Demonstration calls for real change in Egypt and the Arab World
29th January 2011 -Hundreds attended a demonstration at the Egyptian Embassy in London, organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain. Speakers including Dr Yusuf, Dr Abdul Wahid and Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain addressed the audience in English and Arabic.
Speakers called upon Muslims in the UK to show support for the brave Muslims who were protesting against the oppression they have suffered in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Their banners and slogans included: Go Mubarak Go, Khilafah: The only way for stability in the Middle East, and Arab puppet rulers must go.
They denounced Mubarak’s regime and other regimes in the region as agents of western colonial states like America, Britain and France; who had oppressed the people through the police states, persecuted them for their Islam, and abandoned their basic economic and human needs.
They cautioned against the Muslims being duped by false change, as represented by new faces from the old regimes, or by people brought in from outside as ‘experts’, or by people brainwashed by western ideas; saying that any of these things would leave the Muslim countries subjugated by the western powers.
They said that there was an opportunity to show people that real change could only come through a change of system to the Islamic system of governance, known as the Khilafah. The Khilafah system accords with their beliefs and history; it offers an independent path from colonial subservience; it implements the laws of Islam with justice; gives political authority to its citizens, allowing them to elect the ruler, and obliging them to account him; it has an independent judiciary; it demands that the ruler looks after the people: that he educates, feeds, clothes and shelters them; and it demands that non-Muslim minorities be protected.
They said it was a duty upon Muslims in the UK to counter the propaganda from some western politicians and media that were actively demonising people who talked positively about Islamic rule or change; and said it is down to those of us who can speak to voice clear arguments about the justice and decency of Islam and Khilafah that many people in the Muslim world want.
I loved the demo, it made me feel part of the struggle for Islam and unity that this whole ummah is part of.
On Aljazeera today, commentators discuss the difference between Tunisia and current Egypt protest; the importance of the coalition of the regime. In Tunisia, the army supported the demonstrators and called for the resignation of the leader. We have yet to see that breakdown of relationship between Egyptian army and Mubarak’s regime. This is so even though the army has been friendly with the Egyptian protesters.
This is a lesson for the Ummah in re-establishing the Khilafah. One aspect of the Method of rasul (saw) in establishing the Islamic state in Madinah was seeking the nusrah from the people of power. At the time of the Prophet (saw), he achieved the nusrah from the Aus and Khazraj from Yathrib (Al-Madinah). Today, we need to follow the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) and the nusrah from the Army is a crucial part of achieving that change.