News

In recent days, many media have once again focussed attention on the worsening plight of Muslims in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which has been besieged by the forces of the merciless Syrian regime for the last six months who have prevented food, medicines, or fuel from reaching its residents. The consequence has been severe malnutrition and starvation amongst its people, resulting in many deaths, including of women and children. The current state of the camp has been described by one journalist as resembling a ‘World War 2 ghetto', and its 20,000 Muslim men, women, and children now face the prospect of a slow death from hunger. Other towns of the country face the same plight, including in Moadamiya that has been under a one year siege by the regime, resulting in the deaths of many children from starvation. It has become known as ‘the town of the starving'. Women and children rummage through garbage to find scraps of food to survive the day, but even then find nothing to sustain them. Amnesty International recently published a first-hand account from one of its residents who said, "Moadamiya's children have learnt to differentiate between the flavours of different tree leaves - bitter, sweet or sour - in the same way children in other parts of the world differentiate between the flavour of pizza and meat slices with gravy and the taste of chocolate from crisp biscuits." Pictures of emaciated bodies of young infants are rife on social media. Activists in the town describe children who just before dying cry and beg their mothers for food but their mothers are only able to watch helplessly. All this is an evolving genocide to add to the 130,000 who have already been killed in this brutal war.

Comment

While the conscienceless Assad regime uses starvation as a weapon of war against thousands of innocent Muslim women and children, the despicable rulers and governments of the Muslim world have been engaging in and squandering millions of dollars of the Ummah's wealth in Christmas and New Year celebrations, rather than mobilising and financing the Muslim armies to liberate Syria's Muslims from their horrific ordeal. Dubai burnt $6 million worth of the Ummah's wealth in a huge New Year Day's fireworks display; in Abu Dhabi, a jewel-encrusted Christmas tree worth $11 million was put on display; and on New Year's Eve, a Western female singer was reportedly paid $1.5 million to perform in a private celebration for the son of the Sultan of Brunei. Furthermore, representatives from the Arab League, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, the UAE, and Iraq are to attend the Geneva 2 Conference on January 22nd that seeks to establish an agreement between the murderous Syrian dictatorship and the opposition. This will include the creation of a transitional government that will undoubtedly lead to the installing of the next Karzai-Maliki puppet ruler and regime that will implement a Western secular system and serve the selfish interests of its Western masters, at the expense of the people. The regimes of the Muslim world are therefore accomplices in a confederation of conspirators that seeks to steal and derail the sincere revolution of the Syrian Muslims who have paid a heavy cost and sacrificed their pure blood and that of their families in order to replace a secular dictatorship with guardianship under the rule of Islam and the Khilafah "Caliphate". Truly, the betrayal of the rulers of the Muslim world is beyond criminal and knows no bounds!

They have not one iota of shame or humanity. It is high time that they be placed in the dustbin of history and replaced by a sincere ruler who embodies Islam and will be a shade to the oppressed.

O Dear Sisters of Syria who inspire us with your courage, patience, and strength of iman! Your horrific plight tears our hearts apart. We cannot sleep for the pain we feel over your unbearable suffering. A deep sense of fear consumes us over the heavy accounting from our Rabb if we have been neglectful of our great responsibility to lift you from your oppression. We say to you that your brothers and sisters in Hizb ut Tahrir work tirelessly, day and night to establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" state with urgency, the shield and protector of the Muslims that will bring your oppressors to their knees and end your nightmare. O dear sisters, stay sincere and steadfast to your revolution for Islam, and reject Geneva 2 and any other Kufr-inspired solutions for the future of Al-Sham that seek to usurp and crush your Islamic aspirations for your land. Know that your struggle for the Khilafah "Caliphate" has inspired your Ummah the world over and by the Will of Allah (swt), the victory that you seek is near.

O Sincere Sons of the Muslim Armies! How can you bear to witness this genocide against your brothers and sisters in silence? How will you answer to your Lord for the negligence in protecting their lives? Rise to your Islamic duty of uprooting this dictatorship now and defending your Ummah! Sever your allegiance to your cowardly leaderships who have forsaken the Muslims and your Deen, chained you down while your brothers and sisters bleed, and conspired with Western governments to crush the Islamic uprising in Syria. Give victory to your Deen by giving your Nusrah (material support) to Hizb ut Tahrir urgently to establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" that will mobilise you without hesitation or delay to protect the blood of this Ummah and liberate it from its oppressors.

«‏إِنَّمَا الْإِمَامُ ‏‏جُنَّةٌ ‏ ‏يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ»

"Indeed the Imam (Khalifah) is a shield from behind whom (one) would fight and one would protect oneself".

