UK Establishment Works to Undermine the Brexit Referendum Result
By: Faiq Najah*

This week British Prime Minister Theresa May finally presented her draft plans for the UK’s exit from the European Union after lengthy negotiations with the EU.

These were agreed to by her cabinet on Wednesday night but led the next day to multiple ministerial resignations, while other cabinet ministers are pressing May into renegotiation with the EU. The draft deal seems to please no one. In particular, and quite contrary to Theresa May’s previous assurances, it evidently represents what has been called a ‘soft’ Brexit, binding the UK to much EU law and oversight while robbing the UK of participation in EU decision-making. Boris Johnson, a leading member of the campaign to leave the EU, characterised the deal as reducing the UK to the status of a vassal state to the EU.

Although legally a constitutional monarchy, Britain presents itself as a democracy in which legislation and governance are conducted according to the wishes of the people. In actual fact, however, it is the British establishment that controls the country in the interests of the elite that dominate Britain’s formal aristocracy headed by its monarch. It is the policy of this establishment to be part of the EU, in order to influence its decisions from within, while at the same time maintaining a degree of independence from the EU, in order to secure its own sovereign decision-making. This dual policy has required that the British establishment foster both pro-EU politicians and anti-EU politicians, maintaining a delicate balance between the two.

The true purpose of the ‘Brexit’ referendum was not to seek the opinion of the masses but to engineer a vote in favour of continued EU membership so that anti-EU politicians could more reasonably concede to the status quo. Unfortunately, the British government miscalculated badly and narrowly lost the referendum following which Prime Minister David Cameron then resigned.

Stunned by this catastrophe, the British establishment has since turned its considerable full attention to the Brexit issue, making this its foremost concern and employing all of its skill and cunning to navigating it. The great delay in the negotiations was not because of any UK government incompetence but because the establishment needed to use the time to create the necessary political atmosphere to press its desired solution, which is Britain’s continued involvement in the EU in any manner possible, formally or informally. Under Prime Minister May’s astonishing soft Brexit plan Britain will be prepared to continue its deep involvement in the EU even at the expense of official participation in EU decision-making.

These events happening before our eyes should be a lesson for us to understand that democracy is a theoretical fantasy that does not and cannot exist practically anywhere in the world. Even in ancient Greece, democracy was restricted to the level of the city state where only a small minority of the population possessed citizenship and was permitted to participate. Furthermore, democracy contradicts the very nature of man, who is a created being and must live in accordance with the law of his Maker.

Britain’s insistence on maintaining a strong independent identity from the EU makes its work in balancing pro- and anti-EU more challenging but every EU country faces this dilemma to some degree. This is because the conception of the EU is incorrect from its basis, to attempt a union of states that must work together while simultaneously retaining their individual national sovereignties.

The only correct method for different countries to be truly unified is that they dissolve their individual identities and merge in a single collective entity. This is the method that Islam has provided for the unity of the Muslim Ummah, i.e. the formation of a single state that encompasses all Muslim lands under a single general leadership for all Muslims. With Allah’s permission, the world will soon witness again this real unity with the re-establishment of the righteous Islamic Khilafah State (Caliphate) on the method of the Prophet (saw) that will rescue man from subservience to his fellow man and elevate him to submission to his true Master, Allah (swt).

* Written for Ar-Rayah Newspaper – Issue 211