Asia

US Tobacco Firm’s Abuse of Indonesian Children

News:

On Monday, August 18, 2014 a photo essay was published by Michelle Siu in Time Magazine documenting the rising problem of children smoking in Indonesia. Further investigation uncovers disturbing film footage online showing babies of two addicted to two packets of cigarettes a day. Sui states;

“Indonesia’s economy is dependent upon the tobacco industry, which has proven to be extremely profitable. Many Indonesians make their livelihood through tobacco farming, and are surrounded by cigarettes from an early age. Smoking regulations in Indonesia are few and far between, and it is not uncommon to see children smoking cigarettes on public buses on their way to and from school.”


Comment:

The merciless and immoral nature of Capitalist globalization and how its vampire tactics exploit and bleed the resources of our Ummah dry is of no surprise to us. However the fact that the Muslim leaders, like those in Indonesia, sign permission contracts to Mafia corporations to abuse us and even make great profits from our loss is the matter that cannot be reconciled by any means.

“It’s hard for the government to really want to regulate the industry,” says Siu. “It’s something that they make a lot of money off.”

In Indonesia, tobacco advertising is rampant. One of the most recent and particularly offensive advertising billboards has been displayed in the ‎Bahasa region and it features two young men at the door of a moving bus holding on to a friend who is getting left behind. The slogan is, “Dying is better than leaving a friend. Sampoerna (The name of a cigarette brand) is a cool friend.”

Astagfirullah! The government is in clear collusion with Western Corporations in the moral and physical destruction of our youth! Muslims can never promote the love and attachment of the material world and its pleasures over the love of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and being a slave of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.

The Indonesian government’s blatant disregard for the productive future of a strong Islamic youth is in great danger with this smoking epidemic. It is at odds with the Islamic viewpoint on the vision for the youth as champions of truth and good manners as well as being defenders of Quran and Sunnah and future defenders of the foreign policy of the State. The Khilafah of the past nurtured the great potential of the youth by investing in world class education systems that produced role models like Imam Shafii who was an Islamic scholar at the age of 10. A future Khilafah would not accept the sacrifice of our innocent babies to the greedy profits of business. A future Khalif would fear Allah سبحانه وتعالى and understand carefully the responsibility to look after the affairs of the Ummah, never allowing foreign powers to have control over the minds of our most precious and impressionable citizens. It is only with the return of the Khilafah that our youth will be shielded from the dangers of time wasting and addictive habits that weaken you in every aspect of your life. Inshallah soon the world will see the replacement of the degenerate leaders who make sujjud to the dollar and insult Quran and Sunnah. With the return of the System of Allah, the Ummah of Mohammad صلى الله عليه وسلم will be once again be immersed within a society which promotes and exalts the Islamic virtues for our youth of piety, sharpness in thinking and good character under just rulers following Allah سبحانه وتعالى Words.

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ سَبْعَةٌ يُظِلُّهُمْ اللَّهُ فِي ظِلِّهِ يَوْمَ لَا ظِلَّ إِلَّا ظِلُّهُ الْإِمَامُ الْعَادِلُ وَشَابٌّ نَشَأَ بِعِبَادَةِ اللَّهِ وَرَجُلٌ قَلْبُهُ مُعَلَّقٌ فِي الْمَسَاجِدِ وَرَجُلَانِ تَحَابَّا فِي اللَّهِ اجْتَمَعَا عَلَيْهِ وَتَفَرَّقَا عَلَيْهِ وَرَجُلٌ دَعَتْهُ امْرَأَةٌ ذَاتُ مَنْصِبٍ وَجَمَالٍ فَقَالَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ وَرَجُلٌ تَصَدَّقَ بِصَدَقَةٍ فَأَخْفَاهَا حَتَّى لَا تَعْلَمَ يَمِينُهُ مَا تُنْفِقُ شِمَالُهُ وَرَجُلٌ ذَكَرَ اللَّهَ خَالِيًا فَفَاضَتْ عَيْنَاهُ

Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “There are seven persons whom Allah will shade on a Day when there is no shade but His. They are a just ruler, a young person who grew up in the worship of Allah, a person whose heart is attached to the mosques, two persons who love each other who meet and depart from each other for the sake of Allah, a man whom a beautiful woman of high status seduces but he rejects her by saying I fear Allah, a person who spends in charity and conceals it such that his right hand does not know what his left hand has given, and a person who remembered Allah in private and he wept.”

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Imrana Mohammed

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir