Headlines:
- Mere Condemnation of Myanmar’s Atrocities is not Befitting for the World’s Only Muslim Nuclear Power!
- Islam and not Material Interests or Colonial Allegiances should Define our Foreign Policy
- Reject the Westphalian Nation State Borders and Adhere to the Hukm of Allah (swt) to Unify Muslim Lands as One Border-less Land
Mere Condemnation of Myanmar’s Atrocities is not Befitting for the World’s Only Muslim Nuclear Power!
Members of the Senate and National Assembly on 11 September urged the government to raise its voice against atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and insisted on taking up the cause at the United Nations and other international forums.
The advocates of Democracy have confirmed that they are deaf to the cries of the oppressed. Only after being awoken from their slumber by over two weeks of growing public outrage, did the members of the Senate and National Assembly finally gather on 11 September 2017 to urge Pakistan’s government to raise its voice internationally in condemnation. Condemnation, when mere condemnation can only be acceptable from the powerless and weaponless. Condemnation, when Pakistan is the world’s only Muslim nuclear power, possessing the world’s seventh largest armed forces and sixth largest army. Condemnation, when the blessed Muslims of Pakistan and their noble armed forces will spend of their lives and properties, willingly and freely, for the sake of Allah (swt), RasulAllah ﷺ and the believers. Indeed, such condemnation itself is subject to condemnation, reprimand and rejection!
Such is the state of the advocates of Democracy within Pakistan’s current military and civilian leadership! Such is the state of the advocates of Democracy elsewhere, whether it is the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) or the Islamic Military Alliance! The advocates of Democracy confine themselves to mere condemnation of the slaughter of Muslims, but spring into firm action, whenever their masters in Washington command it. This is why our noble troops are ordered to put on the cursed United Nations’ blue helmets and mobilize to far flung places, to fulfill colonialist agendas. Yet, when it is oppressed Muslims that cry out for help, the advocates of Democracy invent lists of pathetic excuses, as to why the faithful lions of the Ummah cannot be deployed.
Whenever Muslims are oppressed, whether in Burma, Occupied Kashmir or Palestine, the advocates of Democracy act as if they have nothing but toothpicks in their hands, pouring salt in the wounds of the believers with words of condemnation, even though Allah (swt) said,
وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ وَالْوِلْدَانِ الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْ هَٰذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ الظَّالِمِ أَهْلُهَا وَاجْعَلْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ وَلِيًّا وَاجْعَلْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ نَصِيرًا
“And what is [the matter] with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed among men, women, and children who say, “Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself an ally and appoint for us from Yourself a supporter?”
(Surah An-Nisa: 4:75)
End Democracy and re-establish the Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood, the shield of the Ummah.
Islam and not Material Interests or Colonial Allegiances Should Define our Foreign Policy
International divisions emerged on 12 September 2017 ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on a worsening refugee crisis in Myanmar, with China voicing support for a military crackdown that has been criticised by the US, slammed as “ethnic cleansing” and forced 370,000 Rohingya to flee the violence. As China voiced support for the Myanmar regime before a scheduled UN Security Council session to discuss the situation in the Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar, a glaring contradiction once again surfaced in Pakistan between overwhelming popular sentiment prevalent among Muslims of Pakistan who have expressed huge sympathy for their Muslim brothers in Burma, and a state which is once again found wanting to reflect that sentiment in its policies. This recent contradiction, of opposing narratives adopted by the state and the masses is only the latest example of a large number of similar examples where visible tension is perceived between the masses and the state. In this particular case such a contradiction opens up the debate in a powerful manner about how a country’s foreign policy should be formed and on what basis should it be formulated.
Pakistan’s foreign policy has historically been so inconsistent that one would struggle to find any ideological underpinnings defining its national interests. There are some who have argued that Pakistan is a national security state and its foreign policy is formulated by Pakistan’s military establishment with a constant goal of securing the country from the hostile ambitions of India both on its Eastern and Western borders. Such an argument however reflects a polarized debate caused by internal civil-military power play in the country rather than an actual reading of Pakistan’s foreign policy which has been full of contradictions. Just one example of Pakistan’s clueless foreign policy is the Afghan War where it once stood at one end of the spectrum, supporting the Afghani Jihad against the Soviets and today it stands at the other end of the spectrum declaring the Afghan Jihad against Americans as terrorism. If one still insists on assigning an ideological narrative to Pakistan’s foreign policy it can be argued that it is a colonial foreign policy subservient to the interests of colonial powers like America and recently China.
Despite this history of inconsistency and contradictions in foreign policy, the genocide of Rohingya Muslims at the hands of the brutal Myanmar regime and the strong public outcry in Pakistan has opened the debate about whether cultural/ideological issues define foreign policy or stone cold material interests. Should the Pakistani regime support China on its stance over Myanmar due to Chinese investments in Pakistan related to CPEC and hence alienate its own masses or should the regime in Pakistan respond to public sentiment demanding an ideological stance of Islamic brotherhood with Rohingya Muslims and consequently anger the Chinese government.
As opposed to Western civilization which argues for material interests being the sole arbitrator of national interests and which basis its foreign policy on the Westphalian concept of nation state, Islam argues that the Islamic State’s policy should be thoroughly ideological based on delivering the message of Islam to all humanity and protecting the interests of all Muslims viewing them through the prism of one Ummah as opposed to the Western conception of nation states. The tension between the public sentiment and the current Pakistani state would only be resolved if the current state apparatus is removed and replaced by the State of Islam, the Khilafah on the method of the Prophethood. It is then that the true potential of this society would be unleashed due to a harmony between public and state, synergizing the energy of the society towards achieving common goals set by the Islamic ideology.
Reject the Westphalian Nation State Borders and Adhere to the Hukm of Allah (swt) to Unify Muslim Lands as One Border-less Land
At the time when Muslims in Pakistan are demanding the mobilization of their armed forces to across borders to secure the Muslim of Burma, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is busy consolidating the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, declaring on 12 September that “We are open for joint patrols, we are open for joint posts… We will put up a fence there…”
This announcement comes shortly after President Donald Trump’s insulting speech calling on Pakistan to “do more” against those attacking US forces. The US demand for effective border management of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is to curb the movement of mujahideen who are fighting American occupation of Afghanistan. They cross the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan to increase their effectiveness in attacks that have prevented the settling of US forces despite sixteen years of efforts. Pakistan’s rulers rush to protect American interests using international laws and borders as their standard, even though Islam considered the Muslims as one and their lands as one. Had the Hukm of Allah (swt) been observed, the Muslims would have found themselves with unified lands, to face their enemies as one, rather than being weakened through division.
See how the Muslim rulers disregard the command of Allah (swt) for Muslim unity! Instead they hold international laws and borders as sacred, even though international law and borders were founded in Christian Europe, as manifested in the Treaty of Westphalia, to counter the Islamic State as it opened the lands of Greece, Romania, Albania, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria to Islam. Whilst the armies of Muslims discarded these so-called international borders and establishing allegiance to the Hukm of Allah (swt) alone, they responded to the calls of the oppressed from the Indian Subcontinent to Europe. The oppressive rulers were terrified of the Muslim armed forces to the point that a general norm existed amongst the Christians that the Islamic army is invincible, and when Muslims fight they do not give regard to death, because they believe they will enter Jannah once killed, and because they believe that life and death is from Allah (swt) alone. The Christian oppressor were forced into retreat and many fled the battlefield, assisting the Islamic State to sweep over lands and liberate them for the authority of Islam. And it is worthy of consideration that the colonialists insist on Muslims maintaining borders, whilst such international laws and borders are violated whenever the colonialist powers see material interests. So, we see flagrant disregard whether it is the US occupation of Iraq, the Russian occupation of Crimea or the France attack on Mali.
The current rulers will always hold the Muslims back through their adherence to Western imposed borders. They will never allow Muslims to re-attain the status of the world’s leading power, allowing them to disregard the so-called international laws and borders, so as to respond to the cries of Muslims all over the world. Instead, they are moving persistently in path of “divide and rule” that was set by their colonialist masters, as obedient slaves. It is high time for the people of Pakistan in general and the officers of the armed forces in particular to turn the tide by re-establishing the ruling by the Deen of Allah (swt), so that a Khaleefah Rashid can unify all Muslim lands under the authority of Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood. Allah (swt) said,
﴿وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا ۚ وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنتُمْ أَعْدَاءً فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُم بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا وَكُنتُمْ عَلَىٰ شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِّنَ النَّارِ فَأَنقَذَكُم مِّنْهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ﴾
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you – when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.”
(Surah Aali Imran 3:103)