Ideologue

Minority Dilemma

2011-06-23T22:24:00.000+05:00

by Muhammad Osama Ehtesham

West and Muslim world alike (though Muslim world is also being ruled through western Systems) have discriminating laws & culture for different groups of people. Usually people are discriminated on the basis of sect, creed, race or color. At times discrimination is protected through laws, such as laws in France for Muslims or laws for Afghanis, Bengalis living in Pakistan. On the other hand discrimination is done by building a common perception about a specific group of people through propaganda mediums like Television, internet or Mobile phone SMS. Slandering jokes on different groups of people (for example Pathans) is a common tradition in our country and it is not unusual to listen or read jokes about a specific race, creed or community.

The ideas based on freedom, secularism & individualism has resulted into the creation of societies which do not give any criteria to its people about the accountability in front of the creator on the Day of Judgment. The usual built up of all the societies in today’s world are based on materialism and benefit without having any concept of Rooh, spirituality and accountability in front of Allah (swt). It is not surprising to find discriminating laws in Western & Muslim world alike and to hear usual stories about the ill treatment with minorities in these societies.

Western world claim itself to be a champion & protector of the freedoms of all the individuals living in it. Whilst it has created laws and common perception in its societies built upon discrimination & hate. Special laws are devised in USA & Britain after 9/11 on pretext of terrorism specifically targeting Muslim communities. Islamophobia has become a common thing in the west and stories about slander of Muslim brothers & sisters are a regular thing. Just last year an Egyptian Muslim woman was killed in Germany only because she was a Muslim.

The word “Minorities” is a usual word for us in today’s world and we use it regularly without realizing the intensity it holds with itself. The treatment of Blacks, Latinos & Muslims in the West and the treatment of Hindus, Christians and other minorities living in Muslim majority countries like Pakistan are not hidden from anyone. These examples are of ample weight to justify the reality of the filth and the failure of Civilization put forth out of Capitalist Secularism.

Surprisingly there is a common misconception within Muslims & Non-Muslims alike about the status of different sects, groups, race, creed & color in the Caliphate. Usual rhetoric from the Western governments and their media pushes the point that non-Muslims will be deprived of their rights and will be suppressed and treated unfairly in the Islamic Caliphate State. Such people usually give examples of Taliban, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to support their argument without realizing that all of them do not qualify to be called as Caliphate or The Islamic State.

The reality is otherwise, in Caliphate, there is no concept of group called “Minorities”. All the people holding its citizenship will be treated as a group of human regardless of their sect, race, color & creed and all the laws revealed by Allah (swt) will be applied without discrimination. All that is required from the people living under the rule of Islam is the fellowship (which is simply allegiance to the State & the ruling system).

The laws of Allah are not for a specific group of people i.e. Muslims; rather they are for all the mankind, equally applicable on Muslims and Non-Muslims alike. Caliphate is responsible to make sure that all the laws are applied on all the citizens without any discrimination whatsoever and its citizens shall enjoy full rights decreed by the Shari’ah of Allah (swt). Whereas anyone not holding the citizenship of Khilafah State will be deprived of the rights from Shari’ah; no matter if he is a Muslim or not. For instance a Muslim man had a Christian mother who held the Islamic citizenship and a father, who did not, then his mother would qualify to receive maintenance from him and his father would not. If the mother claimed it from him the judge would rule in her favor because she would be classed a citizen of the Islamic State, whereas if the father attempted to do likewise the judge would reject his claim because he would not be classified as one of its citizens. Therefore, the Shari’ah considers those ruled by Islam as citizens and made the fellowship something which they all hold in common and which qualifies them to enjoy the rights of guardianship and welfare decreed by Islam through living in the Islamic State as citizens.

It is only Islam which will liberate mankind from laws and cultures which are rotten, manmade without having any spirituality. Caliphate is responsible to build a society based on Taqwa and goodness and at the same time it is responsible to encourage Muslims to establish high morals in the society which are ordained by Allah (swt). Through this, Muslims not only fulfills their obligation of Dawah but also establishes a society with just laws and high morals, revealed from Allah, for Muslims & Non-Muslims alike.

‘Our’ democratic revolution vs ‘yours’

2011-06-02T15:09:00.000+05:00

Adeel Naeem Naqi

The Muslim world is dominated by the West, overtly via military and economic means, but also covertly through the manipulation of language. Control a person’s language and you limit his thinking and control his ability to articulate what he desires. Take a simple word such as ‘democracy’ and see how they’ve associated it with freedom from tyranny and oppression, across the Muslim World. The word is pumped endlessly through the media and via secular political groups, until it becomes a slogan for the struggle and adopted by the masses, unaware of what it means.But where is the danger in this? Surely a word can mean many things to many people, and what is important is what is the intended meaning by the one who uses it? If Muslims choose to label their liberation as ‘Democracy’, what harm could it bring?Most words are indeed harmless; they just convey a simple meaning or description. But some words carry a depth that cannot be conveyed by a few lines in a dictionary. They carry the weight of history behind them, and they carry a meaning which is intertwined with a belief about life itself.Democracy – Far from being a simple collection of letters, is a word that was forged through centuries of bloodshed across Europe. It is a word which is associated with freedom from the oppression by tyrannical Monarchies, who through a twisted collaboration between themselves and the Christian clergy had maintained dominance over the people by claiming themselves and their bloodlines ‘chosen’ by God. So the eventual backlash against this situation was not just about removing dictatorships, but removing religious dictatorships. This struggle is an intrinsic part of the collective psyche of the western world; when they talk about the right of people to govern themselves, they also mean the prevention of religious interference in ruling – whether this is explicitly stated or not.So in essence the word is actually a part of a culture. It comes with not just a linguistic meaning but also a history and a set of values, all of which are inextricably linked to this single word ‘Democracy’. When understood in its true context, it becomes clear why using such a word is dangerous. Muslims marching on the streets in the Middle East understand the linguistic meaning, which they see as something which fits with their own demands; the right to elect your own ruler, the right to have an independent judiciary, the right to hold your rulers to account etc. But they do not appreciate the history behind the word or the values that are part and parcel of it, and as such are unaware that they are sending out message to the world which they did not intend.While the Muslims believe they are simply calling for their rights by adopting the term ‘Democracy’, the world views such a call for the removal of Islam from governing and for the implementation of secular liberal values. It is through this confusion over the use of language that particular words such as ‘Democracy’ can be used as weapons against the Muslims. The word is pumped endlessly through the media and via secular political groups, until it becomes a slogan for the struggle and adopted by the masses, unaware of what it means.What an unforgivable crime it would be if the sincere efforts and sacrifices of the Ummah to rid themselves of the chains of colonialism and dictatorship merely resulted in them replacing one set of chains with another, ones which they hang around their own necks? But the crime would not be theirs. They would have done their part in this global struggle, the failure would be ours. For every part of this Ummah has a role to play; for some this is a physical struggle, putting their lives on the line. For others this is an intellectual struggle, to see through the words spoken by politicians and to expose the real agenda.So let us take a stand against the imposition of a foreign culture in the minds of our people through these words.Let us draw a clear line, as clear as the difference between praying in a church or praying in a mosque. Democracy is part of a culture that is foreign to Islam. Democracy is a Western construct and therefore foreign to the Muslim world and Democracy is much more than elections. We have our own unique history and culture, and our own system which is distinct from that of the west: the Khilafah. It encompasses the right to elect the ruler, to hold him to account and remove him if he contradicts Islam. We have a judiciary to uphold the rule of law and the many other state institutions that the Muslim world demands, but it does not do so at the expense of the Islamic values that are demanded just as strongly.

Danger of Loans

2010-01-14T10:07:00.002+05:00

14th January 2010.

Hefty claims by government to stabilize Pakistani economic tsunami does not seem to materialize. With prices of food commodities soaring high, crisis of electricity, shortages of food staple, downward trends in a number of industries further adds to misery of already dwindling economic situation. Fruits of adherence to Capitalism reaped and here we are in the midst of not so ending global crisis. Thousands have made cuts in their spending, another hundred thousand don’t have resources to meet their daily basic needs whilst there is a huge list of those who lost this battle of survival waged on them by their own, all so handsome and dear to west, rulers over Muslims.

Adverse political and instable security situation in Pakistan, which marked its beginning from General Mussharaf era, led to huge out flow of foreign reserves and resulted into shortage of foreign currency reserves. To solve this problem amazing is the approach of those in charge on us, our rulers. Their high profile financial experts, economists and gentleman from leading business schools of the world, can only give them petty and futile solutions to avert economic turmoil, such as loans from IMF. Another loan trench is already in line!

Loans shall inject dollars in our reserves, but for someone who think and care what is happening with their country ponder that is it the solution? Have we comprehended the consequences which result from such loans? A quick look to our past reminds dark episodes which this Nation has faced because of loans since 1947. The danger of loans is such that British Empire was able to make hold into Egypt through loans, when in Egypt, the government continued to take loans between 1864 and 1875 till the debt reached about £95 million. Kaif mission came in 1875 to examine the finance of Egypt and, for the purpose of its reforms, it recommended the establishing of a committee to supervise its finance, and they should submit to its counsel. No loans has to be decided without its agreement, and a debt fund was made in 1886 to receive the amount assigned to the debts coming from the local services, thus the committee was a foreign government inside the Egyptian government.

Today these committees have been transformed into so called financial experts over projects and economy. They give their plan of loan to the country and their so called “expert” suggestions of cutting down expenses and essentials. Instability in economy and poverty take place by forcing certain projects and conditions to government which further adds to problems. The government has to make cuts in jobs, it levy new taxes, privatize state owned institutions and devalue its currency as a part of program suggested by these experts, thus a country is forced into another severe crisis of poverty elevation.

The loans of IMF are to be repaid in dollars and to earn dollars government is advised to increase their exports. Countries like ours, who do not produce high valued industrial goods but have good agricultural lands, is advised to produce cash crops instead of food crops. The cash crops are exported and sold at lower price in international market whilst the local market suffers because of shortage of food, thus government is forced to import food crops. To import food crops, country needs more dollars, and to get dollars a country is forced to take more loans from institutions like IMF. This happened in Egypt in 1992 when Egypt exported cash crops, because of IMF conditions, whilst it imported food crops to feed its own people. This resulted into deficit of $4 billion in Food trade. These are few evidences to the fact that how a country suffer by adhering to capitalism and resorting to institutions like IMF. Countries like Egypt, Iran and Turkey have suffered because of such institutions when they took billions of dollars in loan yet their economical situation deteriorated to such an extent that they were, before taking loans, economically better than they are now.

Even Americans have given statements over the consequences of loans. On 12 July 1962 the Judge William Douglas, one of the High American Court Judges, gave a speech in a Masonic meeting in Spatel, where he announced that, “there were many states whose situation worsened due to their receiving of American aid. The senior officials in these countries became rich due to the American aid and at the same time the members of the public started starving. The USA started to lose its reputation in the undeveloped countries. We used to, at the time of Truman and Eisenhower, struggle against the communism outside by the planes, bombs, guns and dollars. The financial aid was used to promote the status of the feudalists not to fund the reformation projects. These financial aids were spent in supporting the leaders of feudalism not supporting the people to achieve an economical justice.” This is the reality of loans which has nothing good to do with economic condition of a country rather situations get worse for loan taking country.

On the contrary Islam has given comprehensive solution to create economic activity and stability. Instead of resorting to IMF option, we can easily revive economy by implementing economic system of Islam. Islam will abolish dependency on US dollar by opting to gold based currency. This will lead towards abolishment of dollar reserve system and abolishment to the adherence to institutions like IMF. In addition to gold based currency system, Islam has given details through which a State can generate huge funds and procedure of distribution of those funds to general people. Few of these funds are Khiraj (tax on agricultural land), Jizya, Ushur, and Zakat. A study revealed that collection of Khiraj only can generate trillions of rupees per annum not to forget the Zakat fund which, even today, is collected in billions. These are only two sources of funds through which we can generate huge amount of money while we shall not forget that there are other ten sources of fund generation proved from the text (Quran and Sunnah). Islam do not allow to give huge resources into private hands thus privatization of mineral reserves and other huge natural resources will seize and will be given the status of public property, thus benefit will be distributed to everyone individual.

The solution is not in resorting to institutions like IMF or any other capitalist institution. Survival is only in adherence to the Shariah of Allah (swt) and hastening towards it. This will be achieved by comprehensively implementing Economic System of Islam through the establishment of Khilafah.

Muhammad Osama Ehtesham

Failure of Capitalist Solutions to Global Financial Crisis

2009-09-04T09:15:00.004+05:00

Muhammad Osama Ehtesham

February 2009

Last year marked the beginning of huge financial quake in the global economy and can be characterized as a year with huge volatility in the price of oil and commodities such as food. Oil peaked above $147 per barrel and was selling below $50 by the end of 2008. Similarly there was a swift increase in the prices of food commodities that resulted into global food crisis and many countries suffered from this. America intentionally increased the prices of such commodities in order to rescue her falling dollar at the expense of worldwide starvation and unprecedented economic upheaval that world has not witnessed since great depression of 1930’s.

In the middle of 2008 the real culprit behind the falling dollar revealed itself, the global credit crunch. The crisis was accompanied by a worldwide slowdown in the economy thus resulting into loss of jobs; decline in home values, increased bankruptcies, frauds and not to forget collapse of major banks. Governments of many countries announced stimulus packages as a desperate bid to increase money supply and instill confidence in the banks to start lending to consumers, industries and local governments. USA alone announced stimulus package on two occasions of $800bn and $700bn. Other countries including UK, France, Germany, China, Australia and UAE announced stimulus packages. The severity of crisis can be judged from the statement of Alan Greenspan, the former head of US Federal Reserve, who said that the current economic situation is ‘Once-in-a-century credit tsunami’.[1] It is important to know that 41 out of 51 States in America are facing huge financial problems and President Obama, in December 2008, announced them relief.[2] However, the situation in California has become so grave that its governor declared a state of financial emergency and warned that there was a huge $28bn gap in the budget and he only had enough funds to last till end of Jan 2009.[3]

The economic solutions which capitalists are presenting through these stimulus packages do not guarantee results. USA and UK announced to ban short selling, guaranteeing of bank accounts, nationalization of private banks and slashing of interest rates, all for no use. Here it should be understood that all the solutions ignore the primary concept of laissez faire and the concept of free market. By doing so capitalists are not only going against the foundations of their ideology but creating a deadly ground for the collapse of their way of life. USA is doing similar mistake what Soviet Union did in 1960’s and what Ottoman’s did after the eruption of what world know as industrial revolution. One must understand that going against the foundations of ideology is a political mistake which leads towards intellectual decline in the masses and ultimately, the collapse of the State. Additionally there is an unanswered question which no one in the West wants to address that how these governments are going to raise extra capital to pay for these solutions? Besides borrowing Dollars from China, Russia and Saudis, printing worthless paper money is the only alternative and such alternative is dragging USA into inflationary crisis.

Even top capitalists do not believe in the solutions which are brought forward. Tom Fitzpatrick, Citigroup’s chief Technical Strategist said, “The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed through into an inflation shock. Or it will not work because too much damage has already been done, and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration, with the risk of a feedback loop. We don't think this is the more likely outcome, but as each week and month passes, there is a growing danger of vicious circle as confidence erodes”.[4]

Someone with enlightened mind can easily comprehend that problem lies in the foundations of capitalist ideology and its foundations are so weak that such crisis are inevitable in to be averted. Even those who were the torchbearer of Capitalism are themselves confused about the ideology they believed in, as Alan Greenspan said in front of US congressional committee on 23rd October 2008 that “I found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is, but I’ve been very distressed by that fact ... [I found a] flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”[5]

The world has witnessed the collapse of communism and now it is witnessing the collapse of Capitalism. The solution is not in doing patchwork in the capitalist system rather it is in replacing it with a divine world order sent down by the creator of Mankind. The solution is Islam, which has its own economic system, the solution which is only possible by the establishment of Khilafah State in the Muslim World.

[1] Source: Online Fund Strategy Magazine, title ‘those with long view will see return’; Date 1/12/2008

[2] Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7760249.stm, title California 'faces budget crisis'; Date 2/12/2008

[3] Source: BBC online, title ‘US Recession Began Last Year’; Date 1/12/2008

[4] Source: Telegraph Online, title ‘Citigroup says gold could rise above $2,000 next year as world unravels’; Date 27/11/2008

[5] Source: http://www.dawn.com/2008/12/23/int11.htm

Another Crisis in Making! What is the Solution?

2009-08-31T11:20:00.004+05:00

Introduction

Discussion about recovery from financial crisis is on horizon after surge in few stock markets and world economies. Notion that economies are moving towards recovery from the Global Financial Crisis is being pushed so that people are made to believe that capitalism has triumphed once again and the day has been saved. Truth is that capitalists are active in misrepresenting the facts so that trust on Global Financial System can be restored. However, reality is not as good as being presented, multiple reports and analysis are pointing towards the grim reality of severe depression in days to come. A number of crisis bubbles are facing global economies, and they are so huge, so big that sub-prime mortgage bubble is no comparision to them. The immediate bubble facing US and world economies is the bubble of Commercial real estate industry. Other bubbles include "Bailout bubble and general world "debt bubble".

Bubble of Commercial Real Estate Industry

As Bloomberg quotes; "A piece of the puzzle that must be calculated into any determination of the depth of our bad economic health is the condition of commercial real estate -- the shopping malls, hotels, and office buildings that tend to go along with real- estate expansions." Bloomberg also quoted the statement of Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann as saying, "It's either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning."

The situation is so grave that it is being estimated that any crisis in commercial real estate will result into a severe blow to financial industry which is already suffering from crisis in Housing real estate. Also US Federal Reserve has been instrumental in getting credits flowing for the industry so that they can get their projects refinanced. Thus it's just a delay tactic to hold the inevitable crisis.

CNN reported that "vacancy rates at malls rose 9.5% in the first quarter, outpacing the 8.9% vacancy rate registered in all of 2008." Financial Times is pointing that "From Vancouver to Manhattan, we are seeing rising office vacancies and declines in office rents."

Without doubt commercial real estate industry is a crisis in making. It is big, it is grim and it will certainly create havoc in US and global economy.

Bubble of Bail out Packages

Gerald Celente, head of Trends Research Institute, one of the major forecasting agency in the world is of the opinion that "The biggest financial bubble in history is being inflated". Celente calls it "Mother of all financial bubbles". He names it "Bailout Bubble".
Forecasts of Gerald Celente are of certain importance, as Washington Post quoted, "he is the person who accurately forecasted 1987 Stock Market Crash, the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, crash of Asian currency in 1997 and 2007 Sub-Prime Mortgage crisis."

Celente said that, "Phantom dollars, printed out of thin air, backed by nothing and producing next to nothing defines the ‘Bailout Bubble.’ Just as with the other bubbles, so too will this one burst. But unlike Dot-com and Real Estate, when the "Bailout Bubble" pops, neither the President nor the Federal Reserve will have the fiscal fixes or monetary policies available to inflate another."

Report by Bloomberg is also of equal importance as it reported that US government has already spent, lend or committed $12.8 trillion. This amount equals total GDP of USA in 2008. Plus this amount is 14 times greater then currency in circulation.

Bail Out! Bail Out! Bail Out!

Last year can be marked as year of Bailout and it would not be wrong to say that 2010 could be the same. Many believe that USA might go in second phase of bailout packages. As in early July of 2009, billionaire investor Warren Buffet said that, "unemployment could hit 11 percent and a second stimulus package might be needed as the economy struggles to recover from recession" Mr. Buffent went on saying that "we're not in a recovery". Also in early July, an economic adviser to President Obama stated that, "The United States should be planning for a possible second round of fiscal stimulus to further prop up the economy."

Bank of International Settlements, which is the central bank of central banks, and one of the most prestigious institution of the world, mentioned in their report that "There is a definite possibility that stimulus programs will drive up real interest rates and inflation expectations and expressed doubt about the bank rescue package adopted in the US." The BIS further warned of inflation, saying that, "The big and justifiable worry is that, before it can be reversed, the dramatic easing in monetary policy will translate into growth in the broader monetary and credit aggregates. That will lead to inflation that feeds inflation expectations or it may fuel yet another asset-price bubble..."

BIS has also said that, "The fiscal stimulus packages may provide no more than a temporary boost to growth, and be followed by an extended period of economic stagnation."

Most importantly the crisis of commercial real estate can further built pressure on Obama administration to bailout those who have created this mess. One can imagine that the bubble which is already inflated to $12.8 trillion, will further be inflated with new bailouts, and once it burst!! It will be a big big burst and no wonder it will take whole financial system with it.

Capitalism will create another mess!!!!

It is evident that global capitalism is failing and those who brought the crisis and those who were the torchbearers of this failing ideology has already said this. Alan Greenspan, Ex-President of US Federal Reserve, quoted that "He has seen flaws in the system he believed in." Point to ponder is on the fact that why in the world are we dragging this defeated system with us?
It is getting clear to the world as everyday pass that Capitalism is a failing ideology, just like Communism. It is getting clear to mankind that no system can prevail which is a brain product of few genious individuals. It is getting more and more evident that world is not a place to be governed by systems made by Man. The world needs a change and it need it quick so that Human race can be saved from the Mess of Capitalism. So What is the soltuion? Islam! and nothing else.

How Islam is "THE SOLUTION"?
Boom and Busts are regarded as signs of economic activity in Capitalism. But the reality is that busts have turned themselves into recession and they can further convert themselves to depression. This cyclical thing is unique to capitalism and this system is always prone of crisis one after another. The reason is that flaws are in the foundation of Capitalist Economic System. Flaws such as 1. System of Fiat Currencies 2. Debt Based Economy 3. Privatization of everything 4. Parasitic Market practices such as short-selling, Forward Selling, futures. These fundamental flaws in Capitalism will always create crisis, not only in host country, but across the globe.
Allah (swt) revealed Islam to Muhammad (saw) and he brought mercy of Islam to the Mankind. The Economic System of Islam is pure from all these flaws and it has it's own unique system to govern economic affairs of people. Islam has a currency system backed by gold and silver unlike Fiat currency system. Islam does not treat loan as a product, rather it is treated as a loan which is to be repaid without any interest on it. Islam does not allow privatization of everything but it defines crystal clearly that what things can be taken into private ownership and what will remain in public and State ownership. Islam has forbidden practices like forward and short-selling, future sellings, stock markets etc.
It needs a State to implement a system comprehensively and that state will be the Khilafah State. The only real bailout package to world today is re-establishment of Islam through Khilafah which will certainly liberate mankind from the quagmire of Capitalism.

Muhammad Osama Ehtesham