On Tuesday 12th May, the Malaysian and Indonesian governments announced that they would be refusing entry to boatloads of desperate and hungry Rohingya and Bangladeshi men, women and children fleeing persecution in Myanmar or dire poverty in their lands. Tan Kok Kwee, First Admiral of Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency said, “We won’t let any foreign boats come in” and that the navy would provide “provisions and send them away.” Indonesia military spokesman, Fuad Basya stated that a boatload of migrants spotted off the coast of Aceh was refused permission to dock, even though the vessel had run out of fuel. On Tuesday, Indonesian authorities also pushed back to sea, a ship packed with hundreds of refugees, including women and children, who had landed on its shores. According to officials and activists, between 6000 to 8000 refugees, including hundreds of women and children are thought to be stranded in the Malacca Strait waterways and nearby waters in overcrowded rickety wooden boats, with food, clean water, and fuel running low. And now they have been turned away by two Muslim majority states that have effectively left them to die on the seas.
As the Women’s Section of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir, we utterly condemn the heartless, shameful decision by the Malay and Indonesian authorities as well as other Muslim governments to refuse sanctuary to the most vulnerable and desperate Muslims, including mothers with young children whose health is fast deteriorating. These are Muslims who have been described by the UN as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. They have been rendered stateless by the apartheid Myanmar regime and subjected to inconceivable levels of brutality and oppression in their homeland. This includes facing decades of discriminative policies by their authorities; slaughter at the hands of ethnic Buddhists; and being forced to flee their homes to squalid, disease-ridden, prison-like refugee camps in the Rakhine state where they are deprived of adequate food, healthcare, education and protection. And now at their most desperate time of need, these Rohingya migrants are abandoned by regimes who are supposed to be ruled by Muslims who should have rushed to provide them protection and care, as Allah سبحانه وتعالى and His Messenger have commanded. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, «المسلم أخو المسلم لا يظلمه ولا يسلمه» “A Muslim is a Muslim’s brother: he does not wrong him or abandon him….”
Indeed, the cruel, nationalistic system of states has lost humanitarian values and turned its back to the suffering of man. It has torn the bond of belief in the hearts of the believers and ignited the flames of conflicts between their lands. And as seen with this tragedy, it has caused brothers to abandon their starving and sick brothers and sisters when they are in dire need of their help. Therefore, we ask the governing regimes of the Muslim world, are you ready to carry the weight of this grave crime before your Lord on the Day of Judgment of having abandoned your Ummah and having signed the death warrants of the Rohingya women and children? We demand that you immediately give them sanctuary and that you mobilise your armies against those who persecute them and shed their blood rather than simply uttering empty words of condemnation against their oppressors!
O Sincere Muslims! Is it not more evident than ever the magnitude of the tragedy that has unfolded upon this Ummah through adopting corrupt, nationalistic and patriotic systems contradictory to Islam?! We call you to reject this divisive, inhumane, and regressive condition and call you to work urgently for the establishment of the Khilafah that will unite the Muslim lands and protect their resources, and provide sanctuary, full protection and a dignified life to all the persecuted and the oppressed around the world, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Sunday, 28th Rajab 1436 AH
17/05/2015 CE
Issue No: 1436 AH /045