An Open Letter
From Hizb ut Tahrir in the Blessed Land to the Minister of Education
(Translated)

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, who made us from the best nation brought out to humankind; we enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil, we say the truth, and we do not fear the blame of a blamer in Allah’s path, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah who was sent as a mercy to the worlds, his family and companions, and those who followed him in goodness until the Day of Judgment.

Minister of Education, Dr. Marwan Awartani

Assalamu Alaikum Wa rahmatullah Wa Barakatuh

We begin with the saying of the Messenger of Allah (saw):

«مَا مِنْ عَبْدٍ ‌يَسْتَرْعِيهِ اللهُ رَعِيَّةً، يَمُوتُ يَوْمَ يَمُوتُ وَهُوَ غَاشٌّ لِرَعِيَّتِهِ، إِلَّا حَرَّمَ اللهُ عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّةَ»

“Any governor in charge of Muslim subjects who dies while acting dishonestly towards them will be excluded by Allah from Paradise.”[Narrated by Muslim] so manage your affairs well, for your return is to Allah Al-Qawi Al-Aziz (the Strong, the Mighty)

Mister Minister, your unjust decision to dismiss Ustadh Hussein Abu Al-Hajj from his position, dated 22/12/2021, is an arbitrary dismissal for political reasons and not for professional, educational or criminal reasons. The following confirms that the dismissal is for political reasons:

First: Deliberate exaggeration and false fabrication from the yellow pages that were copying and pasting a false story that it received from security authorities, and the Investigation Committee of the Education Directorate in Bethlehem is aware of this fact.

Second: The Preventive Security Apparatus arrested Ustadh Hussein in front of the school in an abhorrent behaviour that does not give any weight to the status of the teacher, the school or the impact of that on the students. This arrest is contrary to the educational foundations and the rules of law in dealing with employees of government institutions, and above all, it was carried out without a legal warrant. It is strange that a committee consisting of the Ministry of Education goes to the headquarters of the Preventive Security, not to check on the detained teacher, but to interrogate him while he is in the cell!! What educational, or responsible and caring mentality behaves like this?!

Third: The security services and their media outlets blatantly interfered to the extent that some authority figures came to attack the judiciary to push it to be bias, and this affected the decisions of the Directorate and the Ministry of Education, unfortunately.

Fourth: The decisions were rushed and disorderly. On the day following the arrest of Ustadh Hussein on 18/11/2021 and while he was in prison, he received a letter of dismissal from work, and on 21/11/2021 a decision was issued to transfer him from his school, and later the decision to dismiss came on 22/12/2021. And all this before the end of the trial!

Fifth: You said, O Minister, in your decision: “It has been decided to impose the penalty of dismissal against you as of 22/12/2021, for violating the regulations, laws and instructions in force in the Ministry of Education, which is represented in your abuse of your position as a teacher to influence the national trends of students through propagating ideas that are contrary to law and order.” End quote.

We wonder about the reality of those regulations and laws that Ustadh Hussein violated, when he explained to the students the difference between the banner of Islam and the flags of Sykes-Picot? What are these laws and what do they stipulate? Is there really a law in force in the institution of education that criminalizes and condemns those who explain to their students a political and historical fact known to the whole world, which is that the current borders and flags were drawn by colonialism in order to tear the Ummah apart and divide it?!

Tell us, Mr. Minister, who drew the borders of Palestine, drew its flag, and determined its colours? Are they the people of Palestine? Is it the Liberation Organization? Or is it the Palestinian Authority? Or is it the Western and colonial countries?

It was mentioned in the decision (...disseminating ideas that contradict law and order), so what were the ideas that Ustadh Hussein propagated to the students? Were they misconceptions? Or were they false and misleading ideas? And did the Ministry of Education try to correct the error of these thoughts of the teacher or to show that they are false, if they are false? On the authority of Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Prophet (saw) said to me:

«‌قُلِ ‌الْحَقَّ وَإِنْ كَانَ مُرّاً»

“Say the truth even though it is bitter (i.e.,difficult to admit)”[Narrated by Ibn Hibban]. Would you please tell us how those laws and regulations mentioned in your decision were applied to an action to Allah (swt) is of the greatest and best actions? Or did you find it difficult to reveal the bitter truth to the students? Tell us, Mr. Minister! Are the ideas (the bitter truth) that Ustadh Hussein spoke about contradict the law and order in force in your ministry?

And your decision stated (...your abuse of your position as a teacher to influence the national trends of students...)

Ustadh Hussain Abul-Hajj answered his students honestly and faithfully to their questions; about the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot crime, in the context of an educational activity, and now we ask you about our sons and daughters in schools, have you maintained the trust?! Do you prevent the enemy's tools from tampering with their minds and protect them from Western campaigns that affect the students' attitudes and positions and aim to destroy them? Or are all of these in coordination with you and the directorates of education?! Are you the ones who draw up educational plans in order to build a cohesive, strong generation that is observant on its cause and is aware of its enemy, or do you implement the recommendations of foreign committees and foreign “experts” who are the enemies of Islam?!

Mr. Minister, the approach taken by the Ministry of Education is a process of stripping our children away from their Ummah, its Deen and its culture. It is forsaking of the trust, which must be protested and accounted for. We summarise some of them here:

1- Subjecting the entire educational process (curricula, extracurricular activities, courses, workshops and teacher training) to international agreements aimed at consolidating secularism, destroying the family and corrupting young men and women, and on top of these agreements are CEDAW, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Your ministry explicitly mentions this in its strategic plans, as it submitted its reports to foreign committees on its progress in implementing those agreements.

2- With regard to the curricula, the previous amendments that were made in response to the instructions of the American administration and the Jewish entity under the pretext of preventing “extremism” or incitement against the Jewish entity are known far and wide, and the amendments to the curricula and what is being prepared for these days are in response to international agreements. These amendments aim to obliterate the concepts of Islam and secularize curricula and put destructive and dangerous ideas according to Western standards and concepts, such as the idea of ​​gender - which establish homosexuality - and the so-called sexual and reproductive health and "human rights"...etc., obliterating the concepts of Islam, and highlighting Western ideas concepts in school curricula have no meaning other than fighting Islam and corrupting our children and alienating them from their Deen and their Ummah.

The Assistant Undersecretary in the Ministry of Education, Tharwat Zaid, stated before the Committee on the Rights of the Child on 28/1/2020 by saying: “The technical committee that reviewed the curricula are the Palestinian NGOs, the GFA donor institutions, a representative of USAID, a representative of the British Council and all of the donor countries working in Palestine have participated in this and supported by donors, especially the Irish,” and these bodies that supervise and fund the curricula are all Western parties hostile to Islam and Muslims!

3- Working to make education mixed, and this has already begun in the primary classes in many schools, and your colleague Ahmad Majdalani stated this explicitly before the Committee on the Rights of the Child on 28/1/2020, and considered it only the beginning, where he said: (But in general we have the approach now that schools should be mixed. Mixed education has already begun in the primary grades, and now it is generalizing this phenomenon among all students in various Palestinian cities and villages). Note that co-education is a requirement of Clause C of Article 10 of CEDAW agreement.

4- Introducing the culture of gender into school curricula and holding multiple courses for teachers in this field, and academic materials on gender are currently being introduced to universities. To clarify, gender is based on the idea of ​​a person's sense of oneself in terms of masculinity and femininity, and that a person's gender may differ from his/her biological sex, and culture and education interfere in determining a person's gender. According to this concept, a male may consider himself as a female, or vice versa, and this establishes bases for homosexuality. These dangerous ideas are found in the social studies book for the eighth grade, chapter two, 2017-2018 edition. In this poisoned book, students are required to differentiate between sex and gender, and they are told that sex is different from gender! And the human type is affected by culture and tendencies and changes with the change of time and place, so which sinful criminal hand wrote these poisons, O Minister of Education?!

5- Working to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child, whose tangible results include the robbery of educational means from the hands of teachers and administrators, which led to havoc and chaos in schools. The dissemination of that wrong culture is a major reason for weakening the teacher and the loss of his/her prestige, which negatively affected the quality and discipline of education. Rather, there have been abuses in which some teachers have been attacked. Is this what the Ministry of Education aims for?!

Among the recommendations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health and freedom of belief in education. The agreement focuses on the freedom of the child in order to keep him away from Islam and separate him from his Ummah, not to protect him. It is not concerned with educating the child with the best manners and hold no value for giving him righteous education.

What is meant by sexual and reproductive health is the introduction of sexual education into schools, and in short, it means alerting students to sexual practices that they call safe, that is, without disease or pregnancy. In front of the foreign committee on the Rights of the Child, and during questioning the Palestinian Authority’s delegation, which was headed by Majdalani and the Ministry of Education team was mainly present, the member of the foreign committee asked about the extent of the use of contraceptives and about sex education and its dimensions. Tharwat Zaid, Director General of Curricula, responded: “There is a matrix of concepts from the first grade to the 12^th grade that corresponds to the age group through dialogue and discussion, in addition to activities with local community institutions such as the Juzoor Foundation.” End quote.

Majdalani added, in answer to the same question: “Reproductive health has been merged with sex education, so that the concept of sex in children should be according to age, and I want to clarify the relationships between adolescents in Palestine, as is the case in all countries of the world, begins as it is between all young men and women, but due to the value and moral relations, sexual intercourse rarely occurs, and it may happen, but neither condoms nor contraceptive pills are distributed in schools, and this phenomenon is not encouraged... But in general, we have an approach now that schools are mixed, and co-education has already begun in the primary grades, which is now generalized in all Palestinian cities and villages.” End quote. It is clear that Majdalani is saying that we do not need contraceptives now, but we have an approach to make education mixed!!

6- Opening the door wide for women’s associations and women’s centers funded by the West to tamper with the curricula and reach the students directly. Among the most dangerous of them is the Juzoor Foundation and the Family Planning and Protection Association, which work in a criminal manner to destroy values ​​and morals, and there are several evidences for this:

By comparing what happened and is still happening in terms of attacks on the students’ minds, under the noses and ears of the Ministry of Education, and what was carried out by Ustadh Abu Al-Hajj, and what was mentioned in the dismissal decision, tell us, O Minister, is the harmonization and modification of curricula to serve the projects of Western countries and the Jewish entity is consistent with the “national” trends of the students?! Does the omission of the verses of jihad and the biographies of the Companions agree with the “national” trends of the students?! Is highlighting the concepts that establish homosexuality, CEDAW agreement and gender in line with the “national” trends of our sons and daughters in schools?! Does not opening the doors of schools and universities to the ideas of foreign committees and Western-funded associations affect the “national” attitudes of students?! On top of this, we ask you about the impact of the “sacred” security coordination with the Jewish entity on the “national” trends of the people of Palestine?! Can you answer this question?!

Mr. Minister, who is the criminal? Is he the one who exposes to the sons of Palestine, who love their Islam, to the real enemy and spreads awareness among them, or is he the one who implements the policies of the enemy that aim to destroy society and separate it from Islam and its Ummah, so that the occupation entity can live in peace and security?

Tell us, Minister of Education, how do you deal with issues of financial and moral corruption, is the procedure the dismissal from the job or the cover-up and the fictitious transfer from work, and then not for a long period of time, that corrupt person gets promotion after promotion?! And we think you know this well.

In conclusion: With your decision to dismiss Ustadh Hussein Abu Al-Hajj, you assure the people of Palestine that you, as the Ministry of Education, are biased towards the West and the enemies of Islam, and you work for the benefit of the Jewish entity in corrupting generations, and that you stand with them in the same trench, against everyone who defends this Ummah honestly and sincerely. So where are you heading? And to what abyss are you pushing future generations?

We sent a letter to the Prime Minister on 14/12/2021 and said, "Perhaps you will understand and will stop, except that you have followed Satan and Satan's guardians! Then we resolved to send this letter of ours to be a proof against you and a clarification for the people, and let's see whether you will be guided or you will be among those who are not guided.

And know that the corruption that the authority is committing against our sons and daughters in Palestine, its consequence will be nothing but disgrace in this world and painful punishment in the Hereafter, and our trust in Allah (swt) is great that He (swt) will not give the corrupt and corrupt people long, and Allah’s (swt) saying is Sufficient:

[وَأَنْذِرِ النَّاسَ يَوْمَ يَأْتِيهِمُ الْعَذَابُ فَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا رَبَّنَا أَخِّرْنَا إِلَى أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ نُجِبْ دَعْوَتَكَ وَنَتَّبِعِ الرُّسُلَ أَوَلَمْ تَكُونُوا أَقْسَمْتُمْ مِنْ قَبْلُ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ زَوَالٍ (44) وَسَكَنْتُمْ فِي مَسَاكِنِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمْ كَيْفَ فَعَلْنَا بِهِمْ وَضَرَبْنَا لَكُمُ الْأَمْثَالَ (45) وَقَدْ مَكَرُوا مَكْرَهُمْ وَعِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَكْرُهُمْ وَإِنْ كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ (46) فَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ اللَّهَ مُخْلِفَ وَعْدِهِ رُسُلَهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ (47) يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَيْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَالسَّمَاوَاتُ وَبَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ (48) وَتَرَى الْمُجْرِمِينَ يَوْمَئِذٍ مُقَرَّنِينَ فِي الْأَصْفَادِ (49) سَرَابِيلُهُمْ مِنْ قَطِرَانٍ وَتَغْشَى وُجُوهَهُمُ النَّارُ (50) لِيَجْزِيَ اللَّهُ كُلَّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ (51) هَذَا بَلَاغٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَلِيُنْذَرُوا بِهِ وَلِيَعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ وَلِيَذَّكَّرَ أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ]

“And, [O Muhammad], warn the people of a Day when the punishment will come to them and those who did wrong will say, "Our Lord, delay us for a short term; we will answer Your call and follow the messengers." [But it will be said], "Had you not sworn, before, that for you there would be no cessation? * And you lived among the dwellings of those who wronged themselves, and it had become clear to you how We dealt with them. And We presented for you [many] examples." * And they had planned their plan, but with Allah is [recorded] their plan, even if their plan had been [sufficient] to do away with the mountains. * So never think that Allah will fail in His promise to His messengers. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Owner of Retribution. * [It will be] on the Day the earth will be replaced by another earth, and the heavens [as well], and all creatures will come out before Allah, the One, the Prevailing. * And you will see the criminals that Day bound together in shackles, * Their garments of liquid pitch and their faces covered by the Fire. * So that Allah will recompense every soul for what it earned. Indeed, Allah is swift in account. * This [Qur'an] is notification for the people that they may be warned thereby and that they may know that He is but one God and that those of understanding will be reminded.”[Ibrahim: 44-52].

Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds