Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, in a pre-iftar speech on July 18, 2013, said that she would ‘run a government of a new nature if voted to power'. Subsequently, Tareq Rahman, her son, in another iftar gathering held in London on July 25, 2013, apparently presented a partial election manifesto of BNP providing policy proposals in the areas of agriculture, industry, education, information technology and governance. After the BNP's victory in five city corporation elections, the discussion of a new type of government has created such an atmosphere that many see BNP will form next government, provided that there is an election - whether it is held under a neutral non-partisan government or not. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina dismissed Khaleda Zia's pledge to run a government of a new nature as a new way of corruption and violence. And as an alternative to Tareq Zia, she brought her son Sajib Wajed Joy for the Awami League's election campaign.

What the Muslims of Bangladesh need to realize is that unless they uproot the present system and establish Islam in ruling they will continue to be deceived with new slogans and faces. The sons of the Awami-BNP leaders will not provide them any better life than their mothers have. As long as the rulers rule by capitalism and democracy, there will be no shortage of corruption, violence, instability, crisis after crisis, and imperialist control and intervention in the country. These rulers will never be able to solve the country's problems, any problem for that matter. Our Prophet (saw) warned us against these shallow rulers and politicians:

"سَيَأْتِي عَلَى النَّاسِ سَنَوَاتٌ خَدَّاعَاتُ يُصَدَّقُ فِيهَا الْكَاذِبُ وَيُكَذَّبُ فِيهَا الصَّادِقُ وَيُؤْتَمَنُ فِيهَا الْخَائِنُ وَيُخَوَّنُ فِيهَا الْأَمِينُ وَيَنْطِقُ فِيهَا الرُّوَيْبِضَةُ قِيلَ وَمَا الرُّوَيْبِضَةُ قَالَ الرَّجُلُ التَّافِهُ فِي أَمْرِ الْعَامَّةِ"

"Deceiving years will come when the people would believe the liar and not believe the trustworthy, and the traitor would be trusted and the honest would be distrusted. In those years the Ruwaybidah will speak." He was asked, "And who are the Ruwaybidah?" He (saw) said, "The shallow man who speaks about the affairs of the people."

Allah (swt), the Creator and Provider, has given us a ruling system i.e. the Khilafah "Caliphate". In the Islamic ruling system, the Khaleefah is obligated and responsible to rule the people according to the Qur'an and the Sunnah, which are the sources of legislation instead of the whims and desires of zalim rulers. The Khaleefah will be assisted by his deputies and executive assistants. There will not be any legislative assembly; rather there will be a Majlis al Ummah where peoples' representative will give advice to the Khaleefah.

Islamic sources of legislation provide necessary policies to govern the people. For example in the field of agriculture, farmers have to be provided with all necessary inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, water, electricity, and diesel on time. Major problems in the agricultural sector such as syndication, hoarding, cheating and extortions must be stopped in order to benefit both the farmers and consumers. Our Prophet (saw) said, "...مَنْ غَشَّ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي" "Whoever cheats is not one of us."

He (saw) also said, "مَنْ احْتَكَرَ فَهُوَ خَاطِئٌ" "Whoever monopolizes is a wrongdoer."

As another example, the aim of education in the Islamic state is to produce the Islamic personalities and to provide people with the knowledge to lead in life's affairs. Since the Islamic Aqeedah will be the basis of the state's education policy, curriculum must be chosen on this basis. The purpose of education cannot simply be to train people to work for Western companies and earn more remittance.

There is no doubt that we will see more empty promises and wrong solutions in the coming days unless we stop these corrupt rulers. We must reject them and their rhetoric. It is an obligation on us to remove these ruling elites who have lied and oppressed us for decades and establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah. Khilafah "Caliphate" will rule us with Islam, which is the only guarantee for peace, security, prosperity, honour and victory.

Muhammad Raiyan Hasan

Member of Hizb ut Tahrir in Bangladesh

News:

The arrogant American viceroy to Pakistan, John Kerry visited Islamabad and immediately blamed local militant groups for violating Pakistan's sovereignty. In an exclusive interview with Geo News, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al-Qaeda were violating the sovereignty of Pakistan.

Comment:

For most Pakistanis, it is America that is aggressively violating Pakistani airspace and killing Pakistani citizens through its robotic death drones. Yet for Kerry the US drone programme is entirely defensive. He said, "We are engaged in counter-terrorism for self-defence." This is despite the fact that America struggles to find Al-Qaeda, LeT and Taleban operatives on its shores waging war. No Pakistani government official or member of the opposition took Kerry to task on his twisted logic that somehow drones strikes were in self-defence.  As expected, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan could only put up muted protests when speaking to Kerry, and he reciprocated by stating that the drone strikes would soon end. But no one knows when!

The time has come for Pakistan to stand on its own two feet and develop its very own domestic drone programme to ward off American death drones that routinely violate the country's airspace and kill its citizens with impunity. To minimise the growing menace of US drones, Pakistan's domestic drone programme should make at its core quick win actions combined with long-term measures. These could be:

1.       It has been reported on several occasions that the Pakistani civilian and military leadership has been facilitating material support to the US drone programme for many years. Wikileak revelations and Musharraf's clandestine agreement with the US is well documented. Hence, Pakistan must close all airbases to US drones and eject all US personal stationed at these bases.

2.       It is well known that drones require targets to be identified, tracked, assassinated and the death has to be verified. This requires an extensive ground network of personal committed to supporting US drone operations in Pakistan; otherwise the drone strikes are ineffective. Pakistan must cease such support and take all measures to shut down the Raymond Davis network which was painstaking constructed by the US embassy in collusion with the Pakistani military and civilian leadership to serve this purpose. Henceforth, all US embassy staff and American citizens involved in military, diplomatic and NGO work should be immediately expelled from the country.

3.       If the above measures fail to dissuade Washington from deploying drones inside Pakistan, then the Pakistan Air Force should be mobilised to disable drones via well-established spoofing techniques and shoot and destroy. It was stated that in 2012 and 2013, the Iranian Air Force used force to successfully prevent America's M1 drone from entering Iranian airspace. So if this is true what is preventing the Pakistan's air force which is better equipped and trained than its Iranian counterpart to do the same.

4.       The Pakistani military should establish permanent task forces dedicated to improving the hacking of US drones violating Pakistani airspace using a variety GPS equipment and software that is easily accessible in the public domain. In 2011, Iran was successful at capturing the latest generation of American drones- the RQ-170 Sentinel UAV with primitive hacking techniques.

This task force should be augmented by encouraging Pakistan's educational establishments and software industry to collaborate and devise innovative ways to not only disrupt US drones, but build a fleet of indigenous drones to counter the threat.

5.       Pakistan should benefit from China experience to quickly industrialise the building of smart Pakistani drones that protect the country's sovereignty and act as a strong deterrent for its enemies. Both countries have jointly developed the J-17 fighter; hence, it should be possible to build indigenous drones on mass by incorporating drone technology from Chinese and using existing platforms.

To ensure people no longer live in fear in the tribal agencies, and life returns to normal, the government must undertake these initiatives:

1.       Jamming devices to be made available amongst the tribal population to blind US drones venturing into Pakistani airspace; deploy Surface-to-Air (SAM) missiles and radar tracking equipment to shoot down such drones. This equipment should be protected by a plethora of decoys and armed soldiers.

2.       Additionally, deep bunkers should be provided for the protection of the tribal population in case the odd drone manages to escape the aforementioned measures.

The drone defence programme can easily be implemented without any excuses, and is very effective in countering US drones. But the programme is by no means a long-term solution to Pakistan's growing security needs. Pakistan's security concerns can only be addressed through the re-establishment of the Caliphate. Under the Caliphate, Pakistan will pursue a strong industrialisation programme that makes military superiority the heart of the country's security framework and strikes fear into the hearts of the enemy. Only then will the following words of Allah (swt) be realised:

((وَأَعِدُّوا لَهُمْ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ قُوَّةٍ وَمِنْ رِبَاطِ الْخَيْلِ تُرْهِبُونَ بِهِ عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ وَآخَرِينَ مِنْ دُونِهِمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ شَيْءٍ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ يُوَفَّ إِلَيْكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تُظْلَمُونَ))

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly." [TMQ: Al-Anfal]

Abu Hashim

Alhamdulillah, the stand for the 29th night of Ramadan before the embassy of the tyrant criminal regime of Bashar organized by Hizb ut Tahrir/ Wilayah Jordan as part of their campaign in support of the Syrian Revolution titled, "For You, Oh Homs, will Remain Mighty Oh Sword of Allah." Amid heavy security presence; a large gathering of the sons and daughters of Jordan ash-Sham performed Qiyam Prayer. Hizb members delivered short speeches regarding the conspiracies of the Kufr countries and their government agents against the people of ash-Sham because their demand is the Khilafah "Caliphate". Duaa for victory and steadfastness for the people of ash-Sham and for the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" State concluded the stand and then a group Fajr prayer was led.

Tuesday, 28 Ramadan 1434 AH corresponding to 6 August 2013

Full Recording of the Stand before the Tyrant Bashar's Embassy during the 29th Night of Ramadan

(Part 1)

Full Recording of the Stand before the Tyrant Bashar's Embassy during the 29th Night of Ramadan

(Part 2)

Interviews throughout the Stand before the Tyrant Bashar's Embassy during the 29th Night of Ramadan

Distinguished Speaker Sheikh Saeed Radwan

Brother Khalid Omar

Duaa al-Qunoot  by Sheikh Ali Ad-Daqs

Brother Ahmad Abu Qadoom

Picture Slideshow: Click Here

The shooting of the fifteen year old Pakistani girl last October, Malala Yusufzai shocked and horrified many across the world - Muslim and non-Muslim. The dominant narrative that has been promoted by the mainstream media, human rights organisations, and Western governments and politicians is that the attempted assassination of this young girl by ‘Islamists' in Pakistan was due to their opposition of her women's rights activism and advocacy of education for girls in the country. Following the shooting, many institutions and personalities rallied to her cause, praising her for bringing women's education to global attention, including former British Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On the 12^th of July, Malala was invited to address a gathering of youth at the UN headquarters in New York where she advocated the need for free compulsory education for every child.

The cause of improving the educational rights of girls in Pakistan and globally is a noble one. However, far from noble are the shameless attempts by Western governments, institutions and politicians to exploit this young girl, her struggle, and the horrific attack against her for their own political goal of intensifying the propagation of Western secular, liberal values to women and girls in the Muslim world through education, and to weaken their Islamic identity and values. The cynical nature of their support of Malala and lack of true concern for the educational rights of Muslim women is demonstrated by their hypocritical stance and silence towards hijab and niqab bans in secular states such as France, Belgium, Turkey, and Uzbekistan that have deprived Muslim girls and women of a good schooling simply for abiding by their Islamic dress. The question should surely be asked - where were the strong voices of opposition of such secular states and politicians to the European Court of Human Rights' Judgements that ruled against the right of Muslim women in France and Turkey to seek a good education while also adhering to their Islamic beliefs?

Malala's story has also been used to further fuel and re-enforce the age-old myth that Islam and Islamic rule oppresses women and deprives them of their rights and that they are in need of Western-style liberation. It is a narrative that has been employed historically and over decades, continuing into modern times to maintain Western secular hegemony over the region by fighting the resurgence of Islam internationally in order to prevent the establishment of an Islamic system in the Muslim world that would threaten Western political and economic interests. However, it is not Islam but Western colonial foreign policy that has stripped women and girls in Pakistan and many other Muslim countries of a valuable education. The ‘War on Terror' and occupation of Afghanistan has created a constant climate of insecurity and instability in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the region, marked with frequent drone attacks and bombs that have killed thousands over the years, including countless women, girls, and children. A UN Committee on the Rights of Children report stated that hundreds of children are reported to have died, "as a result of attacks and air strikes by the US military forces in Afghanistan" between 2008 and 2012, due to the use of "indiscriminate force". Where are the rights of these children? Clearly their deaths are acceptable collateral damage to such colonial governments for the sake of securing their interests in the region. Such occupation, war and instability has also generated a lawless environment riddled with crime, abductions, and rape. All this has lead to many parents preventing their daughters from travelling far from their homes, including to school. Furthermore, how can states plagued with instability, destruction, and insecurity ever provide a good quality of education to their citizens? After more than 10 years of occupation, almost 9 out of 10 women in Afghanistan remain illiterate. Hence, it is the destructive Western colonial foreign policy that has not only robbed girls of an education, but robbed them of their lives and dignity, and stands as one of the main obstacles to their effective schooling.

Coupled with this, secular Western-backed regimes in the Muslim lands have allowed the influx of liberal culture into their states through their entertainment and advertising industries as well as through implementing a secular education system. This culture that sanctifies sexual freedom; sexualizes, objectifies and degrades women; and encourages men to treat women according to their desires has contributed to the high levels of sexual harassment, bullying and rape in the schools and streets of countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. This has caused many girls and women to feel reluctant to venture outside of their homes to seek an education. In addition, the flawed Western capitalist system has destroyed the economy of countries in the Muslim world, burdening them with huge debts due to heavy interest based loans and failed economic policies, such that more is spent on debt-repayments than education, healthcare, infrastructure and other public services. The result is insufficient and crumbling schools, poor numbers and training of teachers, and lack of necessary books and equipment. Furthermore, the impoverishment of the people through capitalist policies imposed upon the Muslim lands by Western states and their institutions such as the IMF as well as the lack of free schooling has caused many parents to reluctantly prioritise education for their sons over their daughters. Not surprising therefore that more than 60% of women in Pakistan and around 50% of women in Bangladesh and Egypt are illiterate.

It is therefore Western foreign policy and the capitalist, secular system that has been imposed upon our Muslim lands which has proven to be the greatest obstacle to providing good quality education to women and girls in the Muslim world.

Islam is clear about female education. It not only views the seeking of knowledge regarding Islam and its solutions to life's affairs as an obligation upon women, as according to the hadith of the Prophet(saw), طلب العلم فريضة على كل مسلم "Seeking Knowledge is obligatory upon ALL Muslims" but also directs the Muslimah to study the world around her. Indeed, the wife of the Prophet (saw), Aisha (ra) was not only a great scholar of Islam but a great scholar of medicine, poetry, and general knowledge. Islam also obliges the Muslim Ummah to be a leading nation in the world, encouraging men and women to contribute to the betterment of society and to excel in various spheres of life, including in academia, science, medicine, technology, and industry. However, all these educational obligations and rights of women can only be secured by a system that truly values the beliefs of Islam and its emphasis on the importance of female learning. That system is the Khilafah "Caliphate" state whose constitution is based purely upon the Qur'an and Sunnah. Hence, in accordance to Islam, the Khilafah "Caliphate" is obliged to invest heavily in education and provide free primary and secondary education to girls and boys alike and as far as possible fund higher studies. It assures specialized and independent female schools abiding by the Islamic regulation of segregation of the genders, managed by well-trained, well-paid and qualified female teachers. And it encourages and facilitates women to specialize in various fields to become for example scholars of Islam, doctors, scientists, mathematicians, architects, judges, lecturers, engineers, or IT specialists. All this is funded by a sound Islamic economic system that embodies the tools to generate a stable economy and economic prosperity, implemented by the Islamic ruling system that prioritises education and views it as a basic right of every citizen. It will strive through its education, media, and judicial systems to eradicate any cultural attitudes in its society that prevent women from having access to education. Finally, the Islamic social system and other Shariah laws will ensure that the high status of women is always maintained, that they are never devalued, that men treat them with respect and not according to their desires, and that harsh punishments are issued for any violation of their dignity, ensuring a safe environment within which girls can travel to school and pursue their studies. It is all this that will lead to the eradication of female illiteracy and to women's educational aspirations being fulfilled.

It was under this system of the Khilafah "Caliphate" that women's education flourished historically creating brilliant female inventors such as Marium al-Istirlabi who pioneered the development of the astrolabe in the 10^th century for calculating the position of the sun and stars; excellent female engineers such as Fatima Al-Fihri who constructed the first university in the world in Qarawayyin, Morrocco; and thousands upon thousands of female scholars as detailed in the 40 volume book by the scholar Mohamed Akram an-Nadwi which provided biographies of 8000 female scholars who existed during the time of the Islamic civilization. Under this true Islamic system, the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo gave access to women as students and as lecturers - a right that women in the West only acquired within their universities centuries after. Indeed, the proportion of female lecturers in many classical Islamic colleges was higher than in many Western universities today. All this was a result of Muslims making Islam the central and only motivating factor for their development. The Khilafah "Caliphate" was therefore a state that truly pioneered the world in female education and Insha Allah will again produce a first-class education system for women and girls again upon its establishment!

Dear brothers and sisters, the script of the Malala story is being written by Western colonial governments, not to improve the rights of women but to continue their colonial intervention and control of the Muslim world. The education they offer for the region is not sincere but aimed at further spreading their secular, liberal values that has corrupted our youth; and it must be strongly rejected. It is through returning to our Islamic roots and laws through establishing the Khilafah "Caliphate" that alone holds the key to fulfilling the educational aspirations of women and ensuring that all their God-given rights are secured. Allah (swt) says,

((يريدون ليطفئوا نور الله بأفواههم، والله متمّ نوره ولو كره الكافرون))

"They wish to blow out the Light of Allah (i.e. this deen of Islam, the Qur'an, and the Prophet (saw) with their mouths). But Allah will bring His Light to perfection even though the disbelievers hate it." [TMQ As-Saff: 8]

Women of Hizb ut Tahrir/ Britain