The War on Rare Materials
News:
China's announcement of broad restrictions on rare earth metal exports has reignited the trade war with the United States and sparked concerns in global markets, according to a report by the BBC...
The document, entitled "Announcement No. 62 of 2025" issued by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, included strict conditions on the export of rare earth metals, so that foreign companies are required to obtain prior government approval and clarify the purpose of use even if the product contains very small amounts of these metals. (Al Jazeera Net)
Comment:
Humanity is living today a new war that does not resemble the traditional wars fought with weapons, but a war of a different kind, which revolves in markets, mines and laboratories, and is managed from strategic planning rooms. It is the war on rare materials, those elements that have become the nerve of modern industry, and the key to economic and military power in the twenty-first century.
These materials, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements, are used in the manufacture of everything that constitutes our present and future, from smartphones and electric cars, to missiles and satellites. This has turned it into a hidden weapon that major powers compete for, and a means of economic and political hegemony.
For decades, the West, led by America and the countries of Europe, has realized that controlling energy sources is no longer sufficient to dominate the world, and that the future will be for those who have the keys to technology and its rare resources. This is why it began to redraw the map of global influence, not on the basis of oil and gas, but on the basis of mines and minerals.
In return, China came to confuse this balance, as it was able to dominate more than 60% of the production of rare materials in the world, and to hold the threads of industrial supply chains, which worried the West and ignited economic and political competition between East and West.
As for the Islamic countries, despite the vastness of their lands and their richness in natural resources, they are still on the margins of this war. Many of them possess in their lands huge wealth of rare metals - from Africa to Asia - but the absence of strategic vision, and the subordination of political decision to the Western economy, made them just a raw resource, no more.
These materials are extracted from the lands of Muslims, then exported at cheap prices, only to return to them manufactured at several times the price. Thus, the hemorrhage of wealth continues, in the absence of Islamic projects that invest these treasures for the benefit of the nation.
The Islamic countries are able, if the political will and economic unity are found, to transform from a follower to an influential in the global power equation. The Islamic countries possess the geographical area, the strategic location, the natural resources, and the enormous human capacity, but they need a comprehensive project that unites their will, and liberates their economic decision from external hegemony.
The war on rare materials is not only an economic war, but a war on awareness, on independence, and on who has the right to decide in the future.
Unless the Islamic nation rises to redefine its position in this equation, its wealth will remain in the service of others, and will continue to revolve in the orbit of those who plan its destiny without it.
Today we are at a dangerous crossroads: either we remain submissive consumers, selling our wealth and buying our products, or we realize that this economic war is an opportunity to restore our civilizational and leadership role, and that is not dear to the nation, if it returns to its Lord, unites its ranks, and raises its unified banner, the banner of Islam.
﴿And to Allah belongs [all] honor, and to His Messenger, and to the believers﴾
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir
Abdul Azim Al-Hashlamoun
