Press Release
Oh Rulers of Lebanon: Do You Not Deem those Displaced by the Slaughterer's Massacre to be from the Class of Human Beings,Abandoning Them to the Storm of the Deadly Frost?!
(Translated)

A wave of bitter cold, accompanied by snow, heavy rains and storms is plaguing the country. Therefore the Ministry of Education decided to suspend schools and confine students to their homes. The Security Services, the Civil Defense and the Ministry of Works are mobilizing all forces and energy - at least as claimed by the authority - distributing warnings and guidelines to the people on how to deal with this wave. Most people sheltered in their homes for fear of frost, cold wind and flood risks. They secured for themselves all the various heating methods, and do not leave their homes and workplaces, unless absolutely necessary.

Besides this scene, on the same land, in the same country, perhaps a few meters away, there is a blatantly contrary scene! This scene shudders the hearts of those who hold a tiny amount of humanity, a proper nature, as well as piety and fear of Allah Almighty: children, women and elders fleeing from the thug of ash-Sham, languishing in the open in yesterday's mud, then in today's frost and snow, under heavy rain, in the midst of stormy winds, struggling to seek protection through screens from nylon or thick cloths!

What kind of harsh hearts is contained in your chests, oh rulers of Lebanon?! How much of your decency is left?! What is left of your sense of humanity?! Where is the taqwa of those amongst you who claim Islam and Iman?! Have your ears ever heard the Hadeeth of the Messenger of Allah (saw):

«الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ لَا يَظْلِمُهُ وَلَا يُسْلِمُهُ»

"The Muslim is another Muslim's brother. He does not oppress him nor does he leave him to oppression."

If any of you kept a dog someday, would you be content to leave him unprotected to the pandemics of nature?! You spoke the truth, oh Messenger of Allah, when you said:

«إِنَّ مِمَّا أَدْرَكَ النَّاسُ مِنْ كَلَامِ النُّبُوَّةِ إِذَا لَمْ تَسْتَحْيِ فَاصْنَعْ مَا شِئْتَ»

"What the people realize from the words of the prophecy is: If you have no shame, then do what you like."

The Lebanese authorities claimed that Lebanon is unable to solely bear the sheltering of the distressed displaced. So they decided to solicit financial aid from the world's countries and its organizations on the backs of these poor people. When they returned from this begging trip empty handed, they turned their backs to them and left them to suffer from the frost and its horrors! Under the pretext that they do not have anything to aid them! You have lied, oh rulers, your lie is exposed, and your delusion is a matter of abhorrence!

Who among us does not see empty formal facilities everywhere, that have neither benefitted human or creature for tens of years?! Do the people of Tripoli not see - whenever they pass by their international exhibition center that has been vacant for half a century - a formidable area of ​​thousands of square meters within the exhibition center with a surfaced floor, roofed and closed, of which only a fraction is used and only for two weeks out of the year during the annual book fair?!  Do the people of Lebanon as a whole, while traveling between the cities and within them, not see the Olympic venues that were not used except a few times that do not exceed the number of fingers?!  Do not the bleachers of these stadiums cover thousands of square meters of lost space?!  If we limited ourselves to the numbers of these facilities: Are these covered vacant spaces not enough to house the thousands of displaced people in distress who are stranded, so they can camp inside them instead of camping outside in the deadly open? Yes, by Allah, they are more than enough!

Oh you Muslims from the people of authority, power and influence, what are you waiting for before mobilizing to the rescue of these unfortunate?! Is the generosity of some seekers of goodness, securing more tents and blankets, enough?! Are these facilities not our property, built with the taxes withdrawn from our pockets?! The most effective matter is that these fervent seekers of goodness hasten to those who care about the displaced, securing buses for them that transport them from the deadly fields of misery to those dead facilities that were built by the feudal lords of the authority only to benefit their companies and the favored from their contractors. He (saw) said:

[مَنْ كَانَ فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِيهِ كَانَ اللهُ فِي حَاجَتِهِ، وَمَنْ فَرَّجَ عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ كُرْبَةً فَرَّجَ اللهُ عَنْهُ كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرُبَاتِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ وَمَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ]

"Who helped his brother in need, Allah will help him when in need, and who removes a plight from his brother, Allah will remove a plight from the plights of the Day of Resurrection from him, and who shielded a Muslim, Allah will shield him on the Day of Resurrection."

Ahmad Al-Qasas
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Lebanon