According to recent research carried out by Tesco, the food-banks charity, the Trussell Trust, and food redistribution charity Fare Share, one in five parents in the UK are struggling to feed their children. Many skip meals, while others go without food for days to feed their children, or rely on family and friends for food. 70% of families suffering from food poverty with children in primary school education rely partly on food supplied by schools. Consequently, the upcoming summer school holidays could see a large number of children going hungry.

The research also shows that the problem of food poverty in the UK is unlikely to improve in the near future. According to a joint report by Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty published a few weeks ago, the number of people driven through desperation to use food banks that distribute food donated by the public, has trebled in the past year alone. Many charities have attributed this soaring rise of people resorting to emergency food hand outs to feed themselves and their families, to the government’s welfare cuts, falling wages, and the economic crisis caused by the flawed capitalist system. The rise of such food banks reflects the capitalist UK government’s failure and abandonment of taking care of the most vulnerable people within its society while simultaneously giving tax breaks to the wealthy and bailing out multi-billion banks. This has been coupled with callous statements from high profile UK politicians who have slurred those unable to feed their children adequately or those visiting food-banks, reflecting their contempt for the poor, total lack of concern for the welfare of those they govern, and attempt to absolve themselves and the man-made, secular system they implement of blame for this social crisis. This July, Lord Freud, the wealthy Work and Pensions Minister claimed that those attending food-distribution centres were doing so to opportunistically gain free food rather than out of desperation and real need; while Michael Gove, the Education Secretary suggested that feckless parenting rather than lack of financial resources was to blame for the high numbers of children who attend school hungry.

All this is the result of the destructive capitalist system that creates unstable debt-ridden economies based on borrowing and credit that are prone to collapse and crises, causing high unemployment and inflation, and plunging ordinary citizens and families into desperate poverty. In addition, this detrimental system is characterised by catering to the needs and interests of the wealthy elite rather than the general public, and nurtures mentalities, including those in ruling that view the poor and vulnerable as a burden to the economy rather than those to whom provision of adequate food, shelter and other basic needs is an important duty of the state. Furthermore, it is a system focussed on wealth creation rather than effective distribution of wealth to ensure that all have their basic needs met, and that implements flawed economic policies and an interest-based financial model that causes the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer. In summary, the humanity of any ideology or society can be judged according to how it treats its most weak and vulnerable. Capitalism has shown that it treats its poor and vulnerable with contempt. It is a dehumanising ideology that sanctifies wealth and financial gain while simultaneously devaluing, ignoring, and disregarding human need.

This raises the question as to why the governments of the Muslim world insist on continuing to implement and pursue the capitalist and other man-made systems upon our Muslim lands. Even after Arab uprisings, new leaderships in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen continued to put their trust in the capitalist system and policies to build their economies and states, even though this same system and policies had impoverished and oppressed the Muslim world for decades. The consequence has been deteriorating political and economic lives for the people of the region, including for its women and children. According to a report published this June by the UN World Food Program, malnutrition due to poverty is causing 11% of the child mortality rate amongst children in Egypt. In Yemen, a humanitarian crisis is intensifying with a quarter of women between the ages of 15 and 49 being acutely malnourished and struggling to feed their families, and 10 million Yemenis (nearly ½ of the population) not having enough to eat. And undoubtedly, in this month of Ramadan, as in decades past, millions of Muslim women and children will be struggling to find food to start or end their fast.

It is only the Islamic system, implemented by the Khilafah that can provide the lifeline out of this economic quagmire affecting our Muslim lands. It is a system under which the priority of ‘fighting poverty’ is not simply the rhetoric of politicians but rather manifested in the Islamic economic laws and policies that oblige fair distribution of wealth, zakat and the provision of basic needs to all. This is alongside prohibiting the monopolisation of wealth, the exploitative principle of interest, and the privatisation of natural resources such that all benefit from their revenue. It is a system where taking care of the needs of the human being rather than the bank accounts of the wealthy is the focus, and where the Khalifah is commanded to be the guardian of the people and the shade and provider for the poor and vulnerable. It is a state that has a history of eradicating poverty from lands. Under the second Khalifah of Islam, Umar bin Al Khattab, it is narrated that after several years of Islamic rule, Muadh ibn Jabal who was appointed as an envoy to Yemen sent the Khalifah all the zakat that had been collected from the people of Yemen for he could not find any poor person in the province who needed it or would accept it from him. This was the result of the implementation of the just Islamic laws and sound Islamic economic system upon the region that lifted the people from poverty and created widespread prosperity. In this month of Ramadan in which Allah سبحانه وتعالى sent the Qur’an as a Mercy for mankind, we should be reminded that this Mercy can only materialise physically for this Ummah and for humanity in the manner ordained by the Creator through the full implementation of the contents of this Noble Kitaab under the Khilafah system. Therefore, in addition to excelling in our ibadat (acts of worship) during this Blessed month as believers, we should also set our focus and increase our efforts in carrying the dawah to establish this state upon our Muslim lands.

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ

“We have only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds.”

(Al-Anbiyaa, 21:107)

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir