With the beginning of 2015 CE, in Russia, the defense of Islamic values on the backdrop of the caricatures in France was noticeable. Russian authorities had allowed Muslims of Chechnya and other republics in the North Caucasus to express their anger at the publication of the offending caricature of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) in the French weekly newspaper. Russian authorities allowed these protests because the abuse had come from the West, not from within Russia, taking advantage of the anger of the Ummah to emerge as unified against the attacks of the foreign powers. At a time when the Kremlin is turning a blind eye on its war against Islam, the recent events are witness to this.
At the end of January, there was news that Pyatigorsk's main mosque will be converted into a museum. In the city of Ozyorsk, Muslims were denied from the new mosque which they recently built. And in the city of Yekaterinburg, Muslims were forced to abandon the building that house the Rahma Mosque by a final judicial decision. The Kaliningrad commission is still fighting against the decision to ban the building of a mosque which is nearly completed, the only mosque in the city. Thus, the Russian authorities are preventing Muslims from their mosques whenever it can afford, and it does not mind the construction of mosques in the Muslim-majority republics.
The headscarf ban in schools is similar to what is happening with the mosques. The complete ban on headscarves took place in Mordovia following the Russian Supreme Court in Stavropol. The struggle against those who call for the resumption the Islamic way of life continues in the city of Ufa, where they arrested a large number of Muslims from the members of Hizb ut Tahrir on charges of terrorism; it is the party that does not possess weapons except the weapon of the Islamic belief. The Security apparatus detains Muslims for no other reason simply because they are spreading their Deen.
This war against Islam indicates the intellectual weakness and Russia's bankruptcy of any idea to unite the society and gathers different people around it. All what the authorities offer is a multi-cultural and religious society, a rumination of the unity in the previous era, the time of the Soviet Union. The communist creed had been depleted and sank into oblivion with its atheistic Union. Russia did not inherit from the Soviet Union but an ambition which is not a match for Islam, because it is afraid of its spread, as well as the Muslims who make up a seventh of the country's population, and they are an integral part of the billion and a half Muslim Ummah. .
O Muslims in Russia, we all know that our ancestors were killed in this land in which we were born before it became Russian land. Through force, they achieved their victory and publicly killed all those who refused to abandon the Deen; and then Muslims weakened to the point they were forced to comply. Then came decades under the Soviets' rule, where Islam was reduced to limited customs and rituals. Once the Communist monstrosity fell by the Power of Allah (swt), we began to return to our Deen. When the Islamic culture became within reach and we became aware that Islam is the truth which we must follow, the authorities decided to take us back to the traditional understanding of Islam according to Russia; i.e. the humiliation and subjugation according to Russian perception. Authorities have begun drawing up a list of extremist materials. The Ministry of Justice, rushed to include these Islamic books in this list in order to prevent Muslims from learning the rules of their Deen. Then they toughened their laws to the extent that they criminalized the call to resume the Islamic way of life that now comes with a harsh sentence in the Penal Code. As soon as Islam began to spread, the authorities were stricken with horror and worked to prevent its influence where Muslims live. Worse still, they found support among the smitten Muslims for the authorities' anti-Islamic policy, which divided Muslims into moderates and extremist. They found from Muslims who praise Allah Almighty that security forces arrested Muslims who carry the call of Islam. May Allah (swt) guide for repentance the hearts of some whom still have in their heart an atom of sincerity, and may the rest be humiliated in both realms.
O Muslims in Russia, it is true that we were born in Russia and grew up here, but the only Shari' (law) for us is the one brought by Prophet Muhammad (saw). People need Islam, not only Muslims. It is a trust placed by Allah to us and we must carry it to the worlds. We should carry Islam as Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his noble companions did, since the world lives in ignorance. And we do not have another Shar' just because we are in Russia, we must follow the path of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), and the great reward for those who follow the same path without seeing the Prophet (saw), and this is what the Messenger of Allah referred to by His (saw) saying:
«إنّ مِنْ وَرَائِكُمْ أَيَّامَ الصَّبْرِ لِلْمُتَمَسِّكِ فِيهِنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ بِمَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرُ خَمْسِينَ مِنْكُمْ»، قَالُوا: يَا نَبِيَّ اللَّهِ أَوَ مِنْهُمْ؟ قَالَ: «بَلْ مِنْكُم»
"Ahead of you are days of patience, for the one adhering to the deen in them the reward of fifty of you." They said, "O Prophet of Allah from them?" He said, "But from you."
O Muslims in Russia, what the Russian authorities perpetrate against our Deen is a major crime, which is not a new issue to the Muslim Ummah, and it is not the first time that the Ummah encounters such a difficulty. However, all these difficulties will disappear if we take the Prophet Muhammad (saw) as our example and work hard to please Allah Almighty,
((لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا))
"There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often" [Al-Ahzab: 21]
O Muslims in Russia, we have no choice but to follow our Deen comprehensively and look out for the interest of Islam and Muslims, we have no excuse before Allah (swt), if we do not guard Islam and adhere to it and call for it as the Prophet (saw) and his companions did. We cannot abandon the implementation of the Shariah law that we know, like the obligatory prayer, fasting, and covering the body (‘Awra) or the call to Islam. We cannot remain in degradation as Russia wishes, especially those of us who know the laws of the Deen, whether an imam or a layman whom Allah (swt) blessed with more knowledge than others. We have no choice but to follow the path of the Prophet and our righteous predecessors. We must learn and propagate Islam, and enjoin the good and forbid the evil, or we will be denied the victory of Allah (swt) and He (swt) will not answer our du'a (prayer), just as in the warning of our Prophet Muhammad (saw) to us when he said:
«والذي نفسي بيده لتأمرن بالمعروف ولتنهون عن المنكر أو ليوشكن الله عز وجل أن يبعث عليكم عذابا من عنده ثم تدعونه فلا يستجاب لكم»
"By the one whose my soul is in His Hand, you must enjoin the good and forbid the evil or Allah will send upon you a punishment, and you make du'a to Him but it will not be answered"..
O Patient Ummah in Russia, Allah does not accept evil for His believing slaves, but He (swt) is testing us and we must be patient of the trials by being patient in following the way of the Prophet (saw), and we must be united in this way, and care for those in need of care, Allah (swt) says:
((وَأَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَلَا تَنَازَعُوا فَتَفْشَلُوا وَتَذْهَبَ رِيحُكُمْ ۖ وَاصْبِرُوا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ))
"And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [then] your strength would depart; and be patient. Indeed, Allah is with the patient" [Al-Anfal: 46]
Following the path of the Prophet (saw) will lead us to the pleasure of Allah our Lord and His victory. This road will lead us to resume the Islamic way of life and will bring forward the day when the Ummah will rule by the Deen of Allah, and we hope that in one of the Muslim countries supporters will rise and establish the guided Khilafah "Caliphate" upon the method of Prophethood. And then the Khilafah "Caliphate" will protect the lives and values of Muslims everywhere, including Russia. Then, the light of Islam will return to dispel the darkness, and the Khilafah "Caliphate" will return as a beacon of justice sought by all the other nations. Allah (swt) says:
وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَىٰ لَهُمْ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْنًا ۚ يَعْبُدُونَنِي لَا يُشْرِكُونَ بِي شَيْئًا ۚ وَمَنْ كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
"Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that - then those are the defiantly disobedient" [An-Nur: 55]
US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights, Steven Feldstein, is visiting Sudan these days, and according to what was said by the official spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry Dr. Yousef Al-Kordofani, that the US official will meet with the Deputy Foreign Minister, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice, the Human Rights Rapporteur, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, the Head of the Press and Publications Council,
On Sunday, 02/22/2015, Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands held a seminar regarding the reality of Muslims in the Netherlands and what the Netherlands' government is doing from unfair arbitrary actions against Muslims.
Three talks were presented; the first titled "Islam and the Netherlands Government Politics," where the speaker addressed the severe actions taken by the Netherlands government against Muslims in which these procedures have increased in the recent period, leading some to question about whether the government has a problem with Islam, making it strive day and night to melt Muslims into Dutch society.
The second talk was delivered by Okay Pala, Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands, titled: "The methods used to melt the Muslims in Holland's society," and included a presentation of the means adopted by the government to change the Muslim identity by allowing them to participate in political life, causing Muslims to be entangled with the secular system and taking their solutions for their problems, and also how the government deceives Muslims inviting them to integrate with the fact that they are working assimilating them into society.
The third talk was titled, "The preservation of identity," where the speaker gave examples from the lives of the honorable companions, May Allah reward them in how they maintained their Islamic identity. For example the Sahabah Jaleel Abdullah bin Hudhafa which upheld his faith and his conversion to Islam, even when threatened by the Roman Caesar to throw him into the hot oil ... as the speaker called on the audience to cherish and preserve their Islamic identity whatever pressure they faced.
The seminar ended with a question and answer session. The link was made between today's problems faced by Muslims and the absence of the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah, and that the existence of the Khilafah "Caliphate" State on the method of the Prophethood will be the one to provide Muslims and non-Muslims with safety and security.
Deputy of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
In Europe
Picture Slideshow: Click Here
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Historically, Western colonial rulers constructed and widely propagated the narrative of women's subjugation under Islam to gain legitimacy for their occupation over Muslim lands as well as to undermine Islamic governance in order to maintain domination over the region and its resources. In modern times, Western politicians and government continue to use the rhetoric of ‘Women's Rights' and the rallying cry of ‘saving the Muslim woman' from the ‘oppression of the Shariah' as a tool to morally justify colonial interventions in the Muslim world, as well as to fight the global resurgence of Islam and the re-establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate", replicating the strategy of their forefathers.
The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq are recent examples where talk of women's rights and lies regarding the mistreatment of women under the Shariah were used by Western leaderships and their supporters to aid the moral case for war and to justify continuing occupations. They were also used to achieve their visions of modeling those countries along Western secular lines and away from Islamic governance. Laura Bush for example, the wife of the former US President George Bush, said in a radio address in 2001 at the beginning of the war on Afghanistan, "Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of punishment... the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women." Cherie Blair, the wife of previous British Prime Minister Tony Blair, voicing similar support for the intervention stated in 2001, "The women in Afghanistan are entitled, as women in every country are, to have the same hopes and aspirations as ourselves and our daughters: for good education, a career outside the home, if they want one; the right to health care, and, of course, most importantly, the right for their voices to be heard." These high profile Western women were joined in chorus by various feminist groups in support of the war, including the prominent US feminist organization founded by Eleanor Smeal, ‘Feminist Majority' who ran an intensive campaign against what they viewed as the barbaric mistreatment of Afghan women under Shariah laws. The group's actions have been described by many as having played an integral part in garnering widespread support for the ‘War on Terror'. Indeed, the US social anthropologists Saba Mahmood and Charles Hirschkind noted that the relationship between the neoconservative Bush administration and some US feminists was reciprocal and intimate. They said, "By the time the war started, feminists like [Eleanor] Smeal could be found cozily chatting with the general about their shared enthusiasm for Operation Enduring Freedom and the possibility of women pilots commandeering F-16s."
However, such organizations, individuals, or even institutions such as the UN that also gave its backing to the invasion notably expressed little concern for the crippling affect that sanctions imposed on Afghanistan under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 had had on the country's women preceding the war; OR that countless lives of Afghan women and their families and children were likely be lost in this venture; OR that Western governments were supporting the Northern Alliance into power in the country - a gang of warlords who had a notorious record of rape and abuse of women; OR the fact that Western bombing of Afghanistan that was in the midst of a 3 year drought would put the country's women at greater risk of starvation due to impeding the delivery of food aid. All of which illustrated a lack of genuine concern for the wellbeing of Afghanistan's women, as did the hellish conditions created as a consequence of the occupation which led to the deaths, injury and displacement of tens of thousands of Afghan women and created a lawless society with spiralling levels of abductions, rape, and violence against women. According to the UN, 5000 people were killed in the first 6 months of 2014 alone, and deaths and injuries to women and children caused by improvised explosive devises increased by 38% in the first half of 2013. And there are now 1.5 million war widows in the country.
