The Last and Largest Khilafah Conference

Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia, as part of a global awareness campaign for Khilafah have successfully held the largest Khilafah Conference the world has ever seen since the destruction of the Khilafah on the 28 Rajab 1342 (hijri date).

Today's Khilafah [Caliphate] conference in Jakarta brought 100,000 people to the 10th largest stadium in the world. The vast majority, according to BBC news reports were women. The well organised conference discussed the urgent need for the re-establishment of the Khilafah in the Muslim world. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, is widely portrayed by western media and governments as one of the more secular Muslim countries. Despite this portrayal, the conference illustrates the wide popular opinion for the Khilafah and Islamic governance in South East Asia, and indeed across the entire Muslim world. Last weekend, an audience of thousands attended the London Khilafah conference that discussed the need for an alternative to chaos and oppression, the Islamic obligation of the Khilafah and the political method of Hizb ut-Tahrir to achieve this goal. Commenting on today's successful conference, Dr Abdul Wahid, the Chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir's UK Executive Committee said, "Hizb ut-Tahrir has spearheaded a crucial debate on the future for the Muslim world - an alternative to corruption and dictatorship. This weekend there were hugely succesful gatherings in Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia and the Netherlands discussing the Khilafah and over 10,000 people gathered in Palestine. The coming weeks will see similar events in Yemen, Pakistan and Denmark." "The Khilafah is increasingly seen as the alternative to corruption and tyranny in the Muslim world, where the population see Islamic governance as an inherent part of their way of life. To deny this or work to undermine its establishment, as western governments have done as part of their 'war on terror', is to deny the legitimate aspirations of people in the Muslim world." "Western governments have to get used to the fact that the populations in the Muslim world are increasingly looking to Islam for political solutions. The winds of change blowing across the region, carrying with them the ideas of Khilafah, Shariah and Islam, will blow away the suffocation of the past nine decades. We sincerely hope that anyone who seriously thinks about the future of the region will engage with us in a dialogue and debate on the most vibrant and stimulating political model gaining momentum in the Muslim world today."

The Stupid Economic System

Panic and turmoil gripped the world’s financial markets in August as the US housing market bubble burst. The crisis threatens a worldwide economic depression, bringing to a halt more than a decade of increasing prosperity and employment for Western economies. The last decade has seen billions pour into real estate in both the US and Europe, which has resulted in the US housing sector reaching a staggering $10 trillion in value. Whilst in the UK the housing sector, is worth over £1 trillion. Global investment banks, hedge funds, pension houses and even high street banks have poured money into the housing sector in the hope of hansom returns. The crisis gripping the world was caused due to defaults on US home loans that have caused a credit crunch which is reverberating around the world as billions of dollars are being written off as liabilities. Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic have continued to swing wildly from hour to hour. This money which found its way into the US housing sector was in origin only for speculative purposes. In the hope that the price of housing would rise further higher in the hope large profits can be made. Investment banks developed innovative products to further their profits by creating the Sub Prime mortgage industry, Put simply, it is loans to people who have patchy credit histories or cannot prove their incomes. It involves lending money to people usually on low incomes and who are unable to receive mainstream mortgages. The whole sub prime industry is built upon giving loans to people who are unable in most cases to actually pay them back. On top of this most international banks borrowed the money they poured into the housing sectors in Europe and America.What was witnessed on the world’s financial markets in August was something some pessimistic observers have previously mentioned but their voices were drowned out due to the Euphoria of incredible gains made as housing prices continued to rise further and further.

Then money spent by employees on goods is an expense to them and income to companies. Hoarding money and leaving it in an account to accumulate interest would in fact take it out of circulation. This would lead to a fall in spending, which would reduce production and result in the complete halting of the economy. With so much circulation of wealth it is possible the economy could overheat. Overheating is the term given to the reality where too much money is chasing too few goods leading to inflation. This only occurs due to the government printing more money to aid wealth circulation. Islam completely avoids such a reality as its currency is backed by gold. This means the government is not free to print money at will. This situation ensures the supply of money never outstrips production. The key reason to why prices can rise in such a manner is because goods are left completely to the market forces to decide what should be produced and at what level. In Islam key items such as utilities which are indispensable for the economy are public property and not owned by the private sector.