Crises in Basic Services in the Muslim World
(Translated)
https://www.al-waie.org/archives/article/19981
Al Waie Magazine Issue No. 470
Thirty-Ninth Year, Rabi’ al-Awwal 1447 AH corresponding to September 2025 CE
Aisha Al-Zaatari – The Blessed Land of Palestine

One of the pressing problems facing the Muslim World is the crisis of providing basic services, such as water, fuel, electricity, infrastructure, public utilities, health services, education services, and others. These crises are becoming severe and difficult to resolve!

It is noteworthy that, while these crises are worsening and governments are unable, unwilling, or negligent in resolving them, the Muslim World is a vast repository of wealth and resources of all kinds, distributed across all its countries with varying degrees of diversity. No Muslim country lacks resources and wealth, making the situation of these countries almost uniform and general, suffering from basic service crises despite an abundance of resources and wealth! This makes these problems not severe, and not actual crises in and of themselves.

First of all, it must be noted that the prevalence of crises in contemporary history is a universal phenomenon, encompassing the entire world, and not limited to our Muslim World alone, whether related to basic services or otherwise. This is due to the global dominance of capitalism. Crises, as is well known, are an inherent characteristic of capitalism, occurring as an inevitable consequence of the dominance of this ideology. Problems and crises of all kinds arise from it, automatically resulting from its intellectual essence and its application. There are numerous instances attesting to this.

Capitalists, in fact, deliberately fabricate crises as a colonialist tool they employ to achieve their interests in politics, economics, and all other fields. In the world of politics, for example, they devised, at one point in time, what they called "creative chaos," a plan to achieve their political interests. This policy is based on creating unrest, conflict, and destabilizing regimes, in order to effect change that favors their influence in that region. This is an example of how proponents of this ideology fabricate problems and crises to achieve their interests. It is a widespread practice among them, granted legal cover.

As for basic service crises, although the provision of services is a matter of domestic policy, and sometimes a matter of foreign policy, such as the issue of shared waterways between two countries, colonialist powers subjected them to international law, and entrusted them to international institutions and organizations, in addition to being a matter of domestic affairs. There were international organizations affiliated with the United Nations specializing in food, health, education, agriculture, and other issues. These organizations never offered a real solution to any global issue. Instead, their work was limited to raising false slogans and programs that ostensibly claimed humanitarianism, but in reality, they were colonialist tools granted the authority to interfere in the affairs of other countries.

They advocated for the human right to education, food, medicine, and other such matters. They claimed to preserve the environment, provide healthcare and treatment, eradicate hunger and malnutrition, manage water, forests, and fishing, support countries in providing services to their people, and much more. Yet, they achieved nothing on the ground. Instead, their primary contribution was the preparation of reports on countries' domestic conditions and economic resources, in addition to serving as a fundamental platform for the promotion of colonialist intellectual and political programs aimed at undermining societies.

International organizations with the authority to intervene in domestic economic affairs and impose decisions that countries must implement include the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Countries that receive loans from these organizations are subject to harsh conditions related to their domestic politics and economies. These conditions actually prevent the country from addressing its economic crises, and in fact, exacerbate them.

For example, Egypt, the largest borrower from the IMF in the Arab and Islamic region, is suffering from a severe economic crisis despite having relied on the IMF as a primary resource for resolving its economic crises for decades. However, instead of improving its economic situation, its crises have worsened as a result of the conditions imposed by the IMF, such as floating the Egyptian pound, lifting subsidies on energy and basic commodities, rising prices, increasing taxes, privatizing public and state assets, and other conditions that have led to inflation.

On the other hand, colonialist powers established agreements directly related to resources, such as water and resource agreements, such as those relating to shared rivers between countries, which address the equitable use of water by the peoples sharing these waterways. These agreements are also indirectly related to resources, such as climate and global warming agreements, industrial agreements, and others. These agreements are decisions imposed on countries in their domestic or foreign affairs, and are, by virtue of colonialism, tools.

Thus, the major capitalist powers encroached upon the domestic affairs of countries, including services, through international law, its organizations, and agreements. This encroachment exacerbated and complicated problems, to the point that all countries of the world suffered in the areas of nutrition, health, education, and other areas, but to varying degrees. As for the Muslim World, its countries were the most affected in this area.

As for our Muslim World, there are other root causes that have led to these crises, such as, the governments’ poor guardianship of people’s affairs, their mismanagement of resources and wealth, and the poor care of human resources, including intellectuals, experts, and workers. All of this is due to the implementation of kufr systems instead of the just Islamic system, which requires the ruler to diligently care for the affairs of his subjects according to Shariah Law, manage their affairs, and ensure a decent living for them to the best of his ability. The Khaleefah (caliph) of the Muslims, Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra), even said on the day of his appointment as Khaleefah,

«لو تعثرت بغلة في العراق لخشيت أن يسألني الله عنها يوم القيامة: لم لم تمهد لها الطريق يا عمر؟» “If a mule stumbled in Iraq, I would fear that Allah (swt) would ask me about it on the Day of Judgment, ‘Why did you not pave its way, Umar?’”

Another cause is the assuming of power by traitorous, agent tyrants, who handed Muslim lands over to the West to plunder their wealth and resources. They plunged societies into crises to distract the people from change and from restoring the Ummah's authority, and to please their colonialist masters.

If we examine the wealth and resources of Muslim countries in detail, we find that they are abundant and diverse, and sufficient to provide a high level of services to the people, ensuring their right to a dignified life and preserving their rights to a decent standard of living. However, for the reasons mentioned above, crises appear instead of prosperity and abundance, especially the underground wealth that treacherous rulers offer to colonialists for their own benefit and control.

An example of the wealth of Muslim countries is water. Our countries are extremely rich in both surface and groundwater, yet they suffer from a shortage of potable, drinkable water, a nearly universal problem. Egypt and Sudan, for example, suffer from a shortage of potable water and are threatened with being classified as water-scarce regions, despite the Nile River flowing through them! However, the crisis arose due to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which has unfairly reduced their share.

This is in addition to the pollution of the Nile’s waters with chemical, agricultural, and sewage pollutants. The governments in both countries do not work to prevent or treat this pollution when it occurs, despite the possibility of doing so, with proper care and wise management. Furthermore, both countries are subject to colonialist schemes that deepen the crisis, such as the civil war in Sudan, orchestrated by American agents, which has exacerbated the potable water crisis in Sudan.

Iraq, the land of the Tigris and Euphrates, is also suffering from a water crisis due to administrative corruption in the government, and the decline in the water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates, most notably due to the construction of dams on the Turkish side.

Even countries that lack surface water are very rich in groundwater, and many Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Jordan, and others, rely on it.

In other words, a water crisis is not caused by a lack of water in the country. Water is available, and most countries are rich in it, both surface and groundwater. Even seawater can be repurposed for drinking and irrigation, using desalination technology, for use in agriculture, for example. However, the lack of care, widespread administrative corruption, and subservience to colonialist powers, their organizations and agreements create crises and exacerbate them.

As for the human potential in the countries of the Muslim World, it is a unique potential. Muslim societies are young, eager to work, learn, and gain experience. However, this potential is wasted and lacks support from their governments, from the educational system, to job creation. If these potentials were provided with opportunities, and their directions were regulated, they would be utilized in production. Experts, technicians, and specialists would be found capable of utilizing technological, scientific, and industrial progress to create and improve basic services.

For example, the waste crisis is one of the most prominent environmental crises facing Lebanon. In 2015, mass protests erupted demanding a solution to the crisis, after it had escalated to an unbearable level. Meanwhile, advanced industrial technology in the world uses waste to produce energy, for example. There are leading countries in this field, such as Sweden, which imports waste to produce energy.

Another example is the food crisis. Muslim countries are capable of producing food at a level that would meet the needs of the entire world, had animal and agricultural resources been properly cared for and managed, and human energies were directed toward agricultural production and food processing. Yet, Muslims today suffer from poverty and hunger despite this.

In short, the real cause of the basic service crises in Muslim countries is their governing systems, regimes, and orders, through their subjugation to colonialism. The ultimate solution to these crises lies in establishing an Islamic state, which is capable of ensuring a decent living for people. Even in the event of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and drought, the Islamic economic system implemented will inevitably provide basic services, at a level appropriate to humanity in all circumstances.