Condemning Saudi Rulers For Hosting Riyadh Season Festival, Editorial In Islamic State (ISIS) Weekly Calls For Jihad In Arabian Peninsula, Declares It Must Be Liberated Before Jerusalem

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Issue 470 of Al-Naba', the official weekly magazine of the Islamic State (ISIS), which was dated November 21, 2024, contains an editorial titled "The Captive Peninsula,"[1] lashing out at Saudi Arabia's rulers for hosting the Riyadh Season festival, which began this year on October 12. Accusing them of seeking to corrupt the country's Muslims and distance them from their religion, it calls for jihad against the Saudi regime. The image accompanying the editorial depicts the festival, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the country's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh.

Liberating Jerusalem Must Begin By Liberating Arabian Peninsula

The editorial opens by noting that every year, the festival is met with widespread anger throughout the Muslim world for the "immoral celebrations featuring a clique of the world's sinners" who enter the Arabian Peninsula by means of fatwas from pro-government clerics. Noting that the festival was ironically held in Riyadh's Hitteen neighborhood – named after the battle where Saladin defeated the Crusader army and regained Muslim control over Palestine – the editorial asserts that this sends a message "to those who dream of liberating Jerusalem that the path to its liberation will only be completed with the liberation of the captive [Arabian] Peninsula, from which the Islamic conquests were launched."

Saudi Rulers Seek To Corrupt Muslims And Secularize Country

The editorial's writers insist that their main condemnation of the festival is that it is intended to "minimize the Land of the Two Holy Sites' status in Islam and dissipate its awe and sanctity in Muslims' hearts," to "make the crime palatable … until it can be coexisted with," and worst of all, to "strip the Muslim of his faith and morals, defile his holy sites, and bring his enemy into his homeland." According to the editorial, the festival is part of a "systematic war against the Land of Prophecy, aiming to secularize it, corrupt its people, and strike its sanctity."

The writers declare that anger should be directed not just at the Saudi General Entertainment Authority but equally at its Council of Senior Scholars – which it describes as "the gatekeepers and shari'a cover of the taghouts [un-Islamic rulers]" – and at the country's soldiers, "guardians of polytheism and protectors of vice."

Only Way For Saudis To Protest Is Through Jihad

Claiming that many Saudis would like to protest against the government but are afraid of being arrested or killed, the writers declare that this "makes it necessary for them to follow the only path that makes this possible for them – jihad," explaining that protest is only feasible if there is "power to protect the da'wah [preaching]."

According to the Al-Naba' editorial, Allah chose the Arabian Peninsula as the birthplace of Islam because its people were mostly illiterate and therefore "free of the philosophies and conceptions of the surrounding nations, like the Byzantines, Zoroastrians, and Buddhists," and thus open to ideas originating directly from Allah. The editorial contends that the peninsula's current rulers contradict this with their "openness to all jahili [characteristic of pre-Islamic paganism] civilizations and cultures and their transfer of these to the Peninsula to compete with prophecy" and corrupt its Muslim inhabitants.

Saudi Security Will Not Last

The editorial predicts that "the state of security which the supporters of the taghouts in the Peninsula boast of … will not last." Quoting Quranic verses such as "Whenever We intend to destroy a society, We command its elite [to obey Allah] but they act rebelliously in it. So the decree is justified, and We destroy it utterly" (17:16), and "Indeed, those who love to see indecency spread among the believers will suffer a painful punishment in this life and the Hereafter" (24:19), the writers assert that corruption of morals is a harbinger of a nation's destruction.

However, they add, the Saudis' "displaying and spreading immorality … and importing it into their country" is not as bad as their "associating partners with Allah and apostatizing from His religion by committing acts that invalidate faith." The writers note that before the Saudis hosted music festivals, they "allied with the Jews and Christians" and hosted the "crusader coalition" in the country.

Saudi Arabia Needs A Battle To Kill Its Rulers And Restore Monotheism, ISIS Fighters Will Not Forget This

The editorial declares: "The country of the Peninsula desperately needs a new [Battle of] Badr in which Allah will distinguish truth from falsehood, and in which the leaders of unbelief will be killed and the leaders of monotheism and His flagbearers will assume prominence. It desperately needs its sincere ones … [to] progress to the stage … which is stained with jihad and warfare against the leaders of unbelief and the taghouts of the Peninsula."

The "soldiers of the caliphate in the provinces and training camps" declare, according to the editorial, "We will not abandon the Land of Prophecy, the birthplace of the Prophet, and the place where his noble Companions grew up, to those sinful unbelievers … We will not sell their heritage or neglect their glories, and we will never betray the testament of Allah's Messenger: 'Expel the polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula.'"

This year's Riyadh Season festivities, which included provocative music performances by Jennifer Lopez and other Western women, as well as a fashion show featuring a cube-shaped display resembling Mecca's Kaaba, drew harsh condemnation of Saudi rulers by Salafi-jihadis – including ISIS supporters – and Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis).[2]