We have just witnessed a Ramadhan like no other in recent times. The vicious bombing of our brothers and sisters in Gaza started a few days into the month and the outpouring of emotions of the Muslims here for their Ummah has been great, alhamdulillah. People have taken part in demonstrations, given huge amounts to charity appeals for Gaza, and sought to do many other actions. People wanted to do something, not just talk.

For some, our role in calling the Muslim armies to do their duty of moving to liberate Gaza was not on their radar. It was not something they were hearing about in their social circles or from some of the scholars and activists they follow. So we needed to remind them of this Islamic solution to liberate the land once and for all and answer the questions they brought forward claiming it is not practical, or that the armies are all traitors who support foreign powers etc. The view that everyone in the armies feels indifferent to the killing in Gaza, or does not desire to help their Ummah is wrong and had to be clarified and debated. Once we engaged in discussions on this, most people did come to understand the matter, Alhamdulillah.

At the question and answer sessions after an Iftar gathering where I spoke about the Islamic solution and that neighbouring armies need to move to defend our people in Gaza, someone stood up and said the armies were already defeated before in the previous wars (1967, 1973...) with the Israeli entity so how could this happen. Another person talked of lobbying the British government to intervene in Gaza though it helped create the Zionist entity, and during the latest bombing of Gaza, UK ministers repeatedly said that ‘Israel has a right to defend itself' meaning that they supported its bombing and killings in Gaza. Those who raised these points were people who had bothered to come to an event, and sincerely wanted to aid their Ummah. However their comments and those of some others reminds us of the importance of constantly needing to clarify the correct Islamic approaches to the issues that we face. Surely, that is what it means to apply the Qur'an to the issues that we face and surely, that is one of the important things we must learn from the month of Ramadhan.

Activists like us who seek to move the ummah to work for the resumption of the Islamic way of life must always be ready to engage, motivate and discuss with our noble ummah so that together, we mobilise and call for the Islamic solutions to life's problems.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Taji Mustafa

Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain