Press Release

Corruption Cannot Be Eliminated Except by Eliminating the System That Produces the Corrupt

(Translated)

In the early hours of Sunday, 28/6/2026, the Iraqi government carried out an arrest campaign which it described as "Dawn Strike" against dozens of officials, including members of parliament, on charges related to corruption and the misappropriation of public funds. Thus far, the campaign has resulted in the seizure of tens of millions of dollars, tens of billions of Iraqi dinars, as well as dozens of properties, luxury vehicles, and quantities of gold. The campaign has received widespread public support, accompanied by calls for the measures to continue and for their scope to be expanded to include all those implicated without exception, in reference to the "big fish" who have been sitting on the chests of the Iraqis for the past 23 years.

But is this the solution and the effective cure for Iraq's problems?

Whoever examines the matter carefully will clearly realize that the problem in Iraq is not solved by patching up the system and arresting some corrupt individuals while making them scapegoats. These people are the inevitable product of a corrupt system. Unless this satanic system, which has nested in the country, breeds, multiplies, and continues producing this enormous amount of corruption, is eradicated, then all attempts to eliminate corruption by pursuing corrupt individuals will end in failure. Changing faces and replacing individuals will not bring about any real change so long as the political system that produces this corruption remains in place. Rather, it serves only to polish the image of the government and provide media material to promote American support for it, especially as this campaign came ahead of the anticipated visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi to Washington.

It is superficial thinking for the Iraqi public to imagine that the American occupier seeks to eliminate corruption and present itself as the savior and deliverer from the suffering of the Iraqi people. Is anyone unaware that the condition to which the country has deteriorated is the result of the American occupation and the system it imposed upon us, supported, entrenched, institutionalized through sectarian power-sharing, and protected its own corrupt agents? How, then, can it be reasonable for the cause of the problem to become its cure?!

O Muslims in Iraq: A disease cannot be eliminated by preoccupying oneself with its symptoms; rather, the disease itself must be eradicated so that its symptoms disappear. The real problem of the country is the corrupt political system. The Islamic obligation upon the Muslims is to obey the command of Allah and respond to Him by working to remove this corrupt system and establish the rule of Allah (swt), for it alone is the solution to all problems and the healing balm for every wound.

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَأَنَّهُ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ]

“O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered.” [Surah Al-Anfal:24]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

in Wilayah Iraq