These mechanisms are explained below:
1. International institutions and International Laws
International institutions were created following WW2, replacing those of the British empire. These include:
- United Nations (UN),
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- World Bank (World Bank),
- Financial Action Task Force (FATF),
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),
- World Trade Organisation (WTO) and GATT,
- Human Rights and Freedom rankings and indices, and
- Judicial bodies like the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Let’s consider the IMF and how it operates in relation to Pakistan. The leading bureaucrats from the Federal Board of Revenue, Finance Ministry, Energy Ministry, Petroleum Ministry, Power Ministry, Commerce Ministry take data and accounts to Washington so that they prescribe where to give subsidies and where to withdraw them, the price of petrol, gas and electricity, the rate of income tax, import duties, export targets, fiscal deficit, primary balance, current account deficit and so on. Likewise, Kashmir policy is in the hands of United Nations. The World Bank decides which projects Pakistan can invest in and which it cannot. IAEA controls and maintains checks and balances of nuclear assets, whilst the ICJ prohibits dispensing justice by punishing the convicted Indian spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, making a mockery of our judiciary and intelligence agencies.
2. Adopted Western Systems
The second mechanism comprises of various systems and institutions which we have been adopted and internalised including democracy, capitalist economic practices, common law, the education system, liberal culture, the penal code amongst others all strengthening the grip of the West on Muslim countries.
Even the Constitution, touted by some as a sacred document, is written in a way to preclude the implementation of Islam and grant the rulers backdoors through which they can escape accountability. Take for instance democracy; it ensures that whatever wrongdoing is committed by the rulers lies within the ambit of law that can be legalised via parliament. So pick-pockets, street criminals, swindlers and the like are not tolerated in this system, white-collar criminals sitting in the parliament, wearing Western dresses and aping English accents, can never be proven guilty because the system is designed to safeguard them. Siphoning funds for their colonial masters vua institutions like the IMF or World Bank are all legal.
Cobsider the much-hyped Sehat Card scheme as another case in point, which is nothing but a way to privatize healthcare, benefiting insurance companies and private hospitals resulting in steep cuts in funding to public hospitals.
Consider power generation which has been taken from WAPDA and given to private companies, who have such lucrative (legal) agreements that they receive ‘capacity payments’ meaning they get paid regardless of whether they produce or sit idle.
The parliament was used to grant State Bank autonomy from the very same parliament on the dictates from the IMF. The capitalist economic practices have marred our economy for decades now. Interest (riba) is a cornerstone of the capitalist economic system and it is as much an integral part of our economy as it is theirs, despite the clear injunctions of Allah (swt) denouncing it as an open war with Him and His Messenger in Surah Al-Baqarah 275. Convicted killers and gangsters walk freely because of presidential pardons which is a right of the President enshrined in Article 45 of the Constitution.
As for the Education system, though it is alright to adopt in matters of science, which is based on facts and the study of reality but it is absolutely impermissible to take in matters which are a result of a specific worldview. Social Sciences, including Economics are a good example to understand this. The Western worldview deems resources as scarce and suggests more and more production as a solution whereas Islam views resources as enough and ensures that wealth doesn’t circulate among a few rich people, which is exactly what happens under capitalism. Similarly Sociology, Anthropology, Policy etc. are all subjects which when taught from a Western worldview take us further away from Islam. Unfortunately our top institutions today are those which have mastered these very subjects, be it LUMS or IBA.
3. Western Agents
The third mechanism is agents. It is important for us to understand what it means to be a Western agent. It is the ruling elite which is in awe of the above-mentioned Western institutions, systems, thoughts, ideas, ideals and solutions. They whole-heartedly believe in the intellectual superiority of the West and deem Islam and its solutions as something of the past. They see Westerners as their saviors and their systems as the only way forward. Their love for these Western systems manifests itself from the adjectives they use to describe them, such as progressive, modern, practical, evolutionary etc., whereas when it comes to Shariah law, the adjectives most frequently used are backward, old-fashioned, barbaric, regressive etc. Miftah Ismail’s recent mocking of the divine orders of Amr bil Maroof and Nahi anil Munkar in front of his US Masters is not one fringe incident rather the norm . This extreme reverence for everything Western and extreme hatred for everything Islamic is evident from all their actions and any aberration from this should be seen as a political stint to exploit people’s love for Islam. Be it their dress, education, training, residence, investments, references, solutions, thinking, everything is ‘imported’. They look at our problems through Western glasses. As if this was not enough of a crime, they are feeding the people with these insecurities as well.
Unfortunately, our military leadership is not lagging behind compared to their civil counterparts in their infatuation with the West, which can be seen from Bajwa’s recent statements during the Islamabad Security Dialogue . Even the sincere ones among this ruling elite are so intellectually enslaved by Western ideology that they are even more dangerous than the insincere ones. They are unknowingly undermining Islam by strengthening Western institutions and thereby harming the generations to come. Their foreign degrees are actually harmful because what they advocate has no foundation in Islam.
4. Military Intervention and Presence
The fourth mechanism employed is physical presence. When the above three mechanisms are in place and working well, physical presence is limited to embassies and consulates. However if undesirable change may occur, they won’t hesitate to send boots on the ground. Western troops in Afghanistan or Libya, US troops in Iraq, Russian jets in Syria, British weapons in Yemen and Indian troops, by the permission of the US, in Kashmir are just a few recent examples to mention.
This interference needs to end, and embassies of belligerent countries should be completely ousted while those who are allowed to remain should be cut to size by clearly defined roles limited to visa issuance and other related matters. Other than housing mercenaries and marines, the US does not need a 37-acre compound in the heart of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
The way forward
We are living in unprecedented times where the challenges are enormous but so are the opportunities. The World is as divided and polarized as perhaps never before. We are on the brink of a third World War where an embattled Russia is weighing its options of a nuclear war.
The sanctions imposed by the US and its allies are harming Europe as much as Russia. Relations between India and China have been worsening in recent months. The two world powers are facing off against each other along their disputed border in the Himalayan region. After Brexit and a far-right take-over in many European countries, Europe’s unity is an illusion.
The world stage is set for another global order which would free the Muslim lands from this institutional colonialism and put us on the road to progress. What better time would be there for saying no to the West and establishing a global Caliphate which would unify the Muslim countries under a single leadership, free Kashmir from the clutches of India and liberate Al-Quds from the Zionist state?
So let us reject the current system and work for the re-establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood.
Adapted from article written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by Dr. Abdul Baseer.
References
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