Press Release
Statement regarding UK Military Action in Iraq 2014

The UK parliament has today voted to join US led air strikes in Iraq. In light of this, we would say the following:

Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain, made the following points:

1. Western intervention will only cause more problems

The only confirmed fact about Western intervention in the Muslim world is that is has caused chaos and destruction for decades.

Britain and France drew the fault lines and schisms - that they called borders - almost a century ago. They, along with the United States have installed and sustained most of the despots who have ruled the region since then.

The first Gulf War in 1991 and subsequent sanctions led to the death of hundreds of thousands of children and a humanitarian crisis, only to be followed by war that is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands more.

The US/UK led Iraq war in 2003 led to the current violence, ethnic and sectarian strife in Iraq, and its break up in all but name.

We believe the prospect of another Iraq war - the third in two decades - will only act as a catalyst to sending the Muslim world into further free fall.

2. More Western bombing is not the solution to the problems of the Middle East

The addiction of the US/UK to bombing the Muslim world - whether with Tornado aircrafts or unmanned drones - is clear for all to see. The numbers of innocent men, women and children killed by their interventions is too many to count.

It is clear that as Western powers see Sykes-Picot borders breaking down, they have looked for an excuse to reshape the Middle East in an image that maintains their interference.
Yet they created the condition for chaos and have no place in providing a solution.

3. The Rulers in the Muslim world are shameless hypocrites who care nothing for the Ummah

Whilst the Gulf States have run to fulfil the West's interests in bombing Iraq, they remained mute over the massacre of Muslims in Gaza. They did nothing to intervene effectively when Assad was massacring his population over the last three years.
This episode merely exposes their shamelessness, their true loyalties and their inability to act independent of their paymasters and puppet masters.

4. ISIS has much to answer for

ISIS has much to answer for its false declaration of Khilafah "Caliphate" (Caliphate) and its rampage through Ash-Shaam causing more conflict with other Muslim groups than against the Assad regime.

It is clearly not a threat to the integrity of any Western state, yet its indiscriminate killings and creation of chaos give an excuse for military intervention and allows Islam to be demonised across the globe.

5. A Message to Muslims

The idea that Muslims are either with ISIS or with the West is absurd. A Muslim, wherever he or she is, should understand what is right and wrong from an Islamic perspective and be steadfast on the true position - not choosing sides as if this were a football match!
We must not be blind to the colonial agenda at play here and become sheep who side with the West just because this week they decided ISIS is the most important issue in the world.

Moreover, it is sad that some Muslims fuel the war propaganda by coming out shouting louder about ISIS's crimes now than they did when there was in-fighting between ISIS and the other Islamic brigades, or than they did about Assad's larger crimes or those of the Zionist occupiers of Palestine.

At the same time it is clearly not our place to make excuses for ISIS when they have done wrong and should realize it is a symptom of a wider destabilization of the Middle East over decades.

Muslims should be principled against Western military intervention and we should be principled in calling for the Islamic alternative that would end the decades of chaos and insecurity - that is a real Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah that would be a beacon of justice not persecution, and to reject the false claims of those who have usurped its name.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain