Headlines

• UK Politician Lord Hodgson Blames Muslims for Decline of Pub Industry

• British Muslims Face Worst Job Discrimination of Any Group, Research Finds

• Pakistan Trench along Afghan Border Enrages Kabul

• Enemy Lives Within us and Looks like us, Says Pakistani Army Chief

Details

UK Politician Lord Hodgson Blames Muslims for Decline of Pub Industry

A Conservative peer - also a former brewery boss - has been labelled "ridiculous" for blaming Britain's Muslim community for the collapse in pub numbers. During a House of Lords debate, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, who was a director of Marston's Brewery in Burton Upon Trent for 12 years, said that "socio-economic factors", including a growing number of teetotal Muslims, were more responsible for dwindling pub number than "rapacious" pub chains. Speaking in defense of the major pub chains, the former MP said: "In areas of Nottingham, Leicester, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham the increase in the Muslim population who don't drink leads to many pub closures. It is exceptionally hard for a publican who has put 10 years of his life into trying to build up a business to accept the inevitability of these tides of history. Lord Hodgson told the Independent that his critics were being "slightly over sensitive" and that his speech listed many different reasons why British pubs were in decline, including issues over business rates, the "de-industrialization of Britain", tougher licensing laws and the influx of cheap alcohol from supermarkets. He said, "This is not a criticism of Muslims. I thought nearly all Muslims don't drink, but maybe some do. And my speech referred to many serious problems for pubs." [Source: The Independent]

Muslims only number 3 million, while the population of Britain is circa 60 million. So the decline in public drinking houses has got nothing to do with Muslims, but government laws which have made alcohol accessible to everyone through supermarkets and similar shops - even kids can buy cheap alcohol. Rather than address the alcohol fuelled debauchery which is on the increase, UK politicians have nothing better to do than blame Muslims for all the ills in British society.

British Muslims Face Worst Job Discrimination of Any Group, Research Finds

Muslims experience the worst discrimination of any other minority group in the UK when it comes to job prospects, new research has found. The research, revealed by The Independent, found that Muslims are seen by employers as "disloyal and threatening" which results in followers of Islam being far less likely to be employed than Christians. Muslim men are up to 76% less likely to have jobs than white British Christian men of the same age, with the same qualifications. Muslim women were also up to 65 per cent less likely to be employed than their white Christian counterparts, according to the report from Dr Nabil Khattab and Professor Ron Johnston from the University of Bristol. Muslim men and women were also less likely to have a role at managerial level. The research drew on data from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey, which covered more than half a million people. Studying 14 ethnic and religious groups, it concluded that while skin colour made little difference to whether people were hired or not, Muslims were the most disadvantaged group. White British Christians suffered the least employment discrimination, according to the report, except for British Jews, who appeared to fare best in the job market. Jewish women were 29% more likely to be in work than their British while Christian peers, and men 15% more likely than white Christian counterparts. White atheists British men and women were 20 and 25 per cent less likely respectively to have a job than Christians. [Source: Huffington Post]
Allah (swt) says in the Quran:

((قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاء مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الآيَاتِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ))

"Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater. We have certainly made clear to you the signs, if you will use reason." [TMQ Ali- Imran: 118]

Pakistan Trench along Afghan Border Enrages Kabul

In the dusty badlands along its disputed border with Afghanistan, Pakistan is carving out a massive trench to keep out separatists, smugglers and militants in an attempt to bring order to a lawless, tribal region. But like the Berlin Wall or Israel's West Bank barrier, the planned 485-kilometer (300-mile) trench is giving physical form to a border that locals have long seen as artificial, dividing families and crippling trade. And it is adding to simmering tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, US allies which have long accused each other of turning a blind eye to insurgents. The trench runs along part of the 2,640-kilometer (2,640-mile) Durand Line, named for British diplomat Mortimer Durand, who drew the now internationally recognized border in an agreement with Afghan ruler Abdur Raham Khan in 1893. But the modern Afghan government has never accepted the border, and neither have the mainly tribal communities that straddle it. They are accustomed to moving back and forth freely and in some cases own land on both sides. The trench is being built in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, where Baluch rebels have been battling Islamabad for decades, demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of the region's oil, gas, copper and gold. It's an eye-sore of construction; a massive furrow 10 feet (three meters) wide and 8 feet (2.4 meters) deep that already snakes 180 kilometers (110 miles) across the desert landscape. Pakistan's Frontier Corps said in a recent statement that the trench would "not only help in effectively controlling the movement of drug and arms and ammunition smugglers, but also will help in stopping the intrusion of terrorists and illegal immigrants." Pakistan fears that arms could make their way to any number of insurgent groups, including the Taliban. But Kabul sees the trench as the latest move in a new incarnation of the colonial-era Great Game, in which Pakistan hopes to destabilize its neighbor to extend its regional influence. It already considers Pakistan as the source of the Taliban insurgency it has been battling with US and NATO support for the past 13 years. "The people here have never accepted the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the first place," said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the police chief of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, which borders Baluchistan. "Pakistan is not doing anything to stop terrorism. If they want to stop it, they should stop producing it," said Raziq, who has long had a reputation for ruthlessness in battling the Taliban. "This trench is simply to draw a border with Afghanistan and claim our land as their own," he said. Pakistan insists it is committed to fighting extremist groups and points to a massive offensive it launched in the tribal region of North Waziristan along the Afghan border over the summer. [Source: ABC News]

