On this day in the year 1957, the National Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy and declared the republican system. Thereby, Habib Bourguiba became the first president of the Republic of Tunisia, claiming this is the representation of the people.

The proclamation of the Republic in 1957 was a cheap ride on the struggles of the Mujahideen against French colonialism, which contained a long path of struggle that the Tunisian people had waged against the French colonialists since 1881, and was a blow to every Islamic soul in it, as many of the people of Tunisia sacrificed their lives and their souls in order to liberate the country from colonialism. We pray that they are with Allah among the honorable martyrs, while the mass graves are still a witness to the era of brutality and blood that characterized the course of imposing democracy with iron and fire, and forcing us to import the alleged modern state and build its secular foundations, before passing to the use of various forms of media misinformation to accept and swallow it.

Military colonialism, which permeated the country and nested for 75 years, did not exit without guarantees that preserve its influence and interests and make Tunisia an arena for its agendas, policies, and even its intellectual and cultural perceptions. It is sponsored by an army of mercenaries of politics and the media who are influenced by Western thought, loyal to colonialism who disdain Islam, to undertake a mission of reformulating and falsifying history, linking Tunisia to a Phoenician extension and a legendary leader named Elissa, and a pagan Carthaginian civilization that hurdles over centuries of the ancient Islamic history, denying the Islamic conquest and cutting this country off from the body of the Ummah and its natural incubator.

Since the proclamation of the secular republican system, and paving the way for man-made constitutions, the people of Tunisia have been grappling with two matters; the bitterness of imposing the application of capitalism on them in the name of democracy and freedom of choice, and the bitterness of targeting Islam and excluding it from governance and legislation, and removing the idea of the Khilafah (Caliphate) from their minds, distorting it by all means and methods, even though it is the way to their salvation, in addition to the terrible suppression of its advocates and the disruption of their activity.

Thus, loyalty to Europe became a prerequisite for reaching power, and none of the rulers of Tunisia deviated from this rule, starting with Bourguiba, who was portrayed as the leader of the mujahideen against colonialism, and ending with Kais Saied, who constantly accuses all those who fell into the arms of colonialism, of treason, while the his political actions are directly in the colonialists’ interest, not the last of which is the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the leaders of European colonialism. Rather, the interests of Europe have come to take precedence over the interests of the people of the country, and concern for the protection of the embassies of the colonial countries has taken precedence over the protection of the people, so that Tunisia remains as it was before the Islamic conquest (the landfill of Rome), while this republican regime turns its back on the two neighbours, Libya and Algeria, and does not coordinate with any one of them only after approval comes from overseas, making the concept of national security lose its content in light of these cracked puppet regimes.

The common denominator between these rulers under this republican system, is their abandonment of Islam as a system of life, society and the state, and they struck the sayings of the great scholars, predecessors and successors, on the necessity of establishing the Khilafah against the wall, including the scholar Ibn Khaldun and Sheikh Taher bin Ashour, may Allah have mercy on them, by claiming loyalty to the homeland that was created through the eyes of the colonizer and under his supervision.

And while the advocates of the republic celebrate a regime that has lost legitimacy and no longer has an audience, we in the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Tunisia cannot help but remind our people in the land of Zaytuna about the Khilafah system as a Shariah duty and not just a life necessity, we clarify the following:

First: The Khilafah system is not a monarchy, it does not endorse the monarchy, and it is not similar to the monarchy. This is because in the monarchy the son becomes king by inheritance, and the Ummah has nothing to do with that. As for the Khilafah system, there is no inheritance. Rather, the Ummah’s bayah is the way to appoint the caliph.

Second: The Khilafah system is not a republican system. The republican system first emerged as a reaction to the tyranny of the monarchy, whereby the king had sovereignty and authority to rule and dispose of the affairs of the country and the people as he wants and desires, he is the one who sets the legislation as he wants.

Then came republican regimes, which transferred sovereignty and authority to the people in what was called democracy. So, the people became the ones who set their laws, commanding and prohibiting, judging on what is good and ugly. Governance became in the hands of the President and his ministers in the presidential republican system, and in the hands of the Council of Ministers in the parliamentary republican system (and such rule is in the hands of the Council of Ministers in monarchical regimes in which the authority to rule was stripped from the king, as he remained a symbol of kingship but does not rule). The presidential system and the parliamentary system became two sides of one secular system, which adheres to the doctrine of separating religion from life. As for Islam, legislation is not for the people, but it is for Allah alone, and no one has the right to command or prohibit other than Allah. Leaving legislation for human beings is a major crime in Islam.

Third: The form of the system of government in Islam (the Khilafah) is distinct from the known forms of government in the world, whether in the basis on which it is established, or in the ideas, concepts, standards and rulings according to which affairs are taken care of, or in the constitution and laws that it puts into practice and implementation, or in the form in which the Islamic state is embodied, which distinguishes it from all forms of government in the whole world.

The Khilafah according to Shariah is a general leadership for all Muslims in the world to establish the rules of Islamic law, and to carry the Islamic call to the world. It is the form mentioned in the Shariah rulings of the Islamic state as established by the Messenger of Allah (saw) in Medina, and as it was followed by the honorable Companions after him. This opinion is supported by the evidences of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and it was based on the consensus of the Companions (ijmaa’), the only ones who disagreed with this in the Ummah are those were raised by the culture of the colonial kuffar, who destroyed the Khilafah state and tore apart the Muslim lands.

The truth is that the ruling system in Islam is the Khilafah system. There was consensus on the unity of the Khilafah (Caliphate), the unity of the state, and the prohibition of giving bayah (allegiance) except to one caliph. The imams, the mujtahids, and all the jurists agreed on that, and only those who followed their desires, violated Allah’s Shariah, and threw themselves into the arms of the enemies of Allah and His Messenger, deviated from it.

O our People in Tunisia, the civilization of the first Khilafah Rashidah:

Who is more deserving than you to embrace the second Khilafah Rashida (rightly-guided Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood? Who is more worthy than you of achieving this great goal for which sacrifices become easy for its sake?! Who is more deserving than you of this divine gift that ends all tragedies, problems and crises?! What did we all gain from the sedition of patriotism and nationalism other than division and displacements? Are you not the descendants of Uqba bin Nafeh, Tariq bin Ziyad, Asad bin Al-Furat, and Ali bin Ziyad, who introduced the Maliki school of thought to Tunisia, transforming it into a beacon of knowledge and jurisprudence before the emergence of patriotism and nationalism that was planted by colonialism? Do you not yearn for the glory of this world and the Hereafter, and a paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth?!

We in Hizb ut Tahrir have put in your hands the clear vision of the ruling system in Islam, by which the Imams of guidance, our masters Abu Bakr, Umar, Othman and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them all, ruled, and the jurists of the four schools of thought unanimously agreed on it. We clarified it with its structure and the details of its administration, and we produced for the Ummah a complete constitution for the soon-to-be-coming Khilafah State, Allah willing. We extracted every article from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger and what they guided to it from the consensus of the Companions and Shariah qiyas (analogy), and we compiled the evidences for each article in the Draft Introduction to this constitution.

So, the duty upon you after this detailed statement is to abide by what your Lord commanded you, in Whose hand alone is your victory and glory. Do not accept any system that is presented to you even if it is pleasant on the surface and approved by quasi-politicians and rulers, do not engage with those who delve into the illusions of the Republic system and democracy, and do not accept the attractive slogans raised for you, even if they are sprinkled by the mention of Islam, if their content is democracy and the rule by other than the Islamic system. Allah (swt) says:

[وَأَنِ احْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَنْ يَفْتِنُوكَ عَنْ بَعْضِ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللهُ إِلَيْكَ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللهُ أَنْ يُصِيبَهُمْ بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ وَإِنَّ كَثِيراً مِنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ * أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللهِ حُكْماً لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ]

“And judge, [O Muḥammad], between them by what Allāh has revealed and do not follow their inclinations and beware of them, lest they tempt you away from some of what Allāh has revealed to you. And if they turn away – then know that Allāh only intends to afflict them with some of their [own] sins. And indeed, many among the people are defiantly disobedient* Then is it the judgement of [the time of] ignorance they desire? But who is better than Allāh in judgement for a people who are certain [in faith]” [Al-Ma’ida: 49-50].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Tunisia

Press Release
7 Muharram 1445 – Tuesday, 25th July 2023
No: 02 / 1445
(Translated)