Press Release
The Gulf Regimes Compete to Become World Capitals in Fahisha

On the 20th December, the media reported that the Ministry of Culture and Youth in the United Arab Emirates halted the censorship of nudity and other lewd scenes in movies played in its cinemas. Last year, the Gulf state granted unmarried people the right to live together and eased alcohol purchase and consumption controls. Meanwhile, in December, Saudi Arabia hosted a number of music concerts with international entertainers staging all forms of obscene performances and sexually explicit songs which glamourize illicit relationships and promiscuity, in front of crowds of men and women freely mingling and dancing together. The Saudi Arabia MDL Beast Soundstorm was attended by over 700,000 people and was praised by Turki al-Sheikh, head of Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority, as one of the largest music festivals in the world. According to the Kingdom’s Assistant Minister for Tourism, Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al Saud, the regime is planning to host up to 600% more concerts next year (2022) than in 2019 as part of its tourism strategy. These celebrations of fahisha (obscenity) are just one sordid component of Muhammad bin Salman’s corrupt 2030 Vision to liberalize the country and turn this blessed land into an entertainment hub in an attempt to bolster a failing economy that was reliant on oil revenues which are fast declining within the state. The Kingdom has also allowed unmarried foreign couples to rent hotel rooms together to boost its tourism industry. All this comes at a time when the regime is tightening the noose around the necks of those defending Islamic values within the state by banning Islamic groups and imposing lengthy jail sentences on Islamic scholars who criticize the corrupt unIslamic actions of the rulers. Earlier this year, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs defended its order to mosques to lower the volume of the Adhaan broadcast from their buildings and to cease the broadcast of the full prayers and sermons to their surrounding areas.

These corrupt regimes have unashamedly publicized their open contempt for the Deen of Allah (swt) and its beliefs and values. In fact, shamelessness has become the distinguishing mark of these rulers. They are the embodiment of those whom Allah (swt) describes as

(إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَشْتَرُونَ بِعَهْدِ اللّهِ وَأَيْمَانِهِمْ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلاً أُوْلَـئِكَ لاَ خَلاَقَ لَهُمْ فِي الآخِرَةِ وَلاَ يُكَلِّمُهُمُ اللّهُ وَلاَ يَنظُرُ إِلَيْهِمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلاَ يُزَكِّيهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ)

“...those who sell out God’s covenant and their oaths for a paltry price – they shall have no portion in the Hereafter. Allah will neither speak to them, nor look at them, nor purify them on the Day of Judgement. And they will suffer a painful punishment.” [3: 77] They compete with one another in spreading vulgarity, lewdness and all that is evil across their lands, with utter disdain for the Words of Allah (swt),

(إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُحِبُّونَ أَن تَشِيعَ الْفَاحِشَةُ فِي الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ)

“Indeed, those who like that Fahisha (immorality, indecency and Zina) should be spread (or publicized) among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know.” [24:19]. They represent the antithesis of the high moral values of Islam and its beliefs of Hayah, honour, protection of chastity and the sanctity of marriage. The Prophet (saw) said,

«إِنَّ لِكُلِّ دِينٍ خُلُقًا وَخُلُقُ الْإِسْلَامِ الْحَيَاءُ» “Every way of life has its distinct characteristic. And the distinct characteristic of Islam is Hayah (modesty).” [Abu Dawood].

This moral decadence is being sold under the false banner of ‘modernization and progress’, while in truth, these regimes are simply chasing the heels of western states in the decimation of marriage, the family structure and the wellbeing of children as well as in the epidemic of sexual crimes against women that has been spread by liberal culture. What kind of modernization and progress is this? It is simply turning the clock back to the times of Jahiliyyah! Their ultimate desire is to extinguish the light of Islam in our lands and make their states replicas of western nations that are grappling with a mountain of social and moral problems.

All this should be a stark reminder to this Ummah that the sanctity of Islam will never be safe while these corrupt regimes continue to rule our lands and while the System of Allah (swt), the Khilafah (Caliphate) based upon the method of the Prophethood, the guardian of our Deen, remains absent from this world! It should be a powerful reminder of the vital need to re-establish this Islamic leadership in our lands without delay!

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir