Press Release
You Can't Give What You Don't Have
(Translated)

On Tuesday and Wednesday, May 9 and 10, 2023, Baghdad hosted its first international conference on drug control, in the presence of representatives of eight countries: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Iran, Turkey, and the Arab and international councils and offices. As usual, the meeting did not offer any solutions because they searched far from the causes of this phenomenon and its spread in such a terrifying way. After the American occupation in 2003, Iraq became a crossing point for the transfer of drugs, and then to a trafficker and a consumer! In a statistic, the Anti-Narcotics Directorate at the Ministry of the Interior revealed the arrest of nearly 17,000 accused of drug trafficking, promotion and abuse, during the year 2022.

Iraq, after the occupation, has become a common ground for all, especially since most of the borders and land crossings along the border with Iran in the east, and with Syria in the west, from which various types of drugs smuggled throughout the day are controlled by armed militias (the first accused of promoting drugs). Rather, there are areas under the control of these militias, such as Jurf al-Sakhar, after its people were abandoned and prevented from entering it for nearly eight years by a decision of these factions, and the emergence of many accounts about the nature of the activities of these factions inside the city and its dense orchards, among them is the cultivation and manufacture of drugs, without any official in the previous governments, until the current government, daring to enter the city and deny or confirm the information circulated about what is happening inside it.

So what solutions are hoped for from such a meeting?! The Iraqi government is incapable of dealing with the growing drug problem in the country due to corruption and weakness of the security structure. An example of corruption is what Al-Arabiya published on 28/2/2022:"In January 2018, the Iraqi security authorities arrested a drug-trafficking gang in the capital, Baghdad, consisting of three people, one of whom was the son of the then-governor of Najaf, Louay Jawad al-Yasiri. They were in possession of eight kilograms of narcotic substances, and the judiciary issued a life sentence for them." Then: "The three received a presidential pardon on the tenth of January 2022, in an unannounced manner, while a senior police officer told France Press that "the governor's son was released three weeks ago and we handed over all his trusts to him after a presidential order."

Representative Mishaan Al-Jubouri wrote, "The resignation of the governor of Najaf was accepted on Wednesday 1/4/2022, and the recommendation to pardon his son, who was convicted of drug trafficking and his gang, was issued on 1/5, and the pardon decree for them was issued on 1/10."

O Muslims: The spread of drugs, abominations, perversions and all kinds of vice is based on the awful capitalist system and its rotten democracy, so what does humanity expect from a system that is put in place by the limited, imperfect and needy person, the measure of his self-serving actions, and the freedom of religion, ownership, opinion and personal freedom in it is absolute without restriction?!

This problem and other problems produced by the capitalist system are not addressed by conferences in which representatives of countries that are agents of the West meet, eager to implement its civilization and spread its ideas. Rather, its solution is to uproot this system that has wretched humanity and filled the earth with oppression and corruption, and the establishment of the just system of Islam that the Creator, the Almighty, the Majestic, has accepted for the happiness of humankind. So to work for this great obligation, we call you Muslims, to live a decent life in this world and obtain the pleasure of your Lord in the Hereafter.

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا للهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَأَنَّهُ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ]

“O believers! Respond to Allah and His Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah stands between a person and their heart, and that to Him you will all be gathered.” [TMQ Al-Anfal:24]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Iraq