Sorry its been awhile! I'm currently ill with throat infection. But I hope that you are following the events that are still going in Egypt. Do you have a smartphone? I have Time articles posted as a widget every day and there are many interesting articles that keep coming up. I recommend downloading it as an app. Anyway onto Egypt-
Ibn Ibrahim said in one post on Khilafah.com: “We see from the demonstrations in Egypt it is fairly clear that despite the people having strong Islamic sentiments seen by their chants of ‘Allahu akbar’ their thoughts are not clear in terms of what system their desire to replace the Mubarak regime. Undoubtedly decades of extreme repression has suppressed the Islamic call from being able to generate the correct public opinion and the fact that most of the society have not witnessed the failure of democracy as they have in other countries such as Pakistan has further contributed to their confusion of the way forward.
The challenge now for the da'wah carriers will be to utilise the new openness that may result out of the public protests in order to generate a strong public opinion for the Islamic thoughts and the Islamic system as an alternative.”
Mashallah that is an excellent description of what is happening in Egypt. We see the Muslims of Egypt are calling for Freedom and Democracy which is part of Western Capitalism. They are waving flags of Egyptian Nationalism instead of the black and white Shahadah flags. Because of this, the West is only too happy to help facilitate a change, even free and fair elections, but as only as the new ruler agrees with the West and that the leaders of the Egypt Army are in their camp. Even despite all this, the West is visibly worried and alarmed at the sudden turn of events in Tunisia, Egypt and other Muslim countries. We are witnessing primarily the Youth of those countries taking centre stage, losing their fear and organising the protests. Indeed the Muslim world is full of this youth with the energy and motivation to create change.
What is needed is for the general population of those Muslim countries to start calling for Islam and the Khilafah. Not only this, we also need the support (Nusrah) of the Army who will actually move and take our side and only they can get rid of the main obstacles, the Mukhaberat (secret police) and those security services loyal to the ruler. Then we can have a free ride to completely sack the whole regime and replace it with Islamic Khilafah system.
No wonder the West are so worried. The leaders of the West can be likened to a bunch of small timid cowards who ganged up together against us but who could only manage to drug us (the Muslim Ummah) to sleep and not kill us at 3rd March 1924! We are a sleeping supergiant who’s been sleeping in a cell that which the West put us in after drugging us and we are starting to wake up! They can do nothing about it and are starting to panic and quake in their boots on the other side of the cell because they know they would not be able to contain us when we finally wake up. The cell will mean nothing to us. We’ll break through it like a hot knife to butter. Then their time as a power in this world will finally be over.
Wasalaam mu aleikum!
Imran
_____________________
Hizb ut-Tahrir's message to Muslims of Egypt:
فَاعْتَبِرُوا يَا أُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ
"So take heed, O people of insight!"
(al-Hashr:2)
A leaflet from Hizb ut-Tahrir’s global leadership to the people of Egypt.
It has been widely distributed across the Muslim world.
The streets of Cairo resound with huge protests by the people against the oppression and tyranny of the Egyptian regime. Its regime has silenced the people through force and repression, and put terror in their hearts through imprisonment and severe torture. This oppressive regime betrayed the core issues of the Ummah: it raised the flag of ‘Israel' in Egypt, sold its authority and sovereignty over the Sinai, blockaded the Muslims in Gaza, and committed many similar major sins without having any shame or fear of Allah, His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم or the believers.
This regime spread corruption in the land and sold the country to the enemies of Allah, making it a playfield for America and ‘Israel' such that they pillaged its resources and divided them with the president of the regime, his entourage, henchmen and followers, many of whom became multi-billionaires. They lived decadent lives whilst the people lived in destitute poverty, extreme hunger, and faced obscene prices for basic commodities.
In all of this the regime was content with its power, the cruelty of its henchmen, and its ruling party's policies to lead people astray. It was content with this cruelty, oppression and misguidance, thinking that the people will never raise their voice, or move against it. It forgot that oppression and subjugation eventually leads to an eruption, and that eventually the deeds of the transgressor come back to haunt him!
Tunisia exploded with growing popular protests, followed by Yemen and Jordon, and here now is Egypt, and it seems that the rest of the Muslim lands will follow suit! In spite of all this, the leaders of the regime did not desist, nor pay heed. Nay, they did not even use their minds! They sought a solution, asking here and there, till Mubarak contacted Obama. The two had a long conversation in which Obama advised, nay ordered, Mubarak to discharge the government so he did so, and put in its place another government and a vice-president, after not having appointed one for over thirty long years! He appointed Omar Suleiman, head of the Egyptian Intelligence, as Vice-President and Ahmed Shafik as Prime Minister. He thought that by implementing the order of America he would save his throne, which is about to collapse. He did not understand that America will sell him for a cheap price and place another agent in his place if the matter becomes more severe!
Indeed these rulers have eyes with which they do not see, ears with which they do not hear, and hearts with which they do not reflect. This is why they trample all over the people whilst wanting them to remain silent. This is why they relegate and ignore Islam whilst wanting the Muslims to not revolt. This is why they ally themselves with the disbelieving colonialists whilst wanting that the people of Truth make no noise. Otherwise, how could they trample over the people whilst wanting them to remain silent? How could they relegate and ignore Islam whilst expecting the Muslims to not revolt? How could they ally themselves with the colonialists whilst wanting the people of truth to not raise their voices?
O Rulers, O Oppressors!
The people are Muslims. No oppressive, transgressing ruler will be firmly established amongst them so long as they are not ruled by their Islam, and so long as they are not allied with Allah, His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and the believers, instead of being allied with the disbelieving colonialists. Even if they are silent for a period, their state of mind would say the words of the poet:
The eyelid of honour has not fallen asleep
It is rather the calm of the lion before his charge.
Indeed Egypt was liberated by the blood of the Mujahideen, and that blood will never go in vain. Nay, the land of Egypt will return as honorable and powerful with Islam, trampling over the oppressors. Even if the world blooms for the oppressor one day, Allah, the all-Powerful, will deal him a mortal blow on another day in which he deems himself invincible. The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said,
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيُمْلِي لِلظَّالِمِ حَتَّى إِذَا أَخَذَهُ لَمْ يُفْلِتْهُ
"Verily Allah affords the oppressor some time, until when He takes hold of him, He does not let him go."(Bukhari and Muslim)
O Muslims, O Beloved People of Egypt,
The head of the regime intends to deceive you. He paints the problem as being in the government, whilst he knows, and you know, that the government cannot endorse any matter without his approval. He paints the problem as being in the ruling party whilst he knows that the ruling party is no more than a collection of mercenaries who see in the party a means to usurp wealth through corruption and bribery. Nothing brings them together except ease of acquiring selfish interests through prohibited means. Thus if they see that the party becomes a means for loss they immediately disperse. You see now in front of your very eyes the government and the ruling party, with all their members who were counted as being in the millions, having no influence whatsoever in front of the people who have spoken out against oppression and the oppressors!
O Muslims, O Beloved People of Egypt,
Indeed the head of the serpent is the system itself, so do not preoccupy yourselves with its tail. Do not be deceived by the announcement of the new security government whilst the system remains as it is. The disease is the system itself, in its being secular and being allied with the head of kufr, America. America at present is observing and assessing the situation of the regime in Egypt. It is affording the regime some time to act and quell the protests. Thus the regime has adopted certain styles: sending its henchmen to be amongst the people of the uprising and to loot, burn and pillage, in order to give its new security government a justification to force the people back off the streets under the pretext of restoring security, whilst having themselves caused the chaos!
If the regime is not able to quell the uprising through its new security government, and America sees that her agent has lost control, she will seek to place another agent in his place. And with the appointment of Omar Suleiman as the vice president to Mubarak, she has already prepared the new agent in the given opportunity!
