Khilafah magazine july 2013

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

m a g a z i n e RAMADAN

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SHAWWAL

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JULY

2013

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ISSUE:

201307

Ramadhan -

Month of Struggle THE PROPHET’S (SAW) RAMADHAN - SYRIA CONFLICT - EGYPT NEEDS A REAL REVOLUTION! - RESPONDING TO WOOLWICH - PAKISTAN’S ELECTIONS PROMISE NOTHING NEW - ACCOUNTING THE SELF (MUHA ASABAT AN-NAFS) HOW ISLAMIC FINANCE WORKS IN A NON-BANKING WORLD - THE GAY MARRIAGE BILL – IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN THE WEST - RAMADHAN PEARLS

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NEWS

BITES

won 18 million votes which was 50% of the popular vote. Rouhani was secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council for 16 years and top nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005.

Whilst much was made of the effect of a new cleric as president on the country’s nuclear negotiations and foreign policy, Iran’s position in its region will unlikely change from the course it has been pursuing for the last decade. Over the last decade Iran played a central role in both Iraq and Afghanistan in extricating the US. Whilst publically there has been much rhetoric from both sides, in reality Iran has played a key role in constructing America’s political architecture in Iraq and stabilizing Afghanistan. Early indications from Rouhani’s statements are he wants to further normalize relations.

Square in protests against major new development that reportedly included a shopping mall, a mosque, and a rebuilt Ottoman-era military barracks. The leadership of the Kemalist Republican People's Party (CHP), the main opposition party to the AKP government, joined the protests, which gave the protests a political dimension. Erdogan and the AKP have dominated Turkey’s political system for the last decade and as Erdogan plans to initiate constitutional changes, which will give him even more powers, he is facing stiff opposition from secular and opposition parties. The protests have shown that large sections of the Turkish public are becoming disillusioned with AKP politics and after a decade the mix of Islam with secularism may be finally unravelling.

// TALIBAN NEGOTIATIONS

// EGYPT PROTESTS

After 11 years of war (more than WW1 & WW2 combined), after the deaths of countless innocents and spending in excess of $640 billion, the worlds most advanced military – the USA, has finally conceded defeat in Afghanistan. The US accepted it will have to negotiate directly with the Taliban, effectively an admission it has failed to defeat them. On the day when security in a number of towns was handed over to Afghan security forces, President Obama announced direct negotiations. Negotiations under various guises have been taking place for years, but never direct US-Taliban talks. Hamid Karzai attempted to scupper the negotiations, by withdrawing from the talks but the underlying trend of a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and the US is in full swing.

After 80 years of struggle to implement Islam in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) were thrown out of office in a coup by the military.

After just a year in office General Sisi announced the end of the MB government on its first anniversary. The MB struggled to solve the myriad of problems that faced Egypt, while simultaneously battling thugs in the street, a seditious opposition, corruption in the judiciary, and a state that was in shambles at every level.

With an economy on the verge of bankruptcy, with unemployment only going up and bread prices soaring, many of the protesters felt the MB have failed to deal with Egypt’s underlying problems. The MB has failed to deliver on its many promises, chief of them being the implementation of Islam, which it now says cannot actually work. This episode once again demonstrates changing faces without changing the system can bring no change to the Muslim world.

// US TOTALITARIANISM The world was rocked in June when a former CIA operative, Edward Snowden, gave into his conscious and began to leak US espionage and surveillance activities. We now know that after accusing China of cyber espionage the US actually does the same. We now know the US operates a clandestine electronic surveillance program that allows the NSA to access e-mail, web searches, and other Internet traffic in realtime - so much for privacy. The US also shared this info with its allies such as the UK. The leaks have confirmed Britain's domestic security services attempted to cover up police complicity in bringing the killers of Stephen Lawrence to trial. All of this shows that collective spying rather than the freedoms is how social cohesion is maintained.

// TURKEY PROTESTS // IRAN ELECTIONS Much of the world waited in anticipation on the results of the Iranian presidential election in June. Of the 8 candidates, cleric Hassan Rouhani

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The protests in Turkey are being described as Turkeys Arab spring moment as demonstrations in the thousands took place in Istanbul. Protests beginning on May 28th, composed mostly of young environmentalists in Istanbul’s Taksim

//////////////////////////////////////// 3 A part of an aerial view of the Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

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The Prophet’s Ramadhan (SAW)

– MONTH OF STRUGGLE /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// patience is Heaven. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer’s sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all.”

[Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah] Narrated by Abu Huraira(ra): The Prophet said: “… whoever fasts during Ramadhan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven.” (Al-Bukhari).

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ll Praise is due to Allah SWT who has blessed us with yet another month of Ramadhan, yet another opportunity to seek His SWT’s pleasure and to earn His forgiveness.

The Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) addressed his companions on the last day of Sha`ban, saying, “Oh people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which is a night better than a thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time.

It is the month of patience, and the reward of

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This is the month where we struggle with our desires and instincts. It is a month in which the Muslim elevates himself from his base desires and seeks closeness to his Creator. He forbids his nafs the very things he finds pleasure in – food, drink, sex etc. He forbids himself these pleasures to enjoy something much higher – the love of Allah SWT. This training for thirty days is designed to raise man to a much higher spiritual plane. This is the meaning of Taqwa that Allah SWT mentions in Surah Baqarah: “Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you many learn piety and righteousness” (Surah 2:183) The month of Ramadhan demonstrates who we are as human beings. Only man has the ability to sacrifice his desires and instincts for the sake of Allah SWT. This is what distinguishes man from the animal kingdom. Our spiritual instinct is elevated at the expense of our material instinct.

This draws us closer to Allah SWT and distinguishes us as human beings.

Unfortunately, we live in a world today where man has become a slave to his desires and instincts – this is the real meaning of living in a

capitalist world. Excessive food, sex, money, pleasure is what is celebrated the world over.

These are presented as the real meaning of achievement and success. This is what everybody is chasing in their lives. Man’s status has been denigrated to the level of animals in the world today. And it is this that has led to a world of fitnah, where different peoples, different races and different nations are constantly fighting each other to further their material desires. Islam as an ideology came to elevate the human being from such slavery and competition and raise him to a higher standard. This is the real value of fasting and significance of the month of Ramadhan.

Ramadhan is not simply a month to deprive oneself of food and drink. It is a month of training that should liberate man from slavery to material things and enable him to control his desires to the optimal level that produces harmony within human society. This is what we must achieve from this month of struggling against our nafs. As millions of Muslims fasting the world over, we demonstrate as an Ummah to the world our status as a people who have liberated themselves from the slavery to worldly desires to the slavery of Allah SWT. But Ramadhan is not only a month to struggle in our own selves. It is also a month for us to reflect on the wider struggle that is taking place in the world we live in. Ramadhan is the month in which Allah SWT revealed the mighty Qur’an AlKareem.

“Ramadan is the (month) in which the Quran was sent down, as a guide to mankind and a clear Guidance and Criterion (so that mankind will distinguish from right and wrong)..” (Surah 2:183) From its very beginning this Qur’an came as a challenge to every other way of life in the world.

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The Qur’an did not come just to be recited and beautified in the masajids. Nor did it just come to complete its recitation in the 30 days of Ramadhan – although these are undoubtedly noble objectives. As Allah SWT says He has sent this Qur’an as a Guidance (Huda) and a Criterion (Furqan) for humanity. Establishing clearly for us the way in which we determine what is right and what is wrong, how we should satisfy our desires and instincts, how we should govern our societal and public affairs. The Qur’an was sent as Guidance on every aspect of human life. This Qur’an was revealed in the month of Ramadhan as a mercy to mankind.

The Sahaba received the ayats of the Qur’an in Makkah as they were being revealed and rushed themselves into the struggle against all values, criterion, laws and systems established on kufr.

They rushed into an intellectual struggle at all ideas and thoughts of falsehood. Having received the truth of the Qur’anic ayat, they could not restrict themselves to mere recitation or keep these ideas to themselves. The power and strength of the Islamic ideas forced them to engage with the society around them which was built on false thoughts and ideas.

The Qur’an demonstrated the intellectual way to refute the false thoughts in the society.

Allah SWT revealed: “Perish Man! How ungrateful he is! Of what did Allah create him? Of a drop of sperm he created him and proportioned him. He makes his path smooth for him. He then causes him to die and

puts him in his grave. He will surely bring him back to life when He pleases. But by no means has man fulfilled his bidding” (Surah 80:17-23) “Were they created from nothing, or are they themselves the Creators? Or did they create the Heavens and Earth?

Nay! They have no firm conviction” (Surah Tur 35-36) “What will his wealth avail him when he goes down (to his grave)” (Surah 92:11) “Woe to the stinters, who when others measure for them, exact in full, but who when they measure or weigh for others, defraud them. Do such people not think they will be raised to life on a Great Day” (Surah 83:1-5) “It is not the word of an accursed devil. Where are you going? This is only a reminder to all mankind” (Surah 81:25-27) Today a similar struggle is taking place. Islam is being attacked and ridiculed. The Islamic ideas are depicted as backward and medieval. Islam is portrayed as barbaric and violent. 1400 years ago the Quraysh spread lies about our noble Prophet SAW, mocking and ridiculing him. The same attack is happening today, in the western world.

Kufr has no other weapon against Islam other than cheap, shallow propaganda and lies. Their aim is to create doubt about Islam and maintain the status quo. They want Islam to change and ‘reform’ to fit neatly within the western secular model. This struggle is playing out as it did at the time of the Prophet SAW. Muslims today cannot ignore this struggle and simply concentrate on

perfecting themselves. We surely have a responsibility to rise to these challenges and emulate the path the Prophet SAW took in the face of such attack and propaganda.

Muslims today need to be inspired by the Qur’an and develop the intellectual way of thinking of the Qur’an brought forward to refute the arguments of the Quraysh. We need to follow the guidance of the Qur’an and expose the contradiction and hypocrisy in the western secular way of life, in order to open up the publics’ mind and make them think.

Today the world is suffering under the yoke of capitalism. Family breakdown, divorce, depression, suicide, child abuse, pornography, rape, addiction, abuse of the elderly are just some of the ugly fruits of western society built on materialism, greed and seeking pleasure at any expense. This is not to mention the third world poverty, malnutrition, disease, environmental disasters and wars fought for regional and global hegemony which have all resulted from a world under the scourge of capitalism. Whilst the essence of Islam is the controlling of desires, capitalism has unleashed those desires them resulting in the chaos we see today.

This is the ideological struggle of our age that we as Muslims have to engage in, arming ourselves with the intellectual message of the Qur’an. Rather than apologising for Islam, we need to go on the offensive and show the contradictions of the western way of life. We

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THIS IS THE IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE OF OUR AGE THAT WE AS MUSLIMS HAVE TO ENGAGE IN, ARMING OURSELVES WITH THE INTELLECTUAL MESSAGE OF THE QUR’AN. RATHER THAN APOLOGISING FOR ISLAM, WE NEED TO GO ON THE OFFENSIVE AND SHOW THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE WESTERN WAY OF LIFE. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

need to demonstrate that their way of life is based on shallow thinking and is the cause of misery in their societies and the world over. We need to illustrate how Islam liberated women from sexual exploitation, ended racism and brought an end to poverty in the Islamic world.

Emphasising how it can do so again - end global poverty and save the environment from the destruction caused by multinational companies and big business. Islam represents the future of the world and it is the Muslims who have the responsibility to highlight that narrative to the world.

However, Ramadhan represents even more still.

The Prophet SAW not only engaged in this intellectual struggle but also engaged in a political struggle to establish the Huda and Criterion of the Qur’an practically in society. Madinah represented the practical establishment of Islam in society and state. Today there is a global

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struggle for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah State. We only have to look to Syria to see how it has become the epicentre for the practical struggle for establishing Islam. Over 100,000 Muslims have lost their lives as the criminal Bashar Assad, backed by foreign powers continues to brutally suppress the movement to establish the Islamic Khilafah in Syria. Russia, America, Britain and others know that Assad represents the only hope to contain the Islamic revolution in Syria hence they continue their covert support for the Assad regime. The Muslims of Syria have truly demonstrated their determination, courage and steadfastness in their struggle to establish Islam. It is a duty on every Muslim around the world to support our brothers and sisters in Syria and raise our voices in solidarity with the Islamic call for the reestablishment of the Islamic Khilafah state based on the model of the Prophethood. It is the Khilafah State that will liberate Muslims from the hands of these dictators, kings and corrupt democrat’s, who continue to maintain their stranglehold on the Ummah of Muhammad SAW. The Prophet SAW organized his society and state on the basis of the Shariah of Allah SWT, establishing justice amongst people, and creating a unique society based on Iman and Taqwa rather than upon race, colour, tribe or social status. He gave non-muslims their due rights owing to them from Islam. He demonstrated the Sunnah of being a statesmen and political leader in Madinah.

He raised a professional army, led expeditions fought battles, and signed treaties, all in order to strengthen the Islamic State within the Arabian Peninsula. It was on the 17th of Ramadhan that the Muslims achieved their famous victory at Badr. Other famous battles such as the Battle of Khandaq and Tabuk showed how the Muslims

prepared and fought in the month of fasting.

These battles represented the political and military struggles the Prophet SAW and his Sahaba (RA) engaged in to consolidate the authority of Islam and spread the Islamic Dawah to other nations and peoples. They understood this Quran came as Guidance for the whole of mankind and hence they never weakened in their efforts to carry the Islamic Dawah by invitation and Jihad to other nations. This is how the early Muslims understood the Qur’an and responded to the obligations put on them from Islam.

Isn’t it time for us to make this Ramadhan, the Prophet’s Ramadhan? How long will we continue to just recite the Qur’an and listen to its beautiful melody without understanding it and implementing it? Have we done justice to the Message of the Qur’an by just reciting it? Is fasting and salat the only obligations the Qur’an has enjoined upon us? Are we going to struggle with our nafs only and not engage in the wider struggles the Prophet SAW engaged in? Can we then expect our sins to be forgiven by Allah SWT if we selectively follow the Qur’an?

Surely it is time to emulate the Prophet SAW in all his struggles. As we struggle with our nafs this month let us also involve ourselves with the intellectual and political struggles of the Prophet SAW by working to re-establish the much needed leadership of the Islamic Ummah, the Islamic Khilafah State. Wherever we may be, the month of Ramadhan with its fasting, tarawih, tahajjud and duas, should strengthen us with renewed Iman and Taqwa to rise up to the challenges of establishing Islam today.

Ramadhan is the month of victory. May Allah SWT give this Ummah the tawfiq to achieve the victory of establishing His Deen this month.

Ameen.

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Syria Conflict ASSAD AND THE WEST VS THE ISLAMIC UMMAH /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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yria’s foreign minister, Walid Al-Moallem in a recent press conference confirmed what was at stake in the country and the region, he said: “We know that those who plan evil for Syria and those who demand the establishment of the Islamic Khilafah state will not stop at the borders of Syria. So what we are currently doing is even defending Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.” This press conference took place in the context of a flurry of diplomatic activity by the West. US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Moscow and got the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to agree to a resolution on the Syrian crisis by the forceful implementation of the Geneva communiqué. At the same time in Washington Barack Obama invited Britain’s David Cameron for talks and in a press conference and said that he had agreed with Prime Minister Cameron to continue the work to bring a democratic Syria to fruition.

The uprising in Syria passed its second anniversary in March 2013. The battle lines for the country are becoming much clearer, with the US on one side and the Ummah who want Islam on the other side. The US, Russia and Britain, despite some differences are completely indifferent to the demands of the people in Syria.

AN ISLAMIC UPRISING When the Arab spring reached Syria in early 2011, many believed it would not last as the Baathist regime was notorious in its brutality. The al-Assad regime was notorious for maintaining social cohesion through fear. Hilary Clinton at the time called al-Assad a reformer and someone who should be given time (to put down the uprising). However, events rapidly escalated and a few months later, the Syrian army started to witness defections from officers and soldiers who refused the commands to shoot at the peaceful protestors. This phenomenon went further and the army defectors formed the Free Syrian Army

(FSA), for the purpose of protecting the nation from the aggressions of the regime. This later developed further which saw the formation of numerous armed brigades.

As the uprising continued the slogans and objectives expressed by the Muslims of Syria and the armed brigades became more and more Islamic. Every Friday came to be named after significant event in Islamic history. In the areas where fighting was intense large demonstrations took place mobilising the masses in the name of Islam.

The Islamic nature of the uprising has been confirmed by many of the factions that have a stake in the country. General Salim Idris the head of the 30-member Supreme Military Council, elected by hundreds of Free Syrian Army commanders in December 2012, during a NYT interview confirmed: “he could work with most of the Islamist factions fighting in Syria, putting their number at about 50 percent of the rebels.”

In late June 2013, Al-Jazeera aired a series of interviews (in Arabic) with leaders of the main armed factions fighting against the al-Assad regime in Syria. Six interviews in total were conducted by Al-Jazeera correspondent Tayseer Allouni, a native Syrian who gained international fame for his exclusive interview with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the attacks of September 11, 2001.The importance of these interviews is in the fact that the world hadn’t heard much of the views of field commanders or actual fighters on the ground. The interviews showed a unique perspective from inside the Syrian revolution rarely portrayed in the media.

Many attitudes displayed Islamic sentiments held amongst the majority of the rebels, and the desire to have a future Syria that is independent of Western interference or influence. Most important of all was the unanimous rejection of any negotiations with any elements from the

regime of al-Assad, a stark divergence from the “flexible” attitudes expressed by “representatives” of the revolution based outside of Syria.

MAINTAINING THE STATUS QUO The threat faced by the US in Syria was encapsulated in the Washington Times in January 2013: “Sunni rebels appear poised for victory. It’s vitally important for the Obama administration to discourage a new Syrian government from supplanting the secular dictatorship with a more dangerous regime based on Islamic law. Another Islamic state in the Middle East could threaten regional residents with more religious tyranny, perpetual war with neighbours and another caliphate.” The threat posed by those working and calling for Khilafah continues to worry the West and other rulers in the region. The NYT highlighted: “American officials have been increasingly worried that extremist members of the resistance against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, notably the Al Nusra Front, will take control of portions of Syria and cement its authority by providing public services, much as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon.”

Whilst the West constantly presents itself on the side of the people and paints Russia, China and Iran as those who are aiding the regime, the truth is by scrutinising the actions of the world’s powers, the reality is beyond this rhetoric, Britain, France, America and Israel are doing everything they can to keep as much of the existing political architecture in place. The US has an opposition of loyal groups and individuals to negotiate with and who could form a future transitional government. The US even tried to embolden the feckless secular factions with money, arms and training, hoping they would eventually marginalize the Islamic groups. Turkey and Jordan acted as the middlemen to facilitate such aims.

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WHEN THE ARAB SPRING REACHED SYRIA IN EARLY 2011, MANY BELIEVED IT WOULD NOT LAST AS THE BAATHIST REGIME WAS NOTORIOUS IN ITS BRUTALITY /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Britain and France on the other hand have worked to construct a completely different alternative transitional government composed of no former regime officials, which is different to the US position. The appointment of Ghassan Hitto to form a transitional government in March 2013 was at the behest of the EU (France and Britain) facilitated by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The EU wished to cut out all possibilities of making a deal with al-Assad, which would lead to the current ruling regime remaining in Damascus as a result of dialogue.

Russia has openly stated its position in support of al-Assad. Whilst the other western countries state their support is for the rebels, their actions are all in support of the al-Assad regime. Russia like the West fears the emergence of Islamic rule in Syria as it struggles with its own Muslim population and those from Central Asia who have for long demanded Islam. One expert outlined the circus between the US and Russia: “Enlisting Russian support was a cynical ploy.

With Washington’s stated preference for a “peaceful solution,” talking to the Russians enabled the administration to maintain the pretence of meaningful diplomatic activity, all while allowing it to blame the lack of any breakthrough on Moscow. Ambassador Robert Ford noted, “three times the Russians have said they would pressure Assad and have done nothing……They have repeatedly said that they have no way to influence Assad’s decisions.

Instead, Moscow knows that the myth of its centrality in Syria is a creation of the Obama administration.” Whilst the US constantly states Russia’s support of al- Assad as an obstacle to solving the Syrian crisis the reality is Russia have has virtually no influence over Syria, in reality

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both the US and Russia agree that the emergence of Islamic rule is a red line.

Iran has also taken a keen interest in what is taking place in Syria as the Alawi regime has been a key ally in Iran’s ambitions in the region. Iran has directly intervened to uphold the seat of the al-Assad regime. Iran dispatched its Republican guard corps to provide technical help to al–Assad as well as providing snipers across Syria to defend the regime against the uprising. Tehran bolstered Syria's economy with large amounts of aid.

Despite the huge economic toll of international sanctions, it provided $10 billion to prop up Assad and his floundering regime. If this wasn‘t enough in May 2013 Iran’s proxy group Hizbullah began taking a direct role in shoring up al-Assad’s regime. Thousands of Hizbullah fighters descended upon the town of Al Qusayr in order to regain the town from rebel fighters. On dispatching Hizbullah soldiers, Hassan Nasrallah, declared that his Lebanese based Shia militia will fight with all its capacity to save the Syrian regime.

As the US has failed to cobble together an opposition and as the rebels continues to make progress against Damascus, Israel conducted military attacks due to its fear of the emergence of an Islamic government. With al-Assad struggling to halt the rebel advance the targets that were attacked by Israel included military equipment that was likely to fall into rebel hands which would have significantly increased their capability. An Israeli analyst encapsulated this dilemma: “analysts have suggested that the greatest danger was not the use of chemical weapons, but that advancing rebels might seize them.”

All of these countries have a bond of interest in

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ensuring the Syrian regime is not replaced by an Islamic regime. They all partake in joint actions, despite their rhetoric to the contrary in order to cement their own authority, which clearly they see with al-Assad or one of his cronies. For the US and all the other countries involved in the battle for Syria their geopolitical interests must be maintained at the expense of the people of Syria.

The Council of foreign relations put it bluntly: “The only strategy that stands a chance - and not even necessarily a very good one - is for the United States, the post-Assad Alawites, and the secular Syrian Sunnis to focus relentlessly on the common goal: stopping the victory of Islamic extremists.”

SECTARIANISM The struggle to maintain the status quo has led to many to frame the uprising as shia-sunni conflict as opposed to an uprising against a brutal dictator. The success of the rebel groups has led to many to brush the whole opposition with sectarianism distracting from the regimes brutality and unpopularity during a period of sweeping change across the region.

The Western media has begun talking about the Syrian uprising in sectarian terms due to an aversion towards the Islamic flavour that has come to dominate the Syrian opposition, and the accusation that any call for an Islamic state means a call to sectarianism.

More importantly brandishing the sectarian card completely deflects from the real reasons why western countries are interfering in Syria for the geopolitical reasons rather than some altruistic purpose. The emergence of Islam in Syria would

greatly hinder western interference in the region and hiding behind sectarianism is a convenient cover to hide their support for al-Assad and his cronies. Even Iran and Lebanon’s framing of the uprisings in sectarian terms is merely a cover for political calculations, devoid of any moral imperative and everything to do with keeping Assad in power.

