Headlines:
- Regime Could not Care Less for Blasphemy due to Its Liberal Bent of Mind
- Democracy is the Open Doorway for Rulers to Acquire Huge Wealth from Themselves
- Democracy itself is not Sadiq (Truthful) or Ameen (Trustworthy), so What of Its Rulers?
Regime Could not Care Less for Blasphemy due to Its Liberal Bent of Mind
As reported in Dawn dated 20 Jan 2017 stated. “Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday took notice of news reports and ongoing propaganda on social media about filing of cases against missing bloggers. Five online activists went missing earlier this month from different cities of the country with their whereabouts still unknown.” Since 4 January 2017, five different people in separate incidents have becoming “missing persons” from different parts of country. Later, protests though small in numbers have been staged in few main cities by NGOs, “civil society” or liberal forums, alleging the establishment’s role in the abduction, chanting slogans against them and demanding production of the missing persons. Main stream local and foreign media took special notice of these missing persons. In parallel there is a much wider discontent within social media, found in religious groups as well as masses, who accuse these five men of posting blasphemous content. There was a page named “Bhensa,” (“Cattle”) which reportedly posted against the policies of establishment but at the same time was reportedly engaged posting blasphemous content, in the form of satire and insults regarding Islam. The missing men were “alleged” to be running the “Bhensa” page and similar. Subsequently, one of the prominent narratives thrown amongst the Muslims is that the missing persons involvement in blasphemous activities is the reason behind their abduction “allegedly” by establishment.
The notion that the authorities abducted these bloggers for “being engaged in blasphemous activities” is absurd. Had the regime cared in the least for blasphemy, rather than stooping to abduction it would have brought to public trial those responsible for clearly blasphemous pages or forums which have, in fact, been running for years and creating an environment amongst the youth where it is fashionable to declare oneself murtaad (apostate). Moreover, the rulers themselves have been undermining Islam, by enforcing and propagating secular and liberal values under the pretext of “freedom of speech,” whilst under the banner of “hate speech” and “anti-terrorism”, they have been curbing the voices for Islam and its political manifestation as a state and constitution. Had the rulers indeed all of a sudden started caring about the honor of Islam, would this not have given them a change of heart over their heinous crimes against hundreds of Islamic activists over recent years, including harassment, abduction and severe torture? Would they have not, for example, at least mentioned regret over Naveed Butt, the official spokesman of Hizb ut Tahrir in the Wilayah of Pakistan who has been a “missing person” since 11 May 2012? Indeed, it needs to be asked as to why the cases of these five people who carried and propagated secular values have been in the spot-light, whilst there is stone cold silence over the hundreds of Islamic activists abducted over several years. Not only is the interior ministry and other state officials engaged in the case of the missing bloggers, so is the master of the regime, the US. As reported in Dawn dated 14 January 2017, “the former department deputy spokesman Mark Toner “We, of course, welcome that the interior ministry … announced that it’s going to investigate the disappearance of one of those individuals, Salman Haider, and we also appreciate the fact that members of both houses of parliament have voiced their concern and called for an investigation into all four disappearance.”
Hundreds of Islam loving people, including advocates of Khilafah, have been proven to be abducted by the authorities over the years but the regime intimidates anyone who speaks on their behalf and against the law of the colonialists. This yet again proves that the regime is curbing the Islamic voices and demand for political Islam, whilst enforcing secular and liberal values. It is only the Khilafah upon the method of Prophethood which prohibits any abduction of whomsoever for whatsoever reason, unlike the current system which has an open “kidnapping” policy. It is only the Khilafah where the honor of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and RasulAllah ﷺ is defended truly and consistently. Any reportedly blasphemous activities and forums would be immediately brought for trial by the judiciary. The Muslims of Pakistan love Allah سبحانه وتعالى and RasulAllah ﷺ and so must reject Democracy for it will always undermine the honor of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and RasulAllah ﷺ. The current system is responsible for the abduction and torture of sincere Muslims, whilst shielding those who dishonor our Deeen. Thus, the Muslims must strive for the revival of the Khilafah upon the method of Prophethood which would comprehensively establish Islam and act as a sincere guardian for it. Let the Muslims raise their voices for the advocates of Khilafah as well as sharing in the duty of working for the Khilafah themselves! RasulAllah ﷺ said, «أَفْضَلَ الْجِهَادِ كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ عِنْدَ سُلْطَانٍ جَائِرٍ» “The best Jihad is the word of truth before the unjust rulers” [an-Nisai].
Democracy is the Open Doorway for Rulers to Acquire Huge Wealth from Themselves
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on 24 December 2017 hinted that it might call Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to explain his position on the Panamagate case, if the need arose. “The court will definitely call the prime minister if [necessary], or may consider deciding the case at hand on the available material, after listening to the stance of all parties [concerned],” observed Justice Asif Saeed Khosa. However, he was quick to add, that stage had not come. Amidst foreign news reports exposing the assets owned by the Prime Minister, the atmosphere around the case has heated up. According to an embarrassingly timely BBC Urdu’s 13 January report, properties owned by the Sharif family in London’s upscale Park Lane neighborhood were purchased in the 1990s. This was followed by a 23 January Tweet from the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung providing more insight into the assets of the Sharif family.