Additionally, as with colonial rule of the Muslim world historically, the living conditions of women in Afghanistan failed to improve as a result of this modern-day colonial intervention. In fact in many cases they deteriorated. Today, 36% of Afghans live in extreme poverty, 8.5 million people, or 37% of the population are on the borderline of food insecurity, and there has been a rise in women setting themselves on fire due to financial desperation. One woman dies every two hours in the country due to maternal deaths resulting from a pitiful healthcare system, and there is only a 12% female literacy rate. All this has been accompanied by high levels of non-Islamic practices such as forced marriages and honour killings that have been allowed to flourish under a Western-inspired secular regime and system. This is the true lasting legacy for Afghan women of 13 years of Western colonial policies in the country, where talk of women's rights has been nothing but a smokescreen to hide ulterior colonial political motives in the region.
Despite all this, over a decade after the beginning of the war, Western politicians absurdly continued to argue that Western intervention in Afghanistan had improved the lives of its women, while also shamelessly exploiting talk of Afghan women's rights to justify continued occupation of the country. In November 2013, at a time when the US was attempting to convince both the American and Afghan public of the need for some US combat forces to remain in the country, both John Kerry, US Secretary of State and Hiliary Clinton, former US Secretary of State, were also arguing intently that the US needed to remain engaged in the fight for women's rights in Afghanistan, warning about the dangers to Afghan women following the withdrawal of US troops from the country in 2014. John Kerry, in his address at Georgetown claimed that Afghan women and girls had made great progress since 2001, enjoying greater access to education and healthcare. He said, "As Afghanistan sees women standing up in Afghanistan, taking control of their country's future, not only for themselves, but for all Afghans, we have to be determined that they will not stand alone. America will stand up with them as they shape a strong and united Afghanistan that secures a rightful place in the community of nations." Hiliary Clinton stated,"...we are well aware this is a serious turning point for all the people of Afghanistan, but in particular the hard-fought gains that women and children have been able to enjoy." This was despite the nightmare that the presence of US troops had caused for Afghanistan's women for over a decade. All this demonstrates that as with the West's historical precedence, feminist rhetoric and campaigns in relation to the Muslim world continue to be employed by modern-day Western-secular governments for nothing but colonial ends.
When the War on Terror moved to Iraq, Western leaders once again employed the language of feminism and apparent concern for the rights of Iraqi women to justify bombing the country. President Bush for example on International Women's Day in 2004, nearly a year after the invasion began, addressed 250 women from around the world who had gathered at the White House, saying, "The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable." The president claimed that "the advance of freedom in the greater Middle East has given new rights and new hopes to women there". In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair fear-mongering against Islamic rule in order to justify continuing British occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq stated, "They demand...the establishment of effectively Taleban states and Shariah law in the Arab world en route to one caliphate of all Muslim nations. We don't have to wonder what type of country those states would be...Girls put out of school. Women denied even rudimentary rights....All of it justified by reference to religious faith."
However, as with Afghanistan such ‘concern' for the rights of Iraqi women amongst Western leaders and governments was notably absent with regards to the debilitating impact that 13 years of UN sanctions had had on the country's women and their families. These sanctions had led to high levels of malnutrition, widespread diseases, crippling of the healthcare system in the country, deterioration of women's education due to the declining economic situation, and hundreds of thousands of deaths amongst children.
As part of the war effort, the US and British governments also actively funded, established, and supported a number of Iraqi feminist groups. For example, at a press conference two weeks before the invasion of Iraq, the then Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky stated, "We are at a critical point in dealing with Saddam Hussein. However this turns out, it is clear that the women of Iraq have a critical role to play in the future revival of their society." Next to her were members of ‘Women for a Free Iraq'', a group comprised of exiled Iraqi women and formed in January 2003 to raise awareness of women's persecution under Saddam Hussein. The movement received funding from the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies whose president, Clifford May was a former Republican Party operative and whose board was filled with prominent neoconservatives. The US State Department also publicized the abuses women suffered under the Saddam regime, while in the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office included the regime's crimes against women in its dossier on human rights abuses in Iraq. Additionally, Western governments aided the organization of numerous workshops, seminars, conferences, and training programs for women on democracy and human rights, especially in the initial period after the invasion. In 2003, the US allocated $27million for women's programmes to be utilised in part for national women's conferences and to support newly formed women's organisations that both supported the colonial intervention in the country as well as promoted an understanding of "women's rights" from a secular standpoint amongst Iraqi women. Many of these groups worked actively to ensure that the way forward for Iraq was through a secular constitution and that Islam was kept away from the state, reflecting the modern-day marriage between feminism and colonialism in the Muslim world.
However, despite all this talk of women's rights, the women of Iraq as with Afghan women paid a heavy price for Western intervention in the country. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives, their families and their homes. Their society spiraled into an abyss of chaos, violence, and lawlessness leading to high numbers of abductions, rapes, and murders. 9.5 million of Iraq's population now live below the poverty line with poverty rates increasing even further. And thousands of innocent Iraqi women have been abused, tortured or imprisoned by security forces of the Western supported secular regime to extract information from them regarding male relatives who were suspected to be insurgents. All this reveals once again that Western politicians and administrations held no sincere concern for the wellbeing of Iraqi women but rather exploited the language of feminism to secure their political and oil interests in the country.
Conclusion
There has therefore been a long marriage between feminism and colonialism in the Muslim world that is very much alive and strong today. Western governments utilized women's rights and feminist ideals simply to pursue and further their colonial interests in the region. This included a goal of secularising systems and the culture of the people through eroding their Islamic beliefs, as well as fighting the resurgence of Islam within Muslim societies - all to strengthen their colonial foothold in the region.
All talk and initiatives by such governments towards women in the Muslim lands therefore holds no true concern for the happiness or wellbeing of Muslim women, nor will they bring anything positive to their lives. This is illustrated further by the intimate relationship that current Western governments have with secular and other non-Islamic dictatorships in the Muslim world which unashamedly oppress their women and rob them of basic rights but do the bidding of their Western masters. Hence, feminist initiatives and agendas at play in the Muslim world, whether promoted by women's organizations, secular regimes, or institutions such as the UN simply aid the realization of colonial plans and strengthens their control over the politics and economics of Muslim societies. This includes the imposition of international women's treaties such as CEDAW in our lands, the enshrining of the Western feminist ideal of gender equality in constitutions, the support of secular personal status codes as well as the promotion of the non-Islamic concept of ‘Islamic Feminism'.
Furthermore, the colonial lies regarding the oppression of women under the Shariah of the Khilafah "Caliphate" continues to be replicated by successive generations of Western leaderships and politicians, generating hatred and fear amongst their public and even Muslims towards Islamic rule. They also provide them justification for continued and future interventions in the Muslim world. The ideals of feminism must therefore be rejected as firmly as the concept of colonialism in our Muslim lands is fought against. Furthermore, the outdated historical narrative of women's subjugation under the Islamic governance of the Khilafah "Caliphate", which has its roots in a colonial agenda to dominate the Muslim world and rob it of its resources, should be discarded into the dustbin of history.
((يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطۡفِـُٔواْ نُورَ ٱللَّهِ بِأَفۡوَٲهِهِمۡ وَيَأۡبَى ٱللَّهُ إِلَّآ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ ۥ وَلَوۡ ڪَرِهَ ٱلۡكَـٰفِرُونَ))
"They (the disbelievers) want to extinguish Allah's Light with their mouths, but Allah will not allow except His Light should be perfected even though the Kafirun (disbelievers) hate it." [TMQ At-Taubah: 32]
Written for The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Part 1: A Historical Perspective: Click Here
