This is the most fascinating document which I have read. Now this clarifies what Khilafa means and what is the status of democracy within this dreamland of Islamist thought. For some reason, people keep on thinking that the problem with Pakistan solely lies with the elite Army, political parties and business people and feudals. Rest of them are just fine and would love to have secularism. Here's what I wrote to on an online mailing list when there was a claim that the ordinary Pakistani wanted secularism.
With no proof, XXX, you keep on making this mistake. Every election in Pakistan has been rigged so your point about voting percentages is meaningless. No political leader has ever claimed secularism as a political objective. No textbook claims secularism as even a political objective for the past 40 years. No religious leader has said so. Nobody in the urdu press is asking for it. Just where is this mythical chimera suddenly going to emerge in Pakistan?
This public policy is dangerously askew. And for you to ask this from Pakistan is doubly dangerous because of you Americans desire for secularism pushes the political parties to flirt with religious bodies like Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto did. Your foreign policy aid is dangerously askewed with the top three countries (Israel, Pakistan and Egypt) being totally unsecular. And incidentally, Mushy is clean?
You guys are making the situation worse in Pakistan with the inconsistent, immoral and frankly hypocritical stance. You will suffer for it, more American citizens and soldiers will die, your tax payer money will be wasted.
Well, take a look at this argument. The argument is that 70% of the Pakistan people are poor peasants and they dont really know what they are voting for or who. So if that is indeed the case, the elite (including the crusader Americans and Brits) will never allow democracy to let Islam take root! Very very interesting arguments.
Open letter to Mutahida Majlis-e-Ammal (MMA)
Saturday, 10 November 2007
The following letter was issued before the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan.
Open letter from Hizb ut-Tahrir to Mutahida Majlis-e-Ammal
The British legacy of the Kufr democratic system can never give birth to Islam
ِسْمِ الله الرَّحمَنِ الرَحيم
Respected members of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ammal! Assalam-o-Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuhu,
Hizb ut-Tahrir, sent you an open letter exactly five years ago, on the 1st of November 2002 which was also widely distributed amongst the masses. The letter was entitled “Hizb ut-Tahrir’s advice to the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ammal”. In the letter we advised you and warned you of the dangers of participating in the current system, in the light of the hadith of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم where the deen was described as advice. It was then that we reminded you: “In the light of the Sharee’ah rules, as derived from the seerah of the RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم, we understand that the implementation of the Islamic system is not possible through democracy. The bitter experience of the Islamic parties of Turkey and Algeria demonstrates the same point. Legislation in a democratic system requires a 51% majority, a condition which contradicts the Islamic ruling system … In reality, the biggest obstacle to the implementation of Islam in Pakistan over the past fifty years has been the democratic principle of majority approval as a condition for law, and today this condition will be an obstacle in your way… we call upon you to adopt the method of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم to re-establish the Khilafah.”
Moreover, we knew that due to your participation in the system and governance you will have to compromise on Islam and this is why we warned you in following words, “In a system of vested interests such as democracy, principles are sacrificed through sugar-coated terms like “compromise”, “flexibility”, “adjustment” and “national interest”… any kind of compromise, flexibility or deviation from these [Islamic] principles would amount to treachery against the Ummah… the Qur’an has strictly forbidden the partial implementation of Islam and compromising its integrity.
أَ فَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ فَمَا جَزَاءُ مَنْ يَفْعَلُ ذَلِكَ مِنْكُمْ إِلاَّ خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَى أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ
"Do you believe in a part of the Book and reject the rest? What else, then should be the retribution of those among you who do this than that they should live in degradation in the present life, and that on the Day of Resurrection they should be sent to the severest chastisement?" [Surah Al-Baqarah 2:85]”
As predicted, we are afraid to say, all our aforementioned fears were realized! In your politics instead of Islam, democracy became an end in itself, for which you had to sacrifice Islam and Muslims. The most glaring example in this regard was the Seventeenth Amendment. The worst part of this amendment wasn’t providing the constitutional cover to the rule of the treacherous and usurping Musharraf, rather the most shameful aspect of this amendment was providing legal cover to Pakistan’s support of the ongoing brutal American aggression in Afghanistan. As a result of this amendment, all actions taken and policies enacted during Musharraf’s rule were declared legal and all Pakistanis were barred from challenging these policies in any court of law. Due to which the U-turn on the Kashmir policy, the disallowing of the collection of funds for Jihad by declaring it terrorism, the handing over of more than five hundred of your Muslim brethren to Kafir America, becoming a frontline state in the massacre of Afghanistan, granting America military bases in Pakistan and providing America with the intelligence regarding the Muslims of Pakistan and Afghanistan, all of these Haram acts became Halal and legal due to this amendment! Not only this, providing munitions and provisions to the American war machine became lawful under the ambit of providing ‘logistic support’. Hence we observed that your government in NWFP and the Balochistan did not see it fit to even verbally threaten to stop the supply of the bombs and Hellfire missiles let alone putting any hurdles in the way of these convoys. Through the provinces you control the American war machine was amply supplied with ammunitions and all manner of provisions, including eggs! And with no resistance from the provincial governments of any sort. Therefore, the American bombs and missiles that came from Afghanistan targeting Masajid and innocent Muslim children in Bajaur and Waziristan actually reached there after passing through Pakistan and your provinces. This was supporting a clear Haram, which you did because of your participation in the system, whether willingly or unwillingly! Do you still think that Islam can be brought about through the current kufr system?
You had to pay a heavy price in participating in the electoral politics in the current system by doing ‘seat-adjustment’ with secular parties, whom the Islamic parties had been mockingly calling ‘small and big evil’ in the past. In this way your image and reputation was given a severe blow. The people saw you as just another “knight” fighting for the throne in the pitch-dark night of oppression rather than a savior trying to liberate them. Then the people also witnessed that one of your member parties fielded a joint candidate for district Nazim of Peshawar who belonged to secular party, which supports socialist ideas. These are the kind of “compromises” which all parties will have to undertake if they decide to partake in this kufr system. Hence this system hand-cuffs these parties with such laws, so that these parties can implement only kufr, but never Islam. After this bitter experience do you still think that Islam can be brought about through the current kufr system?
The system that you joined, to provide it with Shar’i legitimacy, broke all records of tyranny and you failed to take any substantial steps apart from thumping desks and walking out. Which only succeeded in making it even easier for the rulers to undertake oppression and force. These assembly politics distanced you from the people. You know that it makes little difference to the colonialists and their masters, as to how many of a minority boycotted or opposed the bill in the assemblies. However, they are always fearful that this minority may mobilize tens of thousands of the masses in the streets. Therefore, your sitting in the assemblies is beneficial for the rulers, as opposed to you mobilizing the masses. As for some people entering the system, so that the “political field is not left empty,” we remind you that the political field of the Islamic politician is not the air-conditioned assemblies and MNA hostels, but the scorching heat in the streets, upon which the people are mobilized. If we do not acknowledge our real field, then we will be playing according to the rules of the enemy, where there is no chance in winning. This is the reason that the political parties in occupied Kashmir avoid entering the system, because they know that by doing so they will provide legitimacy to the puppet regime and system. And until today no one has accused these political parties of leaving the field open for the Indian-backed puppet political parties!
The Qur’aish tried to stop the movement of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم by offers of participation in the system and ruling. One of the offers was for RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم to become not just the opposition in the assembly of the time, Dar un-Nadwa, but its head. The Qur’aish were even ready for a political deal based on “your God for one year and our god for the next,” however Allah سبحانه وتعالى through revealing لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ “to you your deen and to mine, mine” forever closed the blind alley of entering the system and compromise. Alas if we prefer our own desires and wisdom to that which came in the Shari’ah rules, then we achieve nothing but humiliation and failure.
As far as implementing Islam through the democractic system, your five year term has ended any doubt, that may have remained in the minds of a few, about this ever happening. In the two provinces under your rule, Balochistan and NWFP, the system inherited from the British was implemented, just as it was during the rules of the secular parties, which preceded you. You implemented policies such as usury based banking, maintaining corrupt cinemas, demanding non-Islamic taxes and the war against terrorism, just as in other provinces. Remember also that presenting Islam to the assemblies in the forms of Hisba and Shariah bills, to be accepted or rejected based on the whims and desires of the people, is making a mockery of Islam. After Allah سبحانه وتعالى has decided on a matter, nobody has the right to vote on the matter, let alone the right to reject it. Consequently, you absolutely failed to implement Islam through the democratic system throughout your five years. The Pakistani constitution, which makes the majority sacred, continued to provide sanctity to the implementation of kufr, by claiming that the majority of the assembly did not want the implementation of Islam. So, how do you still think that Islam can be brought about through the current kufr constitution?
