News and Comment
The Treatment of Refugees

News:

Up to 100 masked men, dressed in black, gathered in central Stockholm to attack people from immigrant backgrounds, reports say.

Swedish police say the large gang distributed leaflets inciting people to assault refugees.

Witnesses said the men physically attacked people they believed were foreigners. However, police have not confirmed these reports.

It comes amid heightened tension in Sweden over the migrant crisis.

Some 163,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe.

According to Aftonbladet Newspaper, the men in Stockholm were distributing leaflets on Friday evening with the slogan "It's enough now!".

The material threatened to give "the North African street children who are roaming around" the "punishment they deserve". (Source: BBC, 30/1/2016)

Comment:

The desperate plight of refugees has been a daily occurrence in the news as well as the response of governments in Europe tackling the influx of people escaping war, poverty and all the related outcomes of American and European foreign policy in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Whilst some individuals in Europe are opening up their homes and helping refugees using their own humanitarian goodness, others we can see have reacted with hate and potential violence.

Parties in Sweden were divided in November last year when they decided to toughen up their immigration policy as Sweden had an ‘open door’ policy that it felt was being abused and other European countries were not taking the burden of refugees equally. Some have argued that crime, burden on resources etc will rise with more people and others see a potential for the economy with migrants having potential to provide both skilled and unskilled labour.

With man-made laws the potential for good and bad, fair and unfair, whether from individuals or governments is debatable and changeable. For a coherent and harmonious society, it is important for all institutions to adopt a unified policy and outlook and that can only come from the correct ideological basis. It is also vital for the western governments to acknowledge the effects of their foreign policy which is causing domestic strife and the potential rise of violence against innocent children, whose only crime is seeking refuge!

When the Muslims migrated from Makkah to Madinah, it was the sound Islamic ideas of brotherhood that united them as one and made that society harmonious. RasulAllah (saw) pairing up Ansar and Muhajireen signified the individual attitude that needed to be adopted and the State's policy of equal treatment in rights and responsibilities throughout the times of the Khilafah "Caliphate" are known. Where Muslim and non Muslim are treated on the basis of the Shariah as citizens.

(يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُونُواْ قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاء لِلّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَى أَنفُسِكُمْ أَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالأَقْرَبِينَ إِن يَكُنْ غَنِيًّا أَوْ فَقَيرًا فَاللّهُ أَوْلَى بِهِمَا فَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ الْهَوَى أَن تَعْدِلُواْ)

“O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just”. [an-Nisaa: 135]

In the case of foreign policy, Islam does not seek to dominate and suppress, causing people to desperately flee their homes for safety but rather it seeks to make lands Dar al-Islam and part of the same system, enjoying the same opportunities, distribution of resources etc.

The solution to Europe’s influx of refugees, the varied responses and what is right or wrong lies in seeking the correct fundamental outlook in life alone. Islam is the only system that ensures the sanctity of human life and it provides mechanisms within the state to ensure that asylum seekers or refugees are assisted and integrated so they too can live a secure and happy life.

Allah (swt) says in the Quran,

(وَإِنْ أَحَدٌ مِّنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ اسْتَجَارَكَ فَأَجِرْهُ حَتَّى يَسْمَعَ كَلاَمَ اللّهِ ثُمَّ أَبْلِغْهُ مَأْمَنَهُ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لاَّ يَعْلَمُونَ)

“And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah. Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know”. [At Tawbah: 6]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Nazia Rehman