BALANCE OF POWER Syria has been a bulwark in the region in maintaining western hegemony across the region.

The Ba’athist collusion for nearly half a century with foreign powers was confirmed by the Wikileaks cables, when a senior Alawi official confirmed “about 70% of Syria-US interests are shared interests in the region.” Syria’s importance is not due to its resources, as is the case with much of the colonised world, but due to its geopolitical importance i.e. its location. Relative to the region Syria possesses few gas and oil fields and even fewer reserves of energy. The countries central location in the Muslim world makes it the heart of the Middle East and this led to the Alawi minority to play a role in the region in order to maintain and protect itself. This is why Britain and the America fought over control of the country with multiple coups and counter coups in the past.

which also shares a border with Israel.

This is why the outcome in Syria will not just decide the future of the Arab spring, but it will also determine the balance for power in the region. The emergence of an Islamic government would mean the loss of a strategically important nation and as the Syrian foreign minster outlined the beginning of the end of the artificial borders created by both France and Britain during WW1.

It will also signal the end of the occupation of Palestine by the Jews as Syria has been central to strengthening Israel’s occupation of the Golan area. By Allah’s will, if the Islamic groups emerge victorious in Syria this will be the beginning of the end of western hegemony and it is this reason why the west is so determined to maintain the existing regime. Jeffrey White, former Defence Intelligence Agency intelligence officer and specialist on the Syrian military said: “The [US] administration has figured out that if they don’t start doing something, the war will be over and they won’t have any influence over the combat forces on the ground. They may have some influence with various political groups and factions, but they won’t have influence with the fighters, and the fighters will control the territory.”

Adnan Khan

Syria also borders Israel, which is a key tool for the US in protecting its interests in the region.

Syria being at war with Israel would expend considerable Israeli resources so having a regime in Damascus which is friendly with Israel secures and protect the Jewish state. The seizure of Lebanon in 1975 for 30 years by Syria shows it can influence the politics of another country

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Egypt needs a real revolution!

SO, MANY OF THOSE WHO CALLED FOR THE REMOVAL OF PRESIDENT MORSI ARE PRACTICING MUSLIMS WHO VOTED FOR MORSI, WHO LOVE ISLAM, WHO WEAR HIJAB AND FAST IN RAMADHAN. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ‘Islamise’ the system by taking power at the helm of a non-Islamic system and implementing Islam gradually. Through the military, the US has ensured that the system in Egypt effectively remains the same - in order to serve its interests, and this is a lesson for all of us.

The statements from the US, EU, and Britain after the coup shows they effectively accepted it, some even made excuses claiming it was an expression of the will of the people.

MAKING THE CASE FOR ISLAM?

“Those Muslims calling for the removal of President Morsi are jahil, ignorant”. That’s the kind of thing my friend said on Wednesday 3rd of July 2013 as President Morsi was removed by the Egyptian military. As events unfolded, I was online discussing with activists from various Muslim groups. That is when someone said those Muslims calling for the removal of President Morsi are jahil ‘ignorant’. How could they support the secular opposition?

DID THE SYSTEM CHANGE? After the fall of Mubarak, Egyptian society was divided regarding the best system to govern the country. Rather than settling that question, focus shifted to electing new politicians. So in reality, an American controlled Mubarak era secular system remained largely intact. Muslims came to power but Islam did not come to power. This has shown the fallacy of the idea that one can gradually

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My friend said Muslims calling for the removal of Morsi are ‘jahil’ (ignorant). The issue is more complicated than that. Some of those calling for Morsi’s removal are socialists. Some are secularists who say Islam must have no role in socio-economic matters. Indeed, what has become apparent is that some of these prominent ‘liberal and secular’ activists of the Tamarod movement have been happy to support the subsequent clampdown on many Islamic TV channels, support the arrest of leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and the renewed role for the much hated secret Police. The reaction of Baseem Youssef and others to the killing of demonstrators on the morning of the 7th July has been quite outrageous - with some making excuses for the shooting of Muslims demonstrators at fajr. Also, some of their statements are vehemently anti-Islamic and they are now quite happy to support the use of totalitarian means and violence in order to come to power – something they could not do via the ballot box due to their limited support within the wider society.

While some may argue about how much responsibility the Morsi government had, given the lack of real control over state institutions and

the hangover of more than sixty years of dictatorship, the daily price rises and fuel shortages that people faced are all valid grievances that ended up being justification for widespread discontent and demonstrations. So, many of those who called for the removal of President Morsi are practicing Muslims who voted for Morsi, who love Islam, who wear hijab and fast in Ramadhan. We the Islamic activists – from whatever group – have to admit that there is a contradiction in Egypt and parts of the Muslim world; which is that many people love Islam, but are unaware of how Islamic derives solutions to solve day to day problems. Hence they love Islam but look to secular solutions to solve social, economic and political problems. Why should this be a surprise? What has been preached in our mosques for decades? Was the Khilafah ruling system explained as more than a footnote in our history? Were the Prophet’s (saw) ahadith about ruling, economy and foreign relations discussed and applied to today’s realities? No. Throughout society, and even in esteemed Islamic institutions, we have had the promotion of a ‘secular’ Islam which is primarily concerned with individual and spiritual matters. So, that Wednesday night, Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Sheikh of AlAzhar, stood and endorsed the political roadmap set out by the Egyptian Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi but did not offer the Islamic Khilafah ruling system as an alternative!

Alhamdulillah, others from Al-Azhar opposed his stance. Did Allah (SWT) not send Islam to address and solve life’s problems?

“And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things and as guidance and mercy and good tidings for the Muslims.” [TMQ An-Nahl 16:89] A sad fact is that actually, while secular activists openly argue for secular solutions, we find some Islamic activists saying it is not the right time to

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A SAD FACT IS THAT ACTUALLY, WHILE SECULAR ACTIVISTS OPENLY ARGUE FOR SECULAR SOLUTIONS, WE FIND SOME ISLAMIC ACTIVISTS SAYING IT IS NOT THE RIGHT TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE SHARIAH OF ALLAH (SWT) OR THE KHILAFAH RULING SYSTEM AND WHAT SOLUTIONS THESE OFFER ALL OF SOCIETY – NOT JUST MUSLIMS. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

talk about the Shariah of Allah (SWT) or the Khilafah ruling system and what solutions these offer all of society – not just Muslims. So how are people going to see that Islam has solutions to modern problems? And if we don’t expose the shortcomings of secular capitalist solutions, how would people see their fallacy? We should present Islam confidently putting secularists and their unfit solutions on the back foot.

BUILDING A PUBLIC OPINION FOR ISLAM On the 2nd of June 2013, a few weeks ago, myself and others spoke at Hizb ut-Tahrir’s conference attended by 120,000 people in the Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hizb ut-Tahrir organised this as part of the effort to build a groundswell of support for the Islamic Khilafah system. There, I discussed with another speaker, Sharif Zayd (Hizb ut-Tahrir’s spokesman in Egypt) asking about the situation in Egypt and the fledgling work of the Hizb now that we are able to work more openly, compared to Mubarak’s time. He said that when they travelled around Egypt in recent months holding public events outlining the Islamic Khilafah system’s economic, social and political solutions, people were surprised, impressed and supportive. Many Muslims said these ideas were new to them - though this is a Muslim country. So we - the Islamic activists need to work hard within the Ummah to show how the Shariah solutions revealed by Allah (SWT) address their everyday needs. So people don’t just love Islam emotionally but demand the implementation of the Islamic Khilafah system – instead of looking to secular solutions which are bound to fail over time just as Western societies are today experiencing economic and social meltdown, and loss of confidence in democracy and capitalist economic solutions. We need to show that Egypt (and the wider Muslim world) can chart a truly independent path – free from U.S. control.

Some policies an Islamic government would implement immediately to transform Egypt:

• Ensure that all corrupt officials who have been upholding the corrupt system are removed and replaced with people who are well known in society for their sincerity, Taqwa and expertise.

• Abolish the Egyptian pound currency and its tie to the dollar. The new currency would be based upon gold standard- and with no interest and no link to dollar will help to shield the economy from the fluctuations in prices/ inflation etc. that is currently affecting it.

registration - on condition that they do not propagate ideas contrary to the Islam.

• Ensure all religious minorities are protected by the State, and the Coptic Christians permitted their own courts to deal with their personal affairs.

• Restructure the military so that senior positions are filled by sincere officers to end the policy of subservience to America and other outside powers.

• The banking and financial sector will be immediately closed to interest debt and speculation based activity, and transform their business models to focus on a venture capital and consultancy based model of channelling investor funds. Given the innovations in Shari'ah compliant financial products, this transformation is well within the capabilities of the financial sector.

• Raise calls throughout the Muslim world to unify with Egypt such as immediately calling the Muslims of Libya and the Maghreb to join the Khilafah in Egypt.

• The taxation regime will be simplified with immediate effect with most people paying only Zakat on excess unspent wealth above the nisab at the end of the year – the poor will pay NO taxes.

In other words an Islamic government, not restrained by an archaic colonial system, will have the vision and Islamic policies to drive change and solve the multitude of problems in the country. Such leadership can only come with a radical break with the old system and establishing a new system that has solutions to Egypt’s problems. Building a positive opinion and motivating the population towards this system, rather than participating in this corrupt system, is what is required for the Islamic parties working in Egypt. Then only can we expect to see a true revolution.

In Egypt EGP 92.4 billion (approx. USD 16.22 billion) is collected annually in income tax. This money would be available to spend for citizens including business owners ‐ they would be incentivised to earn more thus boosting economic activity, by the imposition of hoarding penalties.

• Revenue from the mining of minerals and the extraction of fossil fuels will all be handled by the State for the benefit of citizens. Egypt has around 4.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves coupled with 2.1 trillion cubic metres of proven gas reserves.

• Call on sincere wealthy and entrepreneurial businessmen across the Muslim world to invest their wealth in the Khilafah to build a prosperous economy.

May Allah (SWT) aid us in this work. May Allah (SWT) protect our Ummah in Egypt and across the Muslim world.

Taji Mustapha

• Establish an open press, with no necessity for press permits to ensure a robust accountability of public officials.

• Establish an open political arena, with no need for political parties to make any form of

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Accounting the self (Muha ACCORDING TO THE TAFSEER OF THE QUR'AN, THE SUNNAH OF THE PROPHET (SAW) AND STATEMENTS OF THE PREDECESSORS AND SCHOLARS ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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he importance of accounting oneself is that such that it has been addressed in numerous verses of the Qur’an and Ahadeeth of the Prophet (sall Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). This article highlights a selection of those texts, along with the explanation given by the classical scholars in tafseer.

In the Noble Qur'an, Allah ta’ala states: "O You who believe! Have Taqwa of Allah and let each person (Nafs) look to what it has sent forward for tomorrow.

Have Taqwa of Allah. Allah is aware of what you do."

(Al-Hashr, 59:18) Ibn Katheer (rh) states in his Tafseer of the Aayah: “‘and let each person (Nafs) look to what it has sent forth for tomorrow’ – Account yourselves before you will be accounted and look to that which you have put down for yourselves in terms of righteous actions, for the Day of your appointment and your presentation before your Lord and know that He is knowledgeable of all of your acts and circumstances and that nothing at all is hidden from Him.” And Allah states: “No! I swear by the self-reproaching self (a believer).” (Al-Qiyaamah, 75:2) Al-Qurtubi (ra) said in his Tafseer of the Aayah: “And the meaning of ‘An-Nafs Al-Lawwaamah’ i.e. the Nafs of the believer – which you do not see him except that he blames himself. He questions himself: ‘What did I intend by this?’ It is that you do not see him except that he is reproaching and admonishing himself. This is what Ibn 'Abbaas, Mujaahid and Al-Hasan amongst others said.”

