East Ghouta

Relentless bombardment of Eastern Ghouta

Wifaqul Ulama Public Affairs (Department)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gra­cious, the Most Merciful.

As-salā­mu ‘alaykum wa-rah­mat­ul­lāhi wa-barakā­tuh (Peace, Bless­ings & Mer­cy of Allah be upon You).

This state­ment is being issued on the 26th of Feb­ru­ary 2018 and super­sedes all pre­vi­ous state­ments on the subject.

Amnesty International:

The Syr­i­an gov­ern­ment, with the back­ing of Rus­sia, is inten­tion­al­ly tar­get­ing its own peo­ple in East­ern Ghou­ta. Peo­ple have not only been suf­fer­ing a cru­el siege for the past six years, they are now trapped in a dai­ly bar­rage of attacks that are delib­er­ate­ly killing and maim­ing them, and that con­sti­tute fla­grant war crimes.

PMQ: 21FEB2018:

Ian Black­ford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP): At least 194 peo­ple have been killed in the past 48 hours in East­ern Ghou­ta. Will the Prime Min­is­ter tell the House what dis­cus­sions her Gov­ern­ment have had with UN col­leagues since Sun­day on the enforce­ment of the exist­ing UN res­o­lu­tions that call for an end to sieges of civil­ian areas and attacks on civilians?

The Prime Min­is­ter: The right hon. Gen­tle­man rais­es an impor­tant issue. We are appalled by the esca­la­tion of air strikes in East­ern Ghou­ta and deeply con­cerned by reports of the ongo­ing delib­er­ate tar­get­ing of civil­ians and civil­ian infra­struc­ture, in bla­tant vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an and human rights law. We, as the Unit­ed King­dom Gov­ern­ment, cer­tain­ly call on the regime and its back­ers to cease this cam­paign of vio­lence. They should respect inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law, pro­tect civil­ians, and allow rapid and unfet­tered human­i­tar­i­an access. There is con­cern that some­thing like 700 peo­ple who need med­ical evac­u­a­tion are being refused that evac­u­a­tion by the regime. We will con­tin­ue to work with the UN and the UN Gene­va-led process. The UN envoy has our full sup­port for his work to try to bring an end to this by find­ing a polit­i­cal solu­tion for Syria.

Ian Black­ford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP): I thank the Prime Min­is­ter for that answer. The bomb­ing is relent­less. Doc­tors on the ground are treat­ing preg­nant women and babies who have lost limbs. It is esti­mat­ed that well over 100 chil­dren have been killed since Sun­day. The UN has issued des­per­ate pleas call­ing for polit­i­cal inter­ven­tion. It has stat­ed: “No words will do jus­tice to the chil­dren killed, their moth­ers, their fathers and their loved ones”. Will the Prime Min­is­ter show lead­er­ship and join me in call­ing for an urgent meet­ing of the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil to address the hor­rif­ic geno­cide that is unfold­ing in Syria?

The Prime Min­is­ter: The Unit­ed Nations has called on Gov­ern­ments around the world to call out the action that has been tak­en and to be ready to stand up against that action. That is exact­ly what this Gov­ern­ment are doing. We will talk to our UN col­leagues to ensure that the best pos­si­ble approach can be tak­en in rela­tion to these issues, but it is not just about the Syr­i­an Gov­ern­ment; it is about the back­ers of the Syr­i­an Gov­ern­ment as well. We call on all their back­ers, includ­ing Rus­sia, to ensure that the vio­lence stops, and that those peo­ple who are need of help are giv­en that help.

UN Impasse:

Address­ing the UN Human Rights Coun­cil in Gene­va, UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al António Guter­res said Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil res­o­lu­tions were “only mean­ing­ful if they are effec­tive­ly imple­ment­ed and that is why I expect the res­o­lu­tion to be imme­di­ate­ly imple­ment­ed and sustained”.

Unequivocal support for Syrians:

We sub­scribe to plu­ral­ism and peace­ful coex­is­tence and acknowl­edge the free­dom and rights of every indi­vid­ual or com­mu­ni­ty or race to believe as they choose to believe with­out coer­cion, fear and intim­i­da­tion. There­fore, we unequiv­o­cal­ly con­demn the bru­tal killings of civil­ians in Syr­ia. The harm to them is unbear­able and must stop. We echo the calls by Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al and the con­cerns raised by Ian Black­ford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP) in the Par­lia­ment. The atroc­i­ties being com­mit­ted by the Syr­i­an regime in East Ghou­ta are appalling and the British Gov­ern­ment must put sus­tained pres­sure on Syr­ia with the help of Inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to put an imme­di­ate stop to the civil­ian suffering.

As Mus­lims we should decry the atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted against civil­ians in Syr­ia. As cit­i­zens of Great Britain we are ALL enti­tled to rep­re­sen­ta­tion by our MPs. This short arti­cle will, Insha’Allah, walk you through the process of engag­ing with your local MP urg­ing him/her to express your wish­es in Parliament.

We advise our fel­low cit­i­zens in Unit­ed King­dom to con­sid­er the fol­low­ing plan:

Spiritual Action Plan for Muslims in Britain:

Qunut Nazilah for Syria:

This mat­ter was dis­cussed amongst the Ula­ma and it was sug­gest­ed that Imams, Schol­ars and com­mu­ni­ties should be strong­ly urged to recite Qunut Nazi­lah for Mus­lims of Syr­ia. We urgent­ly and strong­ly rec­om­mend for all Mus­lims to con­tact their local Masajid (Mosques) and ensure that this is put into practice.

We are Mus­lims, there­fore our first reac­tion in any sit­u­a­tion should be to reflect upon our actions and to turn to Allah Ta’ala in seek­ing for­give­ness and to beseech Him for his assis­tance and help. We urge all Mus­lims in Britain to repent and make sin­cere Dua to Allah Ta’ala to help the peo­ple in Syria.

1. Encour­age your fam­i­ly, friends and com­mu­ni­ty to per­form indi­vid­ual prayers and organ­ise Qunut Nazi­lah in your communities.
2. Spend your mon­ey and give Sadaqah in addi­tion to your Duas to invite the Mer­cy of Allah Ta’ala.  Donate to Mus­lim char­i­ties engaged in assist­ing those suf­fer­ing on the ground, Ummah Wel­fare Trust has “Ghou­ta Response Bud­get” and Mus­lims can donate to this fund.
3. Change your life for the bet­ter and do your best to come clos­er to Allah Ta’ala by ful­fill­ing His com­mand­ments and fol­low­ing the Sun­nah of Prophet Muham­mad (Peace be upon Him).

Political Action Plan for Muslims in Britain:

Engage your MP: