Abu Bakar Bashir

This is why I have always said that it would be better if Muslims were poor.

Arab leaders worry more about making money from the profits they get from oil and gas that they turn the other way when Lebanon is being destroyed right next to them. Their neighbours are being murdered, but they only make calculations for their own benefit.

Because Islam in its original form was tough and hard, not weak and pliable.

But the leaders of the OIC could not even accept Mahathir's proposal, yet they talk about respect and honour.

But the West is trying to weaken Islam from outside and inside. They attack our people and invade our countries from outside, and they weaken us from within with ideas like secularism, liberalism and democracy. This is all designed to contaminate our pure Islam.

The Muslim leaders swallow the advice of the Western powers and bodies like the IMF and World Bank, even when it is bad for their countries and they know this.

The only model to follow is pure Islam.

If my children do not behave according to Islam, if they do not pray for instance, I will punish them.

Islam is perfect, there is nothing to be added or changed.

Islam's laws are fixed and that is why Islam is stable.

Likewise the leader of any state has to do the same, he has to enforce Shariah firmly, for he will be held in account later in the afterlife if he fails.

Muslims must believe that all power, success and victory comes from God alone.

Oil wealth has been a curse on us, made us weak and docile.

The Afghans did not have sophisticated weapons like the Soviets did, but with their faith they defeated a superpower.

There is not a single Muslim leader today who has the courage and commitment to defend Islam and Muslims, they are all in awe of the United States and other Western powers, and are indebted to them.

They are scared that the BBC or CNN may call them radicals, so they remain soft instead. The problem lies there, with the Muslim leaders, not the Muslim masses.

The Prophet defeated the enemies of Islam even when he and his followers were small in number.

Today the Western powers and media want to domesticate us like sheep, to keep us tame and domesticated.

We have shown that Islam can rule the world perfectly for 14 centuries, and during this time of Muslim power we did not borrow ideas like democracy from others, so why do we need to learn democracy from them now?

We should be proud that our Prophet came into the world with the message of Islam to change it for the better, and not for the worse, or to keep things as they are.

What honour have we got left, when nobody is listening to us?

What use is revelation or religion if it doesnt change anything?

Why should we use the Dollar even when we trade among ourselves?

You are right, but the weakness does not come from the millions of Muslims in the world. They do not mind being radical, they have no fear to speak out and to protest and to jihad.

Look at the Afghans, during the time of the Soviet invasion. They were among the poorest Muslims in the world, yet they were sustained by their faith in God, and God alone.