Federal MP's are congratulating themselves this week after a ‘breakthrough' on the asylum seeker issue. Putting cursive partisan politics aside, the major parties have celebrated what is described as a win for the plight, dignity and safety of refugees. In reality, the legislation is a return to old policies that are not only inhumane in how they treat asylum seekers but also do not even begin to deal with the root causes of the problem.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Wilayah Pakistan demonstrated against the killing of its member Shawkat Karimov at the hands of Karimov the president of Uzbekistan. This demonstration was held out side the diplomatic mission in Islamabad. Demonstrators were holding banners and placards declaring
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Salafi Dawah vice president says IMF loan permissible in Islam:
The vice president of the Salafi Dawah group, Yasser Borhamy, said Sunday the interest on the loan Egypt is set to receive from the International Monetary Fund does not involve usury, a practice prohibited in Islam. In a fatwa he made that was published on Sawt al-Salaf website, Borhamy said that since the interest on the loan is only 1.1 percent, paid in the form of administrative fees, the loan could be considered a grant. Usurious loans have higher interest rates that reach up to 20 percent, he said. Borhamy said that in modern times, loans given to countres "are handled by huge financial institutions that examine the conditions of the borrowing country, its needs to reform the economy, its ability to pay off the loan and the time frame it needs for that, as well as the degree of corruption there." He added that if one such institution gave the country a loan at an interest rate of 2 percent, then this is not considered usury. Borhamy called for studying the conditions for the loan from an economic perspective and assessing whether it achieves the interests of the country, adding that such actions were the role of the government and the president in the absence of Parliament. Yousry Hammad, spokesperson for the Salafi Nour Party, had previously said the interests on the IMF loan are not prohibited because they are administrative fees, and added that people should not issue uninformed fatwas. However, other Salafis had disagreed in the past. Nour Party supreme committee member Younis Makhyoun had previous said that borrowing from the IMF or any foreign source would be considered "usury." "God will never bless an economy based on usury," said Makhyoun, calling on the government to find other sources of funding.
Iran sending troops to bolster Assad's Alawite regime:
Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former members of the corps. The personnel moves come on top of what these people say are Tehran's stepped-up efforts to aid the military of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad with cash and arms. That would indicate that regional capitals are being drawn deeper into Syria's conflict, and undergird a growing perception among Al Assad's opponents that the regime's military is increasingly strained. A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, appeared to offer Iran's first open acknowledgment of its military involvement in Syria. "Today we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and a cultural one as well," General Salar Abnoush, commander of IRGC's Saheb Al Amr unit, told volunteer trainees in a speech Monday. The comments, reported by the Daneshjoo news agency, which is run by regime-aligned students, couldn't be independently verified. Top Iranian officials had previously said the country isn't involved in the conflict. "One of Iran's wings will be broken if [Al] Assad falls. They are now using all their contacts from Iraq to Lebanon to keep him in power," Mohsen Sazegara, a founding IRGC member who now opposes the Iranian regime and lives in exile in the US, said by telephone. Last week, Iran's defence minister publicly signalled a shift. If Syria fails to put down the uprising, Iran would send military help based on a mutual defence agreement between the two countries, two Iranian newspapers quoted Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying. Syria hadn't asked for assistance yet, he added. "Syria is managing this situation very well on its own," he said. "But if the government can't resolve the crisis on its own, then based on their request we will fulfil our mutual defence-security pact." In Tehran, Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar met Monday with several Iranian officials and expressed Syria's gratitude. "The people of Syria will never forget the support of Iran during these difficult times," Haidar said, according to Iranian media.
Yemen's Food Crisis: 10 Million Starving:
The term 'food insecurity' is increasingly being associated with the once self-sufficient but improvised Yemen. In fact over 44 percent of Yemen's population will face a lack of food to eat this year alone and the U.N. says that 5m Yemenis are considered "extremely food insecure". The causes of this crisis range from a lack of political stability caused the 2011 revolution, failure to control and plan on behalf of the Yemeni government and the inability of donors states such as the U.S. to view Yemen beyond the 'terrorism goggles'. As it currently stands there are no two ways about it, Yemen is no longer on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, but rather is now in the midst of a food catastrophe. Oxfam last September warned that Yemen was at breaking point, today one can freely admit that Yemen has broke. For example in al Hodeidah and Hajjah, one in three children are malnourished, which is double the standard emergency level. While the U.N. estimates that 267, 000 Yemeni children are facing life threatening levels of malnutrition. Yemen's food crisis presents a number of challenges to Yemenis across the political, economical and social spectrum. The previously already poor are on the verge of death, the once slim middle class are finding it hard to pay for life necessities, whilst the rich and often elite, find it much easier to spend their wealth. But it is children who bear the brunt of Yemen's food price escalation, as mothers are reportedly taking their children out of school to beg on the streets.
US drone attacks escalate inside Pakistan:
The US is intensifying its drone attacks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, as the Pakistani army prepares a major military operation against Islamist militants in North Waziristan. The attack last Friday involved missile strikes from CIA-controlled drones on three separate locations in North Waziristan. According to unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials, 18 "suspected militants" were killed. As in previous attacks, most casualties would undoubtedly have been civilians, including women and children.
Washington has long demanded that the Pakistani army launch a military offensive in North Waziristan, along the lines of its brutal operations in other FATA agencies. In 2009, the military sent 30,000 troops, backed by war planes and heavy artillery, into South Waziristan, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee. The US has accused the Pakistani military of refusing to do the same in North Waziristan in order to protect relations between the Haqqani network and the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency-claims that have not been substantiated. The intensified US drone attacks inside Pakistan are aimed at terrorising the local population and pressing the Pakistani military to go ahead with its offensive. Local residents told News International after last Friday's strike that they feared trying to rescue survivors as drones kept circling. Rescuers and those attending funeral services have been targeted previously for attack on the basis that they are also "suspected militants." An extraordinary article in the New York Times in May revealed that President Obama is personally involved in the decisions to carry out the targeted assassinations of individuals inside Pakistan, as well as other countries. The revelation underscores the criminal character of the Obama administration and its neo-colonial operations in Afghanistan. According to one estimate, there have been 33 drone strikes inside Pakistan this year, down from 117 in 2010 and 64 in 2011. As the Obama administration prepares for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, it will undoubtedly step up its murderous attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to shore up its puppet regime in Kabul.
Amazing scenes of goodness
Maybe it was because we were in the middle of the blessed month of Ramadhan where our feelings of brotherhood are heightened. The heartbreaking YouTube videos and the news report of crying and pleading Rohingya Muslims being turned back by Bangladesh borders guards definitely contributed to the amazing scenes I witnessed a few weeks ago. Scenes which made you and I proud and honoured to be part of this noble ummah, alhamdulillah. What I witnessed was that as the horrible suffering and persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters started to become known within the Muslim community here, there was a demand for action. People called in to the phone programs on local Bangladesh satellite TV, crying and donating generously to the many charity appeals. Masajids were making duas and hundreds joined a demonstration we held outside the Bangladesh embassy demanding that sheikh Hasina's government opens the border to fleeing Rohingya refugees. Several Muslim individuals and groups also organised other demonstrations. The bonds of brotherhood, the goodness in the ummah and the desire to help our brothers and sisters were so evident amongst the Muslims. May Allah (swt) reward and strengthen such feelings and care. In many discussions, I found that people wanted ‘to do something' for the Rohingya Muslims. People wanted action.
Limiting our thinking, limits our actions
As you watched the many charity appeal programs on the many satellite stations or listened to the khutbahs in the masajids, you heard the overwhelming majority of imams, shuyook, activists and khateebs echo the same message; make duas and give charity. Some also supported demonstrations against the Bangladesh government's closure of the border to Rohingyas, but the overwhelming message was that people should make duas and give charity. Would this end the suffering? What about the fact that the Bangladesh government then banned aid agencies working in the refugee camps for Rohingyas already in Bangladesh?
Don't mention the rulers
While it was clear that a political actor, the government of Bangladesh (a Muslim country) is colluding with the Burmese government in its persecution of Muslims, most scholars and khateebs refused to address this or promote the Islamic duty of accounting such rulers and working to replace them with a sincere Islamic ruler (Khalifah) to unite us and fulfil the duty of using every means to aid and liberate the persecuted. Why this silence? While we were reading the whole of the Qur'an and studying the sunnah in the blessed month of ramadhan, it was as if Islam had nothing to say about the unity of the ummah, the application of the shariah rules to solve such problems, or the role of the Khalifah to defend and unite the ummah? Have they forgotten that in Makkah, Prophet Muhammad (saw) was unable to defend Sumayah (ra) as she was killed by the Quraish, but when he established the Islamic state in Madina, he lead the army to defend the Muslim woman assaulted by banu Qaynuka?
Have they forgotten the hadith in the Musnad of Imama Ahmad who reported that the Prophet (saw) said : "By Allah you have to enjoin good (Maroof) and forbid evil (Munkar), and hold against the hand of the unjust ruler (Zalim), and force him on the truth strongly, or you have to limit him to the truth". So how come the silnce about the need to account the Muslim rulers and to call for the Khilafah "Caliphate" system that applies the shariah of Allah (swt)?
• May Allah reward Muslims who continue to make dua for the liberation of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Kashmir and now Burma but that is not enough when we neglect the work to re-establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" that rules by the shariah Allah sent, implements all of the Deen and mobilises the resources of the ummah to care for and liberate the oppressed.
• This has allowed Muslim rulers to get away with also simply calling for charity and duas. Some governments open bank accounts and ask people to donate rather than mobilising the state's economic, diplomatic and other resources to help the oppressed.
• Neither Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey or any other Muslim government has broken relations with the brutal Burmese regime. Recep Tayep Erdogan sent his wife to Burma and we all saw her weeping with Rohingya women which gained him a lot of popularity. What was not mentioned was that the Turkish government also met the Burmese government and reassured them that good relations must continue between both governments. The Rohingyas need liberation, not just tears and a photo opportunity with the Turkish Prime Minister's wife and warm handshakes with their oppressors.
• We must remind the Muslims that Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan and other lands are still occupied despite the charity that sincere Muslims continue to give to aid our brothers and sisters there. Charity helps to relieve some of their suffering. However, it is the sincere Islamic leadership, the Khilafah "Caliphate" (the ummah's shield) that can solve their problem by liberating those lands. Occupation exists because the Muslim world lacks the Khilafah "Caliphate" system as Prophet (saw) described the Khailifah as a shield. Muslim narrated from Al-Araj on the authority of Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (saw) said, "Indeed the Imam (Khalifah) is a shield, from behind whom one would fight, and by whom one would protect oneself."
• The current Muslim rulers are part of our problem. Rather than defending the ummah, our so called rulers maintain relations with the governments occupying our lands and oppressing our ummah. Until we are rid of them, our problems will continue and the latest such tragedy is that of the Rohingya Muslims. That is why we must raise our voices and motivate every Muslim to demand the return of the Khilafah "Caliphate" so this becomes the demand everywhere in the Muslim world.
The Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" system is like the fire brigade
Imagine a child fell into a well, and someone said we should not call the fire brigade, though it is the body that has trained rescuers, long ladders and expertise to pluck the child out of the well and return him safe to his mother. Imagine if that person then said that all we need to do is to lower a bottle of water or some food to the crying child. What would we say to that person?
Yes, while we wait for the fire brigade, it is our Islamic duty to lower water and food and offer words of comfort to the crying child, but we must call for the fire brigade to rescue the child otherwise what is our defence before Allah (swt) and how can we put an end to his ordeal? Similarly, we must commend people making duas and giving charity to our brothers and sisters in Burma, Kahsmir, Palestine and elsewhere but we must motivate them to raise the cal for the removal of the 50 plus regimes that do not rule us by what He (swt) revealed and for them to be replaced by a sincere Khalifah who cares only to apply the shariah solutions, implement the Deen, unify the ummah and mobilises her vast resources for the service of Islam and Muslims.
We have to broaden people's horizons. We have to engage and convince every Muslim man and woman, scholar and khateeb to call for the Khilafah "Caliphate" so it becomes the demand of the ummah everywhere. May Allah (swt) aid us all in this task.
Taji Mustafa
Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain
The Islamic political party of Hizb ut-Tahrir/East Africa has received with great shock the news of the murder of Sheikh Aboud Rogo and the maiming of his family including the shooting of his wife in her leg. We have been deeply saddened by this act of absurdity, perpetrated by people who believe the
The recent conflict that led to the killing of over 60 people, many being Muslims, is deeply saddening. Of even greater concern is that the conflict, which involves two Muslim communities, the Ormo and the Pokomo, the government has shamelessly stated it is unable to resolve the dispute between the two communities.
