On 3rd March 1924, the Khilafah was abolished in Ankara, and the Khaleefah expelled. The Khaleefah is the Imam of the Muslims, tasked with the responsibility of being a shield, according to the hadith of the Prophet (salallahu alaihi wasallam).

84 years later, as hundreds of mourners in Jabaliya refugee camp carried the body of a 21-month-old girl, Salsabeel Abu Jalhoum, killed during Israel’s latest brutal incursion into Gaza, others amongst the 100 people killed in the last six days were yet to be buried. The latest massacre by Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters comes on the back of Israel’s many assassinations and bombings in Gaza which have intensified since the Annapolis accord. Only last week, the deputy Israeli Defence minister Matan Vilna’i threatened Palestinians with a "shoah" or holocaust after the firing of rockets from Gaza. In advance of US Secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Israel tomorrow, Israeli forces have started withdrawing from Gaza at the same time as warning of further escalation. All of these are simply one series of examples of the suffering caused by the absence of the Khilafah, alongside the suffering in occupied Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya.

The liberation from occupation and the removal of oppression is supposed to be led by the ruler of the Muslims, to send the armies to liberate and protect the people. In contrast, the Arab leaders have issued mere empty words. Jordan – which has a treaty with Israel – called the Gaza operations a "flagrant violation" of international law. Saudi Arabia, which brokered last year’s revived Arab initiative backing a ‘peace’ with Israel, condemned what it called "mass killings". These same treacherous regimes were happy to sit with the Israelis at Annapolis and other Muslim countries including Egypt, Kazakhstan and other central Asia republics are the current suppliers of oil to Israel, helping to power the tanks, helicopters and planes that are now bombing Gaza to execute the genocide threatened by Israel’s deputy defence minister! They do not even echo the statement of Ben-Gurion when he said: "If I were an Arab leader I would never accept the existence of Israel. This is only natural. We took their land. True, God promised it to us, but what does it matter to them? There was anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was it their fault?"


However, the Arab street and Muslims the world over have been demonstrating against the brutal aggression against their brothers and sisters and the inaction of the cowardly Arab rulers. People believe that an illegal occupation has to be resisted and that appeasement would inevitably give Israel a green light to fulfil its threats of violence.

The responses from Western governments – who are not averse to launching their own brutal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in their ‘war on terror’- have been predictable. David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, said: "Israel’s right to security and self-defence is clear and must be reiterated and supported." They have been silent over the genocidal threats and continue to appease the actions of Israel which are part of its very fabric, summarised again by Ben Gurion who said: "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

After decades of wars, bloodshed and failed ‘peace’ agreements what is the proposed solution to the conflict? Some commentators now claim that the situation will only improve when George Bush vacates the Whitehouse forgetting that similar Israeli brutality predates George Bush’s occupancy of the Whitehouse and that every US president accepts the Israeli state’s creation in 1948 as a given. Allowing Israel to keep occupied land from 1948 would reward aggression and the ethnic cleansing that took place shortly after. The reality is that for nearly 60 years, the state of Israel has shown that its torture, aggression and neo-apartheid policies know no bounds.
This is why the people of the region are calling for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah state which will liberate Palestine and is the only viable option for delivering security for Jews, Christians and Muslims of the region. Jews, Christians and Muslims lived largely in security under an Islamic government for much of the last fourteen centuries in Palestine, in Islamic Spain and under the Ottoman Caliphate.

We pray that Allah restores the Khilafah, the shield of the Muslims, and allows the people of the region and beyond to be united under the justice of the Islamic Khilafah, and call upon all to help to work toward this most noble end.

يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اسْتَجِيبُواْ لِلّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ

إِذَا
دَعَاكُم لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ

"O you who believe! Answer (the call of) Allah and His Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life."

[TMQ Surah Anfal 8 : 24]