O Muslims, O Beloved People of Egypt,
You must be aware of what is occurring, so that you do not become like the one who seeks protection from extreme heat by falling in fire! Know that this matter of yours will not be corrected except by that which corrected it (for your forefathers) in the first instance: ruling by what Allah has revealed, and Jihad in the path of Allah. So do not stop your uprising until the system itself is changed from top to bottom, and establish in its place the state of Islam, the Khilafah Rashidah, a deed by which you will be honored and succeed in this world and the hereafter.
O Muslims, O Beloved People of Egypt,
Who is better than Egypt, the land of al-Kinanah, for the establishment of the Khilafah? Who is better than the Egypt of Salahuddin for the liberation of Palestine from the Israelis, just as the Egypt of Salahuddin liberated it from the Crusaders? Who is better than the Egypt of Kinanah for whose Copts the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم instructed good treatment saying,
وإن لهم رحما
"For them shall be mercy"
Who is better than Egypt for the return of the civilization and justice of Islam and noble life for both its Muslims and Copts? Who is better than Egypt to be the capital of the Khilafah, the capital of the World, overseeing the people's affairs with justice and encompassing the world with sincerity, liberating lands and spreading goodness throughout the world?
O Muslims, O Beloved People of Egypt,
Hizb ut-Tahrir warns you about the deception of the regime, which seeks to preoccupy you with small matters, and to make you forget that the disease is the system itself, and that loyalty to America will cause a violent death. So trample over both of them and you shall find true success. Establish the Khilafah Rashidah and you shall be revived. Do not fear the power of the oppressors for they are truly weak compared to Allah سبحانه وتعالى, and He, the Powerful and Mighty, is not unaware of them.
وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ اللَّهَ غَافِلًا عَمَّا يَعْمَلُ الظَّالِمُونَ
"Deem not that Allah is unmindful of what the wrongdoers do" (Ibrahim: 42)
O Muslims, O Beloved People of Egypt,
Hizb ut-Tahrir advises you not to forsake the pure blood of your sons, which has been shed in this blessed uprising. It warns you from being led astray by those parties who have entered the fray intending to exploit that pure blood for their own evil objectives. Thus they intend to take shade under trees that they did not plant, and pick fruits that they did not work to ripen.
Stand in the face of these people. Do not be content with the substitution of one agent for another. Uproot the influence of America in Egypt. By this, the pure blood of your sons will remember you with goodness; you would have paid its due, and gained the pleasure of Allah, His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and the believers.
Do not be deceived by the cutting of the serpent's tail whilst it head remains, no matter how that head is decorated. Allah is with you, and He will never let your good deeds go to waste.
هَذَا بَلَاغٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَلِيُنْذَرُوا بِهِ
"This is a clear message for people, so let them take warning therefrom"
(Ibrahim: 52)
Hizb ut-Tahrir
25 Safar 1432 AH
29 January 2011 CE
______________________________
Egypt: What Next?
03 February 2011
by Adnan Khan
The popular uprising in Egypt has now attracted the attention of the whole world. Media outlets around the globe are not just reporting the facts but attempting to shape global perceptions on the possible outcome. As an example the BBC has described ElBaradei as: "Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has joined thousands of protesters in Cairo...." The BBC has already given him the honour of leading the opposition, when he has only been in the country since 27th January 2010.
The question on everyone's lips is what will happen next in Egypt? What follows are the major players and their current stated positions:
Until the uprising the most likely candidate that was to succeed the president was Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal Mubarak. He had visited the US on a number of occasions and met the leading figures of the US Congress including Senator John Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as Howard Peerman, the Chairman of the House of Representative's Committee on International Affairs. The US and Egypt's ruling party had created the conditions to facilitate Gamal Mubarak's ascension as the next president to succeed his father. However the current uprising has scuppered this plan as any individual linked to the ruling faction has been on the receiving end of protests. It is no wonder Gamal Mubarak abandoned the country.