The border is a source of perpetual misery for both Afghans and Pakistanis. Rather than waste valuable resources quarrelling each other, the correct thing to do is shed the cloak of nationalism left by the British by breaking down the artificial border and living as brothers side by side. Allah (swt) says:

وَاعْتَصِمُواْ بِحَبْلِ اللّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلاَ تَفَرَّقُواْ وَاذْكُرُواْ نِعْمَةَ اللّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنتُمْ أَعْدَاء فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُم بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا وَكُنتُمْ عَلَىَ شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِّنَ النَّارِ فَأَنقَذَكُم مِّنْهَا كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ

"And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided." [Ali-Imran: 103]

Enemy Lives Within us and Looks like us, says Pakistani Army Chief

Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif has said that security does not refer only to external threats but is a concern in terms of politics, human rights, economy, water security, terrorism and insurgency. Gen Sharif, who was the chief guest at a conference (Industry Summit) organized by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute in a hotel in Karachi on Thursday. He said Pakistan's current enemy "lives within us and looks like us", adding that the definition of security had changed with the passage of time.

He said that because of increased polarisation, governments were unable to protect their people and national security. "In contemporary geopolitics, the battles are no longer between state and non-state actors but are with supra-individuals, those individuals who exploit both the national and international space for their desired objectives. These supra-individuals have the capacity to manipulate networks, organizations and state institutions to create waves of instability and create discord at the centre of the state institutions. Explosions are still a viable tool of war, but implosions are the new defeat mechanisms," he said. [Source: Dawn News]

General Sharif is wasting no time in hammering home the point that Pakistan must focus on internal security threats. Sharif's stance is in line with Kayani's doctrine or more accurately put; America's new doctrine for Pakistan, which stipulates that Pakistan must focus on internal issues and make peace with India. America sole focus is to make India its principal agent in the region. This means that Pakistan's military capability must be reduced and her armed forces redeployed from the border with India to maintaining internal peace. This is indeed dangerous, and if Sharif is not stopped, he will soon advocate a substantial reduction in Pakistani troops.

News:

On 30^th November 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to halt illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Assam, saying they were "destroying" the northeastern state. Modi, whose right-wing Hindu nationalist party stormed to power at May elections, said, "Bangladeshis are entering Assam every day and destroying the state... I will make an arrangement by way of which all the routes used by them to enter Assam are closed," he promised in the state's main city of Guwahati. Tensions have been high in recent years in Assam. More than 40 people including women and children were slaughtered in May this year by Indian tribal separatists called Bodos. Modi promised that his government would permanently resolve the illegal immigration issue by securing a long-pending land swap agreement with Bangladesh. "When we execute the land swap deal it might look like a loss for Assam, but in the long run Assam will gain by the deal," he said."We are not going to compromise the interests of Assam." India and Bangladesh have for years been trying to resolve their land border disputes, including settling the future of 162 enclaves - small pockets of one country's territory surrounded by that of the other. More than 50,000 people live in the enclaves, cut off from their respective governments and without access to many basic services.

Comment:

The land disputes between India and Bangladesh date back to the division of sub-continent by the British occupiers in August 1947 when parts of Bangladesh, then known as East Pakistan, were deliberately given to India or such enclaves were created to keep the tensions ripe between the two countries. Muslims in both India and Bangladesh are facing the brunt of the inhumane conditions of living in their areas. However, the severe poverty in Bangladesh has forced many Muslim families to migrate to India in search of a better future. Least they know that the same bloodsucking Capitalism is being implemented in India, which has caused the last piece of bread to be snatched from their mouths in Bangladesh. The fear of death and persecution is an added factor to their woes in India. Under the rotten ideology of Capitalism the concept of nation-state was built and propagated, which is based on its theory of national interest preceding over any other objective, be it security and well being of an ethnic or religious minority. Unless the immigrants have legally crossed into the borders of a nation state, they are not entitled to even basic human rights. They are either jailed, put in inhuman conditions or pushed back to their country of origin. In this process their death is considered an ordinary matter. Bangladesh and neighboring Pakistan also implement the Nation-State theory and consider the border to be sacred than human lives and the value of life is nothing in the eyes of their respective governments compared to their so-called ‘national interest'.

There can be no solution of this immigration problem under the Secular and Liberal Capitalism. This problem is resolved by Islam which ruled over the world under the state of Khilafah "Caliphate" for more than 1300 years. As Khilafah "Caliphate" state implemented the laws of Allah (swt) that ensure the provision of basic rights like food, clothing, shelter, health and education to all its citizens without discrimination of ethnicity and religion. No one ever even wished to leave the premises of Khilafah "Caliphate" State as it provided the best living conditions. Also Khilafah "Caliphate" is not a nation state, because Islam does not believe in borders being sacred which the Muslim armies can not cross. The Muslim Ummah being one body, Khilafah "Caliphate" is obliged to extend help and protection as much as possible to the Muslims living outside its frontiers. That is because Allah (swt) said:

((إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ))

"The believers are nothing else than brothers" [TMQ 49:10].

The Messenger of Allah said:

«إِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْإِيمَانِ بِمَنْزِلَةِ الرَّأْسِ مِنْ الْجَسَدِ يَأْلَمُ الْمُؤْمِنُ لِأَهْلِ الْإِيمَانِ كَمَا يَأْلَمُ الْجَسَدُ لِمَا فِي الرَّأْسِ»

"Verily, the believer in relation to the people of faith is like the head of the body. The believer feels pain with the people of faith just as the body feels pain with its head." (Musnad Ahmad 22370)

Therefore, only the second Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashida will open its borders for the Muslims of the whole world and provide physical and armed help to the oppressed Muslims across the world under the foreign policy of Dawah and Jihad, removing the obstacles in the way of Islam and liberating the occupied Muslim territories like India. As according to the laws of Islam, it is an Islamic land that was ruled under Islam for 1000 years and still needs to be liberated and returned back to the fold of Islam. Only then the lives of Muslim men, women and children can be secured.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Umm Musab

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

Al Baji, leader of Al Sibsi, announced after the results of the first round of presidential elections that most of the voters who voted for his political opponents are "extremists and terrorists", and by that accusing hundreds of thousands from the people of Tunisia with extremism and terrorism to spite

News:

The Italian Alitalia charter plane carrying the Pope, the spiritual leader of the Catholic world, and his accompanying delegation arrived at 12.50 a.m. at Ankara Esenboga Airport. Pope Francis arrived at the Presidential Palace. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the Pope at the door. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pope Francis had their meeting in the Presidential Palace. In his speech, criticizing the West with regards to Syria and Palestine, Erdogan said the following: "We held a very productive meeting. There is hardly any issue we have different views on. Our view on terror, and fight against terror is the same. Our view on violence, and on the sovereignty of money is the same. I really consider the visit of our honourable guest to Turkey as very important. I believe it is a very important step in contributing to increasing the hopes of peace in our region and across the world. I believe that the messages that will be given from Turkey today, will not only reach Turkey and the Vatican, but the whole Muslim world and the whole christian world, and will find an echo that will increase the peace prospects. This picture that comes into existence in Ankara today, is undoubtedly a picture of hope for the world." (http://wap.ntvmsnbc.com/Haber/Goster/25552965)

Comment:

That the Western and US media and international community had presented Turkey with regards to the recent events in Syria and Iraq in association with IS and as if supporting jihadist Selefi groups; have played an active role in inviting the pontiff to Turkey. Additionally presenting especially President Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as if they would have turned their backs to the European Union and Western countries, were effective on this visit. For this reason Turkey wanted to break this perception and demonstrate that its relations to the West are still maintained, that it is still in line with the West with regards to the interfaith dialogue and the civilizations alliance issues, and that it declared jihadist groups as terrorist groups just like the US and the West. In short, Turkey virtually has planned and implemented such a visit in order to endear itself to the West.

However, as a blessing of Allah (swt), this visit has unveiled President Erdogan's hypocrisy in a clear and distinct manner. Just two days before the Pope's visit, President Erdogan made the following remarks at a meeting: "Foreigners love the oil, gold and diamonds of the Islamic world. They love the cheap labor, the conflicts, fights, and disputes among them. Believe me, they do not like us. They love seeing our children die. How much longer will we stand that fact?" Only two days later; Erdogan who threw around with those words showered praise on this man who is the successor of the Pope who bathed the Islamic lands in blood through his crusaders; and installed holiness on him.

The dimension of the betrayel in his statements after the meeting with the Pope of having the same thoughts on the fight against terror and many other subjects, is hardly to explain. The same Erdogan, who complained about the West and the Western colonialism while looking straight into the eyes of the people a few days ago, is now speaking highly of the Pope. He expressly emphasizes that there are no differences in any issue between him and the Pope. Since when are the leaders of the Muslim countries seeking to design the jihadist groups which they consider as "Islamist terrorism"? Demanding a solution for the problems on the soils of Syria and Iraq and alike, is testifying incompetence and improvidence. Embracing and calling one a fellow, whom you called an enemy two days ago; is the clear evidence of hypocrisy.

Written for the Central Media Offic of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Mahmut KAR