Africa

The Rise in Fuel Prices. Yet another Step to Crush the Poor and Create More Poverty

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The rulers of Sudan are not satisfied with the current status of poverty, hunger and crushing price hikes to which they have controlled the people. They – who are free from the concept of caring for people’s affairs – have turned on us with the decisions to increase fuel prices under the pretext of lifting subsidies, increasing the price of a gallon of gas by 66%, and the price of a gallon of gasoline by 73%, and a cylinder of cooking gas by 67%. They did this with justifications such as: This support leaves the rich rather than the poor, and fuel is being smuggled to neighboring countries…!

We in Hizb ut Tahrir Wilayah Sudan explain to our people in Sudan the following facts:

First: The increase in fuel prices is in complete compliance with the resolutions of the International Monetary Fund that dictated such a decision to the Minister of Finance in the meeting held in May 2013. The International Monetary Fund ordered to gradually lift fuel subsidies to the stage of full liberalization. Note that the Minister of Finance said on 12/03/2012 that “the budget for the year 2013 will not see any lifting of support for petroleum products or the imposition of new taxes or customs” (Sudan Tribune). Yet what does the government of Sudan do? This docile slave to the Kaffir West!

Second: The government itself is responsible for the existence of a deficit in its budget, not the ordinary citizen whom the government burdens with the brunt of its evil. It has separated the South for the benefit of the Kaffir West, causing people to lose 75% of oil and wealth, which went to the south.

Third: Oil is considered by the Islamic Shariah to be public property, it is not from the state properties to be sold at the global price. At-Tirmidhi narrated from Abyad Bin Hammal Al-Mazani:

«أنه وفَدَ إلى رسول الله فاستقطعه الملح فقطع له، فلمّا أن ولّى قال رجل من المجلس: أتدري ما قطعت له؟ إنما قطعت له الماء العدّ. قال: فانتزعه منه»

“He sent a delegation to the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم, who cut him off from salt. When he had found protection a man from the council asked: “Do you know from what you cut him off? You cut him off from counted water.” He said: “Lift it from him.”

The fact that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم recovered Abyad Bin Hammal from what he gave him of salt, after he knew that it was a great unceasing amount, is evidence that metal resources which do not cease shall not be owned privately, because it is the property of Muslims in general. Therefore it is the state’s duty to distribute these fuels (petrol, gasoline and gas), and other petroleum derivatives to members of the public, either individually or through services after deducting the costs.

Fourth: Sudan produces 130,000 barrels a day and consumes about 100,000 barrels. The Minister of Finances said: “The production of the country amounts to 130,000 barrels per day, and because it has partners, its share amounts to 26 million barrels per year.” (As-Sahafa, 09/09/2013). According to figures recognized by the Minister the pure share of Sudan is 71,000 barrels per day, which are the property of the people in the State and not the government, taking into account that the oil contracts with foreign companies have been signed by this government. These contracts are void under the Islamic Shariah. They enabled these companies to loot about 60,000 barrels per day from the Ummah’s wealth. A production of 130,000 barrels per day is enough and beyond in covering the country’s need. This is another crime committed by the government, and they want the ordinary people to cover up for it!!

Fifth: The government practices fraud and treachery, including its concealing of the contracts for oil extraction and their marketing. The Minister of Finances said: “It is expected that the oil production reaches 150 thousand barrels per day, with revenues worth $300 million” (As-Sahafa, 12/04/2012). Indeed when the government was bargaining for a secession of the south, it reported that its production reached 118,000 barrels per day, and that the consumption amounted to 100,000 barrels per day, therefore Sudan would not be affected by the secession of the south. We wonder for the whereabouts of the petroleum export fees of the South – outside the budget – amounting to $236 million in about three months. It is narrated from Mu’qal Bin Yasar who said:

سمعت رسول الله يقول: «ما من وال يلي رعية من المسلمين فيموت وهو غاش لهم إلا حرَّم الله عليه الجنة». قال رسول الله: «لكل غادر لواء يوم القيامة يرفع له بقدر غدره ألا ولا غادر أعظم غدراً من أمير عامة»

“I heard the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم say: “There is no Imam responsible for a parish of Muslims who dies having cheated them, but Allah forbids him Paradise.” The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “For every traitor there is a banner lifted on the day of resurrection according to the degree of his treachery. There is no greater treachery than that of the Ameer of the public.”

Sixth: The government’s talk about the subsidy leaving the rich rather than the poor takes the people for a fool, because deportation affects the prices of goods consumed by the rich and the poor. The capitalist system applied by the government is a system that crushes ordinary people, and produces poverty and the poor. All taxes and customs that are levied on goods and services are paid by the poor. The rich obtain them in favor of the government, so it should not be for those who apply the greedy rules of capitalism to talk about poverty and the poor!!

Oh people of Sudan: Our silence on the application of the capitalist systems of injustice has emboldened our rulers over us, to the point of provocation even despising us! They do not even mind crushing our living conditions. If we want security in our living, safety in our Deen and deliverance in our Hereafter, then we have to return to Allah. We have to abandon these unjust systems and establish in its place the system of Islam under the rightly guided Khilafah, which scatters wheat on mountain tops, so that it cannot be said that a bird remained hungry in the Muslims lands.

Hizb ut Tahrir Wilayah Sudan

18th Dhul Qi’ddah 1434 AH

24th September 2013 CE