Anatolian Eagle 2015-1 Exercises are a Reminder of the Need for Khilafah to Lead Our Armed Forces
In June 2015, F-16 A/B MLU of Pakistan Air Force’s 9th Squadron from PAF Base Mushaf are to join Turkey, US, NATO, Spain, UK and German Air Forces for the Anatolian Eagle 2015-1 exercises in Konya, Turkey. The exercises have a Spotters Day provision from 17-19 June 2015, where enthusiasts from around the world will come to see the capabilities. The “Anatolian Eagle” is an air force exercise hosted by the Turkish Air Force and held in Konya, Turkey. The international exercises usually involve air arms of nations which are belligerently hostile to Muslims, including the United States, Britain and the Jewish state (“Israel”). Thus the Muslim forces that are involved in such exercises have their skills, abilities and secrets exposed before the enemies of the Ummah, when the proper place for these to be viewed by the enemies is during their defeat in active battle!
Nonetheless, such exercises show the immense capabilities of the Muslims, exemplifying the stated philosophy of the Turkish Air Force (TAF) behind the exercises, that “no matter how modern the weapons are, it is men that use them.” As a clear example, a report of 8 June 2011 revealed that Pakistani pilots flying modernised versions of the 1970s-vintage F-16 Falcon Fighter beat the UK Royal Air Force’s brand-new Eurofighter Typhoon superfighters during air combat exercises. A Pakistani pilot reported, “On one occasion – in one of the international Anatolian Eagles – PAF pilots were pitted against RAF Typhoons, a formidable aircraft. There were three set-ups and in all three, we shot down the Typhoons. The RAF pilots were shocked.”
Muslims motivated by a love for victory or martyrdom deserve to be lead against the enemies of the Ummah by a righteous Khaleefah. The Khilafah will not only benefit of the brave and skilled men in the existing armed forces, it will raise the standards of their training and weapons, making them even more effective. Hizb ut-Tahrir stipulates in its Introduction to the Constitution, Article 69: “It is obligatory to provide the armed forces with weapons, supplies and equipment, as well as all necessities and requirements, which enable it to carry out its mission as an Islamic Armed Forces.” It further elaborates within this article, “Its evidence is the words of Allah سبحانه وتعالى
وَأَعِدُّوا لَهُمْ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ قُوَّةٍ وَمِنْ رِبَاطِ الْخَيْلِ تُرْهِبُونَ بِهِ عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ وَآخَرِينَ مِنْ دُونِهِمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ
“Make ready, against them, your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom you may not know, but whom Allah does know”
(al-Anfaal: 60)
Only under the Khilafah will the Ummah see an end of an oppression that it witnesses today all over the world. Only then will the enemies of the Muslims be taught lessons such that they will never again raise their hands against the servants of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.
Internal Stability Mandates Expelling American Presence
Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif said on 6 June that Operation Zarb-i-Azb had been started to bring enduring peace and stability in Pakistan and the region. According to a statement, the COAS was speaking at a reception hosted at Colombo by the Quetta Alumni Association (QAA). The QAA is an effective body of Sri Lankan military students trained in Pakistan. “States that suffered from internal conflict collapsed because their institutions, particularly armed forces, were unable to sustain. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have shown resilience in fight against terrorism for bringing peace and stability in the region,” he said.
However, the key to peace and stability is ending the US presence. Those who are informed of matters know well that American intelligence has long infiltrated the loose tribal networks and they incite the ignorant amongst them to turn their weapons away from the crusaders who occupy Afghanistan, onto their own Muslim brethren. Barbaric acts such as the killing of children are the direct outcome of American foreign policy, specifically the policies of low intensity conflict and covert, “black” operations. These operations are an established American ploy, practiced by its intelligence and private military all over the world, to burn countries in the fires of confusion and insecurity, which they can then exploit for their agenda.
These barbaric acts are used by the regime and its masters as a justification for low intensity conflict, in the case of Pakistan, military operations in the tribal areas, which the Americans need desperately to prevent resistance to their faltering occupation of Afghanistan. This is why on 1 December 2009, US President Obama declared, “There have been those who have said fighting against extremism is not their fight… as innocents have been killed from Karachi to Islamabad, it has become clear that it is the Pakistani people who are the most endangered by extremism.”
The Khilafah will practically ensure peace and stability in Pakistan by removing all American assets from our soil.
Democracy is itself a “Dhandli,” Rigged Against the People’s Rights
A witness produced by the Election Commission of Pakistan conceded before the poll inquiry commission on 8 June said that 30 per cent more ballot papers than the number of registered voters in the NA-125 constituency had been printed in the 2013 general elections. The Lahore constituency attained significance because it was bagged by PML-N leader and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique. It was one of the four constituencies where the PTI had levelled allegations about electoral rigging (“Dhandli”) at the initial stage of its protest campaign against rigging.
The opposition and rulers continue to wrangle over “Dhandli” (rigging) during the elections. However, the problem with Democracy is deeper than that. It by its nature is rigged in favour of the ruling elite, depriving the people of their rights. Democracy always guarantees excessive privileges for the elite in power and gross deprivation for the people. Democracy links authority with sovereignty, so those elected to power, have the right to make law according to their whims and desires. This ensures that the law-makers are able to amass immense wealth for themselves and their associates by manipulating laws in their favor. Wherever Democracy exists, small elites have changed law to ensure their private ownership of the sources of great wealth, whether it is electricity, oil, gas, minerals, large-scale industry and arms manufacture. Whilst the masses face ever growing misery and humiliation because Democracy by its nature is rigged against them.
Only in the Khilafah will laws be enacted according to all that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has revealed, decisively ending the exploitation of man by man through man-made law. And there is only one political party that can bring the change that Muslims need and long for. So, Muslims must work now with Hizb ut-Tahrir in its struggle to abolish Democracy and establish the Khilafah.
Myanmar and the Curse of Illegitimate States
The National Assembly of on Wednesday, 10th June 2015, unanimously passed a resolution in favor of Rohingya Muslims and against the brutality of the government of Myanmar. Let’s take a hypothetical case. But before that we should remember that hypothetical scenarios are dangerous for political realities. They tend to put a distance between reality and the mind thinking about the reality resulting in a wayward thought process which is not fruitful for solving human problems. However thinking about scenarios which are closer to reality or which may have a chance of becoming a reality soon may sometimes be fruitful in finding solutions to human problems.
So let us assume a way forward in the situation of the Burmese Muslims. Looking at the criminal silence of the Muslim rulers who care not for Muslim sanctities and Muslim blood, what if some Burmese Muslims decide to defend themselves against state repression by taking up arms. In such a scenario how exactly would we view the “Burmese insurgents”? Do we use for them the word, coined by American neo-conservatives under the second Bush era? “Terrorists”? Or are they “freedom fighters”? “Or are they “defenders” of their rights?
There are those who talk about the state’s monopoly on violence as an absolute principle. Anyone who challenges the writ of the state through force is, to borrow from George Bush Jr, “a terrorist” no matter what the political motivation. But such an approach is flawed because it assumes that the state is a non-political entity separate from the masses. The state is infact established by the masses based on ideas they believe in. It does not exist as an entity separate from them.
The Muslim world is witnessing multiple insurgencies with varying political motivations. Some are fighting the illegal occupation of their lands by Western colonialists. Others, after the Arab spring, are seeking to overthrow states and regimes which they view as illegitimate. And some are using violence for political objectives. But there is a common theme underlying all these insurgencies. All of them view the current states as either completely illegitimate or undertaking illegitimate actions.
This is the fundamental problem of the Muslim World. The problem of illegitimate states. Leaving aside the reality of Muslim lands under the occupation of Kuffar, where the use of violence to remove illegitimate foreign occupation is allowed the method to remove the current illegitimate states is not through violence. It is through seeking support of the people of power, the armed forces in the Muslim World, on whose strength these illegitimate states stand today in the first place. The armed forces must remove these illegitimate states and replace them with the state of Islam, the Islamic Khilafah state which enjoys the support of the Muslim masses.