Press Release
Afghanistan and the Muslim World Are Entrapped in Artificial Poverty
(Translated)

According to an annual report prepared with the support of the United Nations and released on 24 April, two-thirds of the people facing food insecurity worldwide live in just ten countries, including Afghanistan. The majority of these countries are in the Muslim world. This reality demonstrates that poverty and hunger in Afghanistan and across the Muslim world are not temporary phenomena, but the outcome of a deep and structural crisis.

The Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Afghanistan attributes this situation not only to the consequences of Western colonial wars, repressive policies, economic pressures, forced displacement, and the fueling of divisive conflicts among Muslims by rulers aligned with American policies, but also to the direct result of implementing the capitalist economic system and adhering to the imposed policies of institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.

This system, instead of addressing humanity’s fundamental problem—namely, the provision of basic needs—focuses on superficial economic growth and increased production, while relegating the issue of equitable wealth distribution to the “market.” In practice, this market has concentrated wealth in the hands of a limited minority, leaving the majority in poverty and hardship.

During the twenty years of occupation of Afghanistan, colonial powers systematically imposed structures that entrenched administrative corruption, economic dependency, and the plundering of resources among those in power. As a result, despite vast natural resources, the Afghan people became poorer. Even today, from heavy taxation to privatization and the lack of transparency in recruitment and employment processes, poverty has not only failed to decline but has deepened further.

The present poverty in Afghanistan and the Muslim world is an artificial condition to which a wealthy Ummah has been forcibly subjected. From an Islamic perspective, the economic problem lies not in a scarcity of resources, but in the unjust distribution of wealth. Poverty in Islam is defined as the inability to meet essential needs—food, clothing, and shelter—and such a condition is never acceptable. Unlike capitalism, which treats poverty as natural and inevitable, Islam regards it as an exceptional condition that must be completely eradicated. Indeed, Islamic history contains practical examples of the elimination of poverty.

The fundamental solution lies in returning to the comprehensive Islamic economic system—one whose economic mechanisms, including zakat, the prohibition of riba (usury), public ownership of natural resources, and the direct obligation of the state to ensure the provision of people’s basic needs, guarantee a just distribution of wealth. In such a system, no individual is left without their essential needs being fulfilled.

In conclusion, we emphasize that a root solution to the crisis of poverty in Afghanistan and the Muslim world is only possible through the re-establishment of the Second Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophethood—a system that fully implements Islam without submission to the dictates of global colonial institutions, treats corruption as an enemy, and structures the economy upon justice, human dignity, and the proper distribution of wealth, thereby eradicating poverty in a real and lasting manner.

[فَلِذَٰلِكَ فَادْعُ وَاسْتَقِمْ كَمَا أُمِرْتَ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ وَقُلْ آمَنْتُ بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ مِن كِتَابٍ وَأُمِرْتُ لِأَعْدِلَ بَيْنَكُمْ]

“So to this [religion] invite, and remain steadfast as you are commanded... and say: I believe in whatever Book Allah has sent down, and I have been commanded to establish justice among you...” [Qur’an 42:15]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Afghanistan