Press Release

International Campaign: “Al-Khilafah "Caliphate" & Education: Reviving the Golden Age”

Launched by the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

On the 16^th of February, the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir launched an important global campaign entitled, “Al-Khilafah "Caliphate" & Education: Reviving the Golden Age”. It will culminate in a momentous international women’s conference on March 11^th in Jakarta, Indonesia which will be attended by speakers from across the world.

The Muslim world is currently suffering from an ‘Education Crisis’ of significant proportions, marked by substandard provision of good quality schools, colleges, universities and other educational facilities. The region is plagued by high illiteracy; poor training and pay of teachers; ineffective teaching methods; poor access to comprehensive education in Islam, stifling scholarship in the Deen; and inadequate opportunities for research and specialization. Furthermore, parents and students face an immense financial burden to access a good level of education. All this has crushed the educational aspirations of the future generation of this Ummah, led to a significant brain-drain to the West, and contributed to stagnation in progress and development in the Muslim world. This Education Crisis has been caused by the imposition of colonial based education systems in the Muslim lands for the last 9 decades since the destruction of the Khilafah "Caliphate". These education systems were never aimed at fulfilling the educational aspirations of the Ummah, or elevating the academic standards of societies, or achieving progress and development in the Muslim lands. Rather they were simply a means employed by the colonialists to instill, disseminate and preserve the secular liberal culture in the future generations of the Muslims while also restricting and secularizing the teaching of Islam. The aim was to colonize the minds of young Muslims and enslave them to the Western culture and system to further colonial objectives in the region. Successive generations of Western-backed secular leaderships in the Muslim world continued to implement this regressive education system and introduced further secular reforms under the false guise of educational development. These curricula were devoid of any independent vision that would sincerely serve the educational needs of their people and contribute to progress in their lands. This agenda to secularise the education systems of the Muslim world has intensified in recent years. Alongside all this, decades of poor organization and under-investment in education due to flawed capitalist systems and policies, as well as visionless regimes that failed to give education the importance it deserves, compounded the ‘Education Crisis’.

Our lands under the shade of the Islamic rule of the Khilafah "Caliphate" which gave great importance and support to the acquiring and dissemination of knowledge as prescribed by Islam, were once the centre of learning for the world. The academic excellence of their educational institutions attracted the best academics and thinkers from across the globe and provided a first-class education to thousands of students, generating an abundance of scholars and scientists and an era of great innovation and discovery, creating a glorious civilization that became the super-power of the world. It is our duty to work hard to restore the Khilafah "Caliphate" of Islam, the Khilafah "Caliphate" of truth and justice, to return the Muslim lands as the good educational torch for not only the Muslim lands, but also their surroundings. This campaign and conference will therefore seek to call Muslims globally to revive this golden age of education and advancement through the re-establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" based upon the method of the Prophethood. It will present a vision of the education policy of the Khilafah "Caliphate" and how it will practically build a first-class education system which will generate Muslim youth with exemplary Islamic personalities; fulfil the educational aspirations of men and women alike; revive a golden generation of scholarship; and create a magnificent civilization leading the world in innovation and cutting-edge scientific and industrial advancement. The campaign and conference will also expose the current intense agenda to further secularise education in the Muslim world and the causes of the education crisis in the region, as well as provide guidance on Islamic Education of Muslim children in the absence of the Khilafah "Caliphate". Link to the campaign launch video: https://youtu.be/IOz4G979Mgw. The campaign can be followed at: https://goo.gl/g9Wt2B and the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/WomenandShariah.

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz

Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir