Dear Editor

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

I begin this letter in the Name of Allah (swt) in Whose Hands the soul of each one of us lies, and to Whom each of us will return to be judged according to what we fulfilled of His Orders upon this earth. Indeed He (swt) has bestowed upon you a great favour and great opportunities by facilitating your path to this station that you have in life as a member of the media community, and surely He (swt) will ask how you benefitted your Muslim Ummah and mankind from what He (swt) granted you. The righteous words you have the ability to write and the truth you are able to bring to the ears of the people have the potential to move the masses to stand against injustice and oppression and to struggle for what is right, securing for you great rewards in the Hereafter.

I write therefore, urging you to raise awareness of the horrific plight facing your Muslim brothers and sisters in the Central African Republic (CAR) who are currently facing a systematic campaign of genocide at the hands of blood-thirsty Christian militias in the country. As you are most probably aware, thousands have been killed over the past few months in the most brutal fashion, their bodies dismembered and burnt and in some cases their raw flesh eaten by their murderers. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Human Rights Watch Emergency Director Peter Bouckaert stated that entire neighborhoods have been "completely emptied of their Muslim population. Their homes are being systematically taken down.....so the very evidence of their existence in this country is being erased." Amnesty International has called it "ethnic cleansing" and warned of a "Muslim exodus of historic proportions", while the UN recently stated that of the 130,000 to 145,000 Muslims who normally lived in the capital Bangui, only 900 remain. Christian militias freely admit that they will not stop until they have "cleaned' the country of Muslims.

And as with Syria, Myanmar, and other massacres instigated against this Ummah - it is women and children who have borne the brunt of this bloodbath. They have been subject to the most horrific, unspeakable, barbaric acts that are too painful to even utter but must be brought to the world's attention. They have been tortured, shot, hacked to death, their bodies mutilated and burnt, children have been beheaded, babies slaughtered, and our sisters have suffered the most gruesome forms of rapes and the crimes go on and on, echoing the atrocities of Rwanda's 1990's genocide. Children have witnessed horrific scenes that no child should ever witness of what can only be described as hell on earth. UNICEF officials in the region "are horrified by the cruelty and impunity with which children are being killed and mutilated." They also stated that children are being "directly targeted because of their religion in atrocious revenge attacks."

In December 2013 a pregnant Muslim woman and 10 Muslim children were killed by a gang of Christians. They disembowelled the woman and slashed the children with machetes.  In another incident this January, a Muslim woman, Fatimatu Yamsa while fleeing the violence in a truck was taken off the vehicle at a checkpoint by Christian militia who then hacked her to death along with her 5 and 3 year old sons on the steps of a mosque. Last month, 7 year old Ibrahim Adamou was found by aid agencies after days of walking over 100 kilometers without food or shelter. His mother and father were killed in front of him and the fate of his 5 siblings is still unknown. What is even more shocking is that his story is near identical to six other children under the age of 10 in the area of Carnot.

These atrocities are being replicated in towns and villages across the country as the bloodshed continues unabated despite the presence of French ‘peace-keepers'. These forces have not only failed dismally to prevent the slaughter but have shown full bias towards the armed Christian anti-Balaka militia and been complicit with them in this bloodbath against the Muslims. Indeed, this is not surprising. The historical hatred of this colonial power against Islam and Muslims is renowned. Nor should any reliance be placed on the impotent UN, or self-serving Western secular states to protect Muslim lives, which have stood as idle spectators to these massacres. Their toleration of the spilling of Muslim blood is also well-known from their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to their historical legacy of watching on as 8000 Muslim civilians were killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, hundreds of thousands slaughtered in Syria by the tyrant Bashar, and countless others maimed and murdered in Myanmar by ethnic Buddhists.

Muslim rulers have also unsurprisingly and in typical historical fashion abandoned all sense of Islamic or moral duty to protect the blood of the Ummah. They have turned their backs on the suffering of the Muslims of Central Africa and are deaf to the screams of the daughters and children of Islam. This has become the expected behaviour of such cowardly leaderships and as Muslims we place no trusts in such regimes to lift a finger to protect our blood and honour.

However, what truly dismays us is the minimal attention and coverage given to the plight of our Ummah in CAR by those who are their Muslim brothers and sisters in the media - those who have been obligated to be their voice of support by the Creator of the world. This wall of silence has effectively allowed these horrific crimes against the Muslims of the region to be executed and hidden behind closed doors and away from the eyes of the international community.  Consequently, many Muslims and the world are still unaware of the true extent of the violence being committed against our brothers and sisters.

What amount of Muslim suffering will elicit a response? Silence is surely complicity to this oppression! How can the desperate calls for help of your brothers and sisters be ignored? Surely Allah (swt) will call us to account for the crimes that our eyes witness against the Muslims and how we responded! I call you, as one to whom Allah (swt) has placed a great responsibility to your Ummah through the skills, status, and influence He (swt) has enabled you to acquire as a journalist, to turn the media spotlight upon this issue and raise international awareness of these gruesome crimes. Is your role not one of bringing the truth to the world by exposing oppression and injustice wherever you witness it???!!! So fulfil your duty to Allah (swt), your Ummah, and to your profession by bringing attention to and speaking out against the suffering of your brothers and sisters.

This letter is part of a global campaign supported by the Women's Section of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir to mobilise Muslims globally to urge the Muslim media to expose the genocide against the Muslim women and children of CAR. It is part of an international campaign by Hizb ut Tahrir entitled, "Who Will Give Victory to the Muslims of Central Africa!" to raise attention to the plight of the Muslims of the region and re-enforce the message that it is only through the re-establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate", the system of Islam that the Muslims of CAR, Syria, Myanmar, India, Kashmir, China and across the world will be protected from bloodshed and systematic abuse. It is this Khilafah "Caliphate" state alone that will provide a safe sanctuary to all oppressed and persecuted Muslims in the entire world. So I also call you to give your support to the re-establishment of this System of Allah (swt) that will bring the countless tragedies, heartache and untold misery afflicting this Ummah to an end, and build for the Muslims a future of security, justice, and prosperity.

«مَثَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ، مَثَلُ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى مِنْهُ عُضْوٌ تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ الْجَسَدِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى»

"The example of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever." (Reported by Muslim)

Wa'alaikum Salaam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.

Women's Section

of the Central Media Office

of Hizb ut Tahrir