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

Sheikh Abu Talha explains the concept of unity among Muslims and having Islamic groups does not mean disunity among Muslims.

On January 2, corresponding to the first of Rabii' al-Awwal 1435 AH, an article was published in your newspaper by al-Ustaadh Babakir Faysal entitled ‘Nationalism is the Cure' (Issue No. 2882). After having reviewing the article which criticizes Hizb ut Tahrir's press release (published on the 15th of December, corresponding to the 12th of Safar 1435 AH) entitled; ‘Nationalism is a Cure which in Reality is a Disease and Islam is a Cure for the Disease of Tribalism and Regionalism'. 

It is plain to see that the Muslim woman today bears the brunt of the attack on Islam! The Capitalist West spares no effort in attacking and vilifying the Islamic rulings related to women, such as the dress code, under the guise of "liberating the oppressed Muslim woman". Indeed, the West has defined women's freedom as being able to appear semi-nude in public. So here in the Western countries, we see the call for women's freedom and human rights for what it is: a call to exploit women. Who doesn't see that this call to expose one's nakedness is only directed at - and only answered by - women? It is a call to reduce women into sex objects that solely exist as "eye candy" for men to enjoy.

Globally, the shallowness of these calls is evident when we see our sister's labour being exploited to manufacture products for the Capitalist elite, while her family and children- the future of the nation- are left neglected. In Jakarta (Indonesia), more than 90% of labourers in factories are women and 90% of them are not allowed the right to breastfeed their babies, resulting in malnutrition. And in Bangladesh, women constitute 80% of the garment factory workforce, which is a $19 billion-a-year industry. Simply to provide the bare necessities of life, these women toil in appalling conditions, made public by the recent Rana Plaza tragedy where over a 1,000 people were killed when the factory collapsed due to lax safety standards. Is this the "empowerment through employment" that the Capitalist states offer our sisters? Do they only offer freedom from modesty and not freedom from economic misery?

This outrageous situation continues with the blessing and full participation of the Muslim rulers who have sold this Ummah to the highest bidder while slavishly dancing to the tune of their western masters. Although it is the Capitalist elite who are ultimately behind this system, it is the Muslim rulers who, for a measly commission, facilitate this shameless situation of the enslavement and exploitation of our brothers and sisters by foreign corporations. The Capitalist system's free market economy has created a modern day slave market of women in the Muslim lands where our sisters are forced to work in horrendous conditions for next to nothing.

The only solution to this tragedy is to sever economic ties with Capitalist economic institutions and corporations by implementing the Islamic economic system under the umbrella of the Khilafah "Caliphate" State (the ruling system of Islam). This will restore the natural and Islamic role of the woman, which is nurturing the next generation of leaders of the Islamic society, while fulfilling her other duties as an active citizen of the state, such as enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, accounting the rulers, and propagating Islam. The Islamic history is teeming with examples of Muslim women who shouldered this political role by taking care of the affairs of the Ummah, such as:

• Nusaybah bint Ka'ab (ra) and Asma bint Amr (ra) who were in the delegation that gave the Second Pledge at Aqabah to RasulAllah (saw), which paved the way for RasulAllah (saw) to establish the Islamic State in Madinah.

• A common woman who publically accounted the ruler (Umar (ra)) for restricting the mahr (dowry).

• Fatima bint Qays (ra), a Sahabiyyah and great scholar, who was consulted on the nomination of Umar's (ra) successor

• Nafisa bint Hassan (rh) who taught Imam Shafi (rh) and was so heavily involved in the politics of the society that when people had disputes with the ruler of Egypt, they would go to her to resolve the situation in order to get their rights.

O Brothers and Sisters in Islam! With such shining examples to emulate, you must take an active role in being a part of the work to re-establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" in the Muslim lands! It is only this Islamic System sanctioned by Allah (swt) that will protect our values and dignity. It is only through the re-establishment of Khilafah "Caliphate" that the corrupt Capitalist system can be replaced by the divine system of Islam. Since the Islamic system answers to Allah azza wa Jal - and not the moneyed interests of society - it will implement the Quran and Sunnah, preventing men (or women) from exploiting women's bodies, based on the hadith of Raf'i bin Rifa'aa (ra) who narrated that: "He [RasulAllah (saw)] forbade us from the earnings of the slave-girl except that which she earned with her two hands." [Abu Dawood]

Oh Noble Ummah! Reject the Capitalist system and its secular Aqeedah, which can only deliver slavery disguised as equality. Join us in the work to re-establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashida, which is on the horizon insha Allah! It is only then that we will witness the liberation of every man, woman and child from the oppression of man-made laws and systems.