News & Comment
Allowing the Headscarf for Police Women Must Not Eloign Us from our Fundamental Issue

News:

On August 27, the Official Gazette announced that women serving in the Turkish National Police will be able to wear head scarves. The regulation notes that the headscarf must match the colour of the uniform and must be plain, without any patterns. Accordingly, female police officers will be able to use a head scarf that matches with the colour of the uniform and is without any patterns as long as it remains under the hat or the cap.

Comment

The issue of the headscarf is one that should have been overcome a long time ago. Fact is however that any problem, including the problem of the headscarf, that exists in both in Turkey and across the Muslim world today, is the result of the dominating secular, democratic capitalist system, which has never made a secret of its enmity towards Islam. This democratic secular capitalist system dominating upon us allows the headscarf step by step, thus bringing it on the agenda again and again, in order to prevent us from discussing our fundamental issues with the aim to instill the Muslims that this is a brilliant ruling. Indeed it is very thought-provoking that this news occurs now, while Turkey is still struggling with the events of July 15, and additionally with the ever escalating terror incidents which cause deep pain among the Muslims. Without doubt this change in the law could have been made already years ago; in 2013 when lifting the ban for MP's and lawyers, or in 2015 when allowing judges and prosecutors to wear headscarves.

Instead of discussing whether our sisters among the police, lawyers, judges, prosecutors wear headscarves or not, we should be discussing which laws and provisions they protect and defend, and upon which laws they judge.

The fundamental task of Muslim men and women is to implement and protect the laws of Allah (swt). Just as the headscarf is an indisputable obligation, the ruling with and being ruled by Islam is an indisputable discussion and moreover the crown of all obligations. Allah (swt) sent us this Deen as a way of liberation. The longer we stay away from Allah's provisions, the longer the dirty games of the colonialist foreign powers and thus the coups and terror acts will continue in our land without slowing down.

Viewing any of Islam's provisions - be they related to the women's dress code or any other issue - as a right given by the politics, by democracy or the Republic is definitely far removed from a Muslim's ultimate aim of pleasing his Lord. Any right given by this rotten system is only a tool for the secularisation of the Ummah, to force it to make concessions and to accustom it to take what it favours and to leave what it dislikes. It is distracting the Muslims from its fundamental issues. It is not a step towards solving any of the Ummah's problems in any way. Furthermore, it is surely not gradually proceeding towards Islamic ruling. In contrary, gradualism is accompanied by compromise. In fact, democracy and the capitalist system have to be discarded at once from politics, jurisdiction, economy, social and cultural life, and have to be replaced completely and comprehensively by Islam instead. Otherwise, the Muslims will continue to face new troubles every day.

Therefore, we should focus on our primary goal again as one Ummah. Our goal is to achieve unity; unity with all the Muslims across every corner of this world; and to regain strength and dignity through this unity. We will achieve this through the re-establishment of the Second Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah upon the Method of Prophethood, which is an obligation upon us from Allah (swt).

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَأَنَّهُ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ

“O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered.” [Surah al-Anfaal: 24]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Zehra Malik