As for “Islamic democracy,” it does not exist in reality and it is in fact just a type of Western democracy. In democracy any good or bad law cannot be made into the law of the land, until the majority of the members of the assemblies endorse it. The same is true for “Islamic democracy.” In “Islamic democracy” an Islamic rule does not automatically become the law of the land even though it has been ordered by Allah سبحانه وتعالى and RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم. Instead, it only becomes law of the land upon the acceptance by the majority of the representatives. It is for this reason that qat’i haram, such as usury and nakedness, are halal in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, just because the Arbaab min Doonillah sitting in the assemblies have not declared them to be Haram. In such a situation, does the sovereignty lie with Allah سبحانه وتعالى or the 500 graduates sitting in the assemblies? , in “Islamic democracy”, the people are given the authority to either to accept or reject the laws of Allah سبحانه وتعالى based on majority decision, after voting over it. Even though Allah سبحانه وتعالى has revealed,
وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلاَ مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَضَى اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمْرًا أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُمْ الْخِيَرَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ وَمَنْ يَعْصِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلاَلاً مُبِينًا
“It is not befitting for a believing man or woman to have any choice in a matter, when it has been decided upon by Allah and His Messenger.” (Surah Al-Ahzab 33:36)
So, even if 100% of the assemblies consists of God-fearing people and were presented with Islam’s definite laws such as forbidding of usury, alcohol and fornication etc. for voting upon, and the laws were endorsed by the 100%, even then this mechanism of law making would be considered haram. This is because in the aforementioned ayah, Islam has forbidden the Muslims from having any choice in the matter, so the believer does not have an option to say “yes or no” but is only charged with the duty to implement it. In other words, the condition of the endorsement by 51% to make an Islamic law into the law of the land, is against Shari’ah. In the era of the Khilafah Rashida, we do not find a single incidence where the implementation of an Islamic law was conditional upon the majority opinion.
There was a time when the people used to come out on the streets upon a single call from you. We saw this clearly over the problem of Qadiyani and the issue of Nizam-e-Mustafa in the past. But today, the people are not ready to come out today in response to your calls. This is not because the people have become unfeeling or uncaring about their political issues or they are no longer wishing for Islamic laws. The only reason is that you have lost your excellent status by entering the system. The people are so frustrated with the system that independent organizations acknowledge that in the last elections only approximately 20% of the voters cast their vote. So, why don’t you represent the feelings of the 80% and reject the current system? So, why don’t you stand outside the system and give a final knock to this collapsing system that brings it down? The people have already rejected Musharraf’s enlightened moderation and their hearts are with Islam and nothing else. They know that Islam can never arise from this democratic political process, bearing in mind that 70% of the population that is rural is still slave to the wadera, braderi and jagirdar. So, holding on to the idea that this majority would be able to use its vote to bring about Islam is nothing but holding on to a false dream.
We give you advice that you do not just reject participation in the current system but also announce publicly that this system is kufr. The people see you as part of this system and then start to become unclear as to its un-Islamic nature. Today if you were to turn away from the system and declare it to be non-Islamic, the present system would collapse due to the lack of confidence of the people in it. This is the system where the Islamic Hudood can be desecrated, where the UN resolutions carry more weight than the Qur’an and the Sunnah, where usury and fahishah is halal, where the British judicial system continues to be implemented, where those who calls for the implementation of Shari’ah are burnt alive by firepower and phosphorus, where Darwin’s kufr theories are etched on to minds of innocent children and where Islam’s friend is insecure and its enemy protected. This is the system where if the majority of the assembly decides, the plunderers of billions of rupees become pious with a single stroke of the pen. This is the system where under the banner of reconciliation, looters and murderers can be made rulers. Dear gentlemen, democracy is the system for the fulfillment of man’s whims and desires. In this system, the sovereignty belongs to man instead of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and this is why it is kufr. So, how can anyone consider this system as Islamic? So, do you still think that Islam can be brought about by securing the kufr system?
We call upon you to direct all your efforts towards re-establishing the Khilafah and furthermore emulate the method of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم through which he صلى الله عليه وسلم was able to establish the first Islamic State in Madinah. This Shar’i methodology entails building public opinion for the implementation of Islam through intellectual and political struggle, to mobilize the people through political awareness and demanding unconditional support for the implementation of Islam from the people of power by convincing them. And after all, we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to accept the giving of this advice and to grant all of us the tawfeek to implement Islam through the establishment of the Khilafah.
وَمَا عَلَيْنَا إِلاَّ الْبَلاَغُ الْمُبِينُ
“And our duty is only to convey clearly (the Message)” (Surah Ya-Sin 36:17)
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Wilayah Pakistan
1 November 2007
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!
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