Press Release
Increasing Fuel Prices Impoverishes People and Manifests Injustice
(Translated)

The Tunisian government announced Monday, February 28, 2022, in a joint statement by the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Trade and Export Development, to raise fuel prices for the second time in a month, after a previous increase in February that approved raising electricity and fuel prices, which is the fourth increase in a year. The increases were set at 60 millimeters for thin, unleaded gasoline and 55 millimeters for unleaded gasoline, while the price of a liter of regular gasoline increased by 50 millimeters, bringing their prices, respectively: 2,155 dinars ($ 0.74), 1.860 dinars ($ 0.64) and 1.655 two dinars ($0.57).

The government presents an argument to justify the increase in the price of fuels, which is the rise in the international price, which touched the threshold of 140 dollars for a barrel of Brent crude.

In the face of this injustice inflicted on the people of Tunisia, we in the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah of Tunisia need to explain the Shariah ruling related to energy regulation, and we present the political position on these decisions that tamper with Tunisia and its people:

First: The rulers of Tunisia, whether current or those who preceded them, act as if they do not know that Islamic Sharia has regulated energy affairs. They have turned their backs on the rulings of Sharia and made the colonial regimes a Qibla (direction) for them, and indulged in enacting unjust corrupt laws to satisfy foreign colonial companies and the International Monetary Fund

- Energy is from the public property of the Ummah, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

«الْمُسْلِمُونَ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ؛ فِي الْمَاءِ وَالْكَلَإِ وَالنَّارِ، وَثَمَنُهُ حَرَامٌ»

“The Muslims are partners in three things: water, pasture and fire, and their price is unlawful.” (Narrated by Ibn Majah). The word "fire" includes all the types of energy mentioned above. The state is legally required to extract this energy and distribute it to the people (its subjects) free of charge, or sell it to them at the actual cost, and it has the right to distribute to them the money from the profits of the public property, proceeding in all of this in a manner that it sees good and in the interest of the people.

- The state has the right to protect an object of public ownership for other necessary needs of the state; The obligation to spend on it is transferred to Muslims, when there is no money in the treasury.

Accordingly, all types of energy such as oil, gas, electricity, or others that are used as fuel in homes, factories, engines and machines, the state is not legally entitled to give it to individuals, institutions and companies, even if these are from the people of the country, so how if they are foreign Kafir colonialists?!

Energy matters that come under the word ‘fire’ may not be claused under privatization, neither for nationals nor foreigners, since it is public property, and this Islamic Sharia has established specific rulings that cannot be manipulated.

Second: The types of oppression and exhaustion that happen to people are not only caused by the corruption of the rulers, but also the corruption of the system by which the ruler rules. The systems applied in our country and in the rest of the Muslim countries are secular capitalist systems that separate religion from the state. They are systems of Kufr enacted by humans according to their whims and desires, and therefore they lead to misery and deprivation.

And we remind the rulers of the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him):

«اللَّهُمَّ مَنْ وَلِيَ مِنْ أَمْرِ أُمَّتِي شَيْئًا فَشَقَّ عَلَيْهِمْ فَاشْقُقْ عَلَيْهِ»

“O Allah, who (happens to) acquire some kind of control over the affairs of my people and is hard upon them - then be hard upon him.” (Narrated by Muslim). And we remind the people of green Tunisia by the Almighty’s saying:

(فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا يَضِلُّ وَلَا يَشْقَى * وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنكاً وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى)

“Then when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray ˹in this life˺ nor suffer ˹in the next *But whoever turns away from My Reminder will certainly have a miserable life, then We will raise them up blind on the Day of Judgment” [Taha: 123-124].

Therefore, you must work with sincere dawah carriers who work towards changing your life by establishing the Khilafah Rashida (Rightly-Guided Caliphate) and following the guidance that has come to you from Allah by applying the systems of Islam, in which is happiness, victory, and Allah’s pleasure in this world and the Hereafter. Allah (swt) said:

(يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا للهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ)

“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.” [Al-Anfal: 24].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Tunisia