Press Release
From the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of War
It is Time to Reconsider the Meaning of Islamic Defense
(Translated)
With the issuance of an executive order by Donald Trump, the name of the U.S. Department of Defense was officially changed to the Department of War. This was not merely a change in name; rather, it explicitly revealed the aggressive mentality of the colonial powers and their foreign policy based on occupation. Trump clearly stated: "Defense is too defensive... but we want to be offensive too."
The West - which for centuries has spoken in the language of peace, diplomacy, the international order, and engagement - now speaks shamelessly in the language of offensive war, as it did in its imperial colonial eras. Meanwhile, the Islamic Ummah, confined within the dilapidated and restricted framework of the nation-state, remains shackled by defensive terms and policies based on surrender. In the past, Muslims took pride in Jihad, conquest, and carrying the message of Islam; today, the highest aspirations of Muslims have been reduced to defensive wars and liberation from occupation. While the West openly declares an offensive stance, the Islamic Ummah must return to its foundations. From the beginning, the state of the Prophet ﷺ in Medina was resolute, not for colonialism, crime, or genocide like the West, but to carry Islam and lead humanity. The foreign policy of Islam, from the beginning, was based on making the religion manifest and breaking false boundaries, to bring humanity out of the injustice of other religions into the justice of Islam. ﴿It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although the polytheists may dislike it.﴾.
In truth, the mission of making the religion manifest is not confined by borders, nor can it be defined within the secular international order. Islam came to be a global reference. It is the duty of the Ummah to spread it through Da’wah and Jihad, until it prevails over all other religions. However, from the nineteenth century onwards - and especially after the demolition of the Khilafah - with the spread of the nation-state system and the adoption of defensive policies, the Islamic Ummah was stripped of the spirit of offensive initiative. Meanwhile, the colonizers continued their conquest under the banners of peace and stability, occupying its lands, and as we witness today in Gaza, where they slaughtered its people before the eyes of the world. Yet, the rulers of the Muslims - whose ministers of war are called ministers of defense - are limited to guarding national borders and respecting restrictive treaties. Restricted by national defensive policies, they chose silence, and used Western political concepts, reformulating this negativity and retreat as wisdom, interest, and political acumen!
The West is now seeking again to achieve its colonial goals under the banner of offensive war. Are the Islamic Ummah - and the rulers of Afghanistan - ready to transcend borders, seek to relieve the oppressed, and return Jihad - not only as self-defense against occupation, but in its broader sense as a method of foreign policy - to the agenda?
Therefore, we must abandon the "balanced" defensive policies that focus on the economy, and revive the correct path by establishing the Rightly Guided Khilafah on the method of Prophethood, for it alone bases its foreign policy on Da’wah and Jihad; so that Islam prevails on earth and Fitnah disappears. ﴿Fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah.﴾.
The Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Afghanistan