The Khilafah is not a Totalitarian State

This map shows the Islamic Khilafah during the first century of its rule. Despite the number of countries under its domain with their existing languages, traditions, religions, customs, laws and cultures, Islam was successful in moulding these disparate people in to one unified society within a very short period of time. 

Unlike the oppressive Byzantine Empire of the time, the Khilafah did not achieve this through tyranny and ruling with an iron fist. The peoples the Khilafah governed embraced Islam en masse and wholeheartedly supported and welcomed the rule of the Islamic State.

This book will refute in detail the claim made by Bush, Blair and others that the Khilafah ruling system is an oppressive, fascist, totalitarian state or par with Nazi Germany.

INTRODUCTION

The overwhelming support for re-establishing the Khilafah is now clear for everyone to see. Survey after survey, poll after poll shows the majority of Muslims want Shari'ah and the Khilafah (Caliphate).¹The starkest example of this support was displayed this August when Hizb ut-Tahrir staged a massive Khilafah conference in Indonesia. 100,000 Muslims were in attendance filling an entire football stadium, with millions more across the globe voicing their support.²This growing call for Khilafah has sent shockwaves throughout the west and its agents ruling the Muslim world. As a result all aspects of Islam are now under attack, from the Islamic ‘aqeeda (belief) to the Islamic ruling system. 

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘Verily, the knots of Islam will be undone one by one. Whenever one knot is lost then the people grabbed onto the one which came after it. The first of these knots will be the ruling and the last will be the prayer (salah).'³
Unable to provide any credible argument against the strength of the Islamic ‘aqeeda, the colonialist kuffar have resorted to cheap and degrading insults against our beloved messenger Muhammad (saw). The Danish cartoons and comments by the Pope are bad enough but what is worse is when this attack comes in a Muslim country, Bangladesh in the holy month of Ramadan!⁴A few weeks after the Indonesian Khilafah conference, George Bush gave a speech in which he vowed to fight those who seek to re-establish the Khilafah. He spoke of America being ‘engaged in a great ideological struggle -- fighting Islamic extremists across the globe.' He went on to define these extremists as those who ‘hope to impose that same dark vision across the Middle East by raising up a violent and radical caliphate that spans from Spain to Indonesia.'⁵This malicious propaganda campaign should come as no surprise to the believers. When the Prophet (saw) began his da'wah in Mecca the Quraysh initially ignored him thinking his call would be no more than the talk of monks and sages and that people would eventually return to the faith of their fathers and ancestors. Whenever he (saw) passed by they would say: ‘Here is the son of ‘Abd al-Muttalib who is spoken to from the heavens.'⁶However, when the da'wah began to take root in Mecca and have a powerful effect on its people, this is when the torture, propaganda and boycott of the Muslims began. Since the work for Khilafah nowadays has become deeply rooted in the Muslim countries we see the same campaign of torture and propaganda being used to prevent its re-establishment.

Part of this campaign is to slander the Khilafah so much so that ‘extraordinary measures' such as assassination, torture and concentration camps like Guantanamo Bay can be justified by the west in dealing with its re-establishment.

This is where painting the Khilafah as a totalitarian state on par with Nazi Germany fits in. Nazism represents the epitome of evil for western governments and they would support any measure aimed at preventing its re-establishment.

This is why the enemies of Islam such as the Neo-conservatives in America and their followers in Europe have begun a malicious campaign to equate Islam with Nazism and totalitarianism.

1  WHAT IS TOTALITARIANISM?

Totalitarianism is a technical term used to describe governments in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralised control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.⁷Loosely applied aspects of totalitarianism can be seen in every country of the world. In the West, increasing encroachment of the state on civil liberties through measures such as political suppression, torture and widespread spying definitely mirrors many aspects of totalitarian states.

However, in the politically charged atmosphere of America's war on terror employing its use against Muslims has one context which is the suppression of anyone calling for a future Khilafah.

George W. Bush, US President said:

‘This caliphate would be a totalitarian Islamic empire encompassing all current and former Muslim lands, stretching from Europe to North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.'⁸David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party in Britain said:

‘The driving force behind today's terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence.'⁹Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister said:

‘Out of this region the Middle East has been exported a deadly ideology based on a perversion of the proper faith of Islam but nonetheless articulated with demonic skill playing on the fears and grievances of Muslims everywhere.

Analogies with the past are never properly accurate, and analogies especially with the rising fascism can be easily misleading but, in pure chronology, I sometimes wonder if we're not in the 1920s or 1930s again.'¹⁰The key features of a totalitarian regime were defined by the US historians Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski in Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956). Their model was derived from the history of the twentieth century (primarily Communism and Nazism) and had six key features:

1. An official ideology to which general adherence was demanded, the ideology intended to achieve a ‘perfect final stage of mankind'. 
2. A single mass party, hierarchically organised, closely interwoven with the state bureaucracy and typically led by one man. 
3. Monopolistic control of the armed forces. 
4. A monopoly of the means of effective mass communication. 
5. A system of terrorist police control. 
6. Central control and direction of the entire economy.

Each of these six areas will be examined in turn to see if the totalitarian model compares in any way to the Khilafah ruling system. 

2  FIRST FEATURE

An official ideology to which general adherence was demanded the ideology intended to achieve a ‘perfect final stage of mankind'

Official IdeologyThe Khilafah is an ideological Islamic state and similar to other ideological states such as America and Britain its systems of governance are derived from its viewpoint in life. For the Khilafah its viewpoint in life is the Islamic‘aqeeda from which emanates the shari'ah rules governing life's affairs. For states such as America and Britain their viewpoint in life is based on secularism from which emanates democracy and the Capitalist economic system,  which is the most prominent part of their ideology which is why they are referred to as Capitalist nations.

Although the Khilafah is based on the Islamic ideology this doesn't mean everyone who lives in the state must become Muslim. Citizenship in the Khilafah is based on someone permanently living within the lands of the Khilafah regardless of their ethnicity or creed.

It is not a requirement for someone to become Muslim and adopt the values of Islam in order to become a citizen of the state. Muslims living outside the Islamic State do not enjoy the rights of citizenship, whereas a non-Muslim living permanently within the Islamic State (dar ul-Islam) does.¹¹Another question could arise regarding the many schools of thought (madhahib) that exist among Muslims, for example Sunni and Shia. Will the Khilafah adopt one school of thought and enforce it upon everybody else?

The Khilafah only adopts legislation from the shari'ah necessary to manage life's affairs. It does not adopt divine rules pertaining to worship (ibadat) except Zakat and Jihad due to their societal impact. It also does not adopt in any of the thoughts connected to the Islamic ‘aqeeda.¹² Therefore the Khilafah will not be a Sunni state or a Shia state. Any Muslim regardless of their school of thought will be left alone to practise without interference from the state.

‘Perfect final stage' - UtopiaThe Khilafah ruling system does not aim at establishing a political utopia or the creation of a ‘master race.' Its aim is simply to apply the shari'ah.

Allah (swt) revealed the shari'ah for application on human beings not angels. There is no expectation for the Islamic society to be a perfect society where crime is never committed.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘By the one in whose hand my soul is, if you did not do wrong, Allah Almighty would remove you and bring a people who do wrong and then ask Allah Almighty for forgiveness and He would forgive them.'¹³The Prophet (saw) was head of the best Islamic State. But in his state there lived Muslims, non-Muslims and hypocrites (munafiqeen). There were adulterers, thieves and murderers. In the time of the Rightly Guided Khaleefahs (Khulufa Rashida) many problems existed to the extent that fitna (rebellion) broke out in the time of Imam Ali (ra). Despite all this shari'ah was applied and shari'ah resolved the disputes and problems that occurred.

Moreover, the Prophet (saw) warned the Muslims about future oppressive rulers in the Khilafah.

Muslim narrated from Huzayfah ibn al-Yamaan that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘There will be Imams after me who will not be guided by my guidance, nor will they act according to my Sunnah; some men will rise amongst you with satans' hearts in human bodies.' Huzayfah asked, ‘What shall I do, if I were to reach that time?' He (saw) said, ‘You should hear and obey the Ameer even if he whipped your back and took your money; do hear and obey.'¹⁴Muslim ‘Master Race'Islam does not believe in creating a Muslim ‘master race' where all non-Muslims are forced to convert to Islam. The existence of non-Muslims and their places of worship in the Muslim world despite Islam having ruled the area for over 1300 years is clear evidence that this was never the case.¹⁵The Messenger of Allah (saw) wrote to the people of Yemen: ‘Whoever is adamant upon Judaism or Christianity will not be tormented for it, and he is obliged to pay the jizya.'¹⁶The meaning of ‘will not be tormented for it' means the dhimmi (non-Muslim citizens) are left to follow their beliefs and worships.¹⁷

3  SECOND FEATURE

A single mass party 

In the traditional totalitarian models of Communism and Nazism there was one official party. For the Soviet Union it was the Communist Party and for Nazi Germany it was the German National Socialists Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) where the word Nazi itself is derived. More recently the Ba'ath Party in Iraq under Saddam Hussein was the official state party with all others being forced underground.

Any citizen in order to progress in society needed to join the official state party. Those who didn't join were viewed with suspicion and were not subject to the same rights and protections as party members.

Western countries follow a multi-party democratic model with many political parties in existence and vying for power. Although in reality there are usually only two major political parties that have any chance of gaining power. In America it's a choice between either the Republicans or the Democrats and in Britain between Labour and the Conservatives.

Political Parties in IslamIslam has not only allowed the establishment of political parties but made it obligatory on the Muslim Ummah to establish at least one party. Although members of the government will in many cases be members of political parties the Khilafah does not have a party system of ruling as found in western democracies. In other words no one single party rules the State.

Political parties in the Khilafah are established primarily to account the head of state (Khaleefah) and his government. Their task is to safeguard the thoughts of Islam in society and to ensure the government does not deviate from the implementation and propagation of Islam. There is no requirement to join a party in order to become a member of the Islamic government or to progress in society.

The right of the Khilafah's citizens to establish political parties is established from the Holy Qur'an. No permission is required from the government to establish these parties as shari'ah has given permission for this.

The following verse of the Holy Qur'an orders the establishment of political parties.

Allah (swt) says:

Let there arise from amongst you a group(s) which calls to al-Khair (Islam),

enjoins al-ma'ruf (good) and forbids al-munkar (evil),

and they are the successful ones.¹⁸

The order to establish a group or groups is an order to establish political parties. This is deduced from the fact that the verse has determined the duty of this group which is the call to Islam, enjoining the Ma'aruf (good), and forbidding the Munkar (evil). The duty of enjoining Ma'aruf and forbidding Munkar is general and not restricted. It therefore includes the rulers and this implies holding them accountable. The holding of the rulers accountable is a political task performed by the political parties and it is the most important task of the political parties.