Al-Hasan (al-Basri) said: “It is by Allah the Nafs of the Mu'min (Believer). The believer is not seen except that he is blaming himself: ‘What did I

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intend in my speech? What did I intend in my food? And what do I want to achieve by talking to myself ?’ And the Faajir (openly disobedient) does not account himself.”

Al-Mujaahid said: “He is the one who blames that which has gone by and is regretful and he blames himself asking himself in regards to the bad: ‘Why did I do that? And in regards to the good: Why did I not do more of that?’ And it is said: It has blame attached to it. It is also said: It (the Nafs) blames itself for that which others would find blameworthy.”

So it is upon these understandings that the Lawwaamah (the one who blames himself a lot) is built on the meaning of Laa'imah (the blamer) and it is (here) a praiseworthy attribute and description.

Allah SWT says: "That Day man will be told what he did and failed to do. In fact, man will be clear proof against himself" (Al-Qiyaamah, 75:13-14) Al-Maawardi (ra) said in his Tafseer of the first of these two Aayaat: “There are three interpretations: One is that he will be a witness against himself with the proof that has been brought against him like that which Allah states: ‘We have fastened the destiny of every man about his neck and on the Day of Rising We will bring out a Book for him which he will find spread open in front of him. 'Read your Book! Today your own self is reckoner enough against you!'’ (Al-Israa, 17:13-14) The second interpretation is that his limbs will be witness against him and his actions, which was the view stated by Ibn 'Abbaas (ra) and this is in line with the meaning of the speech of Allah: ‘Today We seal up their mouths and their hands speak

to us, and their feet bear witness to what they have earned.’

(Yaa Seen, 36:65) The third meaning is that he sees and is aware of the shortcomings and faults of others whilst being careless of his own faults in relation to what is deserved in terms of reward and punishment.

The 'Haa' (Harf/letter) here in 'Baseerah' is for the purpose of emphasis.

As for the following Aayah: ‘In spite of any excuses he might offer.’ (Al-Qiyaamah, 75:15) There are four interpretations: One of them is that its meaning is that even if he seeks to apologize and excuse himself on that Day, then it will not be accepted from him, and this was the view of Qataadah. The second means that he will throw down his excuses i.e. that he will strip off the clothing (stripped down), which was the view of Ibn 'Abbaas. The third is that it means that he will present his argument which was the view of As-Saddi and the fourth meaning is that he will drop his coverings and coverings (Sutoor) in the language of Yemen means excuse or plea, which was the view of AdDahhaak. And a fifth meaning can be understood which is that if he leaves the excuses and capitulates he will not be left.”

AL-MUHAASABAH IN THE PROPHETIC SUNNAH The Prophet (Sall Allahu alaihi wa sallam) indicated the meaning of the Nafs AlLawwaamah when he stated the following Hasan Hadeeth, recorded by At-Tirmidhi and Ahmad: Ahmad in his Musnad and Al-Haakim in his

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asabat An-Nafs) ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Mustadrak related from An-Nawaas Bin Sam'aan Al-Kilaabi who said: The Messenger of Allah (Sall Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Allah puts forward the example of a straight path, there are two fences with open gates at its sides and there are lowered curtains over the gates and there is a caller, at the end of the path, who says 'hold fast to the straight path and do not go astray' and there is another caller above him, whenever he sees someone intend to open one of these gates he says 'Woe to you, never open it; because if you opened it, you would enter in it.' So (in this example) the straight path symbolizes Islam and the two fences are what are the limits set by Allah 'Azza Wa Jall and the doors are the prohibitions of Allah and the caller upon the path is the Holy Qur'an and the caller that is above the path is Allah's preacher in the Nafs of every Muslim.”

And Anas bin Maalik (ra) related from the Messenger of Allah SAW said: "Al-Kayyis (the one who is determined to gain as much from every opportunity) takes himself to task and works for that which is after the death and Al‘Aajiz (deficient/incompetent) is the one whose Nafs follows its desires and he make wishes upon Allah” (i.e. he says it's ok that I have done such and such because Allah is allforgiving).

Umm Salamah (ra) said: “The Messenger of Allah SAW said: ‘When Allah wishes good for a servant he makes a Waa'izah (Admonisher/one to remind) from his Nafs, which commands him (to obedience) and forbids him (from disobedience)" As-Suyooti in Al-Jaami' As-Sagheer.

STATEMENTS OF THE SALAF (PREDECESSORS) AND SCHOLARS IN RELATION TO THE MEANING OF ALMUHAASABAH Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq (ra) said: “Whoever abhors his Nafs for Allah, Allah would make him safe from His abhorrence (i.e. the anger of Allah).”

Al-Imaam Ahmad related from Abu Ad-Dardaa' (ra) that he said: “A man does not reach full comprehension or understanding until he abhors people for Allah; and he then returns to his Nafs and he abhors with greater vehemence.”

Ibn ul-Qayyim (ra) said: “It (accounting the Nafs) is distinguishing between what he has and what is upon him (meaning the servant/slave) so what he has accompanies and he performs that which is upon him because he is a traveller on a journey from which he will not return.”

And he said: “Accounting (Muhaasabat) the Nafs means that the 'Abd (servant/slave) looks first to the rights of Allah upon him and then examines whether he has fulfilled them as they should be fulfilled secondly.”

And he said: “Accounting the Nafs is done until it is known what it has and what is upon it. He does not allow it to be relaxed or abandoned in regards to these rights so that he wastes them and becomes negligent of them. In addition its cleansing and purifying rests upon accounting it and therefore it is not cleansed or purified or rectified at all unless it (the Nafs) is accounted.”

Al-Maawardi (ra) said in regards to the meaning of Al-Muhaasabah: “That the person examines at night that which he did of actions in the day. If they were praiseworthy then he continues upon them, follows the same pattern and imitates that.

If however they were not praiseworthy then he redresses if possible and does not repeat its like

in the future.”

As for Al-Haarith al-Muhaasabi, he defined it by saying: “It is confirming in all situations before acting or leaving an action by making a contract of the conscience, or an action of the limbs, until it is clear to him what he should do or not do. So if it is clear to him that the act is of that which Allah detests then he distances himself from it by a contract of conscience of his heart and he prevents his limbs from that which Allah detests whilst preventing and forbidding his Nafs from abstaining from leaving an obligation and rushes forth to perform it.”

In regards to the Nafs Al-Lawwaamah, Sa'eed Ibn Jubair and 'Ikramah said: “It means to blame upon the basis of the Khair and Sharr, and it does not mean that you have patience (in the good and bad times).”

Qataadah said: “Al-Lawwaamah is Al-Faajirah (unrighteousness)]” whilst Mujaahid said: “He regrets that which has past and says: 'If only I had done...' or 'If only I had not done...”

Al-Farraa' said: “The Nafs does not have righteousness or unrighteousness unless it blames and reproaches itself. If it has done good, then it says: 'Increase and add to it' and if it has done bad it says: 'If only I had not done that'.”

Al-Hasan said: “It is the believing Nafs… .Indeed the believer, by Allah, you do not see him except that he reproaches himself asking himself what did I want by my words or my food whilst the Faajir (unrighteous person) continues on his path not accounting his Nafs and not disciplining or rebuking it.”

This article is an edited translation from the original, published in Al-Waie magazine issue 317

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Responding to Woolwich HOW ACCEPTING COLLECTIVE BLAME AIDS THE GOVERNMENT AGENDA /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// media statements do not have an impact on people committed to violent action. If press releases were so effective, one must wonder, why do these community leaders not give public condemnation of drug dealing, binge drinking, murder and the hundreds of criminal behaviours ruining lives in this society every day?

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t times of grief, anxiety and confusion, we ask that Allah ennobles this Ummah and endows us with patience. If He grants us this great blessing, we will be heedful of the words of our Master Muhammad (SAW): “Indeed, the patience is at the first stroke of a calamity” This would remind us that in times of crisis, we should not lose our heads, but rather we must remember first and foremost to hold firm to Islam, and follow the guidance of Allah in the matter at hand. The Muslim community in Britain faced such a situation in the aftermath of the Woolwich attack, and it is only with the help of Allah that we will respond, and encourage our community to respond, to this situation in the correct manner.

Many Muslims rushed to issue statements and condemnations of the attack, without due consideration and without adhering to basic Islamic principles. They made blanket condemnations of the action, without fully considering the content of their statements. What such Muslims failed to understand or consider, is that by issuing a statement condemning the action, and stating that Muslims should not do such things, they accepted the notion of collective blame. In other words, they provided fuel to the media accusation that the Muslim community is not doing enough to stop acts of terror, when any sensible person knows that such

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Further than this, we witnessed the shameful sight of Muslims expressing support for the British armed forces, and praising their work in invading and occupying Islamic lands, despite the fact that Allah and His Messenger (SAW) condemn such invaders, and condemn those amongst the Muslims who support their criminal actions. This goes far beyond the need to speak against unlawful killing, and is a blameworthy and dishonourable response which involved lying in the name of the Muslim community. Some former Islamic personalities were so intoxicated by their desire to appease the British media, that they attended a solidarity event with the English Defence League, an organisation which is committed to expelling Muslims from Britain!

FOCUS ON THE COMMUNITY What was the response of the government to this attack, and to the manner in which many Muslim community leaders distanced themselves from the perpetrators? As would be expected, the statements, condemnations and candlelight vigils had no impact on the direction of government policy.

The vast majority of Muslims in the UK do not believe in the permissibility of violent attacks, and see that the consequence of such actions in increased hostility and violence towards the Muslim community. Despite this overwhelming opposition, the steps that the government has announced are directed at the Muslim community as a whole, not the violent minority. This is because government policy is focused on changing the way that the majority of Muslims think and feel, to create a version of Islam that

suits the tastes of government ministers.

In the days and weeks following the attack, Theresa May and David Cameron hit the media circuit to market the measures that the Government would be taking or examining in response to the increased concern about domestic extremism. Alongside measures to increase blocking of “internet preaching” and electronic snooping, Downing Street also announced the formation of a new ministerial taskforce called TERFOR. As the 3rd June press release stated following the first session of TERFOR, “The meeting agreed that it is necessary to tackle extremism head on, not just violent extremism, particularly in light of the appalling murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.” So in other words, the focus is not just on stopping violence, but on changing attitudes that the government labels as extreme.

In June, confirming how deluded the government and its advisers are, Theresa May met a delegation from the Qadiani/Ahmadiyya community, whom she praised for their commitment to integrating into British values. It is not surprising that the government is so full of praise for the Qadianis, since they represent one of the earliest British attempts to produce a genetically modified version of Islam, which has no reference to the Shari’ah or Islamic politics.

A large number of media commentators have similarly linked the issue of combating extremism not simply to speaking out against violence, but rather wholesale abandonment of core Islamic values.

As Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph, “The universities need to be much, much tougher in their monitoring of Islamic societies. It is utterly wrong to have segregated meetings in a statefunded centre of learning”. In doing so he echoed the false accusation of other right-wing organisations, that arranging events with separate seating for men and women is an indicator of “extremism”.

