Press Release
Cholera is Killing the People of Syria, So Where is the Supporting State?!
(Translated)

The Ministry of Health of the Syrian regime announced on Monday that a cholera outbreak in several areas has killed 29 people, the deaths and injuries were concentrated in the northern Aleppo governorate, where 25 people were confirmed to have died, and several thousand suspected cases were reported across the country as of September 19, according to the data obtained by the charity association from the Government of Syria’s (GoS) Directorate of Health, Self Administration’s Local Health Authority, in North and East Syria. This has happened after the United Nations announced, this month, that the outbreak is believed to be linked to irrigating crops using contaminated water and drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates River, which crosses Syria from north to east.

The tragedy and suffering caused by the Syrian war is extensive, as it destroyed nearly half of the health care facilities in addition to causing severe damage to the infrastructure, which caused a scarcity of water resources in many of the affected areas. This has pushed many people to rely on unsafe water supplies which in turn expedited the spreading of diseases and epidemics, and this is obvious through the cholera that has infected in particular the people of Aleppo, which is the largest stronghold of opponents of the regime. This is not to mention the crimes targeting populated areas, where thousands of children, women, young and elderly were killed, and deprived thousands of students from continuing their education, due to the targeting of their schools or their dislocation from their homes, in addition to causing food insecurity and the spread of hunger and malnutrition among thousands of children.

The claim of organizations, that call themselves humanitarian, to care for the humanitarian situation in Syria is untruthful. It is not intended to reduce the suffering of its people, as much as it is intended to lessen the direct responsibility from the criminal Baathist regime and from those whose hands were also stained by this barbaric war that the major powers declared against the people of ash-Sham who revolted against oppression and tyranny. It is clear that the capitalist countries have no sincere intention to save the Muslims in Syria, just as they have no intention of saving the Muslims in Yemen, Myanmar, Palestine, Kashmir and others because according to their rotten capitalism standards, there is no political or economic gain to be achieved from stopping or ending the killing of children and defenseless civilians.

O Muslims: As you know, there is currently a humanitarian catastrophe made by people affecting our people in Syria, as the water may be polluted by people as a result of materials that are used in industry and agriculture, such as heavy metals like lead and mercury, and chemicals and dangerous compounds like pesticides and fertilizers. It may also be contaminated as a result of materials of natural origin, such as arsenic metal or pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and parasites like single-celled organisms and maggots. If left untreated, these pollutants can cause a whole range of diseases, which will cause great harm to human health. According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people worldwide are deprived of clean drinking water, and at least four million people, most of them children, die annually from diseases resulting from contaminated drinking water, such as typhoid fever, cholera, schistosomiasis, dysentery and other diarrheal diseases.

Therefore, according to the broad legal basis that states that there should be no harm, and in accordance to the hadiths that prohibit polluting public water that belongs to all Muslims, it is the duty of the state to take care of the cleanliness of water sources and to monitor the quality of drinking water and to make sure it contains no pollutants. But where is that fair supporting state?!

Yes, this is the state of the Islamic Ummah in the absence of the state that takes care and defends its affairs, and this Ummah will remain in its decline until it knows that its salvation is through understanding its religion and through applying it in life, by the establishment of its state that implements the provisions and regulations of its belief, the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophethood.

(وَيَوْمَئِذٍ يَفْرَحُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ * بِنَصْرِ اللَّهِ يَنصُرُ مَن يَشَاءُ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ)

“And on that day the believers will rejoice, at the victory willed by Allah. He gives victory to whoever He wills. For He is the Almighty, Most Merciful.” [Ar-Rum:4-5]

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