News Review 02/01/2020

US Congress Blocks Afghanistan and Germany Military Withdrawals

US President Donald Trump’s veto of this year’s defence bill was overridden on Friday as the Senate voted overwhelmingly for the bill to pass. According to the US Constitution, the president is entitled to veto any bill passed by Congress by majority vote but then Congress can override the veto if they produce a two-thirds majority in favour of it. Congress have introduced in this year’s bill restrictions blocking Trump’s attempts to withdraw thousands of US troops from Germany and Afghanistan. Trump had campaigned on the promise of withdrawing troops, and now at the end of his presidency he is making a show to his electoral base of trying to fulfil that promise.

The true purpose of Western systems of ‘checks and balances’ is to develop an entrenched establishment of politicians and officials that block the power of the President to act according to his own best judgement. The establishment is inevitably captured by vested elite interests, so that the Western democratic system becomes essentially a façade concealing Capitalist oligarchic power. Presidential decisions thus inevitably accord with establishment priorities in preference to popular demands. The West talk openly of ‘truths’ that have no real validity but are useful to believe in because believing in them brings certain benefits. Undoubtedly, the false ideas of democracy and freedom fall into this category.

Syria, Iran, Yemen

Despite America’s best efforts to crush the Syrian revolution, an attack this week close to the ancient city of Palmyra signals continued revolutionary activity on the ground. 25 members of pro-Assad forces were killed after their bus was ambushed while travelling along a main highway in Deir az-Zor Province bordering Iraq. The Syrian revolution was part of the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that began ten years ago. As government after government collapsed, America was forced to accept opposition leaders instead of their preferred rulers in order that the Western colonial systems continue to function. But in Syria, the people rejected American efforts to introduce the Syrian Democratic Forces as an alternate to Assad. So America instead worked to crush the revolution, using for his purpose multiple proxies some, such as Russia and Iran, providing support to the government whilst others, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and most notably Turkey, apparently siding with the revolutionary groups but in fact betraying them in accordance with the US agenda. But the Syrian revolution lives on in the hearts and minds of the people of Syria, who will continue to struggle against their rulers as long as they fail to rule in accordance with the Qur’an and the Sunnah. With Allah’s permission, it is only a matter of a little time before these agent rulers are indeed overthrown and replaced with sincere, indigenous leadership committed to ruling by Islam alone.

America has recalled its aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, from the Middle East, apparently signalling an end to Trump’s provocative stance against Iran. Despite the apparent longstanding conflict between America and Iran, the reality is that the power factions within Iran have always closely cooperated with America. The Iranian state is dominated by pragmatic politicians that wish to see Iran conform to the present Western dominated world order. And though the Revolutionary Guards present themselves in domestic public opinion as firmly opposed to the West, the reality is that they also tacitly cooperate with the US to advance their interests. It is true that there has recently been some genuine friction in US-Iranian relations but this is only because America wanted to reduce its dependence on the IRGC faction and give preference to the state faction. Trump’s anger against Iran partly reflected this, and was partly grandstanding in front of his electoral base. In either case, the US establishment has now indicated bringing a close to this episode, in preparation for the incoming government of President-elect Joe Biden.

Saudi Arabia reacted in anger this week, bombing areas of the Yemeni capital Sana in response to attacks in the southern city of Aden targeting members of the newly formed unity government backed by Saudi and the UAE, as well as the Saudi ambassador to Yemen. Sana is controlled by the Houthis but they have denied responsibility for the attacks. The unity government was sworn in in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and had just landed in Aden when the first of the attacks took place, at the Aden Airport. The divisions in Yemen are actually a consequence of the interference of foreign Western disbelievers. Yemen has for centuries been critical to British interests but has been targeted by America which does not want to see any Muslim country remaining under British control. But, fearful of its military disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq, America decided to enter Yemen through use of Saudi forces instead of fighting the war itself, using the excuse of controlling the Houthis although they too are under American influence. Meanwhile, Britain used the UAE to defend its interests in Yemen, leading to the formation of the Southern Defence Forces. It is incumbent upon Muslims to retake control of their own affairs by re-establishing the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall eject the influence of the Western foreign disbeliever and unify all Muslim lands under a single general leadership for the Muslim Ummah.

British Establishment at last Succeeds with Soft Brexit

This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson at last triumphed where his predecessor Theresa May failed by successfully passing his Brexit trade bill through Parliament, cramming this into a single day of legislative debate in the middle of the UK holiday season, with only part of the day allotted for debate in the House of Commons, and the greater part of the day reserved for the far more amenable House of Lords. After the disastrous 2016 Brexit referendum that was intended to crush Brexit not legalise it, the establishment came to terms with its failure and embarked on producing a Brexit deal with the EU that would preserve as much of the economic benefits of EU membership as possible. But Theresa May repeatedly failed to sell the idea of a ‘soft Brexit’ in Parliament, due to hard-line opposition by the pro-Brexit faction deeply embedded within her ruling Tory Party. It took the skilled political theatrics of Boris Johnson to conclude an almost equally soft Brexit with the EU but sell it within Britain as if it were a hard Brexit.

The reality of Western politics should give Muslims even greater reason to reject the alien Western systems of government that have been implemented in Muslims lands, along with the political ideals behind them. The solution to our problems is not greater freedom and democracy; these are illusory ideas that contradict the reality of human nature and human society and have never been successfully practiced anywhere in the world at any time. Instead Muslims must return to rule by Islam, something that has a concrete reality in over a millennium of Muslim rule across a great part of the world. With Allah’s permission, the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) shall provide humanity again with the perfect model of ruling returning the Muslim Ummah and the entire world to peace, justice and prosperity, in obedience to the obligations imposed upon us by our Creator and Sustainer, and conveyed to us by His Noble Messenger, the Prophet Mohammad (saw).