Europe has for long attempted to gain a foothold in Egypt and was openly supporting Ayman Nour of the Wafd party. The Europeans intensely demanded Ayman Nour's release when he was arrested for demanding amendments to the Egyptian constitution. They demanded he be released and objected to his detention right from the first day of his arrest and had even maintained contact with him during his detention. Reuters reported in February 2007: "Edward MacMillan Scott, the head of the European Parliament and its special envoy for its "Democratic and Human Rights" tried yesterday to meet Ayman Nour but was prevented from seeing him though he was made to wait for an hour and a half. MacMillan Scott called on the European Union to take a more firm and stronger view towards the Egyptian regime and pointed to the fact that the regime had violated Ayman Nour's liberties."
Mohamed ElBaradei has also returned to Egypt on the 27th January 2011 and has gained much coverage in European media. ElBaradei until 1997 when he became Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) served as the Permanent Missions of Egypt to the UN in New York and in Geneva, in charge of political, legal, and arms control issues. ElBaradei a staunch secularist has spent considerable time outside of Egypt and has for long called for reform in Egypt. As a weapons inspector ElBaradei fell foul of the Bush administration and criticised the US regime for not allowing weapons inspections to continue when the US was building its case against Iraq. The US has for long criticised ElBaradei regarding Iran's nuclear programme and even spied on him. ElBaradi has supported Obama since he came to power, however his biggest challenge is that he is largely unknown in the country.The Muslim Brotherhood have kept a low profile in the demonstrations, they have endorsed them but refrained from urging its members to attend. Helmi Gazzar, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's district party office in northern Cairo told the Wall Street Journal that this strategy "reflects the organization's strategy that their religious goals need to be put on the back burner to achieve democracy, what we want is what the people want; right now we should have a completely different regime. We should have freedom and free elections." He went on to say"we respect Mr. Baradei he has the most potential to achieve this."
The question is why has the largest group in Egypt not taken the lead against Mubarak when the opportunity has presented itself?
This is because the Brotherhood has had simmering tensions since the outlawed groups members sat in Parliament as independent lawmakers, and US officials frequently meet with these parliamentarians. Events reached fever pitch when a draft political manifesto was published in 2007 in which the organization called for a religious guidance counsel to be set up in Egypt to approve all laws passed by the country's civilian institutions. In an interview with the daily Al-Masri Al-Youm, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Mehdi Akef explained that "The council would be a consultative body that would present its opinions to state institutions; these opinions would in turn be subject to approval by parliament." Elements disagreed within the Brotherhood on this clear Haraam and ever since rifts have exacerbated between the group and as a result the group has been unable to move as collective in a unified direction.
The last remaining player and probably the most important is the Egyptian military. Hosni Mubarak has only remained in power as he gained the loyalty of the army, however with an inevitable stand-off with the people just a matter of time, the side the army takes will in all likelihood determine the future of Egypt. As some from the army have joined the protests, the army has since the discussion of Hosni Mubarak's succession grown in clout. The Egyptian Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Sami Annan was in Washington on January 24th 2011 heading a high ranking military delegation as the demonstrations gathered momentum. Defence Minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who was named deputy prime minister while remaining chief of the defence ministry and overseeing the president's first line of defence as head of the Republican Guard with Lt.Gen. Sami Annan appear to be managing this transition from behind the scenes.
The Egyptian regime appears to be constructing a transition that appeases the US. Omar Suleiman was appointed vice-president by Mubarak. Since 1993 Suleiman has headed the feared Egyptian general intelligence service. In that capacity, he was the CIA's point man in Egypt for renditions-the covert program in which the CIA snatched terror suspects from around the world and returned them to Egypt and elsewhere for interrogation under brutal circumstances.Both Defence Minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Lt. Gen. Sami Annan have been closely liaising with the US - US Department of Defence spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates spoke with Tantawi and then with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on January 30th 2011. A spokesman for US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Mullen spoke with Lt. Gen. Sami Annan the same day. All this shows the Egyptian army has been working closely with the US and the US has signalled that it is putting its faith in these military leaders.
