On Wednesday 11th February 2015, the Women's Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir launched an extensive global campaign entitled, "Women and Shariah: Separating Fact from Fiction" which will culminate in a momentous international women's conference on March 28, 2015, by the will of Allah.

Anyone who has followed the American policy against the blessed Ash-Sham revolution sees clearly that it follows several methods to contain it leaving it bankrupt of purpose; through the policy of flooding political dirty money to control the decisions of the factions and distract them with side battles, and the policy of subjugation against the Muslims in Ash-Sham by giving the green light to its criminal agent, Bashar, to use all kinds of weapons and put restrictions on those displaced in the camps, to the infighting policy between factions operating on the ground to distract them from the primary purpose and to drain their combating, material, and military energy, and to ease pressure on its criminal agent, Bashar. America has created this fighting through an atmosphere of division, and made it a followed policy by entering the Mujahideen in a maze of classifications between Kharijites and apostates and "Awakening" movement and transgressors against the state, (Baghi). It also worked on the division between the Mujahideen: those belonging to Islamist and those belonging to the Free Army, and between moderates and extremists. We regret that some Mujahideen have drifted with these words, forgetting that we are all Muslims, and we share one belief, the doctrine of La Ilaha Ila Allah Muhammad Rasool Allah (There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) and that our enemy is this criminal regime backed by the Kaffir West, which works hard to disunite and strike the Mujahideen through each other, as what took place in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the result in both cases was a great loss to the Islamic Ummah against the cunning West and its aides, though if the Mujahideen realized the seriousness of the plot then, some of them would not have sought to reap the fruits immaturely, and face other factions; When this fragmentation took place, which prolonged the oppressive regime, thus prolonging the suffering of Muslims in Ash-Sham. As we demonstrate this fact, we hold all factions fully responsible before Allah (swt) for every drop of bloodshed by the hands of the sons of this Ummah, which have only sacrificed their loved ones but to fight the tyrant of this age, and to live with dignity and pride under the guided Khilafah "Caliphate" on the method of Prophethood, the law of the Lord of mankind, which is the glad-tiding of the Messenger of Allah (saw), and not for the killing of its sons at the hands of its brothers under any pretext.

O scholars in the land of Ash-Sham:

Allah (swt) has praised the scholars by His (swt) saying,

((إِنَّمَا يَخْشَى اللَّهَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ الْعُلَمَاءُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ غَفُورٌ))

"Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Forgiving" [Fatir: 28]

This is a great responsibility Allah (swt) has entrusted in them, so strive to unite your ranks, and remove Muslims from division and fighting, and prevent every effort leading to it.

O Muslims in Ash-Sham the Abode of Islam:

It is your duty, now that you see the West has united against you, to meet your responsibility before Allah (swt), and to support your sons who are deceived by these classifications and drifted behind them, and to stand boldly in the face of any attempt that will involve them in fighting that is not theirs, fighting only make the matter worse, and will add more suffering to the revolution.

O soldiers stationed in Ash-Sham of Dignity:

We know that Shariah has firmly laid down the limits of Jihad; do not allow the killing between you, your blood is sacred like the sanctity of the house of Allah, and Muhammad (saw) that you declared as your leader said:,

«لهدم الكعبة مائة مرة أهون على الله من إراقة دم مسلم»

"The destruction of the Ka'ba one hundred times is to Allah lesser than the spilling of Muslim blood"

So beware before you are inflicted with a calamity like your predecessors, and know that you will stand before Allah, the Avenger and Compeller

((يَوْمَ لَا يَنْفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ * إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ))

"The Day when there will not benefit [anyone] wealth or children * But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart" [Ash-Shu'ara: 88-89]

((هَذَا بَلَاغٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَلِيُنْذَرُوا بِهِ وَلِيَعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ وَلِيَذَّكَّرَ أُولُو الْأَلْبَاب))

"This [Qur'an] is notification for the people that they may be warned thereby and that they may know that He is but one God and that those of understanding will be reminded" [Ibrahim: 52]

Ahmad Abdul Wahab

Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

Wilayah of Syria

News:

Lately, President Obama has come under severe criticism from fellow Republicans for not labelling the war on terror as a war against Islam. If there is one thing top Republicans know, it's that America can't defeat terrorism unless we call it by its real name. Republican believe that by doing so they will have the moral clarity to fight and defeat Islam.

Comment:

In Washington, there is a growing chorus of Republican politicians calling upon the Obama administration to change its stance on fighting terrorism by changing the name of the war. "We are in a religious war with radical Islamists," Lindsey Graham recently told Fox News. "When I hear the President of the United States and his chief spokesperson failing to admit that we're in a religious war, it really bothers me." Rudy Giuliani agrees, "If we can't use the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism,' we can't get rid of them." So does Ted Cruz. At the Iowa Freedom Summit in January he declared that, "You cannot fight and win a war on radical Islamic terrorism if you're unwilling to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.'"

The Republicans' stance has little to do with ideology and more to do with the sea change of public opinion that is sweeping the Muslim world and hardening American attitudes at home. Muslims identify more with political Islam than with secular liberalism as a way of organizing affairs. For instance a Pew study done in 2013, asked Muslims from 23 countries across Southeastern Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, their views on Sharia. The study found that "in 17 of the 23 countries where the question was asked, at least half of Muslims say sharia is the revealed word of God." The top four in this group were Pakistan, where 81% believe this, Jordan that tied with Pakistan, and Egypt and the Palestinian territories, each with 75%.

Such trends are forcing the Republican Party to become more aggressive in its criticism of Obama in the run up to the 2016 US presidential. This is especially so, given that domestically American attitudes against Muslims have also hardened. According to Zogby's Arab American Institute, which has been polling Americans on their views of religious and ethnic groups since the 1990's, Americans' dislike of Arabs and Muslims skyrocketed after 9/11 and has hardly budged since. Unfavorable ratings for Muslims have declined from a peak of 55 percent in 2010 to 45 percent in July, but at the same time, favorable ratings have plunged, from 41 percent in 2012 to 27 percent in 2014. Hence, Republicans want to harden their view towards Islam in a bid to win over non-Republican constituents who believe that Obama and the Democratic Party is failing in its war against Islam.

However, away from American shores, Muslims in the Islamic world view American wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, the present bombing campaigns in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere as nothing less than war against Islam.

Therefore, the narrative of ‘Clash of Civilization' as espoused by Samuel Huntington is quickly becoming outdated and is being replaced by the narrative of ‘War of Civilizations'. In the coming months this view will mostly likely become entrenched in the Western minds. As for the Muslim world, it needs to adequately prepare for this war by establishing a true Islamic State that not only represents its interests, but is capable of unifying and defending Muslims from her enemies. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said,

«إنما الإمام جنة يقاتل من ورائه ويتقى به» "The Imam is the shield behind which people fight and are protected." The onus is on Muslims to establish the rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate" State to repel Western interference in Islamic lands.
Allah (swt) says:

((إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا))

"Surely, Shaytan is an enemy to you, so take (treat) him as an enemy." [TMQ: Fatir: 6]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Abdul Majeed