Question:

The misconceptions and false beliefs have presently invaded the Muslim Ummah, which is alien to our religion has had an impact of the Islamic faith from all sides; including false democracy. The severe problem that we have is that some Muslims in Indonesia claim that democracy is from Islam. They legitimize this from Shariah evidence; the Quran and Sunnah where they use this as such evidence.

1. What is your opinion, dear Sheikh regarding democracy?
2. How can we rid of this dangerous problem?
3. I want to write a book regarding this topic. What is your opinion, Sheikh? I ask for your opinion regarding this matter.

Answer:

Wa Alaikum Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

Democracy means sovereignty of the people, since it legislates without Allah (swt) i.e. permits and prohibits without Allah (swt) and Allah (swt) says,

((إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ يَقُصُّ الْحَقَّ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ الْفَاصِلِينَ))

"The decision is only for Allah. He relates the truth, and He is the best of deciders" [Al-An'aam: 57]

The hadith extracted by Tabarani in his Kabeer that 'Adi bin Hatim stated, "I came to the Prophet sallalahu alaihi wassalam while I had a cross from gold around my neck. He said, "يَا عَدِيُّ اطْرَحْ هَذَا الْوَثَنَ مِنْ عُنُقِكَ" "O 'Udai! Remove this idol from yourself!" So I removed it in which I heard him reciting from Surat Bara'ah this ayah ((اتَّخَذُوا أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَانَهُمْ أَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللهِ)) "They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah" [Tauba: 31]
And once He finished reciting this ayah, 'Adi commented, "I said, ‘They did not worship them.'" The Prophet said,
«أَلَيْسَ يُحَرِّمُونَ مَا أَحَلَّ اللهُ فَتُحَرِّمُونُهُ، ويُحِلُّونَ مَا حَرَّمَ اللهُ فَتَسْتَحِلُّونَهُ فَتِلْكَ عِبَادَتُهُمْ؟» "Yes they did. They (rabbis and monks) prohibited the allowed for them (Christians and Jews) and allowed the prohibited, and they obeyed them. This is how they worshiped them." I replied, ‘Yes'. He said, «فَتِلْكَ عِبَادَتُهُمْ» "that is their worship"

Therefore, the one who legislates without Allah (swt), his sins are very grave.

• From this aspect, democracy is a Kufr system because it allows for humans to legislate and not from the Lord of mankind.

And from another aspect democracy advocates the four freedoms: belief, opinion, ownership, and personal freedom.

It is allowed for an individual to believe in what he wants, apostate when he wants, and can say his opinion even if it desecrates the sacrosanct. He can also own things through the means of halal or haram and live in adultery as long as it satisfies both parties. This is all forbidden in Islam; apostasy, adultery, ownership through the means of haram, and foul and blasphemous speech are all haram.

• The democratic freedoms are a Kufr system because it aims at the breakdown of the Ahkam Shariah.

Request the book, Democracy is a System of Kufr, from the media office in your country. It contains the details regarding democracy and how it is a system of Kufr.

In conclusion, I bid you Salaam and I pray for good will and guidance for Islam and Muslims.

Your brother,
Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah

The link to the answer from the Ameer's Facebook page:

In light of the successive crises experienced by our country, the most recent being the economic crisis and its consequences from obscene expensiveness of goods and services, Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah Sudan - which has enjoined on itself to adopt the issues of the Ummah and their highlighting on the basis of the Islamic Aqeedah - is pleased to invite you to attend a major seminar. It is honored by your participation through commenting or questions...

Headlines:

• BRICS Countries Build New Internet to Avoid NSA Spying
• Saudi Arabia Warns of Shift Away from U.S. over Syria, Iran
• US Drawdown in Afghanistan Sees World's Biggest Garage Sale
• Secret Memos Reveal Explicit Nature of US-Pakistan Agreement on Drones

Details:

BRICS Countries Build New Internet to Avoid NSA Spying

BRICS countries are close to completing a brand new Internet backbone that would bypass the United States entirely and thereby protect both governments and citizens from NSA spying.  In light of revelations that the National Security Agency hacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone, in addition to recording information about 124 billion phone calls during a 30-day period earlier this year, the fallout against the NSA has accelerated. Brazil is set to finalize a 34,000-kilometre undersea fiber-optic cable by 2015 that will run from Vladivostok, Russia to Fortaleza, Brazil, via Shantou, China, Chennai, India and Cape Town, South Africa. According to the Hindu, the project will create, "a network free of US eavesdropping," which via legislative mandates will also force the likes of Google, Facebook and Yahoo to store all data generated by BRICS nations locally, shielding it from NSA snooping. "The BRICS countries have the muscle to pull this off," notes Washington's Blog. "Each of the BRICS countries is in the top 25 largest economies in the world. China has the world's second largest economy, India is 3rd, Russia 6th, Brazil 7th, and South Africa 25th." However, some privacy experts fear that this will do little to stop the NSA, given that it has tapped undersea cables since the Cold War era. Others are more positive. "Any alternative would be a positive thing," writes Michael Dorfman. "The more choice you have, the better. Yet no-one can say for sure whether this new Internet will be safer than its US counterpart and will be able to protect the rights of regular users, including the privacy of personal data and free access to resources, more effectively." The BRICS cable was already in development months before the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden first became public in June.[Source: Infowars]

Saudi Arabia Warns of Shift Away from U.S. over Syria, Iran

Upset at President Barack Obama's policies on Iran and Syria, members of Saudi Arabia's ruling family are threatening a rift with the United States that could take the alliance between Washington and the kingdom to its lowest point in years. Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief is vowing that the kingdom will make a ‘major shift' in relations with the United States to protest perceived American inaction over Syria's civil war as well as recent U.S. overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday. Prince Bandar bin Sultan told European diplomats that the United States had failed to act effectively against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran, and had failed to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011, the source said. [Source: Reuters]

US Drawdown in Afghanistan Sees World's Biggest Garage Sale

The armoured trucks, televisions, ice cream scoops and nearly everything else shipped to Afghanistan for the U.S. war against the Taliban are now part of the world's biggest garage sale: Every week, as the American troop drawdown accelerates, the U.S. is selling 5.4 million to 6.4 million kg of its equipment on the Afghan market. Returning that gear to the United States from a landlocked country halfway around the world would be prohibitively expensive, according to American officials. Instead, they're leaving behind $7 billion worth of supplies, a would-be boon to the fragile Afghan economy. But there's one catch: The equipment is being destroyed before it's offered to the Afghan people - to ensure that treadmills, air conditioning units and other rudimentary appliances aren't used to make roadside bombs. "Many non-military items have timing equipment or other components in them that can pose a threat. For example, timers can be attached to explosives. Treadmills, stationary bikes, many household appliances and devices, etc., have timers," said Michelle McCaskill, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency. That policy has produced more scrap metal than Afghanistan has ever seen. It has also led to frustration among Afghans, who feel as if they're being robbed of items such as flat-panel televisions and armored vehicles that they could use or sell - no small thing in a country where the average annual income hovers at just over $500. In a nation nicknamed the "graveyard of empires," foreign forces are remembered for what they leave behind. In the 1840s, the British left forts that still stand today. In the 1980s, the Soviets left tanks, trucks and aircraft strewn about the country. The United States is leaving heaps of mattresses, barbed wire and shipping containers in scrap yards near its shrinking bases. "This is America's dustbin," said Sufi Khan, a trader standing in the middle of an immense scrap yard outside Bagram Airfield, the U.S. military's sprawling headquarters for eastern Afghanistan.[Source: Japan Time]

Secret Memos Reveal Explicit Nature of US-Pakistan Agreement on Drones

Despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA's drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan's government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts, according to top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos obtained by the Washington Post.  The files describe dozens of drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal region and include maps as well as before-and-after aerial photos of targeted compounds over a four-year stretch from 2008 to 2011 in which the campaign intensified dramatically. Markings on the documents indicate that many of them were prepared by the CIA's Counterterrorism Center specifically to be shared with Pakistan's government. They tout the success of strikes that killed dozens of alleged al-Qaida operatives and assert repeatedly that no civilians were harmed. Pakistan's tacit approval of the drone program has been one of the more poorly kept national security secrets in Washington and Islamabad. During the early years of the campaign, the CIA even used Pakistani airstrips for its Predator fleet. But the files expose the explicit nature of a secret arrangement struck between the two countries at a time when neither was willing to publicly acknowledge the existence of the drone program. The documents detailed at least 65 strikes in Pakistan and were described as "talking points" for CIA briefings, which occurred with such regularity that they became a matter of diplomatic routine. The documents are marked "top secret" but cleared for release to Pakistan.  Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated his country's objections to the drone campaign this week during his first visit to Washington since taking office this year. CIA strikes "have deeply disturbed and agitated our people," Sharif said in a speech Tuesday at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "This issue has become a major irritant in our bilateral relationship as well. I will, therefore, stress the need for an end to drone attacks." He raised the issue in a meeting Wednesday with President Barack Obama, "emphasizing the need for an end to such strikes." Sharif did not publicly elaborate on how Pakistan would seek to halt a campaign that has tapered off but remains a core part of the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy. [Source: The Independent]

Question:

Our brothers in Hizb ut Tahrir,

All my regards and appreciation are to you.

Since you have also suffered the shock upon seeing the flags of Sykes-Picot during the anniversary of Nakba; and you also suffered from astonishment by the presence of these flags in occupied Al Quds (Jerusalem) when the Zionist forces clashed with the people of Al Quds (Maqdisiyeen). I would like to ask you a brotherly question - full of ardour (due to the love of the Deen) - and an amicable one:

Where your marches and condemnations, regarding what is taking place in Al Quds and the noble Al Aqsa???!

Where are the Rayat (banners) of Alokab, O bearers of the Liwaa' (white flag of the Khilafah "Caliphate"), from what is taking place inside the courtyards of Masjid Al Aqsa??

I am well aware of all the events, but unfortunately I did not witness a protest in the name of the Hizb that carries the Raya of Islam?!!!
Where are you O bearers of the Liwaa', where are you??????

For you is to answer my question, but it is not for you to blame me for being ardent (due to the love of the deen).
All my regards and appreciation are for all who carry the burden of the Ummah upon their shoulders.

Answer:

Wa Alaikumu Assalaam wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuhu

You question:

"Where are your marches and condemnations, regarding what is taking place in Al Quds and the noble Al Aqsa???!

Where are the Rayat (banners) of Alokab, O bearers of the Liwaa' (white flag of the Khilafah "Caliphate"), from what is taking place inside the courtyards of Masjid Al Aqsa??

I am well aware of all the events, but unfortunately I did not witness a protest by the name of the Hizb that carries the Raya of Islam?!!!

Where are you O bearers of the Liwaa', where are you?!!!" (End)

Is it so? The Marches, Protests, and public activities that are accompanied by the Rayat and Liwaa' are evident actions of Shabab Hizb ut Tahrir, "the bearers of the Liwaa'" as you describe them.

How is it that you are well aware of the events, and yet you did not witness the actions of the dawah carriers, the bearers of the Liwaa'?
Maybe there are specific circumstances that prevented you (from witnessing the actions).

I ask Allah (swt) that He enables you to witness our activities and our Rayat.

As for what you ended your message with "...but it is not for you to blame me for being ardent (due to the love of the Deen)", we do not blame people for being ardent for (their love of) Islam, May Allah bless you and blesses by you.

Your brother,
Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah

The link to the answer from the Ameer's Facebook page: