
secretary of defense, said that “The Taliban have great skill in directing their media activities
and are very quick to publish news: if any attack is conducted against our forces news is being
published 26 minutes later on the global satellite networks, taking its place in the breaking
news tickers for most of the global satellite networks like al-Jazeera, B.B.C. and C.N.N.”.

He added, saying: “The Taliban are not only quick to publish news, rather they are also
fortunate in the precision and organization in their media work. They translate news of all their
military operations as soon as it comes in from Pashtu and Farsi to Arabic and English and it is
immediately published on their websites and their online radio 'Voice of Shari’ah'.” 

Michael Doran continues by advising the Americans “It is necessary for the Americans to
increase the capabilities of their soldiers in blocking Taliban media activities by granting them
more authorities and limiting Taliban media activities by strengthening their (own) media
channels. They must also close down all Taliban websites on the internet.” [The Council of
Foreign Relations, May 2009]

General Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in the Karzai administration,
acknowledged in an interview with Radio Free Europe last year during the battle of Marjah
that the Mujahideen media activities were stronger and more successful than those of the

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 government.
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Al-Somood: How do you explain the media superiority of the Mujahideen?

Maiwandi: The sole factor in the media superiority of the Mujahideen is that they perform
this work as undertaking a Jihadist responsibility and not as a job performed in return for a
salary like others do. According to the moral contract to which they have committed
themselves, they make sacrifices to the point of death for the sake of the success of this
Jihadist labor. They endure hardships and regard success in performing this responsibility
as a wish of their worldly life. Because of the sincerity, sacrifice and zeal of the Mujahideen,
Allah blesses their efforts and grants them success. This blessing and success granted by
Allah is acknowledged by the enemy also, and this grace has been witnessed by the
enemies.

Al-Somood: What are the problems you encounter in performing your media
responsibilities?

Maiwandi: The path of Jihad is full of trials and difficulties, but the Mujahid accepts them
with good will to please Allah Almighty and elevate His Word. These hardships are born fi
sabeel Allah ta’ala are a source of pride and a sign of the righteousness of His path. We face
many material problems and problems with media mean; and there are security problems;
and there is a scarcity of material resources. They are, however, easy to bear for the sake
of achieving a noble goal and we are proud of this.

The means we possess are very paltry when compared to the means of the enemy.
Moreover, we also face in this field a shameless enemy who is not by bound by any
humane or moral obligations. They speak excessively about slogans of freedom of
expression and speech, but they do not recognize freedom of speech which runs contrary
to their colonialist interests. In addition to that, they lie prolifically in their media. If 20 of
their soldiers are killed, they announce the death of only one and only if they are unable to
hide the news. If 20 of their people are wounded, they admit that only one was wounded
and say the wounds are slight and that he returned to his job after his wounds were
bandaged and treated. If one of their aircraft is shot down by the fire of Mujahideen or is
set alight in the air, they hide the news if they can. If they can’t hide the news, they state
that it was an emergency landing. When they arrest local citizens during night raids they
claim that they have seized armed Mujahideen. This is their custom in all their media
publications.

As for our media, despite our commitment to publishing the truth, the enemy attacks our
websites on the internet, and closes or sabotages them. They threaten the companies
which host our websites and send them warnings. "Their intention is to extinguish Allah’s
light (by blowing) with their mouths: But Allah will complete (the revelation of) His light, even
though the Unbelievers may detest (it).” (Al-Saff: 8)

Even though they commit all of these crimes, we are, through the grace of Allah Almighty,
able to continue our Jihadist publications. We present to the world the victories of the
Mujahideen and the defeats of the enemy. We show the world documented evidence of the
defeats of the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan. We have had good successes in
this field despite the many problems we face. Praise be to Allah for that.

Al-Somood: We thank you for giving us this opportunity and for answering our questions.
We beseech Allah Almighty to grant you more success in all your Jihadist activities. Ameen.

Maiwandi: A hundred thanks to you as well.

Translated From The Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan: Al-Somood Monthly Magazine

Issue 55

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