Headlines:
- Do Not Extend the Rope of Talks to the Trump Administration to Prevent its Sinking in Afghanistan
- Indian Expansion in Afghanistan is Consequence of Alliance with the US
- Struggling over Authority, When the Matter that Needs to be Settled is Sovereignty
Do Not Extend the Rope of Talks to the Trump Administration to Prevent its Sinking in Afghanistan
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on 25 September 2017 said the United States (US) should stop trying to destroy the Taliban and instead talk to them with help from Pakistan. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press today Imran Khan said that, “I think Donald Trump’s policy is deeply flawed. He neither understands the history of Pakistan nor the character of the Afghan people.” Imran Khan added that if the Taliban is “still resurgent in Afghanistan, then there are some other reasons, and the reason is that there is an indigenous movement in Afghanistan. For centuries, Afghanistan has resisted all foreign invaders.” “More fighting and bloodshed is not the answer. I said it 17 years ago and I am still saying this now,” Khan said.
Such words from the man being built as the next Prime Minister of Pakistan are music to the ears of the Trump administration.
The US failed militarily in Afghanistan, but not for want of trying. Now in the abyss of failure it needs the rope of talks to secure its presence in Afghanistan. The US has exhausted its failing economy, since the collapse of 2008, in trying to conquer Afghanistan militarily. The US military is demoralized, lacking in troop motivation, despite an abundance of superior weaponry. The token troop surge that Trump accepted itself is for the purpose of leveraging talks with Taliban. The US failed even through employing options outside of itself. It failed through deploying NATO troops. It failed through introducing India into Afghanistan in a substantial manner. It failed through deploying its agents in the military leadership of Pakistan to mobilize troops to curb the Afghan resistance, as it moved deftly between the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, striking the US troops decisively. It failed through erecting a glorified police force, the Afghan Army, and was shaken by attacks on US troops by Afghan troops that were loyal to Islam and Muslims. And it failed through reinforcing the border by staging a war of words between its agents in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Far from extending the political rope to extract for the US a victory on the negotiation table, that it could never earn in approaching two decades of war, a sincere Islamic leadership would deepen its failure and eradicate its dominion within the region. A sincere Islamic leadership would mobilize its intelligence to warn the Taliban of the dangers of talks and encourage them to continue in their commitment to Jihad, fighting in the Path of Allah (swt) for dignity and victory lies only in such a path, as has been established in the fourteen centuries of Islam. A sincere Islamic leadership would work to win over the Muslims of Afghanistan and Pakistan to work as one people for their unification under one state, to strengthen them against their enemies and ensure that the US leaves the region humiliated and defeated. This itself would be one firm step towards removing it from its undeserved status as the world’s leading state and a clear signal to the rest of humankind which is tired of its arrogance. Allah (swt) said,
إِنْ يَنْصُرْكُمُ اللَّهُ فَلَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْ وَإِنْ يَخْذُلْكُمْ فَمَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَنْصُرُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
“If Allah helps you, none can overcome you; and if He forsakes you, who is there after Him that can help you? And in Allah (Alone) let believers put their trust.”
(Aali-i-Imran 3:160)
Indian Expansion in Afghanistan is Consequence of Alliance with the US
Before the Afghan resistance responded to the US Secretary of Defence arrival in Kabul on 27 September with 20 to 30 rockets that landed around Hamid Karzai International Airport, India and US affirmed their continual meddling in Afghanistan. “We applaud India’s invaluable contributions to Afghanistan and welcome further efforts to promote Afghanistan’s democracy, stability and security,” Mattis said on 26 September in the presence of the Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. With US blessings, Indian influence in Afghanistan is substantial. India already extended a $3-billion aid to Afghanistan and also “provides training to its military and other assistance”. With the US blessing, India has once influence in Afghanistan, building dams, roads and a new parliament in the troubled country. Last year it offered some $1 billion in aid. It has also trained more than 4,000 Afghan National Army officers and provided helicopters to the Afghan Air Force.
The anger and frustration within the Muslims of Pakistan in general and their armed forces in particular is unprecedented. Feeling the public pressure, Pakistan’s leadership is denouncing the US-Indian nexus, but is careful to maintain the alliance with the United States at all costs. So, despite the rhetoric of distancing Pakistan from the US, Pakistan’s leadership maintains its strong political, economic and military alliance with the United States.
What an ungrateful master that Pakistan’s rulers have bound Pakistan to in slavery. Whilst the US demands from Pakistan to secure the US presence in Afghanistan, the US works actively to support India against Pakistan. Thus, the US is expanding India’s nuclear capabilities, including the building of new nuclear reactors and the acquisition of sensitive missile technology through the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), whilst the Pakistani regime’s limits our ambitions to low-yield tactical nuclear weapons. The US is promoting the expansion of the Indian Kulbashan Yadav network in Afghanistan, whilst the Pakistani regime works to ensure a political settlement to secure the US presence there. Moreover, America demands the burial of the Kashmir issue and the declaration of those who are fighting for its liberation as “terrorists,” whilst Pakistan’s rulers conform to such declarations. As for the Deen of Muslims which is their most powerful possession, the US and Indian denounce it as “terrorism” and “radicalism,” whilst Pakistan’s rulers works to forcefully stamp out Islamic political expression, including the call for the shield of the Ummah, the Khilafah. And the spineless Pakistan’s rulers works to incapacitate us before the Western crusaders and hateful Hindu mushrikeen, even though Allah (swt) warned,
مَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ وَلاَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ أَنْ يُنَزَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَاللَّهُ يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ
“Neither those who followed earlier revelation who deny the truth, nor the Mushrikeen like to see good bestowed upon you from your Sustainer; but Allah bestows grace upon whom He chooses – for Allah is limitless in His great bounty.”
(al-Baqara 2:105)
Struggling over Authority, When the Matter that Needs to be Settled is Sovereignty
The advocates of Democracy is increasingly losing relevance for an Ummah that is turning to Islam as the way out from its current situation. The advocates of Democracy in Pakistan are in a deep tussle over who gets to rule. There are struggles between parties over the question of authority. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi told the Supreme Court on 27 September that the fresh rejoinder, submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan to justify the purchase of his Banigala estate, contradicted his previous pleadings. There are even struggles within parties over the question of authority. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s efforts to clinch the office of the opposition leader in the National Assembly suffered a setback on Wednesday after differences emerged within the PTI over the nomination of Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the key parliamentary slot and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) refused to support such a move.
The ongoing struggle over authority will bring some cosmetic changes at most. However, Democracy will remain firmly in its place, ensuring that sovereignty will remain for human beings who will judge according to their whims and desires, securing their vested interests. In democracy, the sovereignty to legislate, deciding what is right and wrong, lies with men and not Allah (swt). So self-serving individuals know that once they are elected into the democratic system, they can make laws to secure their interests. Any corrupt one amongst us, regards his “investment” of millions of rupees to become a public representative through elections, a wise investment because it will give a good “return.” The assembly is not about taking care of the people’s interests, but a way for these corrupt elements to look after their own affairs.
A thousand verdicts and investigations in this democratic system will never close the doors to our misery and humiliation. The elected rulers and assemblies are allowed to issue hundreds of laws and policies that openly violate the commands and prohibitions mandated by Allah (swt). We must turn our faces away from the corrupt system of democracy that produces corrupt rulers and corrupt laws, as if it were a factory. In democracy, its advocates enslave others to their own whims and desires, ignoring the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of RasulAllah. Allah (swt) said,
وَأَنِ احْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَنْ يَفْتِنُوكَ عَنْ بَعْضِ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ
“And judge between them by what Allah has revealed, and do not follow their desires, and beware (O Muhammad) that they might seduce you from some of what Allah has sent down to you.”
(Al-Maaida 5:49)
The Khilafah (Caliphate) alone ensures that sovereignty is for Allah (swt) alone because the constitution and the laws are extracted from the Quran and the Sunnah exclusively. So, the elected men and women of the Majlis-e-Ummah, will not make laws. Instead, they will advise and account all the rulers on the basis of their ruling by Islam, in a system where Allah (swt) alone is Sovereign. And the Khaleefah has no right to implement any law other than according to what Allah has commanded and forbidden.