News Review 02/07/2022

Biden Formalises Strengthening of NATO in reaction to Ukraine War

Attacking another great power is dangerous. But embroiling an opposing great power in war with a third country is much safer. Russian President Vladimir Putin had only been grandstanding last year; it was America that succeeded in tempting him and provoking him into foolishly venturing into Ukraine. In January, US President Joe Biden suggested that a “minor incursion” into Ukraine could be acceptable. Biden has also repeatedly made very clear that America and the West will not engage in war with Russia, even after Russia invades Ukraine. Last month, Biden even suggested supporting the ceding of Ukrainian land to Russia, in order to come to a settlement on the war. The benefits to America are numerous. Most importantly, America wishes to divide Russia from China. America also wants to pressurise Russia into acting in accordance with American interests in countries such as Syria. But a highly significant aim is to divide Russia from Europe, and strengthen American leadership over the entire Western world.

This week, a summit meeting of the Western military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was held in Madrid, Spain, in which NATO’s role was strengthened in multiple ways. As summarised in The Guardian:

Nato’s repurposing has four elements. The first is strategic – recognising that attempts to form a cooperative relationship with Russia have ended for the foreseeable future, and that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, inexcusable in itself, also marks a wider confrontation with the west. The second is the reversal of the post-1989 era of declining defence budgets. This has now been replaced by an expanded deterrence marked by aid to Ukraine, higher military spending for the coming decade and a sevenfold increase in the number of Nato troops on high alert to reach 300,000.

The third element is a partial U-turn on European deployments by the US. America’s pivot to the Pacific, confronting the rise of China, has not been abandoned, but President Biden is now authorising the largest scaling up of the US military presence in Europe since the cold war. Significantly, most of this American scaling up will be in the east of our continent, with a new headquarters in Poland, 5,000 additional troops in Romania and more intense deployments in the Baltic states.

Finally, Nato has expanded its membership, formally inviting Sweden and Finland – the latter has an 800-mile land border with Russia – to join the alliance. This ends more than 70 years of neutrality by the two Nordic nations. It is a sign of how decisively the Ukraine invasion has destroyed wider trust towards Russia. But it has huge military implications in the Baltic. It was only achieved after Turkey, a more than usually crucial Nato member during the current conflict, lifted its earlier veto, perhaps amid promises that the US would soon supply it with enhanced F-16 fighters jets.

These are major changes. Russian aggression has pushed the west across a big policy watershed. However, in some ways this is also a return to a once familiar security landscape. It finds Nato, in effect, embarking on a new cold war mission. It marks, potentially, the birth of a new era of collective western deterrence of Russian power. The implications for domestic and international politics should not be underestimated. But the world – and the Europe – of the 2020s is very different from that of the late 1940s.

Islam is not opposed to war. As states increase in power, it is natural for them is to expand so that they take on responsibility for increasing numbers of people, while weakened states should diminish in size to reduce their burden. This was the practice throughout man’s history. But by fixing borders in the Westphalian nation state model, the West has provided no outlet for ascendant powers other than the imperialist subjugation and exploitation of weak countries, without taking responsibility for their peoples. Meanwhile, grand military alliances such as NATO only add to the instability in the world. The West keep adding new conflicts and intensifying tensions to further impose their will on the world. The Russian foreign minister this week described a new “Iron Curtain” descending upon Europe, dividing it once more and marking the beginning of a new cold war.

The West will not cease to engage in callous competition and rapacious rivalry with others, even if the loss is in millions of lives. But with the permission of Allah (swt), the Muslim Ummah shall soon arise and re-establish their Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall unify Muslim lands, liberate her occupied territories, implement the Islamic sharia, restore the Islamic way of life and carry the light of Islam to the entire world. The Islamic State shall, almost from its inception, join the ranks of the great powers on account of its great size, immense population, vast resources, unparalleled geography and unique Islamic ideology. The Khilafah State shall work to confront, contain and calm the other world powers, restoring the world to the general peace and prosperity that existed during the thousand years that the Khilafah State was previously the dominant power in the world.

Taliban Emir Pledges to Adhere to Islam; Opposes Foreign Interference

This week, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada addressed a large assembly in Kabul of more than 3,000 delegates from across Afghanistan. He expressed defiance in the face of continued Western hostility towards and interference in Afghanistan. In his speech, he said:

Dear brothers! The success of the Afghan jihad is a source of pride not only for Afghans but also for Muslims around the world, and all religious people around the world are happy with the victory of the Taliban.

Now the Muslims of the world are waiting for the slogan of peace and security to be fulfilled while the current rulers of the Muslim countries are focused only on their own interests. The American war with us was not for land and air, but for our faith and ideas, and will continue until the Day of Judgment. The world has no value for things that displease God. That is why we have defeated the world.

The world does not want the Islamic Emirate to be independent, and they want things to be done with their reference, and they are interfering in our internal affairs. If you use an atomic bomb on us, we will still not take a single step against what is pleasing to God.

The Afghan mujahideen indeed achieved a great success on behalf of the Muslim Ummah by ejecting the American imperialist from our lands and, like the mujahideen in Iraq, teaching the world’s superpower a bitter lesson of its inability to fight on the ground against Muslims. It is because of these successes that the disbelieving American imperialist is withdrawing from our lands and instead turning its attention closer to home to China and its leadership over the West.

But the work begun by the mujahideen has yet to be completed by the Muslim Ummah. Islam cannot coexist with the European Westphalian nation-state model of fixed borders and small so-called independent countries. The world is not truly composed of independent states; it is composed of a few great powers who decide most of the affairs of the world between themselves. A small country like Afghanistan will continue to be subject to Western hostility and interference. It is not enough for Muslims to remain divided in nation states on the European Westphalian model. It is incumbent upon Muslims to reunify their lands, liberate their occupied territories, and carry the call for Islam to the world, in addition to implementing Islam and restoring the Islamic way of life domestically.

Islam has made incumbent upon us the unity of ruling, in other words a single emir for all Muslims. Rasool Allah (saw) said in one narration: «مَنْ بَايَعَ إِمَاماً فَأَعْطَاهُ صَفْقَةَ يَدِهِ وَثَمَرَةَ قَلْبِهِ فَلْيُطِعْهُ مَا اسْتَطَاعَ فَإِنْ جَاءَ آخَرُ يُنَازِعُهُ فَاضْرِبُوا عُنُقَ الْآخَرِ»“Whoever pledges to a ruler and gives him the grasp of his hand and the sincerity of his heart, then let him obey him as much as he can, and if another comes and challenges him, let them strike the neck of (i.e., kill) the second one.” [An-Nasai: 4196].