Conclusions
As Hosni Mubarak gave his televised address that he would not run as a candidate in the presidential elections in September, Mubarak didn't mention this was after his meeting with US special envoy Frank Wisner, who is said to have told Mubarak its time to go. The reality is the US with the Egyptian army has ensured an orderly transition and will now ensure a regime emerges that will protect US interests. The US has played a direct role in the future of the country, Obama confirmed this when he said it was not his country's right to dictate the path for Egypt, but that any transition must include opposition voices and lead to free and fair elections.
The call for change in Egypt has led many to take to the streets in the hope that the Mubarak regime is overthrown and replaced with a just system. However many of those involved in leading such protests either have no clear direction on what to do once Mubarak is overthrown, they either have their own corrupt ambitions and some are even continuing with appeasing foreign powers. None of the groups are calling for the uprooting of the system, but rather most of them are jockeying for position once Mubarak is overthrown. There is a real possibility the sincere intensions of the Ummah will be hijacked by foreign powers who want a mere change of faces with the same underlying corrupt system that protects their interests.
All of this shows us Real change is only with the complete abolishment of the system in Egypt and its replacement with an alternative, the Khilafah.
______________________________
What Corruption and Force Have Wrought in Egypt
Posted on Jan 30, 2011
By Chris Hedges
The uprising in Egypt, although united around the nearly universal desire to rid the country of the military dictator Hosni Mubarak, also presages the inevitable shift within the Arab world away from secular regimes toward an embrace of Islamic rule. Don’t be fooled by the glib sloganeering about democracy or the facile reporting by Western reporters—few of whom speak Arabic or have experience in the region. Egyptians are not Americans. They have their own culture, their own sets of grievances and their own history. And it is not ours. They want, as we do, to have a say in their own governance, but that say will include widespread support—especially among Egypt’s poor, who make up more than half the country and live on about two dollars a day—for the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic parties. Any real opening of the political system in the Arab world’s most populated nation will see an empowering of these Islamic movements. And any attempt to close the system further—say a replacement of Mubarak with another military dictator—will ensure a deeper radicalization in Egypt and the wider Arab world.
The only way opposition to the U.S.-backed regime of Mubarak could be expressed for the past three decades was through Islamic movements, from the Muslim Brotherhood to more radical Islamic groups, some of which embrace violence. And any replacement of Mubarak (which now seems almost certain) while it may initially be dominated by moderate, secular leaders will, once elections are held and popular will is expressed, have an Islamic coloring. A new government, to maintain credibility with the Egyptian population, will have to more actively defy demands from Washington and be more openly antagonistic to Israel. What is happening in Egypt, like what happened in Tunisia, tightens the noose that will—unless Israel and Washington radically change their policies toward the Palestinians and the Muslim world—threaten to strangle the Jewish state as well as dramatically curtail American influence in the Middle East.
The failure of the United States to halt the slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel has consequences. The failure to acknowledge the collective humiliation and anger felt by most Arabs because of the presence of U.S. troops on Muslim soil, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but in the staging bases set up in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has consequences. The failure to denounce the repression, including the widespread use of torture, censorship and rigged elections, wielded by our allies against their citizens in the Middle East has consequences. We are soaked with the stench of these regimes. Mubarak, who reportedly is suffering from cancer, is seen as our puppet, a man who betrayed his own people and the Palestinians for money and power.
The Muslim world does not see us as we see ourselves. Muslims are aware, while we are not, that we have murdered tens of thousands of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have terrorized families, villages and nations. We enable and defend the Israeli war crimes carried out against Palestinians and the Lebanese—indeed we give the Israelis the weapons and military aid to carry out the slaughter. We dismiss the thousands of dead as “collateral damage.” And when those who are fighting against occupation kill us or Israelis we condemn them, regardless of context, as terrorists. Our hypocrisy is recognized on the Arab street. Most Arabs see bloody and disturbing images every day from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, images that are censored on our television screens. They have grown sick of us. They have grown sick of the Arab regimes that pay lip service to the suffering of Palestinians but do nothing to intervene. They have grown sick of being ruled by tyrants who are funded and supported by Washington. Arabs understand that we, like the Israelis, primarily speak to the Muslim world in the crude language of power and violence. And because of our entrancement with our own power and ability to project force, we are woefully out of touch. Israeli and American intelligence services did not foresee the popular uprising in Tunisia or Egypt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s new intelligence chief, told Knesset members last Tuesday that “there is no concern at the moment about the stability of the Egyptian government.” Tuesday, it turned out, was the day hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into the streets to begin their nationwide protests.
What is happening in Egypt will damage and perhaps unravel the fragile peace treaty between Egypt and Jordan with Israel. It is likely to end Washington’s alliance with these Arab intelligence services, including the use of prisons to torture those we have disappeared into our vast network of black sites. The economic ties between Israel and these Arab countries will suffer. The current antagonism between Cairo and the Hamas government in Gaza will be replaced by more overt cooperation. The Egyptian government’s collaboration with Israel, which includes demolishing tunnels into Gaza, the sharing of intelligence and the passage of Israeli warship and submarines through the Suez Canal, will be in serious jeopardy. Any government—even a transition government that is headed by a pro-Western secularist such as Mohamed ElBaradei—will have to make these changes in the relationship with Israel and Washington if it wants to have any credibility and support. We are seeing the rise of a new Middle East, one that will not be as pliable to Washington or as cowed by Israel.
The secular Arab regimes, backed by the United States, are discredited and moribund. The lofty promise of a pan-Arab union, championed by the Egyptian leader Gamal Abd-al-Nasser and the original Baathists, has become a farce. Nasser’s defiance of Washington and the Western powers has been replaced by client states. The secular Arab regimes from Morocco to Yemen, for all their ties with the West, have not provided freedom, dignity, opportunity or prosperity for their people. They have failed as spectacularly as the secular Palestinian resistance movement led by Yasser Arafat. And Arabs, frustrated and enduring mounting poverty, are ready for something new. Radical Islamist groups such as the Palestinian Hamas, the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon and the jihadists fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are the new heroes, especially for the young who make up most of the Arab world. And many of those who admire these radicals are not observant Muslims. They support the Islamists because they fight back. Communism as an ideological force never took root in the Muslim world because it clashed with the tenets of Islam. The championing of the free market in countries such as Egypt has done nothing to ameliorate crushing poverty. Its only visible result has been to enrich the elite, including Mubarak’s son and designated heir, Gamal. Islamic revolutionary movements, because of these failures, are very attractive. And this is why Mubarak forbids the use of the slogan “Islam is the solution” and bans the Muslim Brotherhood. These secular Arab regimes hate and fear Hamas and the Islamic radicals as deeply as the Israelis do. And this hatred only adds to their luster.
The decision to withdraw the police from Egyptian cities and turn security over to the army means that Mubarak and his handlers in Washington face a grim choice. Either the army, as in Tunisia, refuses to interfere with the protests, meaning the removal of Mubarak, or it tries to quell the protests with force, a move that would leave hundreds if not thousands dead and wounded. The fraternization between the soldiers and the crowds, along with the presence of tanks adorned with graffiti such as “Mubarak will fall,” does not bode well for Washington, Israel and the Egyptian regime. The army has not been immune to the creeping Islamization of Egypt—where bars, nightclubs and even belly dancing have been banished to the hotels catering to Western tourists. I attended a reception for middle-ranking army officers in Cairo in the 1990s when I was based there for The New York Times and every one of the officers’ wives had a head covering. Mubarak will soon become history. So, I expect, will neighboring secular Arab regimes. The rise of powerful Islamic parties appears inevitable. It appears inevitable not because of the Quran or a backward tradition, but because we and Israel believed we could bend the aspirations of the Arab world to our will through corruption and force.
TruthDig
No comments:
Post a Comment