In recent days, many media have once again focussed attention on the worsening plight of Muslims in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which has been besieged by the forces of the merciless Syrian regime for the last six months who have prevented food, medicines, or fuel from reaching its residents. The consequence has been severe malnutrition and starvation amongst its people, resulting in many deaths, including of women and children. The current state of the camp has been described by one journalist as resembling a ‘World War 2 ghetto’, and its 20,000 Muslim men, women, and children now face the prospect of a slow death from hunger.

Other towns of the country face the same plight, including in Moadamiya that has been under a one year siege by the regime, resulting in the deaths of many children from starvation. It has become known as ‘the town of the starving’. Women and children rummage through garbage to find scraps of food to survive the day, but even then find nothing to sustain them. Amnesty International recently published a first-hand account from one of its residents who said, “Moadamiya’s children have learnt to differentiate between the flavours of different tree leaves – bitter, sweet or sour – in the same way children in other parts of the world differentiate between the flavour of pizza and meat slices with gravy and the taste of chocolate from crisp biscuits.” Pictures of emaciated bodies of young infants are rife on social media. Activists in the town describe children who just before dying cry and beg their mothers for food but their mothers are only able to watch helplessly. All this is an evolving genocide to add to the 130,000 who have already been killed in this brutal war.

Comment:

While the conscienceless Assad regime uses starvation as a weapon of war against thousands of innocent Muslim women and children, the despicable rulers and governments of the Muslim world have been engaging in and squandering millions of dollars of the Ummah’s wealth in Christmas and New Year celebrations, rather than mobilising and financing the Muslim armies to liberate Syria’s Muslims from their horrific ordeal. Dubai burnt $6 million worth of the Ummah’s wealth in a huge New Year Day’s fireworks display; in Abu Dhabi, a jewel-encrusted Christmas tree worth $11 million was put on display; and on New Year’s Eve, a Western female singer was reportedly paid $1.5 million to perform in a private celebration for the son of the Sultan of Brunei. Furthermore, representatives from the Arab League, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, the UAE, and Iraq are to attend the Geneva 2 Conference on January 22nd that seeks to establish an agreement between the murderous Syrian dictatorship and the opposition. This will include the creation of a transitional government that will undoubtedly lead to the installing of the next Karzai-Maliki puppet ruler and regime that will implement a Western secular system and serve the selfish interests of its Western masters, at the expense of the people. The regimes of the Muslim world are therefore accomplices in a confederation of conspirators that seeks to steal and derail the sincere revolution of the Syrian Muslims who have paid a heavy cost and sacrificed their pure blood and that of their families in order to replace a secular dictatorship with guardianship under the rule of Islam and the Khilafah. Truly, the betrayal of the rulers of the Muslim world is beyond criminal and knows no bounds! They have not one iota of shame or humanity. It is high time that they be placed in the dustbin of history and replaced by a sincere ruler who embodies Islam and will be a shade to the oppressed.

O Dear Sisters of Syria who inspire us with your courage, patience, and strength of iman! Your horrific plight tears our hearts apart. We cannot sleep for the pain we feel over your unbearable suffering. A deep sense of fear consumes us over the heavy accounting from our Rabb if we have been neglectful of our great responsibility to lift you from your oppression. We say to you that your brothers and sisters in Hizb ut Tahrir work tirelessly, day and night to establish the Khilafah state with urgency, the shield and protector of the Muslims that will bring your oppressors to their knees and end your nightmare. O dear sisters, stay sincere and steadfast to your revolution for Islam, and reject Geneva 2 and any other Kufr-inspired solutions for the future of Al-Sham that seek to usurp and crush your Islamic aspirations for your land. Know that your struggle for the Khilafah has inspired your Ummah the world over and by the Will of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, the victory that you seek is near.

O Sincere Sons of the Muslim Armies! How can you bear to witness this genocide against your brothers and sisters in silence? How will you answer to your Lord for the negligence in protecting their lives? Rise to your Islamic duty of uprooting this dictatorship now and defending your Ummah! Sever your allegiance to your cowardly leaderships who have forsaken the Muslims and your Deen, chained you down while your brothers and sisters bleed, and conspired with Western governments to crush the Islamic uprising in Syria. Give victory to your Deen by giving your Nusrah (material support) to Hizb ut Tahrir urgently to establish the Khilafah that will mobilise you without hesitation or delay to protect the blood of this Ummah and liberate it from its oppressors.

«‏إِنَّمَا الْإِمَامُ ‏‏جُنَّةٌ ‏ ‏يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ»

“Indeed the Imam (Khalifah) is a shield from behind whom (one) would fight and one would protect oneself”.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir