As we entered 2021, there were 82.4 million people around the world displaced by conflict or persecution. Thirty million of those are refugees, the rest are displaced within their own country (48 million) or asylum-seekers (4.1 million), according to UNHCR’s latest report. Nearly half of these forcibly displaced people are children. [Al Jazeera, 20 Jun 2021]
Comment:
Ever since the construct of the modern world under secular Capitalism, there have been several global issues whose root cause originates to their colonial era and the eventual makeup of the current world order. Refugee crisis is one of such issues that the world is witnessing where tens of millions of people have been living under harsh circumstances in several refugee camps without proper housing, sanitation and livelihood to lead a normal life.
After the two world wars, colonial masters in the disguise of independence interfere in the politics and economy of the second and third world countries. The greedy capitalist countries had created a world order by establishing the UN, IMF and the World Bank so that only few countries would be able to exploit the resources and disrupt the normal life of the numerous second and third world countries.
If we look at the refugee crisis, the impact created due to natural disasters are negligible when compared to the number of people that are made refugees due to Western interference. British idea of Jewish homeland in Palestine followed by staunch support of America for the Jewish entity had left more than 5 million Muslims stateless till this day. America’s decades long war against Afghanistan against Taliban since 2001 had resulted in the displacement of more than 2.5 million of which 2 million have left to Pakistan and Iran. America’s intervention in Somalia that removed the Islamic Courts Union had brought instability and resulted in displacement of 800,000 people, most of them are stationed in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.
Nearly 7 million people had to leave Syria due to intervention of America and Russia to strengthen Bashar Al-Assad against Islamic factions with the help of neighbouring Muslim countries, like Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. These are just a few examples and there are many countries where huge prices of human lives and displacement were borne by civilians that struggle to live a normal life after war.
Not just the direct intervention of the West but also the Western idea of nation states that created several countries with new boundaries that has made people of different communities as minorities left at the mercy of the majority community in those countries. This had led a million of Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine state in Burma as refugees in the camps of Cox bazar, Bangladesh. Sri Lanka’s massacre of Tamil people had made tens of thousands leave their native lands as refugees in India and other countries. 80% of Muslims population- nearly 400,000 – from Central African Republic had fled to the neighboring countries like Cameron and Chad due to anti Muslim sentiment in CAR.
Islam addresses whole of the mankind to submit to the Creator, people of different non Islamic communities that live under Khilafah (Caliphate) system are referred as dhimmis; they are protected by the state and not demonized for political gain. As for the foreign policy of the Khilafah, its objective is not to create instability and interfere for material gain and but to take Islam for the whole of humankind.
(يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُونُواْ قَوَّامِينَ لِلّهِ شُهَدَاء بِالْقِسْطِ وَلاَ يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَى أَلاَّ تَعْدِلُواْ اعْدِلُواْ هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَى وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ إِنَّ اللّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ)
“O you who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah and be just witnesses and let not the enmity and hatred of others make you avoid justice. Be just: that is nearer to piety, and fear Allah. Verily, Allah is Well-Acquainted with what you do.” [Surah Al-Maeda:]
Islam has moulded people of different backgrounds into one Ummah based on the ideological bond whose creed is to submit to the Creator. This bond is not limited to certain race, language or region; thus the Muhajireen were welcomed by the Ansar in Medina and became brothers, when Khilafah opened new lands, the Islamic ideology appealed to the diverse set of people and they embraced Islam as their way of life out of their own will without compulsion.
(وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ)
“We have sent you ˹O Prophet˺ only as a mercy for the whole world.” [Al-Anbya:107]
Faizul ibn Ahmed