Dear Editor

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

I begin this letter in the Name of Allah (swt) in Whose Hands the soul of each one of us lies, and to Whom each of us will return to be judged according to what we fulfilled of His Orders upon this earth. Indeed He (swt) has bestowed upon you a great favour and great opportunities by facilitating your path to this station that you have in life as a member of the media community, and surely He (swt) will ask how you benefitted your Muslim Ummah and mankind from what He (swt) granted you. The righteous words you have the ability to write and the truth you are able to bring to the ears of the people have the potential to move the masses to stand against injustice and oppression and to struggle for what is right, securing for you great rewards in the Hereafter.

I write therefore, urging you to raise awareness of the horrific plight facing your Muslim brothers and sisters in the Central African Republic (CAR) who are currently facing a systematic campaign of genocide at the hands of blood-thirsty Christian militias in the country. As you are most probably aware, thousands have been killed over the past few months in the most brutal fashion, their bodies dismembered and burnt and in some cases their raw flesh eaten by their murderers. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Human Rights Watch Emergency Director Peter Bouckaert stated that entire neighborhoods have been "completely emptied of their Muslim population. Their homes are being systematically taken down.....so the very evidence of their existence in this country is being erased." Amnesty International has called it "ethnic cleansing" and warned of a "Muslim exodus of historic proportions", while the UN recently stated that of the 130,000 to 145,000 Muslims who normally lived in the capital Bangui, only 900 remain. Christian militias freely admit that they will not stop until they have "cleaned' the country of Muslims.

And as with Syria, Myanmar, and other massacres instigated against this Ummah - it is women and children who have borne the brunt of this bloodbath. They have been subject to the most horrific, unspeakable, barbaric acts that are too painful to even utter but must be brought to the world's attention. They have been tortured, shot, hacked to death, their bodies mutilated and burnt, children have been beheaded, babies slaughtered, and our sisters have suffered the most gruesome forms of rapes and the crimes go on and on, echoing the atrocities of Rwanda's 1990's genocide. Children have witnessed horrific scenes that no child should ever witness of what can only be described as hell on earth. UNICEF officials in the region "are horrified by the cruelty and impunity with which children are being killed and mutilated." They also stated that children are being "directly targeted because of their religion in atrocious revenge attacks."

In December 2013 a pregnant Muslim woman and 10 Muslim children were killed by a gang of Christians. They disembowelled the woman and slashed the children with machetes.  In another incident this January, a Muslim woman, Fatimatu Yamsa while fleeing the violence in a truck was taken off the vehicle at a checkpoint by Christian militia who then hacked her to death along with her 5 and 3 year old sons on the steps of a mosque. Last month, 7 year old Ibrahim Adamou was found by aid agencies after days of walking over 100 kilometers without food or shelter. His mother and father were killed in front of him and the fate of his 5 siblings is still unknown. What is even more shocking is that his story is near identical to six other children under the age of 10 in the area of Carnot.

These atrocities are being replicated in towns and villages across the country as the bloodshed continues unabated despite the presence of French ‘peace-keepers'. These forces have not only failed dismally to prevent the slaughter but have shown full bias towards the armed Christian anti-Balaka militia and been complicit with them in this bloodbath against the Muslims. Indeed, this is not surprising. The historical hatred of this colonial power against Islam and Muslims is renowned. Nor should any reliance be placed on the impotent UN, or self-serving Western secular states to protect Muslim lives, which have stood as idle spectators to these massacres. Their toleration of the spilling of Muslim blood is also well-known from their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to their historical legacy of watching on as 8000 Muslim civilians were killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, hundreds of thousands slaughtered in Syria by the tyrant Bashar, and countless others maimed and murdered in Myanmar by ethnic Buddhists.

Muslim rulers have also unsurprisingly and in typical historical fashion abandoned all sense of Islamic or moral duty to protect the blood of the Ummah. They have turned their backs on the suffering of the Muslims of Central Africa and are deaf to the screams of the daughters and children of Islam. This has become the expected behaviour of such cowardly leaderships and as Muslims we place no trusts in such regimes to lift a finger to protect our blood and honour.

However, what truly dismays us is the minimal attention and coverage given to the plight of our Ummah in CAR by those who are their Muslim brothers and sisters in the media - those who have been obligated to be their voice of support by the Creator of the world. This wall of silence has effectively allowed these horrific crimes against the Muslims of the region to be executed and hidden behind closed doors and away from the eyes of the international community.  Consequently, many Muslims and the world are still unaware of the true extent of the violence being committed against our brothers and sisters.

What amount of Muslim suffering will elicit a response? Silence is surely complicity to this oppression! How can the desperate calls for help of your brothers and sisters be ignored? Surely Allah (swt) will call us to account for the crimes that our eyes witness against the Muslims and how we responded! I call you, as one to whom Allah (swt) has placed a great responsibility to your Ummah through the skills, status, and influence He (swt) has enabled you to acquire as a journalist, to turn the media spotlight upon this issue and raise international awareness of these gruesome crimes. Is your role not one of bringing the truth to the world by exposing oppression and injustice wherever you witness it???!!! So fulfil your duty to Allah (swt), your Ummah, and to your profession by bringing attention to and speaking out against the suffering of your brothers and sisters.

This letter is part of a global campaign supported by the Women's Section of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir to mobilise Muslims globally to urge the Muslim media to expose the genocide against the Muslim women and children of CAR. It is part of an international campaign by Hizb ut Tahrir entitled, "Who Will Give Victory to the Muslims of Central Africa!" to raise attention to the plight of the Muslims of the region and re-enforce the message that it is only through the re-establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate", the system of Islam that the Muslims of CAR, Syria, Myanmar, India, Kashmir, China and across the world will be protected from bloodshed and systematic abuse. It is this Khilafah "Caliphate" state alone that will provide a safe sanctuary to all oppressed and persecuted Muslims in the entire world. So I also call you to give your support to the re-establishment of this System of Allah (swt) that will bring the countless tragedies, heartache and untold misery afflicting this Ummah to an end, and build for the Muslims a future of security, justice, and prosperity.

«مَثَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ، مَثَلُ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى مِنْهُ عُضْوٌ تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ الْجَسَدِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى»

"The example of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever." (Reported by Muslim)

Wa'alaikum Salaam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.

Women's Section

of the Central Media Office

of Hizb ut Tahrir

The sadness of the loss of MH370 which has caught the attention of the world has not settled down and yet, we are shocked again with the death of six teenagers in a concert held at Bukit Jalil Stadium, Kuala Lumpur. The Future Music Festival Asia 2014 (FMFA) concert which entered its third day was canceled due to the death of several teenagers who allegedly overdosed drugs while three other teenagers were reported in comas and critical. Most likely this concert would have been continued if no deaths were reported. In this case, the mistake was merely pointed to the youths who took drugs and the syndicate supplying drugs to the teenagers involved. However, fault was not placed on the shoulders of the organizers nor the provider of the permit to the organizers! This concert gained full support from the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Dato 'Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz. In the West, concerts like this are known for drugs, which would involve the loss of life, damage to faith and moral decadence. As a minister, Dato 'Seri Mohamed Nazri should not have allowed the concert to be held and should also forbid any form of  activities that will lead to negative implications, especially to teenagers and Muslims.

In a democratic-capitalist system, certain things are viewed good and beneficial if it can bring profit to the capitalists. If profit from the material aspect can be obtained through holding concerts like this, then they will be given the greatest space and opportunity for it to be executed. The organizers and the rulers of our country who issued the license have never thought of the negative short and long-term effects of their act on our generation of hope due to the organization of such concerts. Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister of Youth and Sports issued a statement: "We will examine all aspects of organizing a concert in the country so that in the future, these concerts are free from drug abuse and immorality. We will not let this incident pass with the potential for relapse." Another concert entitled ‘Live in Colour' is scheduled to be held in Go Kart Circuit, Sepang on 19 April 2014.

This is what regularly happens when life is dominated by the democratic capitalism system. The system which glorifies the freedom to act in every aspect of life. People are not concerned anymore on whether their actions comply to the syariah or otherwise. In this corrupt system, an individual is said to have found true happiness in life if their physical needs and instincts are satisfied according to their lust and limitless desires. Therefore, it is not surprising when the young generation of the Islamic Ummah is lost in a world that prioritizes entertainment which destroys, destructs their moral and clearly contradicts the teachings of Islam.

Just look at the moral crisis faced by the youth of today, which has definitely reached a critical level. The democratic capitalist system has shaped a society where moral is declining day by day. The people who follow this system has replaced the purpose of life, which is supposed to be seeking Allah's pleasure (ridha) into attitudes of individualism and being selfish. They are no longer sensitive towards issues affecting the Muslims. Most of them no longer prevent evil (munkar). Indeed, it is very saddening when some people consider evil (munkar) as something that has to be accepted together with the package of development and progression. Nau'zubillahi minzalik!

Drug trafficking which is increasingly rampant is a result of the application of the capitalist and secularism system where its benchmark is profit which has resulted in people living a hedonistic lifestyle and worshipping physical pleasure. The doctrine of liberalism in this system has taught people that everyone should be given complete freedom. Thus, an example of its implication are the city's nightclubs which are filled with the spread of drug trafficking and are unable to curb. Apart from that, this system is also framed the secularism ideology which isolates religion, thus the corruption will definitely be perfected.  The society's dignity and harmony structure is clearly threatened. Therefore, it is clear that the root of the drug problem is actually based on the worldview of the capitalism secularism system.

The reported deaths should also be an eye opener of how we all desperately require a comprehensive system of life that will replace the existing system in order for us to live in peace and prosperity. The system mentioned above is definitely the one that has been revealed upon us by our Creator who is All-Knowing and the Most Wisest of All, a system which stems from the Islamic faith and obliges every human to act in accordance to the Islamic Law.

Although Islam does not forbid its Ummah to entertain themselves, however, entertainment and activities that drives us far away from Allah and our religion is forbidden. In terms of faith, Islam teaches that every good deed will be rewarded in the Afterlife. And otherwise for every sin, including drug abuse, will be punished with a painful chastisement in the hereafter. The hukm (ruling) for taking drugs is clearly haram because it will bring harm. Umm Salamah stated,

«نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَنْ كُلِّ مُسْكِرٍ وَمُفَتِّرٍ»

"Rasulullah saw forbade all intoxicating and soothing substances." (Narrated by Abu Dawud and Ahmad)

Rasulullah (saw) also stated,

« كُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ حَرَامٌ إِنَّ عَلَى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ عَهْدًا لِمَنْ يَشْرَبُ الْمُسْكِرَ أَنْ يَسْقِيَهُ مِنْ طِينَةِ الْخَبَالِ ». قَالُوا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا طِينَةُ الْخَبَالِ قَالَ « عَرَقُ أَهْلِ النَّارِ أَوْ عُصَارَةُ أَهْلِ النَّارِ »

"Indeed Allah will fulfill His promise to anyone who drinks beer to drink thînatal khabâl". They asked, "O Messenger, what is thînatal khabâl?" Rasulullah (saw) answered, "The sweat of the residents of hell or lees (residual) of those in the Hell Fire!" (Narrated by Muslim)

Islam, as a way of life brought and implemented by the Prophet Muhammad (saw) to the human society, has indeed successfully addressed social problems in a comprehensive way during its rule. It can only be actualized with the establishment of a society founded by him in Medina, a fair and prosperous society under the auspices of being pleased by Almighty Allah (swt).

O Muslims who worship the same faith globally, please welcome and answer our call immediately to work together in reestablishing the Islamic system of life under the auspices of the Islamic Caliphate. Embrace, and do perform Allah's commands in the Holy Quran where He (swt) stated,

((يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّـهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ))

"O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered." [Surah al-Anfal: 24].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Sumayyah Amar

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir