KMAG OCT 2011:Kmag template201x269...you secure a society from lone gunmen? Is there sufficient information sharing between governments? Is this threat comparable to the ‘Al-Qaida’

O you who believe, respond to the call of Allah and His Messenger when He calls you to that which would give you life...

THUL-QEDAH 1432 A.H - THUL-HIJJAH 1432 A.H. ··· OCTOBER 2011 ··· ISSUE: 18

NORWAY’S TRAGEDY ILLUSTRATES EUROPE’S POLITICAL PARADOXES - WHO WILLRESCUE THE SYRIAN PEOPLE FROM ASSAD’S BLOODY REGIME? - HOW SHOULDMUSLIMS RESPOND TO THE PREVENT STRATEGY? - THE FAMINE CRISIS IN EAST AFRICAIS A RESULT OF POOR FOOD SECURITY POLICIES - WESTERN HEGEMONY AND THEARAB WORLD: RECONSTRUCTING THE ARAB POLITICAL ORDER IN THE 21ST CENTURY -THE UK RIOTS - IS PAKISTAN’S ECONOMY DEPENDANT ON WESTERN AID?

ASSADNext in Line

NEWSBITES

2 :: Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 www.khilafah.eu

THE UGLY TRUTH OF BRITISHCOLLUSION WITH GADDAFI’STORTURERSWhile the UK government boasts aboutits “humanitarian intervention” in Libya,the depth of British and Americancomplicity in the torture and rendition ofLibyan opposition figures has beenexposed with the capture of documentsfrom the offices of Moussa Koussa formerregime security chief and right-hand manof Moammar Gaddafi.

London's involvement in the rendition ofAbdel-Hakim Belhaj, the militarycommander of rebel forces in Tripoli, wasrevealed in the letter from an MI6 officerin which he stresses to Moussa Koussathat it was British intelligence which ledto the capture of Mr Belhaj, then leader ofthe Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, beforehe was sent to Libya (rendered) by theAmericans. The Independent on Sundayreported that the senior UK intelligenceofficial then sought information obtainedfrom the Islamic leader by “enhancedinterrogation technique”. Mr Belhajconfirmed that he was tortured duringquestioning.

When confronted with these revelations,UK foreign secretary William Hague triedblaming the previous government sayinghe does not comment on security mattersthough only a few months ago, Cameron’sgovernment was arming and supportingthe brutal Gadaffi regime and maintaininga ‘close security relationship’ with it.”

ERDOGAN CALLS FOR A SECULAR EGYPTTurkish Prime Minister Recep TayyipErdogan made his colours absolutely clearby calling on Egyptians to adopt a secularconstitution, in early September. A secularstate respects all religions, Erdogan said inan interview with the private satellite TVchannel Dream before heading to Egyptfor a two-day visit.“Do not be wary of secularism. I hope

there will be a secular state in Egypt”Erdogan said.

Erdogan said Egypt needs to meet somerequirements for establishing a modernstate, including better management ofhuman resources, more attention toeducation, improved management offinancial resources and eliminatingcorruption. He stressed that people havethe right to choose whether or not to bereligious, adding that he is a Muslim primeminister for a secular state.

These statements shocking they may be,are nothing less than typical when weexamine the sorry record of Erdogan inTurkey. Despite promises of movementtowards the implementation of Islam insociety, Turkey falls well short of what isrequired and Erdogan is simplyconfirming that he has littleunderstanding of and even less intentionof implementing Islam.

WIKILEAKS: IRAQI CHILDREN IN USRAID SHOT IN HEAD, U.N. REPORTS

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public byWikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S.troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians,including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in anairstrike to destroy the evidence, during acontroversial 2006 incident in the centralIraqi town of Ishaqi.

This cell phone photo was shot by aresident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, ofbodies Iraqi police said were of childrenexecuted by U.S. troops after a night raidthere. A State Department cable obtainedby WikiLeaks quotes the U.N. investigatorof extrajudicial killings as saying anautopsy showed the residents of thehouse had been handcuffed and shot inthe head, including children under the age

of 5. McClatchy obtained the photo froma resident when the incident occurred.The unclassified cable, which was postedon WikiLeaks' website last week,contained questions from a UnitedNations investigator about the incident,which had angered local Iraqi officials,who demanded some kind of action fromtheir government. U.S. officials denied atthe time that anything inappropriate hadoccurred.

COURT MIFFED BY ISI’S LACK OF‘SERIOUS EFFORTS’

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) in earlySeptember expressed anger over the lackof serious efforts by the Inter ServiceIntelligence (ISI) for the recovery ofmissing Hizb ut -Tahrir (HT) activists whowent missing in July. Chief Justice IqbalHameedur Rehman in his judgmentobserved that “no serious efforts are beingmade towards the recovery of the missingdetainees and the respondent DirectorGeneral (DG) ISI has not submitted areply so far”. The ISI was ordered tosubmit a full response to their findings.

Relatives of the missing HT activists hadfiled writ petitions before the court inJuly, maintaining that security agencieswere responsible for the disappearances.The missing activists include Osama Hanif(telecom engineer), Hayyan Dawar, dentalSurgeon Dr Abdul Qayyum, and deputyspokesman of HT Imran Yousafzai (whoselast speech prior to abduction is providedin this issue of the magazine).�

The world is in a state of flux. TheDollar, the main reserve currency in theworld, is in decline with governmentsand investors around the world stockingup on gold. The Euro project,attempting to unify mainland Europeupon a single currency, is on the brinkof collapse.

Capitalism is in crisis, and the world hasno other model to look to in order tosolve its problems.

But in another place - a place that hasbeen the victim of capitalist colonialpolicies that propped up brutal tyrants -the Muslim world is still moving througha revolution.

Gaddafi, the butcher of Libya, is the thirdtyrant to be toppled this year. May Allah(SWT) reward the brave Libyan peoplefor their efforts. To be sure, theinvolvement of NATO in the regioncould be said to have soiled thismomentous event, and brings significantdangers for the people of Libya. NATOhas swiftly gone beyond its SecurityCouncil brief and decided it is staying topatrol the skies of Libya. It has securedoil contracts for some of its memberstates and also seeks to influence Libya’sfuture. The statement by Mustafa AbdulJalil talking about Islam’s role in thefuture of Libya has alarmed some

commentators – especially since formermembers of the Libyan Islamic FightingGroup are prominent in the leadershipof the NTC, alongside some very secularand compliant figures, who had links tothe former regime.

In Yemen and Syria, the violencesuppression of the Islamic people,standing up week after week to face theguns and bullets of regimes with theirwords and bare chests, has escalated. Wepray this is the darkness before thedawn; the hardship that precedes easeand the victory of Allah (SWT).

Even in Egypt – when Mubarak wasremoved in a coup by his own formerallies in the military – the people havedecided they have not seen the changethey really wanted to materialise. Theyhave, in the past few weeks, gathered upto a million people calling for Shari’ah tobe the system in Egypt. They have takenunprecedented action against the Israeli‘embassy’ in Cairo – removing the flagfrom the roof and then later stormingthe building, in protest at Israel’s latestaggression.

People are hungry for a change – andevery week old assumptions arechallenged. One such assumption wasthat the Erdogan’s AKP government inTurkey was a stepping-stone from

secularism to Islamic government.Several actors in the Middle East hadexpressed interest in replicating theAKP’s methods – until Erdogan himselfcame to the Middle East preaching thevirtues of secularism, alongside anti-Israeli rhetoric. His frank admissionevangelising secular capitalistgovernment sent shockwaves throughIslamic groups; aside from the fact that itis the same secular capitalist system thatis so in question in its homelands –where it created the global economiccrisis; where we have seen rioting inBritain; the decline of family andcommunity; and even a doubling of thesuicide rate in Greece.

The changes in the Middle East, coupledwith the crisis in Capitalism, areunprecedented. Once upon a time,Washington, London and Paris weretrumpeted as role models for the Muslimworld. Now this is not the case – and itmeans as the debates about the future ofthe Muslim world begin, Islam will takea central role.

We welcome these debates, and areconfident that the future offers hope toall in form of refreshing and distinctideas.�

Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 :: 3www.khilafah.eu

EditorialDR. ABDUL WAHID

As the world transforms, theArab revolution moves forward

One man has committed mass murder, butexposed a host of contradictions andquestions for an entire continent.

Norway has suffered a collective tragedy.Not only has its relative peace beenshattered, but the casualties from thisweekend’s massacre includes adisproportionate number of its youngactive citizens.

It will be sometime before this smallcountry, whose entire population is only60% that of Greater London, recoversfrom a massacre the death toll of which is2-3 times that of 7/7.

Such an event would be sadly commonplace in the destabilised places in theworld, where the state is weak - such asIraq or Pakistan. But it is a humiliation aswell as a tragedy for Europe, where suchdestabilisation has not usually occurred

and where the writ of the state is strong.

Nonetheless there are many issues thatemerge from this event, and it isconspicuous that Europe’s politicalleaders are avoiding addressing them.They are, instead raising a series of mucheasier issues for themselves to address.

The issues the political class are choosingto address - the wrong ones - mainlysurround questions of security: How doyou secure a society from lone gunmen?Is there sufficient information sharingbetween governments? Is this threatcomparable to the ‘Al-Qaida’ bogeyman? -To which William Hague replied - ‘no’ ,saying Al Qaida was still a bigger threat!

This last answer from Hague needsreflecting upon, as it explains the politicalresponse to this crisis. They hope todeflect attention from the serious

problem Europe faces from racist andxenophobic attitudes, the rise of the far-right, and a worsening economic situation.They hope to keep the domestic andinternational policy agenda firmlyfocussed on the Islamic world andMuslims. All of this shows the paradoxesand stark contradictions in policy makingtowards Muslims and non-Muslims.

EUROPEAN XENOPHOBIA VS MUSCULARLIBERALISM

The rise of the far-right across Europe hasbeen noticed by many over the past fewyears - whether the rise of Jorge Haider inAustria, the right-wing parties in EasternEurope some of whom are in conservativepolitical groupings in the EuropeanParliament, or the BNP and EDL in theUK.

Concerns about this stem from Europe’s20th century experience with fascism,and centuries of bloodshed. The nationstate identity adopted by Europe could beargued to have institutionalised base tribalattitudes that are exhibited incontemporary nationalism, as well as 20thcentury European fascism.

Paradoxically, the policies adopted 30years ago aimed to diminish suchattitudes - the doctrine of multiculturalism- is attacked as having failed by politiciansacross Europe, who reinforce racist viewsdemanding Muslims integrate andwesternize, ban symbols of Islam [likehijabs, niqabs and minarets] and whofrequently criticise immigration [eventhough their economies depend on


Norway’s Tragedyillustrates Europe’sPolitical Paradoxes

DR ABDUL WAHID

immigrant labour].

When British Prime Minister DavidCameron addressed this issue in February2011 at a security conference in Munich[of all places!], calling for a new ‘muscularliberalism’, he was praised by the leaderof France’s racist National Front, MarineLe Pen - illustrating the political affinitybetween ‘muscular liberals’ like Cameronand the extreme right wing.

Muscular liberals like Cameron, Blairbefore him, and Sarkozy, would doubtlessargue from a different perspective. Theyhave no problem, fundamentally, withnon-European culture saturating Europe -whether from the United States or theIndian subcontinent. But they dislike therise of Islam in Europe because they see anew value structure being adopted byMuslims [increasingly joined by Europeanconverts] in favour of liberal values. Thisis problematic for politicians who have,over the past ten years, endorsed militaryenforcement of these liberal values intothe Muslim world - and who see thefailure to intellectually convince Muslimsof these values.

The far-right dislike all forms of foreignculture. Indeed, if they weren’t sorepulsed by the fact they view Islam asforeign, they might feel they have more incommon with the socially conservativevalues exhibited by religious peoplegenerally. Moreover, these people haveoften opposed their troops being sent offto far away lands to kill and to die forcauses that seem to have little to do withnational security.

Both racist xenophobes and muscularliberals are unified on anti-Islamicrhetoric, and policies that would forceMuslims to integrate. But they differ onsocial values and foreign policy.

MUSCULAR LIBERALS DOMINATE THEPOLITICAL CLASS

Europe’s political class is dominated bypoliticians from the centre ground. Someof these are real muscular liberals. Othersmerely respond to public concerns aboutthe economy and immigration.

Increasingly, this class of politician is seenas detached from the concerns and

aspirations of the masses.

Their solution to dealing with theconcerns of their majority populationshas been, historically, to push for greatereconomic growth, in the hope thateconomic prosperity will diminish theappeal of nationalist and right-winggroups.

That is, in part, why their policiescontinue to include colonial interferencein far-away lands - which is why they havedeveloped strategies to address Islamdomestically and internationally - whichincludes aborting multiculturalism andadopting a more aggressive assimilationistapproach.

It is also why they continue to appeaseand over-represent the interests of the‘wealth-creators’ - the banks, financialinstitutions and big business.

But this policy, after the crash of 2008 andthe current Eurozone crisis, alienates thepolitical class even more from the masses- whose jobs, homes and benefits are lesssecure than they have been for years, andwho are consequently ever more willingto listen to the far right.

EUROPE’S SOCIETIES BECOME MOREFRACTURED BY DOUBLE STANDARDS

Not only is there a growing fault linebetween the ruling class and the majoritypopulation [fuelled by the doublestandard in how wealth creators aretreated versus consumers], but Europe’sMuslims find themselves caught betweena far-right - that hates foreigners andanything foreign - and the political class,who dislike their adherence to theirIslamic values, as it is part of a globalrevival of a rival ideology, which threatensthe hegemony of capitalism in the Muslimworld.

Hence, when Muslims [amongst others]see rank double standards in the way theNorway massacres have been covered, italienates them further from politiciansand the media.

They witness the media blaming ‘Islamicterror groups’ for the attacks. Later, whenit was clear Muslims had nothing to dowith it, they heard the self-confessed

murderer-for-political-ends described as a‘lone madman’, and not a ‘terrorist’ bypoliticians and the media.

This double standard is all too obvious, asis the silence of politicians regarding theIslamophobic media coverage, which theyhelped to create in the first place.

But we will now see another doublestandard. The 7/7/ bombings resulted in ahastily assembled series of workshops anddiscussion, after which [but not out ofwhich] the Prevent strategy emerged. Anargument rapidly dominated that thecause of the bombings was an Islamicpolitical ideology that needed to betackled. The argument evolved into notmerely clamping down on ‘violentextremist’ ideas but any ‘extremist’[Islamic] ideas. This is the currentworking model in the UK and elsewhere,leading to extrajudicial pressures onspeakers, visitors to the UK and groups.

It is highly unlikely there will be anycomparable strategy to deal with thephilosophical ideas that may or may nothave contributed to the ideology ofAnders Behring Breivik - said to be apractising Christian, and Freemason. Hislinks to the English Defence League arebeing questioned. But whatever actionspoliticians take regarding individuals andfringe groups, we are certainly unlikely tosee the banning of right-wingconservative thinkers from the airwaves,who may or may not have influenced theideas of the ‘fringe’.

WHAT FUTURE?

Decades after two world wars whichemerged from the heart of Europe, andafter centuries of bloodshed, the futuredoes not yet look stable for Europe. Tothis day, it has not found a model thatbrings sustained harmony between statesand between peoples. The loomingeconomic problems only look likely tomake the future less certain. This one manhas committed mass murder, but exposeda host of contradictions and questions foran entire continent. �


DR ABDUL WAHID

“You can't make war in the Middle Eastwithout Egypt and you can't make peacewithout Syria” Henry Kissinger

After spending months observing thecallous slaughter and atrocious carnage ofinnocent Syrians at the hands of Assad'sbrutal regime, the Western powers finallydecided to call for Assad’s departure. InAugust 2011, US President Obama said,“The future of Syria must be determinedby its people, but President Bashar al-Assadis standing in their way. His calls fordialogue and reform have rung hollowwhile he is imprisoning, torturing andslaughtering his own people. We haveconsistently said that President Assad mustlead a democratic transition or get out ofthe way. He has not led. For the sake of the

Syrian people, the time has come forPresident Assad to step aside”. Cameronissued a similar joint statement withSarkozy and Merkel that read: “Our threecountries believe that President Assad, whois resorting to brutal military force againsthis own people and who is responsible forthe situation, has lost all legitimacy and canno longer claim to lead the country. We callon him to face the reality of the completerejection of his regime by the Syrianpeople and to step aside in the bestinterests of Syria and the unity of it”. TheEU foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton, saidthere had been a “complete loss of BasharAssad's legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrianpeople”.

It was no coincidence that the West’s call

for Assad’s departure came after the failedefforts of some Gulf Arab countries andTurkey. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrainand Kuwait somehow mustered enoughstrength to lift themselves from paralysisand did the ignoble deed of recalling theirambassadors from Damascus. Even in theirterse statements, one finds little solace forthe Syrian people. “The Kingdom of SaudiArabia stands before its historicresponsibility toward her brothers,demanding the stoppage of the killingmachine and bloodshed, and the use ofreason before it is too late”, Abdullah saidin a statement that was read on Saudi statetelevision. The pitiful remark that tookmonths to transpire is by all accountsanother bloody stain on the threemonarchs that not only share much of thesame features as Assad's oppressive regime,but are exemplary masters in their ownright at crushing domestic opposition.Hence the muzzled criticisms andrestrained gestures dressed in velvet glovesare hardly going to halt Assad's rivers ofblood. The same can be said for the West’scondemnation of Assad’s regime andpseudo smart sanctions that will invariablypreserve the longevity of the regime a littlelonger, while a suitable alternative isgroomed or found.

Then there is Turkey, which has been soboisterous in its chastisement of Assad thatmany poor souls in Syria have beenlonging for Erdogan to intervene andrescue them from the barbarism of Assad'sAlawite clan. Some members of the clanare responsible for spearheading Assad'swar machine and are notorious for their

www.khilafah.eu6 :: Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011

Who will rescue theSyrian people fromAssad’s bloody regime?

ABID MUSTAFA

hatred towards Sunni Muslims. Theyroutinely torture and taunt their victimsabout their devotion and adherence totheir deen prior to executing them in coldblood.

On August 9th 2011, the Turkish foreignminister Mr. Davutoglu visited Assad tosupposedly deliver a stern message fromErdogan to stop the horrific bloodshed. Hewas bluntly told by Assad that Damascus“will not relent in pursuing the terroristgroups in order to protect the stability ofthe country and the security of thecitizens”. In other words leave us alone tokill whomsoever we like.

Out of all the regional countries andWestern powers that have hithertoexpressed their displeasure towards Assad'sregime, Turkey is best place to put aninstant stop to the carnage. This is becauseErdogan domestically is stronger than everbefore, and has achieved the nearimpossible feat of not only marginalizingthe army's role in political life, but hasreplaced the army's leadership withhandpicked generals. This means thatunder Erdogan's stewardship the executive,the judiciary, the army and much of thecivic institutions can be galvanized tosupport an immediate intervention in Syriaand put an end to the targeted massacre ofSyrians. Recent history also bearstestimony on Erdogan's side. In 1998,Turkey amassed 10,000 troops at theSyrian border and threatened to invade,unless Damascus surrendered the thenPKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Damascusquickly capitulated and asked Ocalan toleave, who was eventually apprehended inKenya. If the military threat is not enough,then Erdogan could borrow a page fromthe so-called doctrine of humanitarianintervention invoked by Britain and Franceas a pretext to invade Libya. He is sure tofind little international opposition shouldhe opt for this route. Erdogan can easilydivert Turkey’s armed forces currentlybeing used to disable PKK positions toimmobilize Assad’s security forces andslow down their advance. If Erdogan wereonly to take a small step in this direction,he would enjoy the whole hearted supportof the Ummah.

With all of the odds stacked in his favour,Erdogan continues to drag his heels, as ifthe spilling of Muslim blood at the handsof Assad is novel spectator sport. This is

very reminiscent of the Jewish state'sslaughter of its Palestinians in 2009,followed by Erdogan's fiery rhetoricagainst Shimon Perez, which in the endwas capped by inaction.

In this respect, Erdogan is no different toother rulers of the Arab and Muslim worldwho are often found floundering at thetime of the Ummah's need, despite thecapability of their armed forces and thepolitical reality of the situation being intheir favour. This is because Erdogan andother Arab rulers do not serve the Ummahof the Messenger of Allah (sall Allahu alaihiwa sallam). Rather, they are servants offoreign powers and are the leadingcustodians of their master's interests in theregion. They are merely puppets whospeak and act when they are told and notbefore. For instance, Erdogan’s timelyexpulsion of Israel’s ambassador to Turkey,and the suspension of military agreementswith the Jewish state is designed toincrease pressure on Israel to resumepeace talks with the Palestinians. Thiscomes at a time when the Jewish state isextremely anxious about its border withEgypt and Syria. In this way, the US is usingErdogan, Egypt’s military junta and theprecarious situation in Syria to pressuriseNetanyahu to restart peace talks.

As for Syria, both Erdogan and Khameneiacting under US patronage are covertlyaiding and abetting Assad’s regime, giving itenough time to put down the uprising. Thetoothless sanctions announced by the USunderscores just how keen the Obamaadministration is for the current regime tostymie the domestic revolt. In themeantime, the US continues to explorealternative political solutions to Assad'sregime - again with Turkey and Iran's fullcooperation. This is the ugly reality of thesituation that faces the innocent people ofSyria. Erdogan’s immediate remit, asstipulated to him by his American masters,is twofold: First, to gather the Syrianopposition in Turkey and develop apolitical alternative to Assad. The Syrianopposition has held several meetings sinceMay 2011 under the auspices of theTurkish government. At the last meeting inIstanbul, the Syrian opposition managed toreach broad agreement on the 120nominees for the transitional council.Second, is to enable NATO to arm Syrianmilitants and to use a similar approach thatresulted in the ouster of Gaddafi from

Tripoli. “Turkey’s military will protect thearms caches on their passage to Syrianrebels. Syrian protest leaders and armydeserters have been training in the use ofthe new weapons with Turkish militaryofficers at makeshift installations in Turkishbases near the Syrian border”. As reportedrecently by Press TV, citing the Israeliintelligence front, Debka.

The only salvation for the people of Syriaand for that matter the entire Arab andMuslim world is to cease in theengagement of useless pursuits such as thereliance on Western powers to rescuethem from tyrant rulers who in the firstplace were handpicked and planted by theWest.

Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya are clearexamples, where the West soughthumanitarian excuses to intervene andengineered nation building solutions thatcemented Western hegemony throughsubtly changing the face of the rulingregime. Neither the people nor thecountry has benefited to date.Instead, the people of the Arab world mustwork to find salvation in the restoration ofthe Khilafah Islamic State. For only theKhilafah - on the way of the Prophethood,can give them protection, dignity andjustice as history has taught us. TheMessenger of Allah (sall Allahu alaihi wasallam) said, “The imam is a shield behindwhom the people are protected andbehind which they fight”. [Sahih Muslim]�

7 :: Khilafah Magazine :: September 2010www.khilafah.eu Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 :: 7

ABID MUSTAFA


The summer of 2011 was the 4thanniversary of the global financial crisis.However 2011 may go down in thehistory books for something verydifferent. On the 5th August 2011 thecommunists of China gave the Capitalistworld a dressing down. It was the daythe communists told the capitalists in thewest how to run their economies asAmerica’s lost its triple A credit rating.This time last year the global economywas struggling to grow, the multilateralapproach that had characterized theearly response to the financial crisis wasbeginning to unravel as more and morenations were turning to economicnationalism and the currency warbetween the US and China was reachingfever pitch.

Since the global financial crisis began in2008 the end to the crisis appears asdistant as ever and in 2011 further crackshave appeared. To remind us of how wehave got here - growth in Westerneconomies in the last decade was drivenby the real estate bubble whichstimulated the remainder of theeconomies of the West. The bubblereached colossal proportions becausebanks were able to create variousfinancial products from debt which werethen sold to other banks based upon theassumption that the housing bubble willcontinue to expand. The subsequentcollapse in housing prices exposedgaping holes in lending practices of theworlds largest banks, many banks wereforced to write off billions in debt, asthey on mass were being defaulted upon.As banks collect customer deposits and

lend to new businesses and projects allof this came to a grinding halt and dueto this a crisis that was inherentlyfinancial, shifted to the real economy,hence production fell, many companiescollapsed and unemployment soared.

The response of Western economies wasto either nationalise failing banks,provide bailouts to others, and a newinvention - quantitative Easing (QE) anew electronic way of creating money.The cost of this was huge and as a resultthis eventually led to a period ofausterity – government cuts across theWestern world to repay the money usedto bailout the bankers. These measureswere all meant to kick start economicgrowth and end the economic crisis,however the US debt ceiling debacle andthe sovereign debt crisis in Europe showthat the global economic crisis is farfrom over.

US DEBT DEBACLE

The debacle that took place in the USbetween the Republicans and Democratswas over increasing the debt ceiling –the amount the government can borrow.The US government needs thepermission of Congress to raise theceiling re the amount of money it canborrow. If Congress didn’t grant anincrease then Obama’s regime wouldhave hit the debt ceiling limit and wouldhave had difficulties in meeting itsrepayments. Ironically the US borrows torepay previous debts. This is not the firsttime the US has been forced to increaseits debt ceiling. In February 2010 a

similar fanfare took place. This ratherflexible “ceiling” has been raised 33 timessince it first was raised over the $1trillion level in September 1981. NobleLaureate Paul Krugman outlined thefanfare: “The facts of the crisis over thedebt ceiling aren’t complicated.Republicans have, in effect, takenAmerica hostage, threatening toundermine the economy and disrupt theessential business of government unlessthey get policy concessions they wouldnever have been able to enact throughlegislation. And Democrats – who wouldhave been justified in rejecting thisextortion altogether – have, in fact, gonea long way toward meeting thoseRepublican demands.” And, oh yes, thePresident had some big skin in thegame.”

The debt impasse in reality concealedAmerica’s bankruptcy. America’sfundamental problem is that it ishttp://www.hizb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/top-ten-holders-of-US-Debt.jpgdrowning in a seaof debt. The US economy generatesaround $14 trillion annually, however thenational debt – the money the centraland federal government owes to the USpublic and the world through the bonds(or IOU’s) they have issued – stands at$14.3 trillion. Interest payments on thisdebt alone was $414 billion in 2010.Those who are expecting to be repaid bythe US one day include governmentssuch as China, companies and banks. Thisdebt emanates from US citizenry’s hugeappetite for imports and credit cards andas a result consumer debt stands at $2.4trillion. The desire by American’s to owntheir own homes has resulted inmortgage debts of $13.2 trillion. Thedebts of US companies amount to $20.8trillion. This makes the US indebted tothe tune of $50.7 trillion – more than thecombined economies of Japan, ChinaBritain, Germany, France, Brazil, Canadaand Italy twice over. The US trade deficitalso continues to balloon, the amount theUS imports compared to the amount itexports – in essence the money the USowes to the world – stands at $500billion. And these figures exclude thefuture – so far unfunded – obligations ofthe American people including pensions,medicare/Medicaid and so on whichamount to many trillions more.

UPDATE: GlobalEconomic Crisis –The Crises of Debt

ADNAN KHAN

With the US economy faltering andstruggling to create sustainable growth,questions are being asked about theability of the US to repay its debts. Chinawho holds most of America’s debt shouldduly be concerned as the credit rating ofthe US is being downgraded. Due to thesize of America’s economy, if it’s notgrowing then this will also drag theglobal economy down, as the US is itslargest constituent. China and othercreditors are also highly worried by theconstant devaluation of the dollarrepresented by the constant increase ingold prices and other preciouscommodities – caused by growingindebtedness and QE.

EUROPE’S SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

The European Union now has a growinglist of states that are considered the sickmen of Europe. European attempts atdefence against a deep recession hasnow created a new crisis ofunsustainable and un-serviceablesovereign debt. Much of this can beattributed to stimulus packages passedby European governments in order toblunt the effects of the economic crisis,especially in preventing massiveemployment layoffs. Europe’sheavyweights spent massively onstimulation packages. This led to debtlevels skyrocketing across the Eurozone,but especially in the PIIGS countries.

At the centre of the crisis is thefractional reserve banking system wherea small amount of physical money innotes and coins can be used to createdebts many folds over. The Greek debtcrisis is a good example. Greece hasdebts of €300 billion, with an economyof only €240 billion and a governmentbudget of only €91 billion. The Greekeconomy is in no better position todayafter 3 bailouts and massive public sectorlayoffs.

The Euro was hailed as the replacementto the dollar. However the financial crisishas brought a damning fact to thesurface, whilst countries such as Franceand Germany will be able to service theirdebts, nearly all of the other eurozonenations have pitiful financial situationswhere they have spent well beyond theirmeans and now when it has come to

repay this debt the feasibility of meetingthe regular monthly repayments islooking impossible. The issue the Eurohas faced from its inception is the factthat all the eurozone nations have verydivergent economies and hence thestrength of the euro is in the strength ofthe Eurozone economies and only asstrong as the weakest link.

When the economic problems wereconfined to small countries such asGreece and Ireland, it was assumed thatany fallout could be contained. Nowhowever the crisis has threatened toengulf nearly all of Europe. Italy which isthe eurozone's third-largest economy andthe world's fourth-biggest debtor is alsoreaching breaking point

ECONOMIC GROWTH

The crisis that engulfed the world in2008 is clearly not over, this is whyWestern economies are being forced intoausterity to balance books beforeeconomic growth can eventuate. Theworld’s largest economies attempted tokick start economic growth via stimulusplans, however any stimulus was always ahigh-octane boost and a temporarymeasure. They are designed to kick-startstalled economies, not to fuel sustainedeconomic growth. The growth that wasachieved in late 2009 until now is reallythe inflated results of stimulus measuresachieving their intended effect to betemporary.

With Western economies dominated bythe service sector, and with the driving

engine being the financial industries it isdifficult to see where economic growthwill come from. Printing more moneyand bailing out the banks has not kickstarted growth, whilst the stimuluspackages have had limited impact andfailed to jump start economic growth.

CONCLUSIONS

With the crisis of debt now firmlyengulfing Europe and the US a doubledip recession is being viewed as acertainty. Analysts have begun to cuttheir outlooks for growth, which wereoriginally based on the premise that theworst of the economic crisis was over.The leg up’s provided by the Capitalistworld in no way dealt with theunderlying economic problems ofunsustainable growth, debt drivenspending, casino finance and bubbleeconomies. What such stimulus packageshave done is kept Capitalist economiesartificially afloat. Whilst the globaleconomy has seen some growth for thelast 18 months once all the temporaryinitiatives have worked their waythrough the economies of the West wewill be back in the original position ofhow to create sustainable growth. Withthe core failure of a number ofinterventions is it not time that moreradical alternatives be considered?Particularly with the unhealthy fractionalreserve banking system and defence ofbanking interests coming before theneeds of the common man.�

Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 :: 9

ADNAN KHAN

www.khilafah.eu

Remember the story of Musa (AS) in[Surah Ghafir/Mu’min 40]:“And Pharaoh said: Let me go to killMoses, and let him cry unto his Lord. Lo!I fear that he will alter your religion orthat he will cause confusion in theland.” [40.v25]

“Moses said: Lo! I seek refuge in myLord and your Lord from every scornerwho believes not in a Day ofReckoning.” [40.v26]

“And a believing man of Pharaoh'sfamily, who hid his faith, said: Wouldyou kill a man because he says: My Lordis Allah, and has brought you clearproofs from your Lord? If he is lying,then his lie is upon him; and if he istruthful, then some of that wherever hethreatens you with will strike you.Indeed! Allah guides not the one who isa prodigal, a liar.” [40.v27]

CONTEXT:What was the context? There are manythings we can relate to this believing manin the context that we live in today. Thestory is the story of Musa (AS) when hewent to Pharaoh to invite him to thebeautiful deen (way of life) of Islam. Toliberate his people who had beenenslaved by Pharaoh when Pharaoh said:“I am your Lord, Most High” [79.v24]And when he said who has more powerthan me, and enslaved the Children ofIsrael. Thus Allah (SWT) sent Musa (AS) toliberate his people from the Taghut(oppression).“Go to Pharaoh, for he has indeedtransgressed all bounds” [79.v16]


HOW SHOULD MUSLIMSRESPOND TO THEPREVENT STRATEGY?

KAMAL ABU ZAHRA

For indeed Pharaoh was a tyrant. So whenMusa (AS) went to account him Pharaohbecame worried as Musa (AS) came witha call, the call of ‘la ilaha ilallah, Musakalim ullah’ the shariah of that time. AsPharaoh grew in worry he said: He said tohis people, “let me go!” As if people wereholding on to him.“I will kill Musa (AS)”“Let him call his Lord”; let us see if hesaves him. Why?“Indeed I fear he will change your way oflife”“Or he will bring much corruption in theland.”

This was the response of Pharaoh in thecourt of Pharaoh. We need to understandthat Musa (AS) was in a foreign land likemany of us who today live in a foreignland.

THE ACTION OF THE BELIEVING MAN:There are many parallels that we candraw here, so when Pharaoh said ‘wehave a terrorist, we have an extremist’called Musa who we have to deal with.

In his court there was man:

“There was a man in the court ofPharaoh from amongst Pharaoh whobelieved in the message of Pharaoh, buthe had hidden his Imaan (Belief)”. Up until that point he did not profess thefact that he was a follower and that hewas from the Ummah of Musa (AS). But itcame to a point, a critical juncture, thetruth needed to be spoken; theatmosphere of fear was there inPharaoh’s court where he had declaredthat he will kill Musa (AS). But the truthmust be spoken, we need to understandthat the truth needs to be spoken at theright time, there is no use of it after it istoo late, the courage one must have is atthe critical juncture. Thus when Pharaohsaid he was going to kill Musa (AS) thebelieving man stood up. He did not fight,but he spoke the truthful words:“Are you going to kill a man just because

of the fact that he says; ‘My Lord is Allah’?”What crime has he committed? The onlything he has testified to is that Allah(SWT) is ‘khaliq’ i.e. the creator, not you OPharaoh and he is the Master not you”.But also“He has come to you with proof from hisLord; he is not just making it up.”“And if he is lying then all you will haveto do is bear with his lie”.“But if he is telling the truth, then thepunishment for rejecting the messagewill come to pass. And verily”“Allah does not guide those who arereckless and those who lie.” Thus we seethis was the courage of the believingman, whose name we do not know, butwe know his act. Today are we not in asimilar situation where we need courage,like that believing man, because we aretold that our values and our ideas need tochange? The Prophet (SAW) said:“Speak the truth even if it is bitter!”

THE AGENDA OF PREVENT:We need to speak the truth even if itsounds bitter. Today we are told that ifyou believe in hijab- you are an extremist.You believe in the role of women thather primary role should be that of a

mother and a wife, although she has aright to engage in the public affairs andwork - you are an extremist. If you wantto teach your children in your schools thedifference between Kufr (disbelief) andImaan (belief) and what it means to be aMuslim - you are an extremist. In fact theywill even put cameras in your mosque tospy on you to check what you areteaching in your curriculum. This is oursituation, the PREVENT agenda wasrecently released by the Government.Cameron spoke about a ‘muscularliberalism’ including the liberal westernvalues of ‘do what you like’, thislicentious value. Whereas Muslims believein ‘Ubudiyyah’ i.e. serving Allah (SWT)and controlling our hawaa (desires) andliberalism believes in unleashing thedesires. These are the values they want usto teach to our children and consider the

word “muscular” i.e. meaning that youwill be pressured into following this.There will be pressure, so if you havebeen receiving funding there will be nomore funding. You will be pressured togive platforms to those who will extolthe virtues of western liberalism in theguise of Islam, and those who call for thetrue, pure and sublime Islamic values willbe branded extremist.

In the government PREVENT documentthey defined something called ‘Islamism’,something they wanted to attack, their‘public enemy number 1’. They said;“Islamism is a philosophy which in itsbroader sense promotes the applicationof Islamic values to modern government.”

So if you want to bring Islamic values tomodern government and politics, and thatwe in the Muslim lands not in the west,but in the Muslim lands want to bringIslamic values to how we live our lives-then you are an extremist. Even in thiscountry (UK) if you want to bring theIslamic value of honesty in politics theywill most probably call you an extremist.Their argument is that if you toe the lineand say that you are not an extremist andalways being in a state of defence it willnot be enough but you must actively callfor liberal values and abandon the Islamicvalues.

OUR STANCE:Now like Pharaoh they are worried thatthere are those in the community whoare saying ‘no’! There are Musa’s (not inthe sense of Prophets, as there are nomore Prophets, but in the sense ofcarrying the Dawah) in this communitywho are saying no and declaring that wewill hold onto our deen while they arethreatening to cut the funding. Ourstance needs to be that they can keeptheir funding, we will hold onto ourImaan.

The Prophet (SAW) used to make du’aagainst certain things such as thepunishment of the grave, or against thetrials of the Dajjal, but he used to alsomake du’a against sins and debt. Aisha(RA) used to ask ‘O prophet of Allah youare always making du’a against debt, wecan understand why you make du’aagainst sins but why debt since it is

www.khilafah.eu Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 :: 11

KAMAL ABU ZAHRA

We need the Musa’s (in the sense as Dawah carriers) to come outand speak the truth and say these are the Islamic values andarticulate a convincing cogent argument for why the Islamicvalues are sublime and beautiful.

permissible to ask for a loan’. The Prophet(SAW) said: ‘if you take a debt you willstart lying’. You will make promises ofpayment and you will break them andthis is the reality of government funding,if you take the money, after you haveused it they will then check yourcurriculum and tell you to stop teachingparts of Islam that are not befitting tothem. So our message is clear that theycan have their money we will hold ontoAllah and his messenger.So at this critical juncture and thesedifficult moments we need twocategories of people:

1. We need the Musa’s (in thesense as Dawah carriers) to come out andspeak the truth and say these are theIslamic values and articulate a convincingcogent argument for why the Islamicvalues are sublime and beautiful.

So when they say the hijab is oppressive,our response is no, it is progressive, itbrings modesty to society. Look at thewestern society and the treatment ofwomen; we want to bring real honour towomen. In this way we need to answerthese questions and we need the Musa’sin the community to stand up.

2. But when Musa speaks therewill be those who will call him anextremist, lock him up and cut off hisfunding with many other actions. Thus inthis situation we need another type ofperson; the believing man, the ordinaryman. There is no need for their name, butwe need them to stand up and say:“Are you going to kill a man just becausehe says my lord is Allah?”Their response needs to be why do youwant to arrest this man or lock him up? He is not calling for violence his call issimply: “Who is better in speech thanone who calls to Allah, worksrighteousness, and says: ‘I am of thosewho bow in Islam’"? [41.v33]The believing man which is every singleone of us, whatever our names maybe ourcharacteristic and sign of Imaan is moreimportant in this situation. All of us whoare in this foreign land have a duty to thenon-Muslims here, who have been fedthis propaganda that Islam is barbaric andthat Muslims are terrorists, we need toexplain and show to them the beauty ofIslam through our character and speech.Every believing man needs to stand anddefend the Musa, defend the call and saythat he is on the truth and I am followingthis truth. But more fundamentally to takeany of these two stands takes courage,because when the believing man stoodup in the court of Pharaoh it was a riskfor him to say ‘you are going to kill Musa,what crime has he done?’. This couragehas to come from our Imaan. How cancowardice and Imaan exist in the heart atthe same time? We need to strengthenour Imaan and then speak the truth andhold onto the deen. Do not fear theblame of the blamers.

Our story of courage comes from AbuBakr (RA). It has been reported by IbnKathir in his ‘al bidayah wan nihayah’where he states that Imam Ali (RA) wasstanding on the mimbar and speaking tothe people when he was Khaleefah. Heasked the people ‘who is the bravest fromamongst the companions of the Prophet(SAW).’ They remained silent until ImamAli said ‘Lo I never entered into a duelwith another man except that I becamevictorious over him. Yet the bravest of allpeople was none other than Abu Bakr(RA).’ He continued and narrated in hiskhutba that once the companions of the

Prophet (SAW) built a command centrefor the Prophet (SAW) where they usedto come to, to talk about the matters ofthe deen. Then they decided to appointsomeone from amongst them who woulddefend the Prophet (SAW) and protect itfrom the attacks of the Mushrikeen(polytheists). Imam Ali (RA) narrates that‘By Allah not one of us volunteered tolook after it except for Abu Bakr (RA)who stood up at the head of theMessenger (SAW) and defended himwhen the attacks began’. Then Imam Ali(RA) gave an example and stated: ‘I oncesaw Quraysh approaching the Prophet(SAW) and physically shaking him nearthe Ka’bah. They said to him “have youtaken our Gods and made them into oneGod.” By Allah not one of us got up todefend the Prophet (SAW) when he wasbeing attacked except for Abu Bakr (RA)and he went up and said to the Quraysh:“Are you going to kill a man just becausehe says my lord is Allah?” Quoting theayah in Surah Mu’min, we realise that atthe time of Musa (AS) you had Musa andthe believing man. Then in the time ofthe Prophet (SAW), Muhammad (SAW)was Musa and Abu Bakr was the believingman who had courage, and repeated thesame words in Surah Ghafir as thebelieving man:

That is the courage one must have, whenthe truth needs to be spoken at a criticaljuncture. We need the Musa’s(figuratively) but we also need thebelieving men to speak at this momentwhen the Muslim community is beingattacked by the government with labelsof extremism and fundamentalism. Ourresponse is that no we are not moderatenor are we extremist, we are simplyMuslims and these are our beliefs. If wedo not speak the truth when it needs tobe spoken then there is no use of thattruth anymore. The Muslim community asa whole needs to defend the sublimevalues of the Shariah and the Ummahcollectively needs to make sure that anykind of government interference in anysphere of life needs to be rejected. TheMuslim community needs to sticktogether and build itself as a selfsufficient community and put our trust inAllah (SWT).�

KAMAL ABU ZAHRA


More than 12 million people areafflicted with hunger in Somalia, Kenya,Djibouti, Sudan, and Uganda. In Somalianearly a half its population is facing ahumanitarian crisis (3.7 million people).One in three children is malnourished.This has been reported as one of theworst crises to hit Eastern Africa inalmost six decades. It's shocking to seethe images of emaciated childrensucking empty breasts of mothers weakwith hunger. The elderly appear veryweak and unable to walk. Hungerstricken victims have fled and are forcedto walk great distances in search of basicprovisions! The UN deputy spokesmanFarhan Haq said that a refugee agency

reported that 875,000 Somalis fleeingfamine have crossed borders intoneighboring countries Kenya, Yemen,Ethiopia and Djibouti. Somalia'spresident Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said thathis government can no longer feed theoverwhelming number of its peopleaffected with hunger. A Somalitransitional government spokesmanAbdurrahman Omar Osman said: ''Thecurrent famine situation in Somaliaactually demands urgency, not onlyassessments and far-off responses,because many Somali children are dyingin the county on a daily basis" He wenton to add: "We are asking theinternational community to increase

their efforts and help these peoplefacing misery, we believe the famine isbigger than the UN said''. US presidentBarack Obama was quoted after meetingwith the leaders of four French-speakingnations in Washington: ''We discussedhow we can partner together to avertthe looming humanitarian crisis inEastern Africa. I think it hasn't got asmuch attention here in the United Statesas it deserves" He continued saying: “it’sgoing to require an internationalresponse and Africa will have to be apartner to make sure that tens ofthousands of people don't starve todeath”.

SHABANI MWALIMU


THE FAMINE CRISIS IN EAST

AFRICA IS A RESULT OF POOR

FOOD SECURITY POLICIES

This is how several leaders describedthe famine situation that has rocked theEastern Africa region. As usual westernnations via several organizations appearto be at the forefront in supplying foodaid as a means to counter the crises.However these global aid appeals andcalls from the west are very far fromsolving this menace.

Drought has been mentioned as the solecause of the famine crisis. Many peoplewith little perspective in the regionseem to be captivated by such claims.The Eastern African governments andthe western world at large aredeliberately avoiding facing the reality ofthe situation where before thedrought/famine extreme hunger hasexisted for many years. It is a deeprooted problem in the region where halfof its population is living on one dollarper day! Drought is not the cause ofpeople starving to death. The extremepoverty and hunger is due to the poorpolicies of the western economic systemimposed in the region. The so-calledleaders both local and foreign simplyignore this fact. To develop and advancetheir economic colonisation in EastAfrica the western nations oftenencourage the governments in theregion to focus on cash crop farmingand production to earn foreign exchangerather than the crops necessary for thelocals (food staples such as Maize, Wheat,Rice and many others. A good example

here is Kenya, the government is keenand places more emphasis on pyrethrumfarming than on maize farming, thereason being that the Kenyangovernment earns foreign exchangefrom pyrethrum. Here is a puzzle; peoplein Kenya have often experienced theshortage of maize but not the shortageof mosquito coils! Likewise, Coffee farmsin the central and Rift valley regions ofKenya are well preserved, with tractorsprovided to its growers while ricegrowers have to use their hands. Thisactually shows that agriculture, which isthe state’s spine is not a major concernto the governments in the region. Wherethese governments take agriculture as abackbone, they could allocate morefunds to the agricultural sector ratherthan wasting the public funds bybuilding sports venues.

As for food aid, it has been very commonin many countries including Muslimcountries faced with any humanitariancrisis to see global aid organisations likethe World Food Programme, Red Cross,Unsaid, Oxfam and many others onto thefirst track in providing aid. The hiddenfact of this so called aid, aims atconsolidating western capitalism in ourcountries, likely is to deceive easternAfrican society to believe that thewestern masters are sympathizers andthey really care for the interest of ourcountries. These organizations arecommonly used by the west intrafficking the weapons to be used bythe so called rebel fighters in manycountries as in the case of SouthernSudan; where the Red cross was used fortransporting weapons to rebels underthe pretext of providing aid to thepeople of Southern Sudan. Were thewestern nations mindful of the victimsof hunger why then do the same nationsinvade such countries and kill hundredsof thousands of Muslims? The US iscurrently backing the despotic/cosmetictransitional Somali government togetherwith troops from Uganda, Burundi andEthiopia who spill the blood of Muslimson a daily basis.

The famine crisis that is rocking EastAfrica highlights an ideology which hasfailed to provide basic food security. East

Africa has been blessed with vastreserves of raw materials, minerals,forests, permanent rivers and fertile soil,but due to the appalling management ofthese resources it is no surprise thepeople of the region are ranked thepoorest in the world. The society in theregion has lacked a government withclear policies and sound management ofresources based on a profoundeconomic system with permanentmeasures to overcome such crises. Whatis more important is to understand thatthe prime source of all these atrocities isas a result of the west and their corruptideology, even as they pretend to bepeace makers but verily they are theones who make mischief. Since theforeign intervention (of Italy, Britain andFrance) in Somali in the late of 18century the Somali community wasstacked with black spots, tribal clashes,poverty, and invasions of foreign troops.The people have staggered from oneblow to the other.

Under the Islamic Khilafah State’sauthority, Muslims never appealed forfood aid from western countries, ratherthey were to the forefront in providingforeign hunger stricken families with aid.In 1845 when the great Irish famineresulted in over million deaths, KhalifahAbdul Majid 1 declared his intention tosend 10,000 Sterling pounds in aid toIrish farmers. Queen Victoria requestedhim to send only 1000 Sterling. TheKhalifah sent that 1000 and then secretlysent three ships full with foodstuffs. Thisis where Muslims were in the past andthis is exactly how Muslims should benow. The East Africa society shouldunderstand that they will continue toface problems and continue starvinguntil the re establishment of theKhilafah, a state that will implementdivine ideology which has full scaleplanning for the eradication of hungerand poverty not only for Muslims butalso for non Muslims.�


SHABANI MWALIMU

“(We need an) ...Arab facade ruled andadministered under British guidance andcontrolled by a native Mohammedanand, as far as possible, by an Arab staff....There should be no actual incorporationof the conquered territory in thedominions of the conqueror, but theabsorption may be veiled by suchconstitutional fictions as a protectorate, asphere of influence, a buffer state and soon” - Lord Curzon

In the early part of the twentieth century,Britain was at the forefront of Westernefforts in moulding the Arab world muchto the liking of the officers of the BritishEmpire. Almost a century later, nothing haschanged. In late August, Western powersmet in Paris to seal Libya’s fate. Thescramble for Libya’s oil and gold hasbegun. Abdeljalil Mayouf, an executive atLibyan rebel oil firm Agoco told Reuters:

“We don't have a problem with westerncountries like the Italians, French and UKcompanies. But we may have somepolitical issues with Russia, China andBrazil”.

The West has embarked upon a newcampaign not just to remake Libya, but theentire Arab world in its image. America isleading a pack of colonial powers in thisendeavour and is spearheading efforts toeither dissect some Arab countries orsubtly instigate regime change in others topreserve America’s primacy in the region.

The incessant Western media coverageabout the promotion of freedom anddemocracy in the Arab World conceals thereal motives of Western powers; which isto groom pro-western elites that willfacilitate Western multinationals to controlthe Arab world’s oil supply, natural gas

reserves, mineral resources, energy security,as well as, maintain security pacts withIsrael.

The campaign started with the separationof oil rich Southern Sudan earlier this year.The secession of South Sudan underAmerica’s tutelage has already spurredChristians in Nigeria and Coptic Christiansin Egypt to demand independence. Theaspirations of the current Coptic leadersare lucidly captured by a Jewish JournalistOded Yinon in 1982. In his paper, entitled‘A strategy for Israel in the nineteen-eighties’, he states: “Egypt is divided andtorn apart into many foci of authority. IfEgypt falls apart, countries like Libya,Sudan or even the more distant states willnot continue to exist in their present formand will join the downfall and dissolutionof Egypt. The vision of a Christian Copticstate in Upper Egypt, alongside a numberof weak states, with very localised powerand without a centralised government asto date, is the key to a historicaldevelopment which was only setback bythe peace agreement, but which seemsinevitable in the long run.” The idea of creating a sacred Coptic statewithin the contours of Egypt is similar tothe one advocated by US Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters concerning Makkahand Medina. In June 2006, Peters publisheda map of the “New Middle East” in the Juneedition of the US Armed Forces Journal.The journal depicted amongst othermutilated Muslim countries the ‘IslamicSacred State’, which consists of Makkahand Medina segregated from the rest ofSaudi Arabia.

Earlier, various US officials have playedupon sectarian and ethnic differences, andcalled for the creation of a super Shia statethat stretches from Lebanon to Pakistan.The idea behind such a creation is to shiftthe control of oil away from Sunnidomination into Shia hands, whom theAmericans regard much more trustworthyto manage their colonial interests. Indeed,the American occupation in Iraq is viewedby some Middle Eastern leaders, as the firststep towards Shia domination of the wholeregion. In an article, entitled ‘Iraq, JordanSee Threat To Election From Iran’,published by the Washington Post onNovember 8, 2004, King Abdullah warned:“If pro-Iran parties or politicians dominatethe new Iraqi government a new “crescent”of dominant Shiite movements or

www.khilafah.eu Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 :: 15

WESTERN HEGEMONYAND THE ARAB WORLD:Reconstructing the Arabpolitical order in the21st century

ABID MUSTAFA

governments stretching from Iran into Iraq,Syria and Lebanon could emerge, alter thetraditional balance of power between thetwo main Islamic sects and pose newchallenges to US interests and allies”. Hefurther went on to state that Iran was themain beneficiary from the chaos in Iraq.Ever since the Shia’s rose to power in Iraq,King Abdullah has oft repeated thatAmerica’s occupation of Iraq is bolsteringShia power across the region.

The Arab revolt which started in Tunisiaand spread to several Arab countries wasmanipulated by America to move closer toits goal of creating a new Greater MiddleEast, where old European powers havemarginal influence. The dismissal of Zine ElAbidine Ben Ali was not a random event.Rather it was a synthesis of rampantcorruption incubated by 23 years ofWestern patronage and fused with direeconomic conditions made worse by theglobal financial crisis and bloodsuckingIMF structural adjustment programmes.America is eagerly awaiting similar turmoilto manifest itself in Algeria, Jordan and theGulf countries, so that she can engineerregimes that pledge greater loyalty to herhegemony at the expense of Britain andFrance. As for Egypt, America defused theuprising by disposing of her loyal agentMubarak like a soiled tissue and handingthe power to the army to rule Egypt onher behalf. The Suez waterway and Egypt’spact with Israel remains intact much to thedismay of the Egyptian public.

Today, American officials have resurrectedout-dated plans to devour the Arab worldonce deemed too ambitious to accomplishand too dangerous to talk about in public.In January 2011, the US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton could not hide her glee andused the events in Tunisia to fire a salvo atthe pro-European Arab leaders. She said: “In

too many places, in too many ways, theregions foundations are sinking into thesand. The new and dynamic Middle East...needs firmer ground if it is to take rootand grow everywhere. While somecountries have made great strides ingovernance, in many others, people havegrown tired of corrupt institutions and astagnant political order. Those who cling tothe status quo may be able to hold backthe full impact of their countries’ problemsfor a little while, but not forever. If leadersdon’t offer a positive vision and give youngpeople meaningful ways to contribute,others will fill the vacuum”.

The term employed by successiveAmerican administrations to describe theplight of the Arab World, such as “sinking inthe sand”, “arc of crisis”, “balkanisation”, or“Greater Middle Eastern Initiative”, wasdone in an attempt to move away from theSykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, whichprotected old Europe’s supremacy andinterests, a colonial legacy which stillpersist today—albeit in parts. The war inIraq in 2003 was a desperate bid by Bushand his cabal of neoconservatives torefashion the Middle East through force.

However, the current popular revolts inthe Arab world— some of which havebeen instigated by America through USfunded NGOs and civic institutions—presents the US with another chance tocapture the Arab prize without sharing itwith Britain and France. Since 1945, the UShas been trying to exert total control overthis prize. The U.S. State Department, in1945 stated: “[the Middle East is] astupendous source of strategic power, andone of the greatest material prizes in worldhistory”. But successive Americangovernments were forced to share thespoils with Britain. For instance, DanielYergin in his book ‘The Prize: The EpicQuest for Oil, Money, and Power’ describedthe then relationship between Rooseveltand the British: “Roosevelt received him[British ambassador Lord Halifax] that veryevening at the White House. Theirdiscussion focused on the Middle East.Trying to allay Halifax’s apprehension andirritation, Roosevelt showed theambassador a rough sketch he had made ofthe Middle East. Persian oil, he told theambassador, is yours. We share the oil ofIraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, itis ours”.

Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen are justanother battle in a long war that hasensued between America and Europe forthe control of the Arab world.Nonetheless, despite America’s differenceswith Europe, each possesses a singlepurpose when conducting relations withthe Muslim World—divide, rule andconquer. This is the beckoning call nowreverberating in the Western capitals. Theonly salvation for the Arab world from neo-colonialism is to seek something similar towhat George Washington did for Americain the eighteenth century and what Maodid to China in the twentieth century: Bothhad provided resolute leadership onalternative ideologies—secular liberalismand socialism to be precise—andsuccessfully liberated their people fromthe shackles of the old colonial powers.

But that was then. The Arab world does notrequire secular liberalism or socialism forliberation as both are alien to the culturalheritage of the Arab people and ananathema to their Islamic beliefs. The Arabworld possesses Islam as a commonpolitical ideology, but lacks a leader likeWashington or Mao to unify andemancipate it from the domination ofWestern powers.

The Arab masses need to rally around aleader that is sincere to their interests only,and opposes Western interference. This canonly happen if the Arab masses and itsnewfound leadership adhere to the triedand tested vision of the Khilafah(Caliphate), which for centuries unifiedArab and Muslim lands under a singlesystem of ruling and protected theinterests of its people. The West is wellaware of the return of the Caliphate and isworking tirelessly to stop it. In February2007, Dick Cheney warned: “Their goal inthe broader Middle East is to seize controlof a country so they have a base fromwhich they can launch attacks againstgovernments that refuse to meet theirdemands. Their ultimate aim, and one theyboldly proclaim, is to establish a Caliphatecovering a region from Spain, across NorthAfrica, through the Middle East and SouthAsia, all the way around to Indonesia. Andit wouldn't stop there.”�


ABID MUSTAFA

In early August the UK witnessed a spellof looting, lawlessness and rioting akinto that witnessed in Baghdad during thesecond Gulf war. The commotion beganin Tottenham, London but spread like abush fire to Hackney, Brixton, Ealing,Peckham, Birmingham, Manchester andsuburban Croydon. The UK PrimeMinister and London Mayor BorisJohnson were of the many who cutshort their holidays to fly back to dealwith the unrest.

The riots in Tottenham were sparkedoff following a protest demanding

justice for Mark Duggan. Mark Dugganwas shot dead by police on Thursday4th August following a stop and search.However, the subsequent riots in otherparts of London, Midlands and theNorth had no link to Mark Duggan.They seemed to be motivated by greed,violence and criminality.

The rioting lasted for 6 days andincluded arson attacks, breaking andentering shops, theft, mugging andmurder. Shabana Mahmood MP forBirmingham & Ladywell commentedthat there were a total of 389 arrests in

Birmingham alone, with more than2,000 nationally. Following theperipheral discussions on policepowers, police numbers, police strategy,use of water cannons and the right offace cover removals – the questionsthat haunted the UK was what was thecause of such lawlessness and anarchy!

CAUSES BEHIND THE RIOTSSuch lawless and animalistic behaviourhave prompted MPs to highlight socialbreakdown being the primary cause ofrioting by youth. Theresa May – theHome Secretary commented that: “Wecannot go on ignoring social problems”.Michael Gove enlightened the publicwith his points that: “there is a conflictin our society of right and wrongs” andthat what is required is “moral self-restraint of individuals as well asuniformed policing”. But how doesmoral self-restraint harness itself whenconflicting notions of utilitarianism andliving life to the full is lamented daily inthe west?

Gang culture and lack of morals havebeen at the heart of discussions toascertain reasons behind such rioting.David Cameron has been outspoken onhis views giving the causes as a moraldecline resulting in a broken Britain.Cameron vows to tackle “slow-motionmoral collapse”. This analysis has faceda fightback from Tony Blair whocommented: “Blaming moral decline forthe riots makes good headlines but badpolicy … In 1993, following the Bulgercase, I made a case in very similar termsto the one being heard today aboutmoral breakdown in Britain. I nowbelieve that speech was good politicsbut bad policy. Focus on the specificproblem and we can begin on a proper


The UK RiotsUMM ZAHRAH

solution … Elevate this into ahighfalutin wail about a Britain that haslost its way morally and we will depressourselves unnecessarily, trash our ownreputation abroad, and worst of all, missthe chance to deal with the problem inthe only way that will work."

It seems both current and former PMsare busy keeping up appearances withthe media and the world at large. TonyBlair is calling for the government tostop attacking western society/britishsociety at large and play it down as aproblem of individuals. According toTony Blair, the “big” cause of the riots inEngland was “alienated, disaffectedyouth... outside the social mainstream”.True to the conservative stance ofsociety being composed of families;Cameron believes Britain is broke dueto a widespread family structuremeltdown.

Despite the different opinions existent,what has been clearly left out of thediscussions is what are the ideas thatmotivate individuals to carry out suchacts? Surely, the cause cannot be assimplistic as ensuring youth are raisedin families with prim and propermanners; nor is it as simple as applyinglaw enforcement to tackle ‘pockets ofmoral decline’ in individuals and leavesociety to continue to indulge in theculture that led to western economic

downfall and for women to beperceived as sexual objects. Argumentssuch as poverty and the currenteconomic crisis have been highlightedas a possible trigger. But such

arguments also lack depth in identifyingthe root causes.

THE REAL CAUSEAccording to the Civitas Institute forthe study of civil society, England andWales have the highest rate (besidesTurkey) of youth crimes – with moreyoung people in custody than otherEuropean countries. The number ofunder 18’s in custody in 2010 was2,209. The current concern is thatprisons are full, which posed a problemwith where to house offenders of therecent riots. The number of recordedoffences committed by youth was 277,987 in 2008. The Criminal JusticeSystem spends £4 billion a year ondealing with youth offenders. Everyyear, an estimated 70,000 schoolchildren enter the youth justice system,with 42% of first time offenders beingyouth. The number of 15-17 year olds inprison has more than doubled in 10years. Of the recorded crimes; theft andviolence against a person – topped the

crime charts – followed by criminaldamage. What was witnessed during theriots were all three offences and morecarried out in broad daylight andwithout fear of any consequences.The victims of this riot includedHaroon Jahan, 21, Shazad Ali, 30, andAbdul Musavir, 31, who were hit by acar as they protected stores fromlooters on the 10th of August. Fouryouths appeared in court suspected oftheir murder. Public scenes also saw theextent of humanitarian assistance –when a Muslim oversees student washelped up by people (after he had beenpunched and kicked by others); only tobe robbed of his belongings from hisrucksack. The looting craze wasclassless and also affected the middle–class who shared no moral insecuritiesto steal and help steal goods fromshops by operating a getaway car.The real cause behind such flouting ofmorals is the viewpoint that westernsociety promotes. The viewpoint ofpleasing oneself and maximizing that

pleasure, based on a criteria of doingwhat one likes based on their owndesires is what has caused such moraldecay in society. Any attempt to offerdeep solutions must surely take accountthat the western viewpoint of life andfreedom mentality is a fundamentalcause behind the riots.

AFTERMATH OF RIOTS – SOLVINGMORAL DECAY!

Without acknowledgement that thecause behind the riots is the capitalistviewpoint that drove individuals to doas they please – it is no wonder thatsolutions posed are superficial.David Cameron has put ‘Broken Britain’at the heart of his agenda. A top priorityfrom this is tackling gang culture.Models of policing of gang crime anddealing with gangs from New York andStrathclyde Police have focused thesolutions on three aspects: (i) Lawenforcement (ii) Youth Services (iii)


UMM ZAHRAH

Draconion measures applied on such convicted looters includedevictions by local councils and loss of benefits. A strategy that nodoubt benefits the government who pockets the difference

Voice in the Community.

Draconion measures applied on suchconvicted looters included evictions bylocal councils and loss of benefits. Astrategy that no doubt benefits thegovernment who pockets thedifference, but creates a furtherincrease in homelessness and poverty. Afurther solution proposed is forgovernment to attempt to providecoaching to parents to develop theirparenting skills as well as a promise ofthrowing more money into theproblem.

Such patchwork solutions seek to putthe country in further debt and turn ablind eye on the fact that the very basisthat western society stands on is shaky.By humans deciding the criteria of rightand wrong, the yardstick will constantlychange.

IMPACT OF THE WESTERN VIEWPOINTON THE MUSLIM YOUTHIt is clear to see that the very problemsthat exist in western society of drugs,alcohol, gang violence, promiscuity anddisrespect are also evident within theMuslim community and the Muslimyouth. Though in some pockets, there isa reawakening of the Islamic identitywithin individuals, where young parentsseek to raise their children with theIslamic viewpoint of pleasing Allah(swt) and the criteria of halal andharam – this is not representative of allMuslim youth.

According to the Prison ServiceStatistics (2004), almost 10% of theprison population were Muslim; ofwhich two-thirds were young men aged18-30. The National Census in 2004 alsoidentified 28% of 16-24 year olds to beunemployed. With the promotion ofgang culture by the Music industryalong with the rise of drug and alcoholabuse, teenage pregnancy; some Muslimyouth have also been affected by thewestern viewpoint and are victims of‘broken Britain’. Some Muslim youthhave adopted the notion of ‘life is short– enjoy it’, ‘I am free to do what I like’and ‘do it as long as you can get awaywith it’. Such a capitalist inspired

mentality will also create ‘homegrown’Muslim criminals and gangs since theyare a product of the Capitalist way oflife and thinking. Not only have suchMuslim youth integrated into the crimeridden atmosphere in Britain, but theyhave also embraced a basis not fromIslam. Instead of doing actions for thepleasure of Allah (swt), they will chooseto carry actions to please themselves –despite the reminders from Allah (swt):“I did not create Man and Jinn savebut to worship me”. “Do you not seethose who make their desires theirgods”. In such a Muslim, the criteria ofhalal and haram is replaced by ‘do it aslong as you can get a way with it’ or ‘Iam free to do as I please’.

A WAY FORWARD FOR MUSLIM YOUTHMuslim youth in the UK must see theirposition as distinct and unique. It is atest to live in the heart of westernsociety and remain steadfast. However,it is not a test that predecessors such asMusaab ibn Umayr, Zaid ibn Harith orFatima Az-Zahra have not experienced.They too lived in the heart of disbeliefand moral decay. They did not secludethemselves from the Jahil Arab society,and neither did they compromise theirprinciples. They stood their ground asMuslims, proud and non-compromisingof their identity as Muslims and readyto address society and carry dawah todemonstrate the inaccuracies of theJahil way of life and basis.

Muslim youth in the UK must therefore,read about the lives of such youth ofthe past and take a lesson from this tomotivate them. They must learn lessonsfrom the riots and ensure:(i) Muslim youth strive to carry outactions for the sole pleasure of Allah(swt) rather than themselves.

(ii) Muslim youth strive to adhere to thecriteria of right and wrong as halal andharam from Islam and not their minds.Allah (swt) reminds us: “There are somethings you like that are bad for you,and some things you dislike that aregood for you. Allah knows and youknow not”.

“On the day of judgement, everyatoms weight of good shall be seenand every atoms weight of bad shallbe seen”

(iii) Muslim youth surroundthemselves in the correct Islamicatmosphere, learn about Islam and carrythe dawah of Islam to those they meet.

(iv) Muslim youth reject westernculture as a basis for their actions andexpose its rottenness to those whoidolize it.

(v) Muslim youth are conscious of theagenda to strip them of their Islamicidentity and link to the Ummah globally,expose it and reverse it through dawah.

(vi) Muslim parents provide adistinct Muslim upbringing that enablesthe child to have the Islamic viewpointof worshiping Allah (swt) and thecriteria of halal and haram.

Such a mindset will develop a distinctnon-compromising Islamic identity andwill be a vehicle to judge morally rightfrom wrong – based on Islam.�


UMM ZAHRAH


The last speech before Imran Yousafzai’sabduction by government agencies in Pakistan

The following is a translation of the lecturenotes for the last speech that Imran Yousafzaidelivered on the occasion of the Day of the Fallof the Khilafah, 28 Rajab, before his abductionby government agencies. Imran Yousafzai isthe Deputy to the Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahririn Pakistan. Upon release of this transcript, hiswhereabouts are unknown, after hiskidnapping on 12 July 2011.

With increasing debate in the mediaover severing the alliance with the US,agents of the US embassy also known as‘contacts’, in the language of theembassy cables, have started a full blowncampaign to convince the masses thatPakistan is addicted to the foreign ‘aid'(loans) and it will be bankrupt withoutUS loans. Some time ago, an ‘intellectual’famous for talking in terms of ‘facts and

figures’ set about proving this from thefigures of Pakistan’s trade deficit. Someof our friends who are, strictly speaking,not included in the category of‘contacts’, but still have a strong belief inthe capitalist system and so puts themclose to them, are also talking in thismanner. These friends try to scare usabout the ‘wrath’ of the US by citing thedependence of our exports uponWestern countries and the import of oilfrom the international market. Now,prior to discussing this topic, we willlook at the economy of Indo-Pak beforethe arrival of the British and theircapitalist system, in an attempt to look atthe issue in a proper context.

Prior to the arrival of the British andtheir capitalist system, the sub-continentwas the golden goose of the world and

the world's largest economy. It was theregion whose spices and gold ledColumbus to discover the Americancontinent. It was the region in which theassets of one citizen, Abdul Ghafoor,were more than the assets of the wholeEast India Company. The Jughat Seithfamily of Bengal owned more wealththan the entire wealth of the Bank ofEngland. And the war booty of the Warof Pilasi (1757) was more than thewhole GDP of Europe. In that era, thesoldiers of Portugal, France and Englandwould desert their army to join the armyof the Subcontinent for better pay andperks. Capt. Alexander Hamilton wrotethat in the era of Muhammad ShahTughlaq (1325-1351 AD) - not marked asa very memorable age - there were10,000 schools/colleges in Delhi alone,with seventy Bimaristan (Hospitals). InBengal there were 40,000schools/colleges, equivalent to a schoolfor every 400 of the population. IbnBatuta writes that there is a small placein the city of Bombay called Hoaz. Thepeople of that area followed the Sha'faischool of thought. There are 23schools/colleges for men and 13 forwomen. And there is not a single womanin the whole locality who has notmemorized the whole Quran-e-Kareem.Till 1880, the world's largest steelindustry and the largest naval fleetmanufacturing facility was in theSubcontinent, where the British wouldbuild their naval fleets. What could be abetter description of the prosperity ofthis Subcontinent than the statement of

Is Pakistan’seconomy dependanton western aid?

IMRAN YOUSAFZAI


Lord Macaulay which he delivered in1835 in the British parliament. He said: “Ihave traveled across the length andbreadth of India and I have not seen oneperson who is a beggar, who is a thief.Such wealth I have seen in this country,such high moral values, people of suchcaliber, that I do not think we wouldever conquer this country, unless webreak the very backbone of this nation,which is her spiritual and culturalheritage...”

Pakistan is part of the same region. Itsagricultural land produces the sameproduce, indeed with greater yield thanbefore. The residents of this area are ashardworking, studious and skilled asthey were before. This land is rich inrivers and streams. More hiddentreasures have emerged, such asabundant minerals and sources ofenergy. Thus everything from the past ispresent until now. However, a curse hasbeen imposed upon this land. A burdenthat has reduced its people to beggarsand this land is no longer fulfilling theneeds of the people. This curse, thisburden, is the colonial capitalisteconomic system which hasaccumulated the resources and wealthinto a few hands, the majority of whichare the colonial hands, and deprived thevast majority of even two meals a day.Our corrupt and agent rulers are theproduct of this very system. The root ofthe problem is the system. So, let’s take acursory look at the resources of Pakistanso that we can judge; to where has thissystem led us.

Pakistan has a population of 180 millionout of which over 60% are below theage of 25. This is the worlds sixth largestpopulation and is more than the Germanand French populations combined. Ourland area is over 0.8 million squarekilometers. It is almost as much asFrance and Britain combined. Pakistanhas a 1,046 kilometer coast line whichrivals the coast line of major powers.With the worlds tenth largest laborforce, this country has an ideal strategiclocation and ideal geography. Allah(SWT) blessed Pakistan with some of theworld’s tallest mountains, large fertileplains and vast arid deserts.

Pakistan has abundant energy resources.The estimated value of the Thar Coaldeposits is 25 trillion dollars, 420 timesthe value of all foreign loans. Recently,survey reports of one of the allottedsections of the Thar coal mines furtherstrengthened these estimates. Thissection has been awarded to thePakistani company Engro. The 184 billionmetric ton coal deposits are spread overan area of 9,000 square kilometers. Theenergy value of these coal mines aremore than the combined oil energy ofSaudi Arabia and Kuwait. Recently therehave been some promising gasreservoirs discoveries, with one tight gasreserve at Sui, Balochistan estimated tobe 100 trillion cubic feet. This reservewas deliberately kept hidden by thegovernment of Pakistan, a fact testifiedby Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussainin the National assembly on 20th June,2011. Approximately, 215 trillion cubicfeet gas reserves are expected to befound in the southern Balochistan andcoastal areas.

Regarding minerals, Pakistan has 74million tons of aluminum, 500 milliontons of copper, 46 million tons of Zinc,600 million tons of Iron, 350 million tonsof gypsum, 22 million tons of Phosphate,dozens of tons of silver, while there is noaccounting possible of the marble,precious stones and building stone. InSaindak copper project alone, there is412 million tons of copper ore, in whicha foreign company is working on 78million tons of ore. Reko Dik gold minesare included in the worlds largest goldmines and the estimated worth of thegold, increasing rapidly, in all its blocks is500 to 3,000 billion dollars. Accuratefigures are not available due to thecollusion of the government with theforeign companies and the cheatingpractices of such companies.

Pakistan’s agricultural potential is noless. Pakistan's irrigation system is theworld's largest, three times moreextensive than that of its agriculturalrival Russia. Our wheat production, 24million metric tonnes, is more than thatof the entire Africa, which stands at 20MMT and equals that of South America.This is despite the fact that our land per

acre yield is only 2.2 tons. The yield inIndian Punjab is 4 tons, Mexico 5.5 tonsand Western countries have much higheryields due to superior farmingtechniques. Notably, currently 40 percentof Pakistan’s cultivatable land is notcultivated. Pakistan is ranked 1st in theproduction of ghee, refined butter, 2ndin chick peas, buffalo and buffalo milk,third in okra production, 4th in cotton,apricot, goat milk, mangoes, 5th in dates,onions, various spices and sugarcane, 6thin pulses, 7th in sesame seed, 8th inCauliflower, 9th in oilseed, spinach andwheat, 10th in goat meat productionbesides being within the top 20 in awide variety of vegetables and fruits,eggs, tobacco, jute, lentils and rice.

Pakistan's seven thousand PhD's andapproximately two million scientists andengineers have the full technical knowhow and capability of deriving benefitsfrom these resources to the Ummah.

Despite so many resources bestowed byAllah (swt) - more than that which someof the major world powers possess - thecapitalist system has turned us into anation of beggars. This system treatsevery nation the same way, wherever itis implemented. Africa, a success story ofprosperity under Islamic rule, has beenforced by the capitalist system to bow infront of poverty and hunger. Despite theloot and plunder of the resources of theworld by the Western powers through

IMRAN YOUSAFZAI

direct and indirect colonialism, thissystem could not satisfy even the basicneeds of the people of their countriesand a significant portion of theirpopulation still lives below the povertyline. For example, 37 million people inthe US live below the poverty line.

These facts and figures are enough toprove that not only do we have enoughresources, rather, we have the fullpotential to sustain another country ofour size and even more. It is obviousthat we are neither dependant on anyother country nor at the mercy of thecoffers of others. As per the current yearbudget figures, Pakistan will receive 287billion rupees in total as foreign loansand aid whilst we are going to pay out atotal of 319 billion rupees in debtservices, i.e. foreign loan principalrepayment of 76 billion rupees and astaggering 243 billion rupees of interest(Riba) to foreign countries andinstitutions. This clearly manifests thatthese foreign powers and institutions areliving on our money and not the otherway around. And if we didn't have to paythe loans and interest, we would notneed any loans to meet our currentexpenditure.

As far as the issue of linkage of ourexports to Western markets isconcerned, we export almost 22% of ourgoods to the US. Not because of anybenevolence or favour from the USgovernment, rather because they are the

best quality with the lowest price whichAmerica can not find anywhere else. It isthe US and EU that have time and againblocked Pakistan exports under one oranother pretext like child labour,environmental preservation etc. And thePakistani economy has successfullysustained such pressure in the past.

Now let's move to the import of oil,which our friends never forget tomention. To remind our friends, Pakistandoes not receive oil as charity. Pakistanpays the full market price in the samemanner as the US who import 54% of itsoil needs from the international market.Again to remind our friends, the total oilreserves of the Muslim world are 844billion barrels in comparison to the 45billion barrels of the non-Muslim world.Seven out of 10 of the world’s largest oil

wells are present in the Muslim world.Moreover, in case of an oil blockade onPakistan, the majority of the countries ofthe world would be in trouble as theworld’s largest oil reserves and oil searoutes are in Pakistan’s backyard, thePersian Gulf and Straight of Hurmuz. Andat the very least, the Pakistan Navy andAir Force are more powerful thanSomalian pirates, is that not so?!

Our economy is in deep crisis becauseof colonial capitalist policies. On top ofthat is the corruption that comes as anatural package with democracy. As thelegislative assemblies in a democracyprovide a legal and legitimate way ofcorruption in the order of billions ofRupees, the top corrupt politicians androbbers use the ladder of democracy toreach the legislative assemblies, afterremoving every obstacle in their way.Once there, these corrupt“representatives” engage in multiplyingtheir fortunes through the policyforming, law making and other perksthat come with legislators fulfilling their“sacred” obligation. None of theconditions such as being pious, apracticing Muslim, graduate or anything

else stops them from coming intoassemblies. These few corrupt, present inevery nation become the legal root ofcorruption by using the universal ladderof democracy. It is this legal corruptionthat is causing 400 billion rupee lossesto a handful of national corporationsevery year. American military operationsincreased our defense spending from450 billion rupees to 800 trillion rupees.According to the special appendix ofPakistan’s Economic survey (2010-11), injust one year, this American war hascaused damage of 17.8 billion dollars(1,528 billion rupees) to the Pakistaneconomy. What an irony that Americabecomes the owner of our sovereigntythrough the paltry sum of 1.5 billiondollars of “aid”! According to this year’sbudget, Pakistan will pay 1,000 billionrupees in interest re national and

international loans. Because of theresistance of democratically electedrepresentatives, Pakistan is deprived of atleast 300 billion rupees of agriculturetax since most of them are the landlordsand they prefer imposing GST on alreadydeprived people to imposing tax onagriculture of the like of Kharaaj andUshur. Thus, this corruption, that isbundled within democracy, the Americanwar and the interest on loans together iscosting us more than 3,500 billionrupees every year, which is more thanour annual budget. This deficit can easilybe removed by an Islamic Khilafah statein next to no time. This is another prooffor the fact that separation from the USalliance and the establishment of anIslamic state will take Pakistan on thepath of development and prosperityrather than difficulties.

The Islamic Khilafah State will transformthe vast resources of Pakistan into anenormous power and prosperity for theUmmah through the universal Islamicideology instead of converting them intoa ‘resource curse’. Islam’s injunctions onpublic properties ensure that theminerals and energy resources are

22 :: Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011

IMRAN YOUSAFZAI

www.khilafah.eu

Our economy is in deep crisis because of colonial capitalistpolicies. On top of that is the corruption that comes as a naturalpackage with democracy.

available to the public and economy atcheap prices, rather than exposing themto exploitation by multinationals. Islamforbids the placing of the ownership ofthese resources into the hands ofindividuals, companies or the state. Thus,these resources are used for thecombined well being of the public. Islamremoves all indirect taxes thus freeingthe hands of people to spend. Thisresults in public satisfaction, an increasein spending and an improvement in theeconomy. Islam has the full capability tobring about an agricultural revolution inPakistan through its extraordinaryagricultural laws. With these reforms,there is a great incentive for reviving abarren land i.e. obtaining the ownershiptitle. Similarly, the land is taken backfrom the one who doesn’t cultivate it forthree years. Declaring the leasing of landfor agriculture forbidden, Islam smashesthe feudal system to ruin. These reformswill increase the production many foldin a few years and thus poverty willautomatically reduce besides makingPakistan a great agricultural power. Islamrequires the currency to be backed bygold and silver and this eliminates theUS influence over the financial aspectsof our economy and this, coupled withthe end of fractional reserve banking,will kill inflation as it ties monetarysupply to actual wealth, gold and silver.By removing, interest, gambling, prizebonds, pyramid schemes and stockexchanges money is redirected towardsthe real economy and with a greatindustrialisation policy based uponestablishing military superiority, we canmarch towards self sufficiency in criticalmatters.

Thus it is obvious that the withdrawalfrom the US crusade and theestablishment of an Islamic Khilafahstate will become the basis of Pakistan’sprosperity. The Economic Survey ofPakistan released on 8th of June, 2011 isan open admission of the failure of thegovernment and the system. Confessingthe destructive role of the American war,the government states: “Pakistan’seconomy is under pressure of the Waron Terror intensifying for the last fouryears in Afghanistan. Since 2006, the Warhas spread like a contagion into settled

areas of Pakistan that has so far, cost thecountry more than 35,000 citizens,3,500 security personnel, destruction ofinfrastructure, internal migration ofmillions of people from parts ofnorthwestern Pakistan, erosions ofinvestment climate, nose diving ofproduction and growing unemploymentand above all brought economic activityto a virtual standstill in many parts ofthe country. Pakistan had neverwitnessed such devastating social andeconomic upheaval in its industry, evenafter dismemberment of the country bydirect war”.

Thus the government confesses that thiswar is pulling Pakistan back into theStone Age, a Pakistan with no electricity,no gas and no water. Preventing Pakistanfrom going back to the Stone age wasthe excuse given by Pervez Musharraffor joining this war, what an irony! TheEconomic Survey of Pakistan furtheradds; “The conclusion was that the Warnot only caused serious damage to theeconomy, but also to the social fabric ofPakistan. Obviously, continuity of Warwill continue to bleed the economy andsociety of Pakistan”. An inter-ministerialand inter-provincial committee wasformed to estimate the losses Pakistanfaced due to this war. The economicsurvey of Pakistan presenting theconclusion of this committee said;“During the last 10 years the direct andindirect cost of the war on terrorincurred by Pakistan amounted to

$67.93 billion or Rs. 5037 billion”. Thegovernment confession proves that thecontinuation of this war will annihilateany remaining economy of Pakistan. TheEconomic Survey summarizes the wholesorry tale of this war in two sentences;“Pakistan became more insecure in itsefforts to make the world a safer placeto live” and “Pakistan’s economy needsan early end to this war”.

The above arguments are enough toprove that this land has always been aprosperous land and the potential it hasis increasing day by day instead ofdecreasing. However, a curse is imposedon this land, i.e. Capitalism. Brought hereby the English and later implemented bythe English and American agents for oversix decades. This capitalist system hasserved the colonialist and their agentswell, whilst the common man is noteven able to make both ends meet. Thecolonialist war and colonialist policieshave made matters worse for theUmmah. The time is ripe for the peopleof power (Nusrah) to rid the public ofthis cursed system and its guardianagents so that this land can open itstreasures for the Ummah. This will turnthe US’s war back onto the US. Indeed,this is our only recipe for survival, surelyonly in Islam lies the Muslims’ dignityand success.

It was reported in mid October thatImran Yousafzai has subsequently beenreleased.�

Khilafah Magazine :: October 2011 :: 23

IMRAN YOUSAFZAI

www.khilafah.eu

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Suite 301, 28 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3SSTel: 07074 192 400 - www.hizb.org.uk - [email protected]

hizb.org.uk

Documents

KMAG OCT 2011:Kmag template201x269...you secure a society from lone gunmen? Is there sufficient information sharing between governments? Is this threat comparable to the ‘Al-Qaida’