The Panamagate case has been prolonged with no resolution, despite continual revelations regarding the assets of the rulers. Even if resolution does come about, the fact remains that Democracy is the open doorway for rulers to acquire huge wealth from themselves. Democracy grants rulers access to ownership of the Ummah’s public property as well as properties that should be predominately state owned, such as large scale construction and transport, allowing successive rulers of Pakistan to becoming immensely wealthy. Such legalized corruption occurs wherever Democracy is found and rulers consider that immense wealth is their right. Consider that on 23 January Gambia’s disgraced former president, Yahya Jammeh, left the country on 21 January, smiling broadly, having managed to steal millions of dollars from state and dispatch a cargo plane full of luxury cars. More fundamentally, money is tied to power in Democracy because law can be manipulated according to the whims and desires of those in power to access wealth. And so it is no surprise that the US’s first billionaire President has a cabinet which is 14% full of billionaires. This is asides from the immensely wealthy individuals that buy influence into law making through support of Senators and Congressman. All in all, Democracy is responsible for the grossly unjust concentration of wealth in the hands of a select few. Global capitalism has led to global injustice and disparity. Consider also Oxfam America’s 15 January report that revealed that the wealthiest eight billionaires own as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people!
Only Islam can rescue the entire world from the injustice of Democracy. In Islam, there is no room for manipulation of the law, because the laws are derived from the Quran and the Sunnah. In the Khilafah, what has been decided as public property remains a public property which can neither be privatized, nor indeed, nationalized. Public property includes all the immense sources of mineral and energy wealth which have made many of the world’s current billionaires, including those that dominate American politics. Also, due to the Shari obligation for looking after the affairs of the people, the state must dominate large scale industry such as telecommunications, large scale construction and transport. Thus Islam looks after the country’s resources in the best manner, securing them from the powerful corrupt. As such the Khilafah will make it possible that wealth is distributed and the basic needs of each and every citizen are satisfied, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims. Moreover, every person will be given the opportunity to acquire the luxuries of life without usurping the rights of other people. In a very short amount of time, under the Khilafah, Pakistan will be able to achieve its true unmet economic potential, leaving the dark days of Democracy’s political corruption behind. Allah سبحانه وتعالى says, وَابْتَغِ فِيمَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الآخِرَةَ وَلاَ تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا وَأَحْسِنْ كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلاَ تَبْغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الأَرْضِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ “But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah has given you, and do not neglect your portion of worldly life, and be kind even as Allah has been kind to you, and seek not corruption in the earth. Verily, Allah likes not the corrupted.” [Surah Al-Qasas 28: 77]
Democracy itself is not Sadiq (Truthful) or Ameen (Trustworthy), so What of Its Rulers?
The Dawn website reported on 25 January 2017, “The government has started deliberations on Wednesday to reshape Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution that deals with eligibility and disqualification of parliamentarians, it has been learnt. State Minister on Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman told reporters that the sub-committee on electoral reforms, headed by Zahid Hamid, in its meeting at the parliament house in Islamabad, started discussions on the Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution… “In its initial form, the Articles 62 and 63 of the 1973’s Constitution had not made it mandatory for a legislator to be ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’. Later, in the tenure of Ziaul Haq, the terms were made part of the Articles. So, if the Articles were reshaped to their original form, legislators could not be prosecuted for not being ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’,” she said.”
Through the deliberation, the rulers want to convey a message that corruption and rot lies in the individuals who rule, and not the system itself, according to which they rule. But the reality of the matter is that corruption and rot lies in democracy, a system which Pakistan inherited as a legacy of the British Colonialists and which has served to secure the interests of colonialists and their agents in the civilian and military leadership for over six decades. Allah سبحانه وتعالى alone is the Legislator and He has defined in the Quran the criterion for the legitimate rulers. وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُوْلَـٰئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَاسِقُونَ “And those who do not rule by what Allah has revealed are the transgressors” [TMQ Al-Maida: 47]
It is not enough that individually pious individuals with a clean financial record are elected, as rulers if they rule by laws which are not revealed by the Almighty, rather it is forbidden in Islam to be part of a system which allows election of men who are so-called “clean and pious”, but rule by Kufr laws. Democracy stipulates that human beings make laws by allowing the majority to legislate according to their whims and desires. Islam prohibits Muslims to rule by anything other that what Allah سبحانه وتعالى has revealed and demands that every law be derived from the Quran and Sunnah. Allah says in the Quran: فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَآءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ “So judge between them by what Allah has revealed and follow not their vain desires diverging away from the truth that has come to you” [TMQ Al-Maida: 48]
Real change in Pakistan will not come through the mere change of faces even if they are “Sadiq” or “Amin”. Real change in Pakistan will come when a “Sadiq” and “Amin” system is in place, a Khilafah implementing Islam in its entirety. We call upon the people of Pakistan to reject the idea of change of faces as a farce and join the struggle for changing the corrupt system of democracy by calling for the complete and comprehensive implementation of Islam through the Khilafah state.