It seems that the whole world is tearing itself apart, as more and more regions are declaring themselves independent of their neighbours.

We are witnessing the attempts of Catalonia to declare independence from Spain, with a very harsh response from the Spanish government. Just how far this dangerous escalation will go is yet to be seen.

It is not a surprise that the existing borders around nations are becoming less meaningful, as the desire to redraw them becomes stronger by the day. The idea that people should group together on the basis of a coincidence – an accident of nature; that being where they were born, is at best a feeble basis for unity, and at worst, a cause of great conflict and misery throughout the modern world.

The idea that people should live and die for a line on a map or a colourful flag, seems like a nonsensical idea, and this only increases the nearer one approaches the actual border and sees just how arbitrarily it was drawn. A manufactured sense of national pride is needed for people to be sucked into a sense of belonging on one side of the border. But belonging here means excluding those on the other side. A selfish desire to protect our interests from those over there who would share them, leaving me with less, is the fruit of such a nationalistic unity.

It is only a short step for aggrieved and disadvantaged people in the same country to see that the national unity is ultimately meaningless, as they desire independence to secure their own interests, at the expense of the others in the nation. And so it goes on. Nationalism leads to xenophobia, which leads to racism, which all leads to miserable disunity.

Yet, there is a great irony in how the Europeans rulers recognise that their interests lie in greater unity, while rulers in Muslim lands have no such awareness.

The Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Iraq at the beginning of the month wrote in a press release

“Is not Spain a democratic country, considering the opinion and the other opinion?! But, when its rulers felt the danger, they struck at the principles of the unbridled freedom, and stopped the secession advocates, so they were more assertive than you … the politicians of Iraq who lost it before their enemies, and they appealed to the British agent, Barzani, begging him to revert from his intention to hold the secession referendum, which is forbidden by the Shariah of Allah Almighty, and it was worthy of the leader of the Kurds to be brought bound by chains and iron, to be a lesson to everyone who takes warning.“

Days later in another press release at the death of Jalal Talibani, whose coffin was covered in a Kurdish flag instead of that of Iraq entitled
“The Rulers of Iraq Are Angry Over a Flag Created by the English But The Crimes of America Against the Muslims Do Not Shake Them!!”

“Did you cry or object on the day when your masters and dignitaries handed over one third of the land of Iraq to a criminal faction who worked on turning cities full of Iman, and its dear people, into wreck and destruction, causing them homelessness with no help. But instead, you were silent and were pleased with emptying the safes of a giant country, allowing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to loot it, until the “emerging” generations thought that you sold Iraq’s oil and soil, thus, what would they do in such disasters you created..?!”

As the Kurds in the north of Iraq are being driven by the desire to have their own flag representing their independent nation, just as the Catalonians are, the Sudanese government once again prepares for another such independence movement in its own lands.

The Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Sudan this week wrote in a press release

“The calamity lies in the government accepting Naivasha (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) as the negotiating authority. It is Naivasha that separated South Sudan in the so-called right of self-determination, which the state considered treason before the agreement and then turned it into a right after Naivasha! The south has been separated on the basis of it, and this evil Naivasha has prepared the rest of Sudan’s regions for disintegration and fragmentation, especially the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile, creating separate protocols for them and giving them privacy as it gave to southern Sudan, reaching the same results today as that we have reached after all these years, which is the demand for rebel leaders in the Nuba Mountains the right to self-determination. The fears of all the loyal people of this country, beset by its rulers and rebels, are that history repeats itself. The government, which got us used to it retreating from all its promises of not allowing the secession of any part of Sudan, then blessing the secession of southern Sudan, becoming the first country to recognize the southern Sudanese statelet, the fear is that the government now retreats since it made Naivasha its reference point, not the Book of Allah (swt) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (saw)”.

“We in Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah of Sudan warn this regime of going ahead with negotiations with those who want to tear up and divide this country. We also warn them of walking in the footsteps of America, the sponsor of Naivasha, for Allah (swt) gives a chance (for repentance) but never ignores (the wrongdoers). The problems of Sudan cannot be resolved except by the provisions of Islam, which gives everyone their due right, there is no place in the shade of Islam for a rebellion demanding the division of the country, nor for an authoritarian who humiliates the people. So return to your senses and make your reference to the Book of Allah (swt) and the Sunnah of His Messenger (saw) and what they have guided, and renounce Naivasha and its treacherous judgments.”

The Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir further exposes the danger of nationalistic ideas with the following words

“Despite witnessing thousands of (Rohingya) Muslim women, children, and babies enduring this living hell, the heartless Hasina regime (in Bangladesh), intoxicated by its vile, inhuman nationalistic beliefs, imposed harsh restrictions on the movement of the Rohingya, forbidding them from leaving these filthy, inhabitable camps, even to live with family or friends, and urging landlords not to rent property to them, labelling them “illegal foreigners” and treating them like jailed animals.”

The great irony in all of these events is the stances of the world’s leading nations, which is entirely based upon their own interests, regardless of the harm to others involved.

European leaders have come out in support of Spanish unity. German Foreign Minister Michael Roth described the situation in Catalonia as “worrying” and declared that “independence is not the solution.” French European Minister Nathalie Loiseau stated that “France will not recognise a one sided declaration of Independence by Catalonia.”

The American Foreign Affairs Spokeswoman Heather Newart on the other hand stated “the US considers the referendum as an internal affair… while we will work with any government or entity once the crisis has been solved.” Once again exposing the American desire to weaken European unity, which it has long seen as against its interests.

Hizb ut-Tahrir this week summarised the situation as follows:

“This is because the capitalist ideology has not been able to deal with the issue of nationalism, nor will it be able to … it is a failed ideology, not only due to its basis of separating religion from life, but is also corrupt because of its democracy, which is controlled by the owners of capital who win positions and privileges in its name and they exploit its laws. It is also unjust in its fighting religion and those who adhere to it and the existence of discrimination between people on religious and ethnic grounds … as is obviously apparent in America and Europe …

All the man made laws are not free of this injustice and corruption and not from the enslavement of the country and the people … It is only Islam, revealed by Allah the Lord of the worlds, that values ​​the rights and justice among people and reconciling them,

أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ

“Does He not know whom he created, and He is Latif Khabir”

“It is Islam that eliminates national and ethnic divisions and rivalries because it forbids all nationalistic tendencies and patriotism and fights them in a relentless war … It is Islam that establishes justice among people in taking care of their affairs, without any discrimination in taking care of their affairs in terms of religion, ethnicity, color, sex or anything else, rather all people are considered equal in their treatment withjustice before the judiciary in the Khilafah state…

Imam Ahmad said in his Musnad: … from Abi Nadra “those who heard the sermon of the Messenger of Allah (saw) in the middle of the tashreeq days say “O people, your Lord is one, your father is one, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a red has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a red – except by piety! Did I deliver?” They replied “you have deliver Messenger of Allah…”

Yahya Nisbet

Media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain