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HT - ‘Only caliph can save Ummah’
The Ummah is in trouble because it lacks a unifying head, or caliph, according to speakers at a Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) seminar on ‘Walayia Khilafah’ held here on Sunday. The seminar was part of a series being held all over the world to raise awareness about the caliphate system. In Lahore, the seminar heard a tape of HT chief Ata Abu Rushda’s speech, in which he urged Muslims to fight for the establishment of a caliphate. “In Kashmir, Chechnya, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world Muslims are going through a painful period. It could end if they establish their own caliphate which would protect their rights,” he said.
Hizb ut Tahrir has never been to popular in Pakistan, there are plenty of other larger, older, and more impressive Islamist outfits in the country; and the organisation generally does best in places where Muslims have little knowledge of their own religion, such as Europe and Central Asia, because HT has some unorthodox ideas. In some ways it seems Communist influenced, and it doesn’t show much respect for Mullahs, so it gets little respect in return from the major Islamist Mullahs of the world.
Dr Abdul Qayum said a caliphate is the only alternative to the “brutal system of imperialism”. “Under a caliphate, feudalism in Pakistan would be abolished because no one can hold land for more than three year without cropping it according to Islamic laws,” he said. “There is no concept of taxes in Islam, so the state would have to provide free utilities.”
Brilliant, why hasn’t anyone else thought of that?
Ummm... Or they wouldn't provide any utilities at all and people would have to provide them for themselves...
Official HT spokesman for Pakistan Naveed Butt said the caliphate would also be for non-Muslims, because people all over the world are unhappy with the current “imperialist system”.
Although if you read the HT’s constitution, it’s pretty obvious that the Caliphate system is the ultimate imperialist state.

Do you ever wonder who they intend to install as the caliph? I'd guess they're thinking in terms of, oh... I dunno. Some holy man, like... like... well, like Ata Abu Rushda. But when it comes to being caliph, don't you have to show credentials? Like being descended from the Prophet (ptui)? So that would kind of limit the choices to Mohammad V of Morocco, or Abdullah II of Jordan, or one of their kin. The Soddies are out because they're not Prophet family. Kind of ironic, isn't it, that the two contenders would be the two most enlightened monarchs in the Muslim world?

Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-11-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21327