Refutation of the Capitalist Western Thought by Hizb Ut Tahrir

Secularism or the separation of religion from life is the Western intellectual basis upon which its thoughts are built and from which its rulings. What is intended by the building of thoughts is the measure of each thought upon its root. If a thought agrees with the root, then it is accepted. If it disagrees with the root, then it is rejected. Amongst these thoughts is the stance towards the existence of a Creator, the one who manages all the affairs. This thought i.e. the existence of a Creator, contradicts with the root of secularism that negates the management of affairs by the Creator. This is because secularism does not consider the Creator as the one who manages all the affairs, through connecting religion with life. As for the emergence of rulings, it means providing solutions related to taking care of the affairs of life from a source acknowledged by the fundamental, foundational thought i.e. the creed. The source acknowledged by the Western creed is man or his reasoning, since secularism negates the relationship of religion with life. Secularism thereby acknowledges the root of making legislation by man alone.

Secularism is corrupted as an intellectual basis and the evidence for its corruption is as follows:

1- As a matter of fact, secularism did not acknowledge the reality of existence, with respect to the eternal (azali) or creations having a Creator. Secularism did not study the matter to arrive at a decisive, permanent answer for it. Secularism was instead content with the separation of religion from life alone. However, the idea of separation of religion from life is a thought that is internally contradictory, having a number of contradictions within itself. Secularism acknowledges religion on the one hand,

but on the other hand, it negates the existence of religion. Similarly, secularism affirms the Creator, whilst denying the connection with him. Secularism affirms the Day of Resurrection, whilst denying its purpose. Secularism affirming the accountability in front of the Creator, whilst denying the deeds necessary for it. Secularism recognizes that man is a creation who is limited and incapable, yet it makes him a law-making ruler and deity on earth. Secularism acknowledges the non-eternity of this worldly life, whilst at the same time it nurtures the love of mortal life and an inclination towards the earth, amongst humans.

Accordingly, contradiction is amongst the features of this intellectual basis. The thoughts that are built upon this are contradictory by combining opposites, mixing truth with falsehood. It is not a surprise that the Western thought acknowledges Darwin’s theory, although it implicitly acknowledges the idea of creation and the presence of a Creator. It is also not a surprise that it acknowledges the nobility of the Church, whilst fighting against it. There is even no surprise for us to find some of the Western constitutions stipulating the separation between Church and State, which is an irrevocable constitutional article, whilst stipulating at the same time the ruling of the people by themselves. Here the contradiction is apparent if we assume that Westerners as a whole believed in religion, as a system of life’s affairs. In such a case, the separation of religion from life contradicts the will of people. However, if we assume that the Westerners as a whole are atheists, denying the very existence of religion, then in such a case there is no purpose for this constitutional article, given the presence of atheists alone.

2 - Secularism is built on the basis of a compromise and conciliatory solution. So being moderate is the prominent feature of the Western intellectual basis.

Moderation between truth and falsehood and between two falsehoods is amongst the prominent featured thoughts and treatments of the West. There is no distinctive definition amongst the Western thinking between good and bad, truth and falsehood, light and darkness and guidance and misguidance. Each solution and treatment, including intellectual, political, economic and social thoughts, are built on the basis of a moderate solution. Thus moderation is the defining characteristic of a Westerner according to them, whether he is a thinker, politician, temporal man or religious man. According to the Westerner, being moderate is the finest characteristic to describe the treatments and solutions.

Thus the Western thinking does not delve into thoughts like social justice, workers’ rights and unions’ rights. These are anti-capitalist thoughts, yet capitalism’s original thoughts are patched up with these thoughts, constituting socialist democracy, which is considered as the finest system. Western legislation and laws proceed according to the measure of moderation. Suggestions are postulated and debates occur in order to create a moderate formulation, agreed upon by politicians and parliamentarians, with a conciliatory, consensus upon compromise. For them, the issue is not about right or wrong or truth or falsehood. Instead the issue is about creating compromise between different parties. They boast of moderation, considering the moderate solution in politics to be ideal amongst them. They closely and consequentially connected moderation to democracy, as an indispensable part of it. It is true that moderation with this meaning is the malicious idea to dilute matters, mix truth with falsehood and the correct with the wrong. This would lead to loss for humans and society, whereby hypocrisy and lies would prevail, whilst people would turn away from seeking truth and guidance.

3- Since secularism separates religion from life, it says that the treatments to take care of the affairs of people in life emerges from man himself. Thus the human mind is that which defines the good and the evil (khair and sharr respectively) and the pretty [pleasant] and ugly (Hasan and qabeeH respectively) and sovereignty belongs to man. So, man proceeds in his life according to the system which he desires and chooses. This is corrupted philosophy as we have clarified before, because man is incapable of creating an accurate system, without having disparity, contradiction and differences.

Upon looking at the reality of the West, one can see the extent of contradiction and disparity in the legislations drafted by the Western reason. Western societies have become the domain of experiments conducted by lawyers,

judges, lawmakers and politicians. There exist no rights without restrictions, no laws without being changed or amended and no article without being appended by dozens of interpretations and explanations. It is to the point that constitutions and canons have become a toy in the hands of politicians, who change and amend articles continuously. Thus, the hands of the absurd have been extended to the foundations and values of the capitalist ideology. For example, the West have disfigured the notion of freedom and human rights within anti-terrorism laws. This indicates the corruption of this intellectual basis and its inability to find treatments to reality, except by changing and amending its foundational concepts, upon which treatments to human problems emerged.