Thus the verse indicates the duty of establishing political parties which would call to Islam, enjoin Ma'aruf and forbid Munkar, and would hold the rulers accountable for their actions and conduct.¹⁹Therefore, the function of political parties within the Khilafah is not to achieve power as there is no concept of a party system of government. Multiple Islamic political parties can exist and they will work for the betterment of the entire society rather than their own narrow self-interests as we find in western countries.

4  THIRD FEATURE

Monopolistic control of the armed forces

The Khilafah is not a military regimeThe Khaleefah is commander in-chief of the armed forces and appoints all the army generals and the Chief of staff.²⁰ The Khaleefah is not a ceremonial commander in-chief as found in some western states but he alone is the one who supervises the military and war policies, internally and externally for the state. This ensures the armed forces are fully under the executive control of the government and cannot become independent and carry out a coup d'état against the government as we have seen happening on numerous occasions in Muslim countries such as Turkey and Pakistan. However, this in no way implies that the Khilafah is a military regime enforcing the law through the army.

Military thinking is kept completely separate from the political thinking needed to look after peoples' affairs. Although military thinking is important within its narrow sphere of building a strong military apparatus and carrying out the war policy, it should never exceed this role. This is because when soldiers fulfil their work in their military capacity, they fulfil it as people of expertise. They do not permit into their considerations the impact of world public opinion, diplomatic efforts, spiritual and moral strengths or the value of political manoeuvring. Their opinion is just one opinion among many other considerations that the Khaleefah uses when formulating his political judgement on a matter.²¹Preventing misuse of the Armed ForcesThe military is not a monopoly of the Khaleefah for him to use for his own personal interests. The armed forces can only be used for legitimate shari'ah reasons. They cannot be used illegally and to commit oppression. If for any reason it is deemed that the armed forces have been misused by the Khaleefah then the independent judicial court the Court of Unjust Acts (Mahkamat ul-Mazalim) will investigate the matter and make a judgement to resolve the dispute.²² 

5 FOURTH FEATURE

A monopoly of the means of effective mass communication

The government of the Khilafah does not have a monopoly on the media. Any citizen of the Islamic State is allowed to set up any media whether newspapers, magazines, radio or television. Permission is not required to establish this type of media although the Department of Information (Da'irat ul I'laam) must be informed of their establishment.²³As is the case in any State there are limits to the general remit of the press and they must operate within the law. Sensitive information related to national security cannot be published without prior permission from the Information Department. Slander and libel, incitement, racism, insulting religious beliefs and the propagation of depraved and misguided cultures are not allowed by shari'ah.

Outside of these limits the media within the Khilafah has full rights to account the Khaleefah and his government, investigate any government oppression (mazlama) or other issues that pose a danger or are in the interests of the society at large. The media can investigate and publish this without fear of any arrest or persecution.

The role of the media within any society especially the Khilafah cannot be underestimated. Their work falls under the general obligation of enjoining the good (Ma'aruf) and forbidding the evil (Munkar) which is a duty of every citizen.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘By Him in whose hand is my soul, you must enjoin the Ma'aruf and forbid the Munkar, otherwise Allah will be about to send His punishment upon you. And then if you pray to Him (to ask Him), he would not answer you.'²⁴Islam also emphasised the importance of accounting the tyrant ruler even if it led to death.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘The master of martyrs is Hamza bin Abdul-Muttalib and a man who stood to an oppressor ruler where he ordered him and forbade him so he (the ruler) killed him.'²⁵

The ordinary Muslims within the Khilafah will fear none but Allah (swt). This will give them the strength to confront the Khaleefah and strongly account him when necessary. This is illustrated in the following example from the time of Khaleefah Mu'awiya (ra).

One day, Jariya Ibnu Qudama Al-Saadi entered to Mu'awiya who, at the time, was the head of the Islamic state. Three of the Roman emperor's ministers happened to be also present. Mu'awiya said to Jariya: Were you not one of Ali's allies in all of his opinions? Jariya said: Leave Ali (may Allah honour him) aside, for we have not despised him since we loved him, nor have we cheated him since we advised him.

Upon this Mu'awiya said to him: Woe to you o Jariya! You must have been lowly in your parents' eyes, for they called you Jariya (meaning slave girl or maid).

Jariya replied: You must have been lowly in your parents' eyes, for they called you Mu'awiya, the bitch on heat who barked and lured the dogs.

Mu'awiya shouted: Shut up you motherless one! Jariya replied: You shut up o Mu'awiya (he did not say Amir of the believers), for I have a mother who bore me for the swords with which we faced you one day. Then we have given you our pledge of allegiance, to hear and to obey, so long as you rule us by what Allah has revealed. So if you fulfil your promise, we fulfil our loyalty to you, and if you fail to keep up your promise, remember that we have left behind us some ferocious men and plenty of armour, they shall not let you abuse or harm them.

Mu'awiya yelled: May Allah rid us of the likes of you!

Jariya replied: You! (Again he did not say Emir of the believers), say something good and be courteous, for the worst rulers are in hell fire. Jariya then left, fuming with anger without even asking Mu'awiya permission to leave.

The three ministers turned to Mu'awiya and one of them said: "Our emperor would not be addressed by any of his subjects unless the subject were prostrating with his forehead at the base of his throne. If the voice of one of the closest people to him or any of his immediate family were to be raised, they could be cut to pieces, or burnt, so how could this rough desert Arab, with his ill-mannered behaviour, come and threaten you like this? As if he was your equal"?

Mu'awiya smiled then said: "I rule over men, who are fearless of any censurer when it comes to the truth, and all my folk are like this desert Arab, none of them prostrate save to Allah (swt), none of them keep silent over an injustice and I am not superior, nor better than any of them except in piety. I have said some harsh words to the man and he rightly responded, I was the one who started, thus I am more to blame than he".

Upon hearing this, the senior Roman minister burst out crying, so Mu'awiya asked the reason why, so he said: "We had thought before today that we were your equals in terms of protection and force, but after witnessing this, I fear that one day you would spread your authority over our empire".²⁶

6 FIFTH FEATURE

A system of terrorist police control

The Khilafah is not a police state. Torture, spying and arbitrary arrest and imprisonment are all forbidden. The implementation of Islam depends primarily upon Muslims taqwa (God Consciousness). They obey the law out of their obedience to Allah (swt). This removes the need for thousands of CCTV cameras that plague the cities of the west in order to prevent crime.

Furthermore, Muslims believe in responsibility not freedom. The collective spirit fostered in the Khilafah for doing good and righteous deeds means people will intervene if they witness any criminal behaviour. The culture of turning a blind eye to crime prevalent in the West will not exist in the Khilafah. This again falls under the general obligation of enjoining good and forbidding evil mentioned earlier.

Therefore, the arrest, conviction and punishment of those who disobey the law in the Khilafah are seen as a last resort. Even when dealing with criminals they have the full right to judicial process and they cannot be mistreated or tortured to extract confessions. Any confession extracted under duress or with false testimony is completely rejected. Those who give false testimony in an Islamic court or abuse any suspects will themselves face harsh punishments.

Torture is prohibitedTorture of anyone in the Khilafah is prohibited regardless of any benefit it may bring, such as intelligence information. The Khilafah does not lower itself to the despicable behaviour of the Americans and Israelis and their ‘state sanctioned' torture methods.

Muslim narrated from Hisham b. Hakeem, who said: ‘I bear witness that I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say: ‘Allah will punish those who punish the people in the Dunya.'²⁷Judicial ProcessArbitrary arrest and detention without trial is forbidden in the Khilafah. The legal principle of habeas corpus exists where anyone arrested must be brought before a judicial court and their case investigated by a judge (qadi).

‘The Messenger of Allah has ordered that the two disputing parties should sit before a judge.'²⁸All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a shari'ah court.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘It is the plaintiff who should provide the evidence, and the oath is due on the one who disapprove.'²⁹

Private/Public SphereAnother feature of a totalitarian state is its policing and spying on people in their homes and private affairs. As mentioned earlier, the Khilafah has a minimal adoption in Islamic legislation. It only adopts those laws necessary to manage the public affairs of state. It will not adopt laws in the areas of ibadat (personal worship) and belief except zakat and jihad. This prevents problems arising between the various schools of thought (mazahib) such as Sunni and Shia that live together in the Khilafah.

For non-Muslim citizens (dhimmi) they are left alone to practise their religions and those practises linked to their belief such as drinking alcohol, eating pork, marriage and divorce.³⁰The sanctity of someone's home in the Khilafah cannot be violated by spying on them.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘He who peeps into some people's house without their permission, it is allowed for them to gouge out his eye.'³¹Also Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur'an:

O you who believe, avoid suspicion as much as possible, for suspicion in some cases is a sin, and do not spy on each other.³²Allah (swt) prohibited spying in this verse when He (swt) said - ‘do not spy.' This prohibition is general covering all spying whether it is spying for himself or anyone, whether it is for the State or individuals or groups, and whether the one performing it i.e. the spying is the ruler or the ruled. The speech is general covering everything applying upon it that it is spying. Therefore it is not allowed for the Khilafah to spy on its Muslim or dhimmicitizens.³³ The only exception being when there is clear evidence that a citizen of the khilafah is being used by an external state to spy on the Khilafah - then this can be investigated without overstepping the rights of the general citizenry.³⁴An example of the sanctity of people's homes and not pursuing criminal activity within them is from the time of the 2^nd Rightly Guided Khaleefah of Islam Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (ra).

Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, was making his nightly rounds in Al-Madina when he heard a man singing in a house. He entered by scaling a wall and found a woman with him and wine.Umar said "You enemy of Allah. Do you think that Allah, glorified be he, would not expose you whilst you commit a sin?' The man said: "And you O commander of the Faithful! Don't be so harsh on me. I disobeyed Allah in one thing, while you disobeyed Him in three:He (swt) says: ‘And do not spy' and you spied.He (swt) says: ‘So enter the houses by the doors' and you have scaled a wall.He (swt) says: ‘Enter not houses other than yours until you have asked leave and invoked peace on the inmates thereof' and you have entered without permission.'Umar (ra) said "would you be a better one if I pardon you?' He answered ‘Yes.' Umar pardoned him and went out.³⁵

7 SIXTH FEATURE

Central control and direction of the entire economy

The Khilafah does not have a planned economy where the government controls and regulates production, distribution and prices through some all-encompassing macroeconomic plan. Private ownership of land, factories, shops and corporations in order to generate profits is highly encouraged within the Khilafah.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, ‘The truthful and trustworthy merchant will be in the company of the Prophets, the upright and the martyrs.'³⁶The shari'ah restricts state intervention in the economy in many areas. Violation of these by the state would be considered government oppression (mazlama) that can be overturned by the Court of Unjust Acts (Mahkamat ul-Mazalim). Having said this, the Khilafah does not permit the concept of freedom of ownership like in Capitalism where if enough demand exists companies can supply goods even if they are detrimental to the wider society.