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WHEN WE SEE BASIC ISLAMIC PRACTICES SUCH AS GENDER SEPARATION IN LECTURES AND EVENTS BEING LABELLED AS INDICATORS OF EXTREMISM, WE CAN UNDERSTAND THAT THE AMBITION IS FOR A WHOLESALE SHIFT IN THE BASIC VALUES AND BELIEFS /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Government Response: Business as Usual When we examine the measures announced in the aftermath of the Woolwich attack, it can be clearly seen that there is little in the way of new policies. The annual report on the CONTEST programme for 2012, which was published in March 2013 – i.e. 2 months prior to the Woolwich attack – outlines the majority of these measures in some form or another.

It is not surprising that we find this continuity in government policy. Prior to coming to office in 2010, the Conservative Party affirmed their support for the Labour party’s CONTEST strategy and the Prevent agenda. They only pointed out what they saw as flaws in execution, rather than in the underlying philosophy.

Their main line of criticism, developed through Neo-Conservative think-tanks such as the Henry Jackson Society, Civitas and the Centre for Social Cohesion, was that the Prevent programme did not push strongly enough for a change in attitudes among Muslim institutions. They also charged that by working with groups whose adherence to Islamic values put them at odds with secularism, some Prevent initiatives were giving a platform for extremism in the attempt to reduce terrorism.

Since coming into power, the Lib-Con coalition government has largely followed the NeoConservative script, reducing government interaction to only the most ultra-conformist Muslim groups (or groups such as the Qadianis).

Over the course of the last two years however, the government’s initial aggressive approach towards the Muslim community ran into several hurdles.

Aside from some of the practical difficulties of implementing their more ambitious amendments to the Prevent programme, other issues have

dominated the government agenda. The magnitude of the financial crisis in Europe, major scandals in government due to both corruption and incompetence, along with coalition infighting have all absorbed a far greater share of the government’s time than they had hoped.

The revived interest in the Prevent agenda following Woolwich will bring a renewed desire to strong arm the Muslim community. However the Conservatives previous choice to minimise engagement, means that they do not have a developed pool of credible Muslim figures with whom to engage. The Annual Report on CONTEST gives an indication that the government acknowledges it doesn’t have enough credible voices within the Muslim community echoing its views. This can be seen from the fact that the report highlights the need for websites and other material refuting “terrorist and extremist organisations”, but this in listed in the “Forward Look” section i.e. it is among the work that still needs to be done, rather than in the section on established activities.

The government has invited Muslim organisations to participate in the workings of their TERFOR taskforce, which has been cautiously welcomed by some Muslim groups. We can expect that they will demand that these groups begin to disassociate themselves not only from acts of violence, but from core Islamic concepts such as Shari’ah, Khilafah and Jihad.

When we see basic Islamic practices such as gender separation in lectures and events being labelled as indicators of extremism, we can understand that the ambition is for a wholesale shift in the basic values and beliefs of the Muslim community. We pray that such Muslims, after making the error of engaging in this pointless exercise, do not compound their mistake by labelling core elements of what Allah revealed to his Messenger (SAW) as “extremism”, or “not relevant in the modern era”.

MOBILISING THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY As previously stated, the current policy initiatives being discussed are not new, and the trends in government thinking are wellestablished. Likewise our view of how the Muslim community must be mobilised remains largely the same.

The continued demonization and denigration of the Islamic beliefs and Ahkam is intended to weaken the love for Islam amongst Muslims, replacing it with feelings of shame and doubt about the validity of Islam’s solutions for life. To whatever extent possible, we wish to eliminate these fears and doubts from Muslims, replacing it with a steadfast Iman and confidence that the system of Islam is the only way forward for humanity. Likewise we want non-Muslims in the wider society to hear the Islamic beliefs and values stated for what they are, and not twisted by media hysteria and distortions.

Rather than responding to media and government accusations about extremism with apologies, and condemnation, a strong and intellectually vibrant community must state the case for Islam in clear and unambiguous terms.

This will demonstrate the strength of the Islamic way of life, and make clear that Muslims can carry Islam as an alternative to Capitalism. It will expose the dishonesty in the government and media’s claims about the Muslim community, which seeks to portray Islam as backward and prone to irrationality.

In recent years the Muslim community have launched two campaigns – Stand for Islam and Know Muhammad – that aim to illustrate to the Muslims how they can enact this response.

Through these campaigns we want to increase the reverence of the Muslims for their Islamic beliefs and for the Shari’ah. At the same time, we wish to throw doubt and belittle the secular Western culture so that it does not serve as a point of

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RATHER THAN RESPONDING TO MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT ACCUSATIONS ABOUT EXTREMISM WITH APOLOGIES, AND CONDEMNATION, A STRONG AND INTELLECTUALLY VIBRANT COMMUNITY MUST STATE THE CASE FOR ISLAM IN CLEAR AND UNAMBIGUOUS TERMS. THIS WILL DEMONSTRATE THE STRENGTH OF THE ISLAMIC WAY OF LIFE, AND MAKE CLEAR THAT MUSLIMS CAN CARRY ISLAM AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// participate in such initiatives with us, we must continuously emphasise that the lofty values of Islam naturally require implementation via a State. We also identify why the British government is so hostile to the success of sincere Islamic movements in the Muslim world, which seek to implement the Islamic system.

We must also make clear that the EDL and similar organisations, rather than being a threat which the Muslim community needs government help to avoid, are in fact a product of this government’s rhetoric about the threat of extremism from institutions within in the Muslim community. At the same time the government announces measures to clamp down on mosques, it pronounces insincere shock that followers of the EDL attack mosques and are hostile to the presence of mosques in their midst. emulation for the Muslims.

The resources prepared for such campaigns enable us to: a. Demonstrate the strength of the Islamic solutions in politics, economics and judiciary etc, and their impact on world history b. Clarify Islam’s views on matters such as warfare, crime and women in a positive and confident manner c. Illustrate how the Prophet (SAW) called to Islam on the basis of powerful intellectual proofs, not superstition and ignorance.

When we engage in this way, we simultaneously discredit the idea that slavishly embracing British culture and institutions is a positive way to engage with the wider society. When the community

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Finally we must also remind the Muslims that, in this era of fitnah, no level of incentives or threats should ever distance us from the commands of Allah and His Messenger (SAW). We must remind ourselves of the noble hadith reported by Abu Hurayra (RA)), and recorded in Saheeh Muslim, Sunan at-Tirmidhi and Musnad Ahmad, in which Rasoul Allah (SAW) said, “Be prompt in doing good deeds (before you are overtaken) by turbulence which would be like a part of the dark night.

(During that period) a man would be a believer in the morning and turn an disbeliever in the evening, or he would be a believer in the evening and turn an disbeliever in the morning, selling his Deen for worldly goods” [Sahih Muslim: Kitab ulIman, 213] We are now living in the era in which some men commit apostasy for government funding or sell

their deen cheaply to assist the occupation of our lands. Such narrations seem for us more like news reports than prophecies, because they so accurately describe the events we witness in our communities and on our television screens.

Therefore we have to encourage the Muslims to hold steadfast so that they do not become deluded by fear or greed into abandoning the Islamic standards. At the same time, we must remain committed to raising the banner of Islam in the manner of Rasool Allah (SAW) and his Companions who, despite the hostility, restrictions and propaganda of their adversaries, called for Islam without distortion, dilution or compromise.

Jamal Uddin

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The Gay Marriage Bill – IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN THE WEST /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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n 5th February 2013, the lower house of Britain’s parliament voted – by 400 votes to 175 – to legalise same-sex ‘marriage’ in Britain. The political medium in western countries seems determined to legalise gay marriage. Although some MPs and Christian leaders have expressed their opposition to this legislation, their opposition is more about whether the term ‘marriage’ is acceptable to homosexual relationships. The basis of argument is that consenting adults should have the right to marry as any heterosexual couple – this is the meaning of a free, fair and equal society.

Britain is one of a string of countries racing to legalise same-sex ‘marriage’. Many European and some South American countries – as well as parts of the United States have already legalised samesex ‘marriage’.

The issue raises dilemmas for Western society, as well as for Muslims living in the West. It serves as an example of how changing the norms of society over many years has totally unforeseen consequences.

BROKEN SOCIETY Western societies that were once based on Christian moral precepts have transformed to ones built on the premise that individuals should be free to do as they wish, provided (they say) they do not directly harm others and there is consent between both parties.

Yet the persistent pursuance of these seemingly limitless freedoms in sexual behaviour, drugs and alcohol, gambling, economic and financial matters has brought obvious collective and personal harm in society – which is followed by contradictory policy attempts to try to mitigate these harms.

According to the latest census data, the percentage of married couples fell from 51% to 47%. At the same time in the UK in 2012 there were nearly 2 million lone parents with dependent children in the UK. [Source – Office

for National Statistics 2013] This is hardly a success story for society.

LIBERAL EXTREMISM ON THE RISE The insistence on ‘rights’ for people to do as they please, regardless of its impact on society, is not the end of the matter. Rather, there is a supremacist attitude amongst some liberals to silence anyone who makes even the slightest critical or negative comment about same-sex relationships.

providing services to all, or religious groups wanting to hire council facilities, can be banned by the accusation that they are “homophobic” organizations. If same-sex marriage becomes law, people who conscientiously oppose it will be barred from a career in the public service… Even without gay marriage, Catholic adoption agencies which have refused to place babies with homosexual couples have been forced to close down.” Daily Telegraph PRESSURES ON MUSLIMS

This approach is most commonly used against religious people, Muslims included.

This oppressive atmosphere makes life especially hard for Muslims living in the West.

Abdul Hakim Murad, a Muslim chaplain (previously promoted by some Western commentators) has recently been condemned for remarks he made some years ago when he said homosexuality was a sin, according to Islamic orthodoxy, and a deviation from normal human sexual practice.

Some amongst the community have tried to justify legalising same-sex marriage through a skewed logic that forbids injustice, and if some people can marry and others cannot, it would be discriminatory and unjust!

That being said, the oppressive liberal fundamentalist attitude does not simply try to silence Muslims. The actor, Jeremy Irons, was loudly condemned when he commented that people might try to avoid inheritance tax by “sons ‘marrying’ their fathers.” He did not in fact mean it literally, he was merely pointing out the potential tax loophole.

Similarly, the Harvard academic Niall Ferguson was forced to apologise and retract comments that implied the economist John Maynard Keynes did not care about future generations – because he was a homosexual and childless.

The right-wing commentator Charles Moore addressed the oppressive nature of the legislation, saying: “If marriage is redefined by statute to include same-sex marriage, then a teacher who refuses to teach this as right is in breach of his public sector equality duty. And while a church will be protected in its own premises, a Christian charity

There are Muslim MPs’ who voted in favour of ‘Gay Marriage’ in the UK parliamentary vote – parading liberal credentials to climb the greasy pole. These MP’s who claim to be serving the interests of the Muslim community clearly demonstrated in this issue that their foremost interest is serving their political careers and parties rather than Islam and the Muslims.

DEMOCRACY IS MORE THAN ELECTIONS Britain, like other countries in the West, is a country whose laws and morals are based upon secular liberal values. Their system is one where it is the will of men, not the will of God, to decide what is right and what is wrong. Their democratic system means the people – through their elected members of Parliament – choose what is good or bad, moral or immoral, based upon a majority vote. There are no fixed principles or criterion.

Arriving at what is right and what is wrong, is dependent upon the mood within society at any particular time.

A few decades ago, homosexuality was illegal in

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“OH MANKIND! BE DUTIFUL TO YOUR LORD, WHO CREATED YOU FROM A SINGLE PERSON, AND FROM HIM CREATED HIS WIFE, AND FROM THEM BOTH HE CREATED MANY MEN AND WOMEN” ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Britain. Now, not only is it legal, but MPs have now voted for homosexuals to marry!

Once upon a time adultery was illegal; then it was legalised; then it was considered normal; now it is celebrated!

It leads one to ask the question, what will be next? Assisted suicide? Incest? Anything is possible in a system where man makes the rules, breaks the rules and changes the rules.

It is a system that Allah and His Messenger warned us about when He (SWT) said: “They took their rabbis and priests to be their lords besides Allah” (Surah 9:31) Once, whilst Allah’s Messenger (saw) was reciting this ayah, ‘Adi bin Hatim remarked “O Allah’s Messenger! They do not worship their rabbis and the priests.” The Messenger of Allah (saw) replied – “They certainly do. They [the rabbis and priests] make the halal things as haram, and haram things as halal – and they followed them, and so by doing so they really worshipped them.” [Ahmad and Al-Tirmidhi].

Instead of thinking long and hard searching for guidance for a source of solutions to human problems, in the West they engage in a dodgy balancing act trying to balance individual freedoms, the pursuit of pleasure and equality – not considering the effects of their decisions upon the wider society.

ISLAM AND MARRIAGE Islam has a very clear view towards same-sex marriage. It is built on 1. A Clear and unchanging sense of right and wrong 2. Rules that promote strong families

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committed in the ‘Aalameen (mankind and jinn)?

3. Rules that prohibit anything that harms the family A Clear and unchanging sense of right and wrong

Verily, you practise your lusts on men instead of women.

Nay, but you are a people transgressing beyond bounds (by committing great sins).’ (Sura Al-A’raaf 7:80,81)

In terms of Islam’s clarity of marriage, it is unambiguous.

ISLAMIC RULES THAT PROMOTE A STRONG FAMILY

Allah (SWT) said: “Oh mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person, and from him created his wife, and from them both He created many men and women” [An-Nisa:1]

If you look to the rules of Islam collectively, there is so much that can be observed that builds strong families. Prophet Muhammad (saw) encouraged us to get married, encouraged us to have many children, to be merciful towards our children, to be dutiful towards our parents, to look after the elderly, to maintain ties with relatives.

And He (SWT) says: “And We created you in pairs” [An Naba: 8] The clear and unchanging sense of right and wrong about fundamental issues means that cutting, pasting, chopping and changing rules is something we refuse to do in Islam. We believe unwaveringly that the Quran is the word of Allah, and we know that Allah (SWT) has completed His Deen and has sent comprehensive guidance for mankind.

We arrive at this position after thinking and exhausting ourselves intellectually and rationally.

So we take what is halal and we leave the haram, because we know that as it comes from our Rabb, it is undoubtedly the truth.

Islam’s view on same-sex relationships is unambiguous. It is one of the major sins, just as adultery and fornication are one of the major sins.

Allah (SWT) in the Qur’an brings the story of the Prophet Lut (AS) to demonstrate how humanity lowers itself to the depths of depravity in condoning and promoting such behaviour: And (remember) Lut, when he said to his people: ‘Do you commit the worst sin such as none preceding you has

The importance of the family cannot be underestimated not just as a source of love and companionship for people, but as a source of help and assistance within the family structure.

ISLAM PROHIBITS ANYTHING THAT WEAKENS FAMILY AND SOCIETY. When one looks to the rules of Islam collectively, again, it can be observed that it prohibits things that undermine the family structure. In an Islamic state, the harsh prohibition against fornication, adultery and homosexual acts – any of which have to be proved in a court to a very high standard of evidence - all work towards that end.

This doesn’t mean that in an Islamic state, the authorities go round looking for people who have committed these crimes. It is not a police state.

Nonetheless, Islam’s clear prohibition of acts such as fornication, adultery and homosexuality provides a clear deterrent to anyone who publicly violates the law of Allah (SWT).

The Prophet (saw) clearly explained how the

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IT IS VITAL THAT WE SHOW HOW THEIR VALUES OF FREEDOM AND SELF-BENEFIT HAVE DESTROYED FAMILY LIFE AND IN TURN IS DESTROYING SOCIETY. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// rules of Islam protect the whole of society when he (saw) said: ‘The example of the one who stands for the Hudood of Allah and the one who compromises the Hudood of Allah are like the people in a boat, some of whom occupy the upper deck and some occupy the lower deck. Whenever those in the lower deck need water, they have to go to the upper deck to retrieve it. So some of them said, ‘why don't we make a hole in our deck so we do not harm the people of the upper deck?' If the people do not stop them, they will all fall and be failures, but if they stop them they will all be saved’ (Bukhari) HOW SHOULD A MUSLIM RESPOND IN THIS CLIMATE? Firstly, Muslims should be clear in the understanding of this matter according to Islam.

We should know that homosexuality is a sin (haram) and that in an Islamic state such acts, if proved, would be subject to hudood punishment.

We should know the values Islam promotes and the rules that Islam has to protect such values in society. We also need to understand the way in which Western laws - which are products of democracy - undermine such values.

Secondly, as well as understanding Islam’s position on these matters ourselves, Muslims must establish the Islamic understanding of what is right and wrong within our community – in particular amongst our youth.

The Muslim community, as a collective, needs to view this issue as a symptom of an entire system.

It is a symptom of a capitalist secular society which has an entirely different outlook and criterion to Islam, which leads to misery in society and the breakdown of the family structure.

We need to build the correct Islamic ideas, a

strong criterion of right and wrong based on the Shari’ah, and the promotion of the values that Allah (SWT) says human beings should use to satisfy our needs and desire. By so doing we provide far greater protection for society than any amount of lobbying on the issue can possibly produce.

Thirdly, if Muslims had this firm understanding, by carrying da’wah to non Muslims, explaining Islam’s solutions, discussing them with the wider society, and explaining the harms and fallacies of their own systems - they would not only be fulfilling an obligation – they would be adding a further layer of protection to the community.

The danger of being silent on such issues or saying that it is something we dislike but must accept is that eventually homosexuality will be considered acceptable and even the norm within the Muslim community. May Allah protect us from it!

Imams, community leaders and Muslims in general must realize that the plan of the West is to ‘reform’ Islam so that is fits within the secular western framework. Just as Christians have been forced to accept homosexuality and other secular values, Muslims are under pressure to change those aspects of Islam that do not conform to secularism.

Rather than being on the defensive, we as Muslims are better placed than anyone to engage with non-Muslims in Britain and to hold a mirror up to society. It is vital that we show how their values of freedom and self-benefit have destroyed family life and in turn is destroying society.

This contradicts the Islamic Aqeeda at its very core. And it is this that we should provoke people to think about through engaging in an intellectual dialogue with wider society.

We should be proud of our Deen that has elevated man from becoming a slave to his carnal desires to become a slave of Allah SWT, such that one achieves a perfect balance of one’s spiritual, sexual and material needs.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: The knots of Islam will be undone one by one, each time a knot is undone the next one will be grasped, the first to be undone will be the Ruling and the last will be Prayer (Hakim and Ahmed).

The knot of ruling by Islam has been undone for decades now. There is now a struggle to undo the knot of the basics of our Deen.

Just as some Muslims across the world are trying to re-establish the knot of ruling by Islam – the Islamic Khilafah, those of us living in the West must realize that there is a struggle here too.

Governments in the West are intent upon changing Islam, and we must take an active part in preventing this from happening. We need to save this ship from sinking. “…True Guidance has become distinct from error. So whoever rejects Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the firmest handhold – one that will never break. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (Al Baqarah 2:256 ) Dr Abdul Wahid

The issue is not one law. Rather the problems lie with the very principle that in the western secular system man decides what is right and wrong.

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Pakistan’s Elections Promise Nothing New NATIONAL ELECTIONS IN PAKISTAN ATTEMPTED TO REVIVE ITS BADLY DISCREDITED DEMOCRACY. YET WITH THE USUAL OLD FACES WINNING POWER ONCE AGAIN ONLY MORE POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND FAILED POLICIES CAN BE EXPECTED, LEAVING THE NEED FOR REAL POLITICAL CHANGE AS URGENT AS EVER. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

the PPP’s 32. PTI only managed enough seats to form a provincial coalition government in Khyber Pukhtunkhawa with the Qaumi Watan Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, its first taste of power.

PML-N achieved a majority in Punjab whilst the PPP achieved a majority in Sindh but will form a coalition government with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - the price the PPP have to pay to ensure cooperation from a party that dominates Karachi. PML-N will also lead a coalition in Balochistan with the smaller Baloch centric National Party.

DEMOCRATIC PAKISTAN On 11th May 2013 Pakistan held national elections for its lower house of parliament the National Assembly and its four provincial assemblies in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtunkhawa. The incumbent Pakistan’s Peoples Party (PPP) led coalition having completed an unprecedented yet disastrous five year term in office was thoroughly beaten with Nawaz Sharif leading his Pakistan Muslim League faction (PML-N) to victory. PML-N gained 126 seats in the National Assembly out of a possible directly elected 272. With 18 independent candidates joining PML-N, Sharif has easily attained his majority of 137.

The much hyped and anticipated electoral ‘Tsnuami’ by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-eInsaaf (PTI) party never materialised as PTI ended up in third place with just 28 seats, behind

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The return of General Pervez Musharraf proved to be a political sideshow as those in the echelons of power found no use for him and discarded him by confining him to his Islamabad farmhouse to be tried on various judicial cases.

The elections were marred by widespread claims of rigging in Punjab and Karachi; some polling stations reported the novelty of more than 100% voter turnout. This led to the PTI protesting with ‘dharnas’ and re-polling taking place in a couple of National and Provincial Assembly seats. The bottom line though is that with these small protests fizzling out, the much trumpeted hype of change pushed by PTI and other supporters of Democracy in Pakistan has come to nought. As once again the same old faces have merely re-arranged the deck chairs of power in Pakistan with no danger of any meaningful change. Moreover despite the apparent rout of the PPP in these elections, it still has 41 out of

104 members in the upper house of Parliament, the Senate; the PML-N holds just 14 seats. Thus for Sharif to pass any significant legislative programmes through both houses of parliament, he will very much require the consensus and support of President Asif Ali Zardari’s party, as the PPP together with its allies firmly control the Senate.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS PTI’s failure to bring about dramatic change in Pakistan may have shocked many of its supporters but in reality failure was apparent right from the outset of its establishment. This was most visible with the acceptance of tainted politicians like former PPP Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who oversaw the drone strikes policy for much of the PPP government tenure and Khurshid Kasuri who was Musharraf ’s Foreign Minister when Dr. Affia Siddiqui was handed over to America. Incoming Khyber Pukhtunkhawa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has changed parties like a political chameleon with his last political colours being those of the splinter PPP-Sherpao group.

PTI’s participation in a bankrupt and failing political system, provided the system with a degree of credibility for a while and served as a distraction, particularly the youth. However the false promises of Imran Khan’s PTI have now been laid bare for all to see. PTI is now faced

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IN POVERTY STRICKEN PAKISTAN THE FEUDALISTS AND INDUSTRIALISTS TOGETHER WITH THE MILITARY HAVE ENSURED THAT NOTHING DISTURBS THEIR POLITICAL CONTROL THAT HAS ENRICHED THEM AND MADE THEM POWERFUL. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// with the disgraceful humiliation of governing the area of Khyber Pukhtunkhawa while the US continues their drone strikes in the region CRISIS HIT PAKISTAN Elections in Pakistan have come at a time when the country is facing a crisis on multiple fronts.

Gas shortages and electricity blackouts for up to twenty hours a day have not only brought widespread misery and suffering in the extreme summer heat but have also crippled small businesses and industrial output; the resultant increase in unemployment together with spiralling inflation have brought the economy to its knees.

The unrest in Balochistan continues apace with the army fighting separatist Baloch guerrillas widely recognised to be supported by India.

Unrest in Karachi is at boiling point with murders occurring on an almost daily basis with militias who belong to the secular political parties such as the MQM, PPP and the Pakhtoon ANP engaging in a brutal turf war for control over the country’s commercial capital.

However, it is the US led War on Terror in Pakistan which has had the most catastrophic affect upon the Muslims. It has undermined Pakistani stability and delivered tens of billions of dollars worth of damage to the economy. US drone strikes have killed over 3500 people; its network of spies, exposed with the capture and subsequent release of Raymond Davis, have brought murder and havoc to the streets of Pakistan. These US operations are quietly abetted

by Pakistan’s political and military leadership.

Who have themselves used the Pakistan military to conduct operations in the tribal areas in an attempt to stem America’s losses in Afghanistan.

Add to all of this the country’s grinding poverty, poor infrastructure and virtually non-existent public services.

As such, the incoming government of Nawaz

Sharif has monumental problems to deal with, equally huge expectations upon his shoulders, but little time to deliver.

MORE OF THE SAME Yet Nawaz Sharif ’s previous track record in government is one of failure. At Sharif ’s last attempt at national government his supporters attacked the Supreme Court over a constitutional power struggle. They oversaw the growth of private Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that have helped create the power crisis owing to the exuberant tariff charges. On top of which they delivered a widespread flour and sugar shortage throughout the country as the economy failed to deliver. Sharif ’s ‘foreign policy acumen’ was further demonstrated when he humiliated the army by pulling out of Kargil by shaking then President Bill Clinton’s hand in the White House.

Arguably matters had reached such a crisis point, that the people overwhelmingly welcomed Musharraf taking power through a coup in 1999.

His party’s latest stint of power in provincial Punjab saw some pet projects - free laptops for students and a metro bus system for Lahore.

However, when pitted against a public health crisis with Dengue fever, doctors strikes and deaths from counterfeit medicines not to mention the ‘saasti roti’ or subsidised bread fiasco, such gestures are woeful in comparison.

Above all Punjab was hit with the worst power crisis ever and its people remain in grinding poverty, enduring a failing economy. So the obvious question remains: what, if anything, will Nawaz Sharif do differently this time round?

A clue to this was provided on 24th May by Sartaj Aziz, chief policy advisor to Nawaz Sharif, who said that the new government will look to the IMF for new loans and ‘integrate Pakistan’s energy systems with India’. To try to resolve the energy crisis it is being touted that the new government could issue $5 billion worth of treasury bills to pay off the electricity circular

debt. Yet this does nothing to tackle the underlying problem of privatised power production which is at the root cause of the crisis. A crisis incidentally, which Sharif, helped introduce in the 1990s.

Examination of PML-N’s manifesto, reveals a depressingly familiar set of policies. The emphasis continues to rest upon more free market reforms that encourage foreign multinational control of the economy; increasing tax collection on the poor with no mention of agricultural tax or land reforms. Most crucially it indicates a continuance of the normalisation of relations with Pakistan’s traditional enemy India, by pushing Kashmir to the side which is in line with US policy to bolster India and contain China. On the issue of Afghanistan the PML-N has pledged a better relationship with the US. This in practice means turning a blind eye to continued US drone strikes on Pakistani territory and providing continued assistance and cover for a scaled down but continued US occupation of Afghanistan, under the guise of ‘withdrawal’.

The fact is, PML-N’s victory is meaningless as far as change goes and a third Sharif government has no real solutions apart from implementing more of the same failed previously failed policies as applied by the PPP. The next five years promise to be an unmitigated disaster in the making.

FAILED SECULAR SYSTEM The problem of endemic political failure is acutely sensed by the ruling elite of Pakistan.

Having presented the same old faces in the closed system of governance selection with the addition of Imran Khan, the failure of political change was already written on the wall. It was no accident that channels like ARY and GEO TV, being the country’s premium media outlets, were consistently running campaigns such as ‘Vote for

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THIS ELECTION WAS NOT JUST A TRANSFER OF POWER, IT WAS A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO TRY AND GET DEMOCRACY OFF LIFE SUPPORT IN PAKISTAN... /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ISLAM PROVIDES A REAL SOLUTION

Pakistan’. This election was not just a transfer of power, it was a desperate attempt to try and get democracy off life support in Pakistan, by presenting it as the only ideological and political way forward. The truth is though that no amount of political spin, no amount of literary praises of democracy by Pakistan’s secular media scribes can paper over the huge and growing problems that the Pakistani nation now face every day.

Moreover it is extremely difficult to confer legitimacy on a secular political system such as the currently implemented in Pakistan. It has failed to provide its citizens with basic services such as education and healthcare, it lies to its citizens over US drone strikes whilst facilitating their extrajudicial murder and it rewards the politically corrupt with high public office through pieces of legislation like the NRO. Whilst Constitutional Articles 62 and 63 were designed to weed out the corrupt by ensuring ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ candidates, the judiciary and Election Commission of Pakistan didn’t disqualified anyone contesting the elections, apart from Pervez Musharraf. Such so called constitutional ‘checks’ ignore the fact that the very system the constitution defines and within which these politicians operate, is itself corrupt and broken, quite apart from those who participate in it. For at the heart of the democratic political system lies the key problem of man-made legislation and the corrosive influence of powerful interest groups. In poverty stricken Pakistan the feudalists and industrialists together with the military have ensured that nothing disturbs their political control that has enriched them and made them powerful. This conglomerate of interests is not going to simply hand over the keys to real political power and simply walk away.

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Thus it is no surprise that in recent surveys prior to the elections, even Western organisations were forced to acknowledge strong support for Islam; a PEW Research survey found that a staggering 84% of Pakistan’s people wanted Shari’ah rule.

Whilst the exact nature of bringing about Shar’iah rule and the Khilafah may be debatable, it profoundly underlines the fact that Pakistan’s people have had enough of the secular system which has been implemented over them for 65 years; it is this secular system, manifested either as military rule or democracy that is wholly responsible for their problems, not Islam as is falsely claimed by liberal secularists.

The problems of Pakistan continue to be that it is in the grip of a political stranglehold. It is forced to align its policies with the current political order. This order ensures that Pakistan continues to borrow and pay out more to loan sharks like the IMF with huge debt payments.

Control of Pakistan’s immense agricultural, mineral and industrial resources remain in the hands of both foreign and domestic Capitalists.

Above all else, Pakistan remains in a vassal state with a myopic leadership that blindly implements the US led foreign policy agenda. It fits neatly within the US policy to seek cheap labour, obtain access to markets and extract physical resources, whilst ensuring regional geo-political aims are met.

A true solution for Pakistan’s vast problems can only begin by re-ordering this tyrannically hamstrung political framework. That can only be achieved with a solution that provides the ideological and political vision to address these challenges. The Islamic Khilafah system provides this independence which is why it is so loathed by Western politicians. The Islamic Khilafah system will abolish income based taxes and tax wealth on produce and manufactured goods at its source. It will implement land reform to ensure cultivation of land takes place within three years. If this fails to occur those responsible face the possibility of their land being seized. Other policies involve ensuring energy resources such as electricity are

managed and distributed by the state at cost price. In every respect, the Khilafah puts the people’s interests first, as required by the Shar’a.

Foreign policy is revolutionised as the Khilafah will remove any semblance of US presence on Islamic land. It will deal firmly with India by making Kashmir a priority and unifying the surrounding Muslim lands. In time this will lead to a powerful political and economic entity that will provide a real alternative to the rest of the world sickened by the injustices wrought by Capitalism. All of this would be achieved under a representative government with elected representatives who will hold the Amir (the Khaleefah) to account.

REAL POLITICAL CHANGE True revolutionary political change is not just a change of faces; it is accompanied by a genuine change in the political system too. The US changed from colonial British control to a Republic in 1776, France uprooted its monarchy to create its Republic in 1789 and Russia removed its Tsarist monarchy to create its now defunct Communist state in 1917. That is real change, not like the farce in Pakistan where a change of faces who uphold the same corrupt system is sold as political change.

As the US struggles to contain the earthquake of the Arab Spring in Syria and the rest of the Middle East by trying to sell and supply them democracy, the last thing it would want is for Pakistan to boil over too. Yet having applied democracy in Pakistan for many years Pakistanis should be at the forefront of explaining something they understand only too well after tasting its bitter fruits; that democracy has not worked. If the Arabs wanted any proof, they only need to come and spend some time in the searing heat and darkness of load shedding hit Pakistan to see for themselves how its democrats continue to enrich themselves whilst making a mockery of accountable representative rule.

Atif Salahuddin

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How Islamic finance works in a nonbanking world ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// INTRODUCTION The world financial system came into global focus in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

This crisis saw companies such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and AIG effectively collapse under the liabilities that they had amassed.

Many questions were raised, but as has happened before, such as during the depression of the 1930s, the establishment have chosen to promote a particular narrative. Which is to say, that what we had seen was no more than unavoidable risks that are part and parcel of market forces. Outlining that the best approach is to try to minimise risks, rather than seek a fundamental review of the whole system.

Such risk management was in the form of better regulation. Seeking to suggest the failure was a failure of regulation rather than a systemic failure of the system itself.

DEBT VS. EQUITY FINANCING In the Islamic Economic System (hereafter known as IES) the financial model is based on equity finance as opposed to interest based debt finance. In this context, equity refers to funds available from savings, not to funds borrowed from banks through interest.

The way equity finance works is through capital partners enter into partnership with other capital partners. Or it may be that a partner brings the entrepreneurial know-how alone to the partnership and then engages in a risk and reward sharing contract. A number of distinct company structures exist, such as Mudharaba, Al-‘Inan, Al-

Abdan etc, so as to cater for the various combinations of capital and entrepreneurial partnership roles, but the essential principles are the same.

In all such structures, profit is shared according to a predefined ratio and the losses are in proportion to the capital share of the partner.

There is no concept of limiting the liability of the partner as seen in the western financial model. In the case of the body partner, (that is the partner who provides their input but not their capital), the loss is on the effort exerted, as there was no capital investment. This means that the company is formed based upon the expertise the partners offer, not based upon their capital - unlike the capitalist company were the corporate entity is built upon the capital contributions of the investors.

The Prophet Muhammed SAW said: “The loss (Al-Wadhi’a) is upon the capital and the profit is according to what they stipulated.”

INCENTIVES FOR EQUITY FINANCE The question arises what incentive exists to bring capital into such arrangements? An arrangement that is unlike the incentive to loan money based on interest or loan equity where there is no risk to personal assets. To address this question, one needs to consider other rules and realities in the Islamic system, rules which remove the incentive to hoard wealth, thus ensuring that funds find their way to new and creative business ideas, which in turn creates an environment ripe for innovation and employment.

These rules include the following:-

a. Zakat, levied on unused wealth at the rate of 2.5% payable annually. b. Prohibition of hoarding the medium of exchange. c. Lack of interest bearing bank accounts forcing other creative forms of money investment.

These disincentives to hoarding money encourage people to invest their funds in business, which will boost the economy through generating growth and employment. Allah SWT says in the Qur’an: “In order that it may not (merely) make a circuit between the wealthy among you” (Surah 59:7) HOW DO LARGE SCALE INDUSTRIES COPE WITHOUT PUBLIC EQUITY MARKET AVAILABILITY? As the Islamic company structures are not formed based upon the capital each partner is providing, this is naturally a limiting factor to how large the Islamic structures can become.

In the joint stock PLC structure, shareholders do not contract with each other, instead their share capital contracts with the capital of other investors. This enables them to grow to a significant scale as no inter-partner agreement is involved as to who can and cannot be included in the ownership of the company entity. This contrasts with the Islamic model where partners need to engage on offer and acceptance amongst each other as the company is formed of their person and not their properties.

