Event:

Following the 2013/2014 budget, the government of Tanzania among others has imposed excise duty on all mobile services at 14.5 percent.  Out of the money, 2.5 percent will be used to finance education.

The government said it has widened coverage of excise duty on telecommunication to include landlines and wireless telecom services.

The Finance Minister Dr. William Mgimwa also said that in order to enhance its capacity to rehabilitate road networks, the government has increased fuel levy from 200 per litre to 263 per litre.

The duty on gas oil (diesel) per litre has increased to 217 from 215; excise duty on petrol has increased from 339 to 400 per litre while duty on illuminated kerosene has not changed. [The Citizen, June 15, 2013]

Comment:

Budget day in the Capitalist economic system is revered as though it is an honorable day and a liberator for the masses. Some believe that it is a period for bringing out government strategies so as to uplift the livelihood of people purportedly to better their lives in the coming year in terms of social services, infrastructure and economy. The truth is that this matter is contrary to the reality.

The surprising thing in the cunning Capitalist system budget is that it cunningly gives with the right hand and robs with the left hand. Sometimes even the trickery of giving is not done but they rob straight away. They can allege to raise the salaries of civil servants to better their remuneration. Suddenly, they raise taxes on essential commodities like food. Thus, the salary raise becomes meaningless or increases the hardship already faced. They also allege to better social services and infrastructure so as to ease the lives of the public. However, they cunningly raise taxes from the pockets of the poor public whom they claim to help.

We see the Tanzania budget as it is like other budgets and the way injustice is being committed openly by raising taxes on mobile telephony and petrol on the pretext that these taxes go towards betterment of education and infrastructure. This is a big surprise!!

This situation is brought about because government in a democratic system is meant to collect taxes by milking the public instead of helping them and looking after their affairs justly. Rather, our countries are endowed with many public resources like minerals, forests, big rivers that can sustain public lives and money that makes it possible not to milk the ordinary public. But since these resources are now owned by Western companies through dominance and privatization, the result is the burden even in basic services is carried by the public who are mostly poor.

In Islam under the Khilafah "Caliphate" state, the issue of social service provision to the public is a state responsibility through the use of public property like minerals and others. When there is a shortfall, the Khilafah "Caliphate" state borrows or imposes a small tax on the rich. This is the just system from the Creator which the world thirsts for to liberate it from Capitalist injustice.

Masoud Msellem

Deputy Media Representative

Hizb ut Tahrir / East Africa

Women's Media Representative Umm Abdullah Khan discusses the recent grooming stories, including the 2013 case in Oxford where a group of Asianen were convicted of sexually grooming young girls. Such cases have arisen several times in the media, with questions such as whether this type of sexual abuse is a 'Muslim' or 'Asian' issue.
  Umm Abdullah Khantackles these questions and explains how we should view these cases in a wider context.

On June 15 2013, Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi declared that he had severed ties with Bashar al Assad's regime. He said, "We decided today to entirely break off relations with Syria and with the current Syrian regime." Furthermore, Morsi expressed full support for the Syrian people. He said, "The Egyptian people supports the struggle of the Syrian people, materially and morally, and Egypt, its nation, leadership ... and army, will not abandon the Syrian people until it achieves its rights and dignity." Echoing Western sentiments Morsi also endorsed the implementation of a no fly zone in Syria. The flurry of announcements came at a conference organized by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.

Earlier, a delegation of clerics headed by Youssef El-Qaradawy; head of the Association of Muslim Scholars met Morsi and issued a call for jihad against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his allies, condemning the conflict as a war on Islam. On the same day at a conference of scholars, Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, reading from a statement said, "Jihad is necessary for the victory of our brothers in Syria - jihad with mind, money, weapons; all forms of jihad..." So how serious is Morsi about supporting the Muslims of Syria and uprooting the evil regime of Assad?

If we were to go by Morsi's present record to date, then there is very little hope that Egypt would undertake anything substantial to change the plight of the Syrian people. It is more likely Egypt would treat the Syrian issue similar to that of the Palestinian issue or the issue of Libya. Morsi and his acolytes have had numerous opportunities to liberate Palestine from the oppressive occupation of the Jewish state. But instead, Morsi used the Egyptian army to close the tunnels supplying Gaza with vital goods, and prevented militants from launching attacks against the Jewish state. Rather than fighting the Jewish state, Egypt has worked to strengthen its security thereby suffocating the Palestinians.  Under Morsi's reign, Egypt has watched in silence as Libya struggles to stabilize in the post-Gaddafiera. The endless slaughter of Libyans can easily be mitigated, if Egypt were only to deploy a fraction of its troops to provide stability in a country ravaged by NATO bombing and Western backed militias.  By not deploying the Egyptian army, Morsi has chosen to abandon at his door-step Palestinians and Libyans. Moreover, Morsi has secured American interests by upholding the security of the Jewish state and by ensuring Libya is unable to liberate itself from Washington's grip.

The current solution to Syria as advocated by Morsi is no different, and only supports America's policy in Syria. This is to buy Washington precious time to cultivate an alternative to Assad by delaying full military intervention. The closing of the Syrian embassy in Egypt, allowing some Egyptian Jihadis to join the militants fighting Assad, supporting the implementation of a Syrian no-fly zone, and organizing ineffective Arab conference serves this purpose, and this will further exacerbate the suffering of the Syrian people.

So when Morsi utters words such as the ‘Egypt... its leadership... army will not abandon the Syrian people until it achieves its rights and dignity' it is no more than a plain lie. Morsi has no intention of returning the rights and dignity of the Syrian people. His only focus is to seek the pleasure of America and manage the status quo in the Muslim countries. Allah (swt) says:

وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَى شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ (14) اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ (15) أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَى فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ

"when They meet those who believe, They say: "We believe;" but when They are alone with their evil ones, They say: "We are really with you: we (were) only jesting. * Allah will throw back their mockery on them, and give them rope In their trespasses; so They will wander like blind ones (to and fro)." [TMQ 2: 14-15]

The removal of Assad from power and the destruction of his brutal war machine are easy for Egypt. For this can only be achieved by sending the Egyptian army to remove Assad from power and implementing Islam in its entirety. But to do this, Egypt must free itself from America and tread a foreign policy that is independent of Washington and compatible with Islam.

The only way for Egyptians to free themselves from America's domination is to uproot the secular system through which the army leadership in cohorts with Morsi continues to exercise America's complete influence over Egypt. This can only be accomplished by Egyptians investing their efforts to re-establish the Caliphate. Under the leadership of the Caliph, the army of Egypt will be used to liberate and annex Muslim lands.

Abu Hashem