Public/Private PropertyIslam makes a distinction between private and public property within the Khilafah. There is no concept of Nationalisation where private property is transferred to the State if the State viewed it was in the public interest. Only if the nature of the property changed can it then be deemed public property and ownership transferred to the state.³⁷ There are three types of public property defined by Shari'ah: 

1. That which is considered a public utility, so that a town or a community would disperse in search for it if it were not available. E.g. water, electricity, gas and oil reserves 
2. The uncountable stores of minerals. E.g. diamond mine. 
3. Things which, by their nature, would prevent the individual from possession. E.g. rivers, seas, lakes, public canals, gulfs, straits.³⁸ 

Outside of these categories all other property is private property and can be owned by individuals. The only exception to this is those properties that belong to the state such as government buildings, tax revenues and army weapons. These are termed as State property.³⁹Therefore the factors of production: land, labour and capital are not owned and controlled by the state as is the case in a planned or command economy.

Price fixing

The Khilafah cannot intervene directly in the economy to fix the level of prices.

Imam Ahmad narrated from Anas who said: Prices increased at the time of the Messenger of Allah (saw) so they said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we wish would you price (fix the prices).' He (saw) said: ‘Indeed Allah is the Creator, the holder (Qabidh), the Open-handed (Basit), the Provider (Raziq), the Pricer (who fixes prices); and I wish I will meet Allah and nobody demands (complains) of me for unjust act I did against him, neither in blood or property.'⁴⁰Printing moneyThe world today operates a paper-based currency that is not based on gold and has no intrinsic value. The value of the paper results from people's confidence in the economy and with the government who prints the currency. One of the biggest oppressions committed by governments today is their free reign in printing money and increasing the money supply in the economy. This leads to inflation and in some cases in the Muslim world leads to hyperinflation where the currency devalues on an hourly basis.

The Khilafah cannot just print money as it deems fit. Money in the Khilafah must be based on gold or silver. Paper money will be in circulation but at anytime this paper money must be transferable in to 100% of its value of gold or silver.⁴¹TaxationThe taxation that can be imposed in the Khilafah has been restricted by the shari'ah. If the fixed taxes such asKharaj, Jizya and Al-Ushur are insufficient to fund the state then a wealth tax can be imposed. However, this tax can only be imposed on the excess wealth of the people not their income or on their goods and services. Oppressive taxation such as value added taxes on goods and services or income tax are prohibited.

Referring to the unjust taxes the Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

‘The tax-collector will not enter Paradise.'⁴²

CONCLUSION

From this brief discussion it's clear that the totalitarian model of government in no way compares to the Khilafah ruling system. Although politicians and academics try and interpret the Khilafah within their existing models such as a monarchy, empire or federation, the Khilafah is in fact a unique system of government.

The linking of Islam and the Khilafah to Nazism and totalitarianism under the guise of intellectual and academic debate has only one purpose which is fuelling the ‘war on terror' which in reality is a ‘war on Islam'.

This propaganda campaign against Islam and the Khilafah will surely fail as it did in the time of the Prophet (saw). The campaign to demonise Islam by Quraysh backfired and actually attracted more people to listen to the Prophet's (saw) message. The unprecedented interest in Islam and the increasing numbers of converts in western countries shows this propaganda is failing. The unprecedented support for Khilafah and the resorting to violence by the west to try and prevent its re-establishment also shows this propaganda is failing.

We finish with the good news given to us from the Prophet (saw) of the return of the Khilafah after the oppressive systems Muslims live under today.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘The Prophethood will be among you as long as Allah wills, then he will eliminate it if he so wills. Then a Khilafah on the model of Prophethood will prevail so long as Allah wills, then he will eliminate it if he so wills. Then there will be a biting monarchy as long as Allah wills, then he will eliminate it if he so wills. Then there will be an oppressive monarchy as long as Allah wills, then he will eliminate it if he so wills. Then a Khilafah on the way of Prophethood will prevail and he kept silent.'⁴³

Pakistan's CNG Shortage: The Khilafah will rescue the Ummah from artificial energy crises

The artificial shortage of CNG is "democracy's best revenge" against our people

The Khilafah will rescue the Ummah from artificial energy crises

People who have already been suffering from numerous crises are now forced to bear the artificial CNG shortage as well. People are must sit in their cars, queuing for many hours in order to fill gas in their cars. Instead of ending this artificial shortage, people have been advised to switch to costly imported LNG and petrol or be prepared to buy expensive CNG. About a decade ago, the government itself introduced CNG in the transport sector and marketed it heavily. The government explained its benefits, claiming that it is an endogenous resource and therefore its consumption will reduce our reliance on costly imported petrol and diesel and valuable foreign exchange will be saved. Furthermore because CNG is a cheap fuel, its use will reduce inflation, which will increase the buying power of the people and on top of that because it is a clean fuel, its consumption will help to reduce environmental pollution as well. That was then. Ye, during all these years, did the rulers not know that we do not have enough gas resources to introduce our transport sector to gas too, after fulfilling the requirements of domestic and industrial clients as well as the power sector? Is this a new revelation? In fact, these rulers are lying. There is no real energy shortage in the country. It is proved by the fact that electricity crisis has been reduced dramatically for the last two months. Before that there was twelve hour load shedding in major cities, which has been reduced to a mere one or two hours only.