The question for us now, is how natural monopolies or industries such as oil and gas

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IT IS THE CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM THAT HAS PRODUCED SUCH ECONOMIC HARDSHIP THAT SHOULD BE THE ISSUE, NOT WHY THE ISLAMIC ECONOMY DOES NOT OFFER LOANS FACILITIES. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

exploration would survive in an environment without conventional stock markets arise. Such industries have such huge start-up costs. They need thousands of investors pooling their capital in order to make such projects viable.

In the Islamic economy, there is a separation between private property, public property and state property and such huge oil and gas projects would fall within the purview of public property.

Public property is owned by the public at large but managed by the Islamic State which levies a charge for the supply and maintenance of such industries. Therefore the pooling of funds still occurs, but under the provision of service, so not profit-driven as is the case under the western economic model.

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HOW WILL EQUITY FINANCE WORK IN AN ISLAMIC STATE WHERE LOANS ARE NOT AVAILABLE? There will be far greater disposable income and savings in the Islamic economy. This will be due to a number of factors too plentiful to list, but as an insight one can consider the following: The monetary unit is the gold and silver currency which will cause a stable to mild deflationary environment which will ensure income can easily keep pace with prices, unlike the scenario we see with monetary inflation where it eats into the disposable income of families. Unlike in the 1950’s through 1970s, it is increasingly the case that both partners now work so as to maintain a similar standard of living to that enjoyed by previous generations. Today the taxpayer is paying more and more for bailouts that the casino behaviour of the financial markets caused, and we are witnessing the on-going sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Both the aforementioned points are indictments as to why in Europe we are in such an impoverished state with little or no savings forced to rely borrowing on interest. It is the Capitalist economic system that has produced such economic hardship that should be the issue, not why the Islamic economy does not offer loans facilities.

HOW ARE OTHER AIMS OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR REALISED UNDER THE IES

Furthermore unemployment will be lower as smaller companies create more price competition and more innovation, which creates more jobs which translates into more wealth for all and this means more investable funds available to finance more and more novel business ideas. This contrasts with the mass consolidation of business that has occurred in the capitalist model were many brands, cunningly maintain their original brand names so as to create the illusion of competition, whilst in fact being owned by fewer and fewer organisations.

• Business cycles that cause cyclical upturns and downturns in markets due to the abundance of cheap credit (FIAT currency coupled with artificially maintained low interest rates by central banks) and assets bubbles which have economy wide repercussions when prices ‘crash down’ to market fundamentals.

What about other functions of the financial sector? Those such as hedging through the derivatives industry, price discovery for various financial products and exchange rates and managing trades through large entities (called clearing houses) that act as financial intermediaries to buyers and sellers?

It is true that such functions encourage trade that would not have otherwise occurred. Such products are non-existent in the Islamic system, so is this not a weakness one may ask?

Hedging or limiting exposure to risk: The exposure that is supposedly mitigated through various products, called derivatives (such as Credit Default Swaps) is exposure that is largely created by the idiosyncrasies of the capitalist system itself and not exposure that is universal to private sector markets.

To substantiate this, consider the following realities that are endemic to the capitalist version of the private sector:-

• Weak demand due to weak confidence which is based on irrational fears. This phenomena was referred to by Keynes as ‘animal spirits’ and has also been called the ‘paradox of

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///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// thrift’.

The pre-war president Franklin D Roosevelt summed up this phenomena well when he said: “We have nothing to fear other than fear itself!”

This fickle nature is not prevalent in the IES due to different fundamental concepts held by adherents of the Islamic belief, such as the concept of risk or rizq. Such core Islamic concepts make market participants more robust and confident and not prone to the irrational, herding mentality that brings instability to markets.

• Gold and Silver based currency, which avoids exchange rate unpredictability removing the need for derivative products that compensate for wild fluctuations in exchange rates.

Furthermore, the idea that risk can be mitigated through derivatives is a complete misnomer.

What really happens is that risk mitigation at the scale of individual trades is masked by systemic risk which becomes locked into the entire system.

This is a realisation from the prior position, proposed in the 1990’s of the idea of complete risk elimination, an idea embodied in the BlackSholes model which was manifested in the business model of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM). The idea that risk could be eliminated completely was proven to be false when LTCM failed within 4 years of operation.

The recent credit crisis of 2008 is thus the second climb down from this position with the view now being that even partial risk elimination is at a cost of systemic risk; an idea known as Moral Hazard.

As far as price discovery, this is not required for such products as they are not needed or traded.

However foreign currencies can be traded on the international markets (known as the FOREX market) and traders in the IES can obtain foreign currency when importing goods at the spot rate

as this has been permitted by the Shariah rules.

Note that only around 3% of all currency trading is relating to import and export requirements according to the Bank of International Settlements.

As far as the clearing house function, what happens in conventional markets is that traders, who often do not trust each other trade with what is known as a central counterparty (CCP); so trader A sells to the CCP which in turn sells onto trader B. Ultimately trader A wished to sell to trader B but lacked confidence in trader B unlike the case with the CCP. This gives financial institutions such as investment banks a key role in facilitating trade and a criticism that could be levelled at the IES, is that without CCP’s the volume of such trade would be impacted. What such critics fail to factor in is that such large trade volumes are usually composed of over blown financial products which are inherently prone to default risk. They also fail to recognise the Islamic ethos in the IES for honouring contracts and rights coupled with having sufficient collateral. This is in sharp contrast to the massive amount of debt accumulated as in the case of Lehman brothers. They went a step further than others, by hiding their debt and trading with colossal levels of debt. Although this enabled them to make profits, it also left them exposed to risk that they simply could not cover. Such realities which drive the CCP concept are eliminated in the IES with its equity financing approach to wealth investment.

WHAT ROLE, IF ANY, WILL BANKS HAVE IN THE ISLAMIC ECONOMIC SYSTEM?

nor is there interest based lending.

However a function of the bank could be to facilitate capital partners to form contacts with other partners who have entrepreneurial ideas.

Also, there may be a role for them in providing a clearing mechanism to enable people to use credit cards and cheques instead of notes, which themselves are used instead of carrying physical gold and silver. This system (the sakk system) was in fact in use since the time of the Khalif Harun al-Rashid in the 9th Century so would not be a novelty in the Islamic State. Some of these functions could also be undertaken by the state treasury (Bait-ul-Maal).

CONCLUSION The myth we are sold is that the financial sector, despite its recent ills, is vital to provide credit which is the lynchpin of growth and wealth creation. The financial sector is thus depicted as the facilitator of the real economy which is where real wealth is created. However the reality is quite the opposite. It has grown disproportionately large; ingesting the loss of jobs from the real economy and now is attacking the real economy through the financial burden that has been placed on each and every taxpayer. The alternative of the Islamic economic system must be brought to the fore of the debate so that the myth is dispelled and the masses are liberated from the financial sector octopus which through its tentacles is drawing real wealth from our genuine efforts into the hands of the global bankers and financiers.

Sarfraz Wali

In the Islamic State, conventional retail banks would not exist. This is because under the IES, there is neither fractional reserve banking (a practice under the FIAT monetary system that allows for money to be created from nothing),

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Ramadhan Pearls /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// the hellfire seventy years further away from his face." [This is related by "the group," except for Abu Dawud] Abdullah ibn `Amr reported that the Messenger of Allah, (SAW), said: "The fast and the Qur'an are two intercessors for the servant of Allah on the Day of Resurrection. The fast will say: 'O Lord, I prevented him from his food and desires during the day. Let me intercede for him.' The Qur'an will say: 'I prevented him from sleeping at night. Let me intercede for him.' And their intercession will be accepted." [Ahmad] Abu Umamah reported: "I came to the Messenger of Allah and said: 'Order me to do a deed that will allow me to enter Paradise.' He said: 'Stick to fasting, as there is no equivalent to it.' Then I came to him again and he said: 'Stick to fasting."' [Ahmad, an-Nasa'i, and alHakim] Sahl ibn Sa'd reported that the Prophet (SAW) said: "There is a gate to Paradise that is called ar-Rayyan. On the Day of Resurrection it will say: 'Where are those who fasted?' When the last [one] has passed through the gate, it will be locked." [Bukhari and Muslim] Allah's Messenger (SAW) said: Whenever you sight the new moon (of the month of Ramadhan) observe fast, and when you sight it (the new moon of Shawwal) break it, and if the sky is cloudy for you, then observe fast for thirty days. [Muslim]

Allah's Apostle said, "When the month of Ramadhan starts, the gates of the heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained." [Bukhari] Narrated Abu Huraira (r.a): The Prophet said: "... whoever fasts during Ramadhan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, all his past sins will be forgiven."

[Bukhari] Abu Said al-Khudri reported that the Messenger of Allah, said: "No servant fasts on a day in the path of Allah except that Allah removes

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In another hadith, the Messenger of Allah (SAW) says, "Ramadhan has come to you. (It is) a month of blessing, in which Allah covers you with blessing, for He sends down Mercy, decreases sins and answers prayers. In it, Allah looks at your competition (in good deeds), and boasts about you to His angels.

So show Allah goodness from yourselves, for the unfortunate one is he who is deprived in (this month) of the mercy of Allah, the Mighty, the Exalted." [Tabarani] "Every action of the son of Adam is given manifold reward, each good deed receiving then times its like, up to seven hundred times. Allah the Most High said, 'Except for fasting, for it is for Me and I will give recompense for it, he leaves off his desires and his food for Me.' for the fasting person there are two times of joy; a time when he

breaks his fast and a time of joy when he meets his Lord, and the smell coming from the mouth of the fasting person is better with Allah than the smell of musk." [Bukhari] “Fasting is a shield with which a servant protects himself from the Fire." [Ahmad] On the Day of Judgement, "Fasting will say: O My Lord I prevented him from food and desires so accept my intercession for him."

[Ahmad, al-Haakim, Hasan] The Prophet said: “He who gives food for a fasting person to break his fast, he will receive the same reward as him, and nothing will be reduced from the fasting persons reward." [Ahmad, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah, Ibn Hibbaan, Saheeh] 'Arfajah testifies to this: "We were with 'Utbah ibn Farqad while he was discussing Ramadhan. A companion of the Prophet entered upon the scene. When 'Utbah saw him, he became shy and stopped talking. The man [the companion] spoke about Ramadhan, saying: 'I heard the Messenger of Allah say during Ramadhan: "The gates of Hell are closed, the gates of Paradise are opened, and the devils are in chains. An angel calls out: 'O you who intend to do good deeds, have glad tidings. O you who intend to do evil, refrain, until Ramadhan is completed.'"

Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet, (SAW) , said: "Whoever fasts the month of Ramadhan with faith and seeks Allah's pleasure and reward, will have his previous sins forgiven." [Ahmad and the compilers of the sunan] Allah's Messenger (SAW) said: He who observed the fast of Ramadhan and then followed it with six (fasts) of Shawwal, it would be as if he fasted perpetually. [Muslim]

THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH, (SAW), SAID: "THE FAST AND THE QUR'AN ARE TWO INTERCESSORS FOR THE SERVANT OF ALLAH ON THE DAY OF RESURRECTION. THE FAST WILL SAY: 'O LORD, I PREVENTED HIM FROM HIS FOOD AND DESIRES DURING THE DAY. LET ME INTERCEDE FOR HIM.' THE QUR'AN WILL SAY: 'I PREVENTED HIM FROM SLEEPING AT NIGHT. LET ME INTERCEDE FOR HIM.' AND THEIR INTERCESSION WILL BE ACCEPTED."

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