Should the people of Gabès pay the price for the failure of the national state's economic policy?

It did not avail the people of Gabès with the successive authorities in Tunisia that they have become among the most affected people in the country by cancer, and several diseases and epidemics caused by the chemical complex that was imposed on their city since 1972, where the rates of respiratory and skin diseases, birth defects, kidney and liver problems, and osteoporosis increased, until the toxic fumes and gases emitted from the complex became a source of mass suffocation among students, in addition to the destruction of agriculture, fishing, tourism, and its unique marine oasis. Despite the clarity of the magnitude of the disaster, the successive authorities adhered to the continuation of the complex and were unable to implement their decisions issued since June 29, 2017, under the pretext of preserving its financial returns and jobs, ignoring that human life takes precedence over material interests, according to his saying ﷺ: "The demise of the world is easier for Allah than killing a Muslim."

This inability to protect the people explains that the alleged projects to improve the environment, such as the project to treat emissions from phosphoric acid production units in Gabès, supported by the European Union, are only aimed at stabilizing polluting factories to meet the needs of European countries for these materials, while protecting them from their negative effects. This raises the issue of sovereignty over our resources of phosphate and its outputs, as we have become certain that we have no sovereignty over our other fossil resources when one of the energy ministers, in the "national" state, admitted that the quantities of production and marketing of them are in the hands of the foreign companies in charge of them, and that our dealings with them are based on "trust," which confirms that the Gabès dilemma is not just a technical issue but a political and sovereign one, as the state has lost control over our resources and has become subject to foreign companies, and that the liberation of the will and the restoration of the decision in our country can only be achieved by liberation from the Western system that was imposed on us to serve the Western powers and their local tools, and this will only be by liberation from the intellectual foundations imposed on us by the colonial powers and adopting the legitimate foundations emanating from our faith that makes sovereignty for Sharia, according to which interests are realized and priorities are determined, and the authority is for the nation to pledge allegiance to those who represent it in establishing the rulings of its religion and not lead it to destruction.

In the face of these serious repercussions, the anger of the residents and their legitimate protests, and the absence of radical measures from the authorities that resorted to security solutions, and with the exacerbation of the health, psychological, environmental, and social crisis, we in Hizb ut-Tahrir / Tunisia emphasize the following:

1. Despite the economic role of the chemical complex, preserving the safety of the people takes precedence over material profit, which requires the state to intervene immediately to remove the harm. The Prophet ﷺ says: "Whoever harms, Allah will harm him, and whoever makes things difficult, Allah will make things difficult for him."

2. It is unjust to burden Gabès and its people with the sins of failed policies, and then accuse them of treason unjustly. The authority has failed to fulfill its duty of care, so it resorted to repression instead of reform, forgetting that people's right to a decent and safe life can only be achieved under the generous Sharia of Allah.

3. Linking the fate of the nation to its enemies, and being dependent on their economic and political projects, deprives sovereignty of its true meaning, and places the country under foreign influence, which Islam forbids, as Allah Almighty says: ﴿And Allah will never give the disbelievers a way [to triumph] over the believers.﴾ There is no escape from this dependence except by restoring the political decision on the basis of Islamic ideology, which makes sovereignty for Sharia, and authority for the nation.

4. The environmental crisis cannot be resolved within the capitalist perspective based on profit and benefit, but its real solution lies in the rule of Islam and the Rightly Guided Caliphate, which obliges the state to protect the subjects, regulate industrial activity away from residential areas, and impose clean production systems that preserve the environment. According to his saying, peace and blessings be upon him: "The Imam is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock."

O people in green Tunisia:

The pollution that is happening today in Gabès, which has turned the lives of its people into hell, is a natural outgrowth of a malicious capitalist system that protects the tyrants of the world by being based on utilitarianism, and their concern is the abundance of production.

The filth that fills the environment is only a result of capitalist greed, and the only solution to get rid of this is to follow the guidance of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ who said: "There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm." And Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: "My nation was displayed to me with its good and bad deeds, and I saw among the good deeds the removal of harmful things from the road, and I saw among the bad deeds the sputum in the mosque that is not buried."