The recent intensification of the aerial bombardment around the Syrian city of Aleppo by Russian forces and the Syrian regime has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee the area and to seek refuge in neighbouring Turkey. However, the nationalistic secular Turkish government has closed its borders to these desperate refugees – which include young children and babies, leaving them stranded in scrubland on the Syrian side of the Turkey-Syria border, having to weather freezing temperatures and heavy rains, and often with no shelter to provide them even a semblance of protection from the unbearable winter conditions. Many of these families are amongst the poorest in Syria, having stayed in their homes through this 5-year brutal war because of lack of funds to escape. However, the severity of Russian airstrikes and the prospect of facing a siege by the Syrian regime under which they would be starved to death like the residents of Madaya, left them no choice but to leave the city. The UK Telegraph paper cited the example of 29-year-old Ali who was begging border guards at the Bab-al-Salama crossing to allow his disabled mother to cross to safety. He had already lost 7 members of his family to the war. Despite witnessing such desperation, Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of the Turkish border province of Kilis said that they would only open their gates to these refugees in the event of an “extraordinary crisis”. Syrians interviewed by the Telegraph paper said that they believed that border guards had now been given instructions to shoot at anyone attempting to cross the border. It was also reported that last week Turkish authorities shot a 12 year old girl in the head as she tried to make the journey from Syria into Turkey with her family.
Comment:
It is clear that not only Turkey but all the Kufr regimes of the Muslim world are devoid of a conscience, and are bereft of even a shred of humanity, and have an utter contempt for the concept of Islamic brotherhood. Not only have they abandoned the terrorised Muslims of Syria now for 5 years to this bloodbath, they even compete with each other in refusing them refuge. And what an indictment on Turkey’s nationalistic secular system, when the slaughter of over a quarter of a million Muslims, the displacement of over 11 million innocent civilians, and the prospect of the annihilation of the citizens of Aleppo does not constitute an “extra-ordinary crisis” deemed worthy to allow these desperate refugees into the country!!!
The Kufr regimes of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and others across the Muslim world have shunned the Command of Allah سبحانه وتعالى,
إِنَّ هَـٰذِهِۦۤ أُمَّتُكُمۡ أُمَّةً۬ وَٲحِدَةً۬ وَأَنَا۟ رَبُّڪُمۡ فَٱعۡبُدُونِ
“This Ummah of yours is a single Ummah, and I am your Lord, so worship me.”
(Al-Anbiya: 92)
And they have utterly disregarded the words of our beloved Prophet ﷺ,
«الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ، لاَ يَظْلِمُهُ وَلاَ يُسْلِمُهُ، وَمَنْ كَانَ فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِيهِ كَانَ اللَّهُ فِي حَاجَتِهِ، وَمَنْ فَرَّجَ عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ كُرْبَةً فَرَّجَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرُبَاتِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ، وَمَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللَّهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ»
“A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor. Whoever fulfilled the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs; whoever brought his (Muslim) brother out of a discomfort, Allah will bring him out of the discomforts of the Day of Resurrection, and whoever screened a Muslim, Allah will screen him on the Day of Resurrection.”
Furthermore, the Saudi government announced last week that it was ready to send ground troops into Syria in any operation approved by the US-led coalition – as if fulfilling the Islamic obligation of protecting its Muslim brothers needs to be rubber-stamped by Washington! Meanwhile, Turkey has to be essentially bribed by the European Union to the price of £2 billion for it to fulfil what is a basic requirement of Islamic brotherhood – to create humane living conditions for Syrian refugees in its land so that they do not feel the need to risk their lives journeying to Europe due to the atrocious quality of life they are suffering in Turkey. The Turkish government has also signalled that it has reached its limit in taking in Syrian Muslims – as if the application of Islamic brotherhood has a quota, like the concept of human rights in secular Western states whose sense of humanity reaches saturation point only after providing asylum to a few thousand refugees. Furthermore, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when accused by Russia of preparing a military invasion of Syria against Assad forces, dismissed the claim as “laughable”. La hawla wala quwatta illah billah! We ask Mr. Erdogan…..is the idea of mobilising our Muslim brothers in the Turkish army to protect hundreds of thousands of Muslims from slaughter, a “laughable” matter?
The Nationalistic secular and other Kufr systems and regimes in our Muslim lands have killed the concept of Islamic brotherhood. Their indifference to the violation of the honour and pure blood of the believers has emboldened the enemies of Islam to execute the most blood-thirsty merciless crimes on the Muslims. They move their soldiers to fulfil the aims of foreign powers and selfish nationalistic interests but not to fulfil the Commands of Allah سبحانه وتعالى to protect this Ummah from slaughter. These cowardly, treacherous regimes need to be removed urgently and replaced with the Islamic leadership of the Khilafah based upon the method of the Prophethood which is the only state that truly appreciates the concept of Islamic brotherhood and that will show in action rather than empty rhetoric the great importance it assigns to it as Allah سبحانه وتعالى has commanded. In the 16th century, when the Muslims of Al-Andalus were being persecuted by its Christian rulers, the Khalifah at the time, Suleyman I, did not only open the borders of the Khilafah to the persecuted believers but rather took proactive steps to rescue them from their plight. He sent an armada of 36 ships to Spain to save 70,000 Muslims and settled them in Algeria. So we say to the sons of the Muslim armies reject these shameless rulers who view protecting the lives of this Ummah as a “laughable” matter; and move urgently to save the Muslims of Syria and give your Nusrah for the establishment this glorious Khilafah under which you will gain your true position as defenders of your Muslim brothers rather than be held back from fulfilling the Command of your Rabb by these traitor rulers.
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir