According
to recent research carried out by Tesco, the food-banks charity, the Trussell
Trust, and food redistribution charity Fare Share, one in five parents in the
UK are struggling to feed their children. Many skip meals, while others go
without food for days to feed their children, or rely on family and friends for
food. 70% of families suffering from food poverty with children in primary
school education rely partly on food supplied by schools. Consequently, the
upcoming summer school holidays could see a large number of children going
hungry.
The
research also shows that the problem of food poverty in the UK is unlikely to
improve in the near future. According to a joint report by Oxfam and Church
Action on Poverty published a few weeks ago, the number of people driven
through desperation to use food banks that distribute food donated by the
public, has trebled in the past year alone. Many charities have attributed this
soaring rise of people resorting to emergency food hand outs to feed themselves
and their families, to the government's welfare cuts, falling wages, and the economic
crisis caused by the flawed capitalist system. The rise of such food banks
reflects the capitalist UK government's failure and abandonment of taking care
of the most vulnerable people within its society while simultaneously giving
tax breaks to the wealthy and bailing out multi-billion banks. This has been
coupled with callous statements from high profile UK politicians who have
slurred those unable to feed their children adequately or those visiting
food-banks, reflecting their contempt for the poor, total lack of concern for
the welfare of those they govern, and attempt to absolve themselves and the
man-made, secular system they implement of blame for this social crisis. This
July, Lord Freud, the wealthy Work and Pensions Minister claimed that those
attending food-distribution centres were doing so to opportunistically gain
free food rather than out of desperation and real need; while Michael Gove, the
Education Secretary suggested that feckless parenting rather than lack of
financial resources was to blame for the high numbers of children who attend
school hungry.
All
this is the result of the destructive capitalist system that creates unstable
debt-ridden economies based on borrowing and credit that are prone to collapse
and crises, causing high unemployment and inflation, and plunging ordinary
citizens and families into desperate poverty. In addition, this detrimental
system is characterised by catering to the needs and interests of the wealthy
elite rather than the general public, and nurtures mentalities, including those
in ruling that view the poor and vulnerable as a burden to the economy rather
than those to whom provision of adequate food, shelter and other basic needs is
an important duty of the state. Furthermore, it is a system focused on wealth
creation rather than effective distribution of wealth to ensure that all have
their basic needs met, and that implements flawed economic policies and an
interest-based financial model that causes the rich to become richer and the
poor to become poorer. In summary, the humanity of any ideology or society can
be judged according to how it treats its most weak and vulnerable. Capitalism
has shown that it treats its poor and vulnerable with contempt. It is a
dehumanising ideology that sanctifies wealth and financial gain while
simultaneously devaluing, ignoring, and disregarding human need.
This
raises the question as to why the governments of the Muslim world insist on
continuing to implement and pursue the capitalist and other man-made systems
upon our Muslim lands. Even after Arab uprisings, new leaderships in Egypt,
Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen continued to put their trust in the capitalist system
and policies to build their economies and states, even though this same system
and policies had impoverished and oppressed the Muslim world for decades. The
consequence has been deteriorating political and economic lives for the people
of the region, including for its women and children. According to a report
published this June by the UN World Food Program, malnutrition due to poverty
is causing 11% of the child mortality rate amongst children in Egypt. In Yemen,
a humanitarian crisis is intensifying with a quarter of women between the ages
of 15 and 49 being acutely malnourished and struggling to feed their families,
and 10 million Yemenis (nearly ½ of the population) not having enough to eat.
And undoubtedly, in this month of Ramadan, as in decades past, millions of
Muslim women and children will be struggling to find food to start or end their
fast.
It
is only the Islamic system, implemented by the Khilafah that can provide the
lifeline out of this economic quagmire affecting our Muslim lands. It is a
system under which the priority of 'fighting poverty' is not simply the
rhetoric of politicians but rather manifested in the Islamic economic laws and
policies that oblige fair distribution of wealth, zakat and the provision of
basic needs to all. This is alongside prohibiting the monopolisation of wealth,
the exploitative principle of interest, and the privatisation of natural
resources such that all benefit from their revenue. It is a system where taking
care of the needs of the human being rather than the bank accounts of the
wealthy is the focus, and where the Khalifah is commanded to be the guardian of
the people and the shade and provider for the poor and vulnerable. It is a
state that has a history of eradicating poverty from lands. Under the second
Khalifah of Islam, Umar bin Al Khattab, it is narrated that after several years
of Islamic rule, Muadh ibn Jabal who was appointed as an envoy to Yemen sent
the Khalifah all the zakat that had been collected from the people of Yemen for
he could not find any poor person in the province who needed it or would accept
it from him. This was the result of the implementation of the just Islamic laws
and sound Islamic economic system upon the region that lifted the people from
poverty and created widespread prosperity. In this month of Ramadan in which
Allah (swt)
sent the Qur'an as a Mercy for mankind, we should be reminded that this Mercy
can only materialise physically for this Ummah and for humanity in the manner
ordained by the Creator through the full implementation of the contents of this
Noble Kitaab under the Khilafah system. Therefore, in addition to excelling in
our ibadat (acts of worship) during this Blessed month as believers, we should
also set our focus and increase our efforts in carrying the dawah to establish
this state upon our Muslim lands.
"We have only sent you as a
mercy to all the worlds." (Al-Anbiyaa: 107)
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