Press Release
Congratulations to Ash-Sham and its People for the Overthrow of the Tyrant and his Regime, Now it is Forth Towards a Khilafah Rashida (Rightly-Guided Caliphate)
(Translated)

This morning, Sunday 8/12/2024 CE, and on the 12th day of the "Deterrence of Aggression" operation, the fighters were able to enter the Syrian capital, Damascus, and overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who Reuters reported - quoting Syrian officials - that he left the capital to an unknown destination. Thus, the opposition fighters were able to liberate Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus, and release thousands of detainees who had been detained by the criminal regime in the basements of its black prisons for years and decades. The land of Ash-Sham rejoiced with joy at the liberation from the tyrant and his regime, the Takbeers resounded loudly in the corners of Ash-Sham and its surroundings, and the Ummah came out in celebrations that filled the squares of the country and the squares of many cities in the world, near and far, with joy and happiness, as if it was Eid, and rightfully so.

The fall of the tyrant Bashar and his regime is a great victory for the fighters, and a great relief for Ash-Sham and its people, its children, women, elderly and men, whom the regime has made taste the bitterest things: imprisonment, killing, displacement, starvation and rape in scenes that broke hearts, over the course of more than 13 years of the revolution, and the decades before that of the rule of Bashar and his criminal father. Congratulations to Ash-Sham and its people for this great victory, praise be to Allah first and last. Allah (swt) says;

[قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَاءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَاءُ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ إِنَّكَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ]

“Say, ˹O Prophet, “O Allah! Lord over all authorities! You give authority to whoever You please and remove it from who You please; You honour whoever You please and disgrace who You please—all good is in Your Hands. Surely You ˹alone˺ are Most Capable of everything” [Al-i-Imran: 26].

What must be mentioned and warned against in the midst of the joy of victory is the warning against being satisfied with what has been achieved and stopping at it. The overthrow of Bashar and his regime must be the beginning, not the end. The fighters must complete the journey towards liberating the entire land of Ash-Sham to unify it under the banner of one Imam who declares it a second Khilafah Rashida on the method of the Prophethood, so that Islam is fully implemented without any deficiency, and makes it an Islamic state with all its apparatuses, constitution and details, not a secular state, an Islamic republic or a monarchy. Otherwise, the great sacrifices made by the people of Ash-Sham and its revolutionaries will not result in the change for which they came out and wished to take place.

Accepting a secular or democratic state or entering into factional internal fighting and dividing the country into cantons and districts means wasting the efforts that were made, the lives that were lost, and the money that was exhausted down the drain, and the country will remain in the arms of American colonialism with its new face that will be sponsored by Erdogan’s Turkey. The so-called state of institutions is a molding of the capitalist system to market it among the revolutionaries and fighters who filled Ash-Sham with chants and engraved its words with their blood that it is for Allah, it is for Allah.

Let the revolutionaries and fighters continue the path towards uprooting colonialism from Ash-Sham leaving no bases, forces, men or parties, so that Ash-Sham remains purely for the Muslims. They must cut all ties with America’s tools in the region: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and the rest of the Muslim rulers, so that their decision becomes a self-made decision in which no one has authority over them, so that their efforts do not lead to what other revolutions have led to, so that Ash-Sham returns to being the abode of Islam, and the believers rejoice in Allah’s victory.

Allah (swt) says:

[الَّذِينَ يَتَرَبَّصُونَ بِكُمْ فَإِن كَانَ لَكُمْ فَتْحٌ مِّنَ اللهِ قَالُواْ أَلَمْ نَكُن مَّعَكُمْ وَإِن كَانَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ نَصِيبٌ قَالُواْ أَلَمْ نَسْتَحْوِذْ عَلَيْكُمْ وَنَمْنَعْكُم مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَاللهُ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَن يَجْعَلَ اللهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلاً]

“˹The hypocrites are˺ those who wait to see what happens to you. So if Allah grants you victory, they say ˹to you˺, “Were we not on your side?” But if the disbelievers have a share ˹of victory˺, they say ˹to them˺, “Did we not have the advantage over you, yet we protected you from the believers?” Allah will judge between ˹all of˺ you on the Day of Judgment. And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way over the believers” [An-Nisa: 141].

The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir