Under a Capitalist World Order that Embraces Dictators for Economic Gain, the Slaughter of Innocents is an Inevitable Reality

News:

On the 6th of March, the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR described the Ukraine conflict as the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War 2. Around 2 million people have fled the country since the start of Russia’s invasion and bombardment of the country. The brutal Putin regime has indiscriminately targeted hospitals, schools, residential buildings and other civilian areas in Kyiv, Kharkhiv, Mariupol and other cities. The UN has stated that hundreds of civilians have been killed in these past few weeks of fighting, including dozens of children, however, the true number is feared to be much higher.

Comment:

There has been shock and horror at the level of brutality employed by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, against innocents in Ukraine in his goal of occupying the country. However, these same scenes of merciless destruction and slaughter of innocent men, women and children by the Russian regime have been played out for years on the streets of Syria in its aim to support the continuing rule of another dictator, Assad. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in this conflict, again with indiscriminate use of cluster munition and incendiary weapons aimed at achieving maximum casualties. Randa Slim, a senior fellow and director of the conflict resolution program at the Middle East Institute stated: “Most of their actions (the Russian regime) in support of the Syrian army was to exact a high civilian death toll in order to break the morale of the people.” However, the Muslims of Syria faced their bloodbath alone, with their pleas for support and protection from the international community unanswered and ignored under a capitalist world order in which states and rulers deemed that stopping a genocide was not in their political or economic interests. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Ahmad al-Khatib, a previous resident of Aleppo – a city pummelled by Russian aerial bombardment which also targeted civilian areas and killed tens of thousands- commented: “What we experienced a few years ago is being replayed almost frame by frame in Ukraine.” The Russian regime was accused of executing repeated war crimes against innocents in Syria, and yet Putin continued to be accepted and embraced by the international community, fearful of the impact on trade relations and imports of Russian gas and oil on economies and global economic markets if relationships with the brutal dictator were to be strained or severed.

In the Muslim world, leaderships such as those in Qatar, the UAE, Turkey and Pakistan have also developed deep economic ties with Moscow in trade, investment, infrastructure and tourism, utterly ignoring the slaughter of Muslims in Syria and the persecution, arbitrary arrests and detention of Muslims in Crimea and Russia by the Putin regime. Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, visited Moscow in late February and met Putin in an aim to boost energy and economic cooperation between the two countries and to give impetus to the multi-billion-dollar Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline. Khan struck a huge deal to import natural gas from Russia and other trade deals, also giving an invitation to Putin to visit Pakistan later this year. Furthermore, Pakistan’s ‘National Security Policy’ unveiled earlier this year called for: “reimagining [the country’s] partnership with Russia in energy, defence cooperation, and investment” – a partnership that will be stained with the blood of Muslims.

We live in a world today where there is a vacuum of moral leadership; a capitalist world order where profit, revenue and economic gain will always override moral principles and the sanctity of human life; a world order where states and governments close their eyes to genocides and brutal occupations and measure interventions to protect innocents on the basis of cost-effectiveness; a world where human life is traded on the back of multi-billion dollar deals, and a world in which those who oppose and fight Western-supported dictators and brutal occupations which serve Western interests are demonised and labelled terrorists.

This capitalist world order is therefore one where the rule of dictators, occupiers and tyrants who rule over strategic lands and resources flourish and are financially supported and cemented into power due to the economic interests of states. They are allowed to execute their crimes with impunity whether it be in Syria, Palestine, China, India, Kashmir, Yemen, Myanmar, Central Asia or elsewhere. It is a world order in which those who claim to champion the protection of nations from oppression and atrocities, such as the Western powers, have their own legacy of mass slaughter of innocents and crimes against humanity as witnessed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Algeria, Vietnam, India, and elsewhere.

It is a world that is desperately in need of a new leadership, one that genuinely cares for the sanctity of human life and that will intervene to protect nations from dictators and oppression regardless of the economic cost. What other system can provide such a leadership except the System of Allah (swt), the Khilafah based upon the method of the Prophethood, which has a legacy of standing against dictators and rescuing, protecting and opening its borders to the oppressed regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity? For example, in the 8th century CE, when Africa was enjoying the blessings of justice and prosperity under the Islamic rule of the Khilafah, neighbouring Spain was groaning under the tyranny of the Gothic ruler, King Roderic. Many refugees from Spain, both Christians and Jews, who had suffered under the Gothic rule had taken refuge in Muslim Africa under the rule of Islam. One of them was Julian, the Governor of Ceuta, whose daughter had been raped by Roderick. Julian implored the Khilafah to liberate his land from the Gothic tyrant's yoke. In response, Khalifah Al-Walid I ordered his great commander, Tariq bin Ziyad, to lead an army against King Roderic. Tariq won a decisive victory against the Gothic king despite facing an army more than ten times the size of his own. The Islamic rule was brought to the region, liberating its people from the oppressive rule of the Visigothic kingdom.

The capitalist system has sown its toxic seeds across the globe, spreading misery, desperation and darkness. It is truly time for a new system to enlighten this world, one that truly stands for justice and the needs of humankind. The Islamic system of the Khilafah (Caliphate) offers such a system. It is not just a necessity for Muslims but for the whole of humanity! Allah (swt) says:

(فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ)

“So the roots of the people who were unjust were cut off; and all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.” [Al-Anaam: 45].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir