Another to say that the world lacks good leadership today is an understatement. We have grown accustomed to populist pretenders staking claim on our loyalty, as they alone can fix things the way we want them to be. Their campaigns are designed to appeal to our base desires. However realistically there is no room in their campaigns for honesty, integrity, or elevation of thought, which are essential elements of good leadership; instead the campaigns are packed full of lies, fantasies, incitement and greed.

 

This, after all, is the very essence of democracy. It can never bring about honourable leadership that elevates humankind towards what is good. Democracy promises only to place the most popular in power, who are most skilled at manipulating the people to desire whatever it is their faction is peddling.

Ironically the secularists falsely label their ideology a product of their “enlightenment” when it in fact bypassed all enlightened thought to adopt the compromise that would allow the already powerful to remain in power, while offering a few bones to everyone else. Admittedly those bones were marginally better than the occasional crumb offered by the European aristocracies, however the fact remains that the new ideology was not measured for correctness on an intellectual basis; it rather was only on how well it was able to appeal to the fantasies and desires of an impoverished and hungry populace. Bones were appealing at the time, despite their lack of substance and nutrition.

What is so enlightened about making politicians fear losing their popularity, making them pathologically short-termism in their outlook? What is so enlightened about restricting accountability to a ballot every five years, with disengagement in-between? What is so enlightened about relying on corporate media to account the leaders? Moreover, what is enlightened at all about avoiding the ultimate question of existence, and adopting secularism as a compromise?

The world needs real enlightened leadership, that is founded on enlightened thought, not lowly populism. Instead we have petty contenders making divisive statements to incite one fanatical group against the other. In Britain, France and America, the leaders make statements that appeal to their support base, while not upsetting the real power brokers who control big business interests. Trump stands with the racists to remain popular with them, claiming to disrupt the Washington clique, while Biden claims to stand with the downtrodden. In reality, neither side works for the people. Trump has not bettered the lives of his supporters, nor weakened the grip of the corporates, and Obama and Biden did not substantially bring an end to institutional racism in America. Neither side was willing or able to do what they promised, as that would require a deep reevaluation of the ideas and values prevalent in America. It would require a willingness to unseat the undeserving privileged classes who have unjustly usurped wealth and power from ordinary people. Democracy exists to protect such a minority, not jeopardise their position.

The world over democracy has been the catalyst that made a dangerous virus into a global pandemic. The leaders were too paralysed by their need to remain popular, so they procrastinated, favoured their wealthy backers, and contradicted themselves with every move. As a result, people are now confused which way to turn, having lost all trust in the current crop of populists and their fantastical claims. Now is the time that the ideology that keeps feeding the populism machine be brought to the fore for questioning.

The Islamic belief is a truly enlightened thought about man, life and the universe, and it is not a historical shallow compromise solution between European rebels and their tyrannical rulers. Islam answers the question of existence in a way that convinces the mind, as it is built on intellectual proof, and agrees with our human nature. The Islamic belief is the foundation of systems and guidance for life on how to organise our relationships with our Creator, with ourselves, and with each other, such that there is no privileged class to oppress everyone else. Islam promotes leadership of thought above all else, such that shallow populism has no place. Islamic leadership is not short-term in its outlook, as the ruler is not fearing for his re-election, so it allows long term planning built on a vision of enlightened thought, the like of which the world has not seen for centuries.

It hardly needs saying that the elected and unelected leaders in the Muslim world today do not come anywhere close to the Islamic conception of leadership, for they are all clones of the West, employed to serve the capitalists in the West, not Islam and nor the people. Hizb ut Tahrir is an Islamic political party working in the Muslim world to elevate the thought in society so that the world can once again see a genuine enlightened thought-based leadership.

We invite you to register and join Hizb ut Tahrir / Britain for its online international conference: Return of the Islamic World Order.

 

Speakers will address the following topics:

From Pandemic to BLM: Humanity Desperately Seeking an Alternative

​A New Economics, Not Serving the One Percent

The Khilafah System, Taking Care of the People

Establishing Islam’s Leadership on the Earth and Our Responsibility

 

Saturday, 31st October 2:00pm GMT

Register at https://bit.ly/HTBConference2020

Yahya Nisbet

Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain

Monday, 09th Rabii’ I 1442 AH

26/10/2020 CE

Ref. 1442 AH / 06