Anyone who reflects on the state of the Islamic Ummah today, and the state of the Arabs in particular, after the failure of the first wave of the Arab Spring revolutions, will realize that the second wave is inevitably coming, and that the ground is boiling under the feet of the tyrants, but this time with stronger conditions, deeper awareness, and greater discontent.

The factors that led to the outbreak of the first revolutions are still present, and have even worsened. The regimes that were formed, after the revolutions were aborted, are nothing but weaker than a spider's web, based on treachery, subservience to the West, injustice, and oppression.

If we examine Egypt, we find that the unemployment rate has risen and the external debt has jumped from $34.9 billion (14.9% of GDP) under Mubarak to more than $88.1 billion (36.8%) under el-Sisi. Unemployment has increased, poverty has spread, and prisons are overflowing with tens of thousands of innocent people, while a handful of corrupt individuals enjoy the country's wealth.

In Libya, the country was divided, plunged into fighting, its people displaced, and its infrastructure destroyed, until it became a breeding ground for international intervention and political mercenary activity.

In Tunisia, the regime turned against those who had even accepted democratic solutions, and returned the country to an era of police dictatorship, defying the people and not caring about them or their suffering.

As for Yemen and Sudan, they have been torn apart, divided among regional and international powers, and poverty, destruction, and displacement have worsened. Bloodshed continues day and night.

In Ash-Sham, the beating heart of the revolution, the West, through its tools, and at the forefront of them the “Arab Erdogan of the Golan,” succeeded in diverting the compass of the revolution from demanding the establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) and the implementation of Islam, to merely changing faces, so they created an agent government that was more subservient and submissive to the West.

However, despite this darkness, the Ummah has not died, and will not die, for it still has sincere men, believing youth, and patient women, who call out, “It is for Allah (swt), not for power or prestige.”

The coming wave will be unlike any before it. This time, it is not merely a passing movement or a temporary outcry of anger, but a true earthquake shaking the foundations of the oppressive, subservient regimes that have ruled the Ummah with an iron fist for decades. These are regimes that were left on their thrones after the Khilafah was destroyed, and were empowered to control their people through international deals and colonialist interventions. They know nothing of Islam but its name, and nothing of governance but its repression. All these regimes are now reeling and crumbling under the blows of reality. Their true nature has been exposed before their own people and the entire Ummah. What has further laid bare this exposure is the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, which stripped away the last fig leaves from the regimes’ treachery, and revealed their betrayal of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and the vital cause of the Ummah. People today need no proof; they have witnessed the official Arab betrayal firsthand, heard the deadly silence, and even seen the blatant conspiracy of some rulers against Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and Gaza. To doubt their treachery is now a form of spiritual blindness.

The Ummah is boiling today; crises are piling up, injustice is multiplying, hunger is increasing, and fear of tomorrow is gnawing at people’s hearts. It is only a matter of historical moments before the patience of the people explodes, not with a traditional revolution, but with a new wave that is more intense, mature, and aware than its predecessors. The Ummah has realized that the reason for the setbacks, calamities, and crises it is experiencing is the replacement of Islam with the rulings of Western disbelief (kufr) and the importation of democracy and secularism as a system of government, economy, and society, and the imposition of them by force, cunning, and deception on the necks of Muslims.

After the fall of the Khilafah, colonialism spread its culture through media and education, installing agent rulers and Western-aligned religious figures who issued fatwas to appease tyrants and misled the Ummah in the name of Islam. They turned democracy into a new idol, claiming that corruption stemmed not from democracy itself, but from its implementation! This is a lie and a deception, for democracy, in its essence, is legislation without divine authority, and it contradicts the Islamic 'Aqeedah (creed) and the rulings of Shariah.

Therefore, genuine, radical change can only occur with a clear objective and means. The objective is the establishment of the Second Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood, and the means is aware political action, intellectual conflict, and political activism to fully establish Islamic ruling governance. This is especially crucial after everyone has come to realize that the root of the corruption that has permeated all aspects of life lies primarily in the corruption of the governing system. The turning point that enabled the enemies of Islam to control the course of the Ummah was the fall of the Khilafah in 1342 AH, 1924 CE. Since then, Islam has become alien to the systems of ruling governance and absent from the lives of people.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) warned us against this when he said, «لَتُنْقَضَنَّ عُرَى الإِسْلامِ عُرْوَةً عُرْوَةً، فَكُلَّما انْتَقَضَتْ عُرْوَةٌ تَشَبَّثَ النَّاسُ بِالَّتِي تَلِيها، فَأَوَّلُهُنَّ نَقْضاً الْحُكْمُ، وَآخِرُهُنَّ الصَّلاةُ» “The bonds of Islam will be broken one by one. Whenever a bond is broken, people will cling to the one that follows it. The first of them to be broken will be ruling governance, and the last of them will be Salah.” When this understanding is firmly established in the minds of the people of the Ummah, a general awareness will arise among them that our current reality is not Islamic in its systems, nor in its culture, nor in its values. Instead, it is a reality imposed by the disbelieving, colonialist West, which contradicts Islam from its roots.

At this point, the course of thinking changes. People are no longer deceived by changing names and faces, but realize that real change must be radical, not cosmetic. The intention behind “establishing Islam” is not to raise some slogans or apply some Shariah rulings within a corrupt reality, but rather to uproot the roots of corruption and change the entire reality according to the methodology of Islam.