On 2 October 2012, the Adviser for Petroleum and Natural resources, Dr. Asim Hussain, admitted that a number of companies that had completed exploration work did not announce their discoveries because of unattractive prices. When he was asked why they have not been penalized, he replied that government had to be practical, instead of pushing away companies by penalizing them. Now these companies are ready to start production and supply gas, according to the new prices announced in the 2012 Petroleum Policy. This cruel government has almost doubled the price of gas in its new petroleum policy from 3.24 dollar MMBTU to 6 dollar MMBTU. The Oil and Gas Development Corporation Ltd, which meets 58 percent of oil demand and 27 percent of gas, has earned 91 billion Rupees in net profit, after taxation in the financial year 2011-12. If the profit of only one company is so high, then we can imagine that the other companies are also making profits in billions of Rupees annually. Now their profits will rise even more after the implementation of new prices.

This is the "achievement" of the democratic system! A resource which is essential for humanity and national usage was made scarce, just because a few companies were not getting their desired profit. Now once again this criminal and cruel activity of creating artificial shortage has caused the closure of thousands of industrial units for weeks, with its labour losing its means of earning and being thrown into the jaws of hunger, whilst the country will lose trillions of Rupees. Other than this, the proof that rulers are responsible for this artificial shortage is that despite several years have passed by, they have not utilized one of the largest coal reserves in the world situated in Thar, Sindh.

The statement of the Adviser, Dr. Asim Hussain, confirms that whether it is democratic rule or dictatorship, in both cases the capitalist system is always implemented. That's why America and colonialist powers always support both dictators and democratic rulers in Muslim countries because in both cases, the rulers of Muslim countries make polices according to the wishes of America and Western powers. Therefore we see that there are many countries in the world who possess immense natural resources, but their people live in abject poverty, whilst multinational companies and the rulers fill their accounts with the wealth of that country. This only occurs because in democracies and dictatorships, rulers surrender resources like oil, gas and natural resources to private ownership in the name of the free market economy.

Only the Khilafah will liberate the Muslim Ummah and the whole of humanity from this oppression, because Islam has shut the door of corruption forever, by taking the power of legislation from humans. Islam declared all natural resources as public property and therefore the Khilafah state will provide these resources to the Ummah, without profiteering. Rasool Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

"Muslims are partners (associates) in three things: in water, pastures and fire and its price is Haram (forbidden)." (Abu Dawood).

Only the implementation of one rule of Islam will divert the flow of trillion of Rupees to the people, instead of going into the accounts and bank lockers of corrupt rulers and multinational companies. The Ummah will be provided economical and abundant energy resources and because of low-priced and available energy, industry will flourish immensely. 

Secret Hill Meeting ‘Major War’ Looming In The Middle East

By James P. Tucker Jr.

Members of the Trilateral Commission’s North American Group and congressmen who attended the gathering struggled hard to hide their meeting in Washington, D.C.,  November 30-December 3. They wanted no public viewing of their efforts to get yet another war started in the Mideast.

The North American Group is a regional subgroup of the Trilateral Commission (TC), founded in 1973 by billionaire David Rockefeller to expand ties among North America, Europe and Asia.

Attendees to the secretive gathering met upstairs in the main lobby of the Library of Congress, which, though usually open to the public, was partially sealed off. Unless you had a TC pass, you were barred from entry.

As AMERICAN FREE PRESS goes to press, we have been unable to confirm whether all members of TC’s North American Group attended the confab. However, some of the best-known figures in this regional group include former United States Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice, former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the neoconservative warmongering academic Eliot Cohen, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).

Those current senators and congressmen who attended the gathering slipped into the meeting by means of an underground railway that connects several congressional office buildings with the U.S. Capitol.

Some legislators walked above ground on their return because their offices were more convenient. At night, they were impossible to identify by their small congressional tags and their TC badges. But several were overheard telling their staff escorts that war was looming in the Middle East despite calls for spending cuts, tax increases and the so-called “fiscalcliff.” They anticipated much bloodshed.

“It could be the biggest [war] we ever had over there,” one was overheard saying.

“We’ll get into the fighting, too,” said another, but he appeared unhappy at the prospect.

If so, the war will “spill the life’s blood of our young men and the heart’s blood of our women,” he added, and it will be mostly financed with your tax dollars.

3 Unbelievably Creepy Surveillance Tactics

Since the erosion of Americans' civil liberties depends on high levels of public apathy, some of the most dangerous privacy breaches take place incrementally and under the radar; if it invites comparisons to Blade Runneror Orwell, then someone in the PR department didn't do their job. Meanwhile, some of the biggest threats to privacy, like insecure online data or iPhone GPS tracking, are physically unobtrusive and therefore easily ignored. And it'll be at least a year or two until the sky is overrun by spy drones. 

So when a method of surveillance literally resembles a prop or plot point in a sci-fi movie, it helps to reveal just how widespread and sophisticated commercial and government monitoring has become.  Here are five recent developments that seem almost unreal in their dystopian creepiness. 

1. Buses and street cars that can hear what you say .

You can't really go anywhere in America without being tracked by surveillance cameras. But seeing what people do is not enough; according to a report by the Daily, cities all over the country are literally bugging public transportation. 

In San Francisco, city officials have plans to install surveillance cameras that record sound on 357 buses and trolley cars, the Daily reported. Eugene, Oregon and Columbus, Hartford and Athens, Georgia, also have audio recording plans in the works. The systems have the capacity to filter background noise and hone in on passengers' conversations.

Officials have said that the system is merely intended to help resolve disputes between bus riders. San Francisco officials did not comment, but the Daily found a similar justification in procurement documents for the technology. “The purpose of this project is to replace the existing video surveillance systems in SFMTA’s fleet of revenue vehicles with a reliable and technologically advanced system to increase passenger safety and improve reliability and maintainability of the system.”

It's nice that the Department of Homeland Security, which covered the entire cost of San Francisco's system, is so committed to ensuring pleasant bus rides for passengers. 

2. Mannequins that can see you.

A handful of retailers in the US and Europe are installing mannequins in their stores that can determine customers' age, gender and race, Bloomberg reported last month. Don't worry, the face recognition-equipped camera is hidden, so there is no way to tell whether the giant plastic dolls in the store are watching you as you shop. The company that developed the mannequins (named EyeSee) sells their attributes thusly: 

This special camera installed inside the mannequin's head analyzes the facial features of people passing through the front and provides statistical and contextual information useful to the development of targeted marketing strategies. The embedded software can also provide other data such as the number of people passing in front of a window at certain times of the day.

They are also developing audio technology that can pick up key words from customer conversations to help them tailor their marketing plans. A screen that displays advertising geared specifically to each customers' demographic is also in EyeSee's future.

Really, wouldn't the ideal marketing scenario be if human customers were replaced by mannequins programmed to buy everything the other mannequins were selling?

3. Biometric time clocks.

For too long, employers lacked the ability to extract every second of labor from their workers with scientific precision. Thanks to the wonders of face recognition technology, many employees in low-wage workplaces are now required to log in to work on face recognition readers instead of using key cards or codes . Biometric time clocks like FaceIn, most commonly used at construction sites, create an avatar of the workers' face that the machine keeps forever and that ages alongside the employee. Allegedly, it can tell twins apart. 

China-Japan exchange diplomatic blows after Chinese ‘airspace violation’

Japan launched 8 fighter jets in response to an airspace “violation” by a Chinese plane that strayed into territory above disputed islands in East China Sea. Japan slammed the move as “deplorable” and lodged a formal complaint against the Chinese.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying a Chinese state aircraft had strayed into airspace over the disputed archipelago, prompting the scrambling of eight F-15 fighters. Japanese spokesman, Osamu Fujimori branded the incident as “extremely deplorable” and said that Chinese ships had also been spotted violating Japanese territory earlier on Thursday.

The Chinese ambassador in Tokyo has been formally summoned to account for the apparent violation and hear the Japanese government’s protest.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hong Lei responded immediately, saying the plane’s flight path was“completely normal.” Lei went on to state that Japan needed to stop entering the sea and airspace surrounding the disputed islands.

"The Diaoyu islands and affiliated islands are part of China's inherent territory," said Lei. "The Chinese side calls on Japan to halt all entries into water and airspace around the islands."

The territorial row over the Senkaku are a source of constant simmering tensions between the two nations. China calls them the Diaoyus and slammed the Japanese government for its purchase of three of the islands from their private owner in September, sparking an escalation in the dispute.

The islands are uninhabited, but the area surrounding them is believed to hold significant oil and natural gas deposits. Taiwan also claims sovereignty over the archipelago but has been largely ignored in the diplomatic row between its Asian neighbors.

The rise in tensions comes days before the Japanese general elections on December 16, in which the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been tipped for victory. Leader of the LDP, Shinzo Aba has resolved to take a harsh stance regarding the island dispute.

He has previously slammed Japan’s current Democratic ruling Party for its poor handling of the territorial dispute, claiming their weak stance has emboldened the Chinese.

Abe has pledged that he will increase spending on defense and the coastguard should he be elected.

December 13 marks the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing massacre when the Japanese army occupied the old Chinese capital for six weeks, massacring tens of thousands of civilians.

The UN asks for Control over the World’s Internet

Members of the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have agreed to work towards implementing a standard for the Internet that would allow for eavesdropping on a worldwide scale.

At a conference in Dubai this week, the ITU members decided to adopt the Y.2770 standard for deep packet inspection, a top-secret proposal by way of China that will allow telecom companies across the world to more easily dig through data passed across the Web.

According to the UN, implementing deep-packet inspection, or DPI, on such a global scale will allow authorities to more easily detect the transferring and sharing of copyrighted materials and other protected files by finding a way for administrators to analyze the payload of online transmissions, not just the header data that is normally identified and interpreted.

“It is standard procedure to route packets based on their headers, after all it is the part of the packet that contains information on the packet's intended destination,” writes The Inquirer’s Lawrence Lati, “but by inspecting the contents of each packet ISPs, governments and anyone else can look at sensitive data. While users can mitigate risks by encrypting data, given enough resources encryption can be foiled.”

Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist widely regarded as the ‘Father of the Internet,’ spoke out against proposed DPI implementation on such a grandiose scale during an address earlier this year at the World Wide Web Consortium.

Somebody clamps a deep packet inspection thing on your cable which reads every packet and reassembles the web pages, cataloguing them against your name, address and telephone number either to be given to the government when they ask for it or to be sold to the highest bidder – that's a really serious breach of privacy,” he said.

Blogger Arthur Herman writes this week for Fox News online that the goal of the delegates at the ITU “is to grab control of the World Wide Web away from the United States, and hand it to a UN body of bureaucrats.”

“It’ll be the biggest power grab in the UN’s history, as well as a perversion of its power,” he warns.

The ITU’s secretary general, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, has dismissed critics who have called the proposed DPI model invasive, penning an op-ed this week where he insists his organization’s meeting in Dubai poses “no threat to free speech.”

“It is our chance to chart a globally-agreed roadmap to connect the unconnected, while ensuring there is investment to create the infrastructure needed for the exponential growth in voice, video and data traffic,” Dr. Toure claims of the conference, adding that it presents the UN with “a golden opportunity to provide affordable connectivity for all, including the billions of people worldwide who cannot yet go online.”

Despite his explanation, though, some nation-states and big-name businesses remain opposed to the proposal. The ITU’s conference this week has been held behind closed doors, and representatives with online service providers Google, Facebook and Twitter have been barred from attending.

In a report published this week by CNet, tech journalist Declan McCullagh cites a Korean document that describes the confidential Y.2770 standard as being able to identify "embedded digital watermarks in MP3 data," discover"copyright protected audio content," find "Jabber messages with Spanish text," or "identify uploading BitTorrent users."

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a Senate resolution that asks for the American government to oppose any efforts by the United Nations to control the Internet.

US military facing fresh questions over targeting of children in Afghanistan

Outrage grows after senior officer claimed troops in Afghanistan were on the lookout for 'children with potential hostile intent'

Karen McVeigh

The US military is facing fresh questions over its targeting policy in Afghanistan after a senior army officer suggested that troops were on the lookout for "children with potential hostile intent".

In comments which legal experts and campaigners described as "deeply troubling", army Lt Col Marion Carrington told the Marine Corp Times that children, as well as "military-age males", had been identified as a potential threat because some were being used by the Taliban to assist in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

"It kind of opens our aperture," said Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. "In addition to looking for military-age males, it's looking for children with potential hostile intent."

In the article, headlined "Some Afghan kids aren't bystanders", Carrington referred to a case this year in which the Afghan national police in Kandahar province said they found children helping insurgents by carrying soda bottles full of potassium chlorate.

The piece also quoted an unnamed marine corps official who questioned the "innocence" of Afghan children, particularly three who were killed in a US rocket strike in October. Last month, the New York Times quoted local officials who said Borjan, 12, Sardar Wali, 10, and Khan Bibi, eight, from Helmand's Nawa district had been killed while gathering dung for fuel.

However, the US official claimed that, before they called for the strike on suspected insurgents planting improvised explosive devices, marines had seen the children digging a hole in a dirt road and that "the Taliban may have recruited the children to carry out the mission".

Last year, Human Rights Watch reported a sharp increase in the Taliban's deployment of children in suicide bombings, some as young as seven.

But the apparent widening of the US military's already controversial targeting policy has alarmed human rights lawyers and campaigners.

Amos Guiora, a law professor at the University of Utah specialising in counter-terrorism, said Carrington's remarks reflected the shifting definitions of legitimate military targets within the Obama administration.

Guiora, who spent years in the Israel Defence Forces, including time as a legal adviser in the Gaza Strip, said: "I have great respect for people who put themselves in harm's way. Carrington is probably a great guy, but he is articulating a deeply troubling policy adopted by the Obama administration.

"The decision about who you consider a legitimate target is less defined by your conduct than the conduct of the people or category of people which you are assigned to belong to ... That is beyond troubling. It is also illegal and immoral."

Guiora added: "If you are looking to create a paradigm where you increase the 'aperture' – that scares me. It doesn't work, operationally, morally or practically."

Guiora cited comments made by John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism chief, in April, in which he "talked about flexible definitions of imminent threat."

Pardiss Kebriaei, senior attorney of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a specialist in targeted killings, said she was concerned over what seemed to be an attempt to justify the killing of children.

Kebriaei said: "This is one official quoted. I don't know if that standard is what they are using but the standard itself is troubling."

The US is already facing criticism for using the term term "military-aged male" to justify targeted killings where the identities of individuals are not known. Under the US definition, all fighting-age males killed in drone strikes are regarded as combatants and not civilians, unless there is explicit evidence to the contrary. This has the effect of significantly reducing the official tally of civilian deaths.

Kebriael said the definition was reportedly being used in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. "Under the rules of law you can only target civilians if they are directly participating in hostilities. So, here, this standard of presuming any military aged males in the vicinity of a war zone are militants, already goes beyond what the law allows.

"When you get to the suggestion that children with potentially hostile intent may be perceived to be legitimate targets is deeply troubling and unlawful."

Children in conflict zones have additional protections under the law.

Kebriael, who is counsel for CCR in a lawsuit which seeks accountability for the killing of three American citizens – including a 16 year old boy – in US drone strikes in Yemen last year, said that the piece also raised questions over how those killed in that incident were counted. "Were they counted as military-aged males or were they counted as children with potentially hostile intent or were they counted as the innocent bystanders they were?"

In a speech in April setting out the context for the US programme of targeted killings, White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan spoke about a threshold of "significant threat', which was widely seen as introducing a lower criteria than "imminent threat".

Brennan said: "Even if it is lawful to pursue a specific member of al-Qaida, we ask ourselves whether that individual's activities rise to a certain threshold for action, and whether taking action will, in fact, enhance our security. For example, when considering lethal force we ask ourselves whether the individual poses a significant threat to US interests. This is absolutely critical, and it goes to the very essence of why we take this kind of exceptional action."

An Isaf spokesman, Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, told the Marine Corp Times that insurgents continue to use children as suicide bombers and IED emplacers, even though Taliban leader Mullah Omar has ordered them to stop harming civilians.

There have been more than 200 children killed in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen by the CIA and Joint Special Operating Command, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.