Press Release
The Bill of Changing the Electronic Crimes Law
is a Crime by Itself against the Ummah
(Translated)

 Al-Razzaz government hinted last Wednesday that it is not intending to back off the bill of changing the electronic crimes law in the year 2018 from the National Assembly. It announced in a media release that the (by-then) government delivered the mentioned bill and the reasons behind its need to the Parliament on the 28^th of May last month “following the official talks emanating from the Prime Minister.”

Some officials have defended the necessity for this bill in a weak manner, where the by-then government’s official spokesperson said that the suggested adjustments on the electronic crimes law will not affect the general freedoms and will not place limitations on the freedom of expression or thoughts, and he mentioned that the suggested adjustments have specifically targeted hate speech. Legislation and Opinion Bureau's DirectorNofan al-Ajarmeh concurred that the latest surge in hate speech called from the legislator to place a new law and penance, while pointing that the suggested adjustments on the law will reach the National Assembly by the end of the next month in order to decide whether to implement it or not. In addition, director general of the Media Commission Mohammed Qtaishat said that the crimes being added to the draft of the suggested adjustments is in fact meant for the protection of the people’s interests and rights, showing that through this hate speech has been incriminated.

It is clear from the several officials’ statements that the Jordanian regime is similar to the other ruling regimes in the Islamic countries and in legislating such laws at the same time, and this reflects how scared, frightened, and deviant it is by legislating several consecutive oppressive penance laws. It quickly followed these laws with adjustments in order to intensify the previous punishments and introduce new ones, thus leading up to its latest bill of changing the electronic crimes law. This came as a reaction to the rise of the awareness and liberation of the Ummah from the chains of the deceptive mainstream media and media blackout due to the presence of “alternative media or interactive media” such as social media websites and the internet. This alternative media broke the deceptive and controlling chains of the mainstream media, its deceptions, its lies, and its dark blackouts especially when it comes to covering the internal and external political and decisive causes, which the regime and its government exercise away from the knowledge of the people whilst undermining their ever increasing awareness. For example, what are the deals which are being done with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the large corruption cases and the people involved in them, the meetings with the enemies of the Ummah such as Netanyahu, Kushner, and Greenblatt, other matters which the government and the regime are hiding from conspiracies, agreements, and procedures against the interests of the country and its people, and the yielding transactions which get approved on secretly in benefit of the enemies of the Ummah…

The government has to go ahead with this bill of changing the electronic crimes law and get it approved by the Parliament in a bid to terrorize, frighten, and silence the mouths of the people, to stop the Ummah from practicing its Sharia obligation of holding the rulers accountable and expose their involvement in and cooperation with the Kufr West and the Jewish entity. They are doing this in order to fulfil their interests in the region and to avoid the upcoming reactions towards what they consider to be the deal of the century and other abdications. They are continuing their best to stop the Dawah campaign done for the sake of Allah (swt), led by pioneers who do not accuse their people of lying, who keep the rulers up from their sleep by exposing their plots and their war against Islam, who try to retrieve the Sultan to the Ummah, and who try to achieve its complete revival project in order to implement the Islamic Sharia rules.

The true motive behind the bill of changing the electronic crimes law is not to protect the rights and interests of the people, nor to maintain the “national unity” as assumed by the officials of the regime in their priority of the necessary reasons for this adjustment bill. The regime is actually exploiting the problems inflicting the people to justify their doings and oppressive weak laws, and it is even fighting those who carry Islam as a thought, rules, and futuristic political project for establishing an Islamic State. The regime is covering the crimes of oppression and arrests for every person calling for this Islamic State, even if it’s just an expression of calling people to Allah (swt), or enjoining good and forbidding evil, under the pretext of hate speech. The regime does this in order to avoid being called a corrupt political junta and being subject to criticism and accountability, and in order to fulfil the demands of the colonial disbelieving West which enforces its values and world view upon the Muslims. Their media is buzzing with their politicians who expectorate hatred towards Islam and its thoughts, and granting platforms to the callers for secularism and civil state under the protection of these oppressive laws.

The suggested adjustments on the electronic crimes law which came out in the year 2018 mentions “the addition of the definition of hate speech which is: [Every saying or doing which is meant to create havoc, or religious, sectarian, ethnic, regional, discriminatory conflicts between people or groups], where its punishment can be up to three years in jail”. This this vague and generic definition is not a solution to a problem which could not be solved by previous weak laws or just by adjusting the laws of penance, audio visuals, and printed press. It is obvious that what is meant by this definition is to silence some people’s mouths and to block the minds in order to terrorize the callers for truth, and this will reach every single Dawah carrier in the society from members of the Hizb, the unions, journalists, and even regular people who are active on social media, if it was passed. The International Center posted a document describing the laws of the civil society organizations, by stating, “the definition of hate speech as mentioned might illegally limit all forms of allowed free speech since the suggested definition is generic and vague.”

The source of the problem is the inability of the weak laws from solving human beings’ problems thus making them inadequate and distressing, every time they get adjusted, added on, or subtracted from this leads to failure in solving the present problems and falling behind in solving new problems. In addition, the application of these laws in itself resulted in new problems which we never considered. Allah (swt) says the truth where He (swt) says:

]أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ ]“Does He who created not know, while He is the Subtle, the Acquainted?” [Al-Mulk: 14]. The problem with the government in Jordan and in all of the Muslim countries is the absence of the implementation of the Islamic Sharia which solves the problems of the people, and then implementing the punishments stated by the Sharia, while implementing the Sharia rules which bring justice amongst the people and grants the rights to its rightful owners, whether a ruler or follower.

Therefore, we call upon all advocates, activists, union members, journalists, lawyers, and anyone interested to work relentlessly to put down the passing of this unjust bill of changing the electronic crimes law to the Parliament, and to work on replacing the oppressive weak laws with the Islamic Sharia laws. It should be known that neither the mentioned law nor any other laws brought forth by the regime, as a war against the Dawah campaign and the callers for truth and justice, will stop us from going forward in working for establishing the State of truth and justice represented by the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) upon the method of Prophethood. It is the real project for the Ummah, which will strike fear in the ruling systems in the Islamic countries once they hear and see its soring activeness by imposing its opinion on the secularist objectives, announcing its objective and loyalty to Allah (swt). This will occur either via direct addressing, social media, or websites which the current government is trying to terrorize people from using by intensifying the punishments via this bill which can make the speeches of the Dawah to Islam and enjoining good and forbidding evil seem like hate speech. It will be like an oppressing tool in the hands of the regime in order to achieve its goals and degrading the Islamic values, which is another failed attempt to hinder the awareness and revivalist project of the Ummah to establish the Islamic State; the Khilafah Rashidah upon the method of Prophethood.

[وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُوَ يُدْعَى إِلَى الْإِسْلَامِ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ]

“And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah untruth while he is being invited to Islam. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.” [As-Saff: 7]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Jordan