From here, it should be clear that the battle the Ummah is waging is a complete and comprehensive battle in all its dimensions. The radical solution can only be achieved through a revolution based on Islam, which uproots the rulers of shame and disgrace and restores the Ummah to its leadership position for humanity.

Here, there is no place for the despairing, the alarmists, or those with a superficial view, who constitute an obstacle to any genuine revival. The Ummah is now undergoing a historical transformation and needs men and women who possess awareness of Shariah politics, who understand reality, and who lead the Ummah with insight and integrity. They must not embellish falsehood or appease the oppressors, but instead remain steadfast on the path of genuine change. It is unacceptable for the revolution to be led by those who limit their aspirations to what the West permits, or by those who reduce their project to reforming the system instead of uprooting it. The coming revolution, if it is to achieve genuine change and rescue the Ummah from its current predicament, must be a revolution of awareness, not merely an explosion of anger. It must be a revolution led by men who possess a unified and comprehensive vision, and a complete civilizational project emanating from Islamic ‘Aqeedah (creed) and based on a precise understanding of the Ummah's reality and the nature of the conflict.

These men must possess clear plans for transitioning from the reality of agent regimes and oppressive rule to the implementation of the Shariah Law under a Khilafah on the Method of the Prophethood, in the shortest possible time. This is crucial to prevent a political vacuum that could be exploited by forces of disbelief (kufr), as occurred in the first wave of revolutions. Continuing to revolve in a cycle of “revolution - superficial change - frustration - then another revolution” will not restore to the Ummah its glory. Instead, it will perpetuate its miserable reality unless the very mechanism of thought changes. The major problem is not sincerity, for the Islamic Ummah is sincere, but, instead, the imported ideologies imposed upon it have corrupted its understanding, to the point that it now makes reality, rather than Islamic ‘Aqeedah , the source of legislation.

The conflict today is not a limited, national conflict as they claim, but rather a civilizational conflict between the Muslim World and the disbelieving, colonialist West. Anyone who fails to grasp this reality is unfit to lead change. Whoever does not carry a complete project based on the Noble Quran and Prophetic Sunnah, and does not act with the determination of the believers, and with unshakeable confidence that Allah (swt) is the Supporter of this Deen, will not establish a Deen, will not liberate a land, and will not bring the Ummah out of the darkness of capitalism into the light of Islam.

We in Hizb ut Tahrir have dedicated ourselves to implementing Shariah Law of Allah (swt) and establishing the Khilafah. We ask Allah (swt) to place us in the front line of this fateful struggle, a struggle to liberate the awareness of the Ummah, to return it to its comprehensive Islamic identity, and to remind its children of their authentic Islamic roots, after they were distorted by centuries of colonialism, cultural and intellectual invasion, from a Crusader campaign, a British-French occupation, and a fierce American hegemony.

We ask Allah (swt) that the first goal of the coming revolution be to remove all that has stuck in the minds of the Ummah’s people regarding the legitimacy of the contemporary pre-Islamic reality, which was built after the fall of the Khilafah, the destruction of the Dar ul-Islam (Abode of Islam), and the obliteration of the Shariah Law of the Lord of the Worlds, Allah (swt). For Islam has been transformed in a hundred years and more into an isolated, priestly religion, after it was a Deen of ruling governance and legislation, which directed all of life, governed politics, the economy, and society, and led humanity towards the light.

O Sons and Daughters of Islam: Islam is not meant to patch up capitalism, nor to polish its ugly face. Islam’s role is not to adapt to injustice, but to eradicate it at its roots. Islam’s role is to lead humanity from the darkness of capitalism, to the light of Islam; from its oppression and crimes to the justice and security of Islam. Islam came to liberate humanity from the injustice of man-made systems to the justice of Shariah; from the enslavement of man by his fellow man to the servitude of Allah (swt) Alone, without any partners. This is the Islam we seek to establish — the Islam that governs the world, not the Islam that is relegated to a corner and weakened.

So be Ansar (supporters) of this Deen, and stand with those who work to restore it to its rightful place: a leader of humanity, not a follower; a ruler, not a ruled; a dignified Ummah, not a humiliated one. There is no salvation for the Ummah except through a Khilafah that unifies its scattered people, restores its authority, implements its Shariah Law, and carries its risaalah (message) to the world. Allah (swt) has promised us this,

[إِن تَنصُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ يَنصُرۡكُمۡ وَيُثَبِّتۡ أَقۡدَامَكُمۡ]

“If you support Allah (swt), He will support you and make your foothold firm” [TMQ Surah Muhammad: 7]. Supporting Allah (swt) means supporting His Deen, implementing His Shariah Law, and establishing His state. And we are certain, by the Permission of Allah (swt), that the coming Spring will be the Spring of the Khilafah. Allah (swt) said,

[وَسَيَعۡلَمُ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوٓاْ أَيَّ مُنقَلَبٖ يَنقَلِبُونَ]

“And those who have wronged will know to what kind of return they will be returned” [TMQ Surah Ash-Shu'ara: 227].

Allah (swt) said,

[وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَىٰ هُوَۖ قُلۡ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُونَ قَرِيبٗا]

“They say, “When will it be?” Say, “Perhaps it will be soon”” [TMQ Surah Al-Israa’: 51].