Press Release
From “Ministry of Defense” to “Ministry of War”: Time to Reexamine the Meaning of Islamic Defense
(Translated)

With the issuance of an executive order by Donald Trump, the name of the U.S. Department of Defense was officially changed to the “Ministry of War.” This was not merely a change of label; it openly laid bare the aggressive mindset of colonial powers and the West’s occupation-driven foreign policy. Trump stated plainly: “Defense is too defensive...but we want to be offensive, too.”

The West—which for centuries spoke in the language of peace, diplomacy, the international community, and engagement—now unabashedly speaks in the language of offensive war, as they used to do in their colonial imperialistic periods. Meanwhile, the Islamic Ummah, confined within the decayed and restrictive nation-state framework, remains shackled by defensive terminology and submission-oriented policies. Once, Muslims took pride in jihad, conquest, and carrying Islam’s message; today, the highest aspiration across Muslim lands has been reduced to defensive warfare and “liberation from occupation.”

As the West openly proclaims an offensive posture, the Muslim Ummah must return to its foundations. From the outset, the Prophet’s (saw) state in al-Madinah was assertive—not for colonialism, crime, or genocide like the West, but to carry Islam and guide humanity. Islam’s foreign policy was, from the beginning, built on making the religion manifest and breaking false boundaries, to bring humanity from the oppression of (other) religions to the justice of Islam.

[هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَىٰ وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ]

“He is the One who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth so that He may make it prevail over all religion, even if the polytheists detest it.” [Al-Saff 61:9]

In truth, the mission of making the Deen manifest is neither confined by borders nor definable within the secular international order. Islam was revealed for global authority. It is the Ummah’s duty to manifest the Deen through dawah and jihad, so that the religion of Allah (swt) prevails over other religions and ideologies. Yet from the nineteenth century onward—and especially after the fall of the Caliphate—through the spread of the nation-state order and the adoption of defensive policies, the spirit of offensive initiative was stripped from the Muslim Ummah. The colonizers, meanwhile, continued their onslaught under the slogans of peace and stability: they occupied lands and, as we witness today in Gaza, massacred segments of the Muslim community before the eyes of the world. Even so, Muslim rulers—whose ministers of war are styled “ministers of defense”—confine themselves to guarding national borders and honoring restrictive treaties. Bound by defensive, nationalist policies, these rulers have chosen silence, and—leaning on Western political concepts—have recast such passivity and retreat as prudence, expediency, and statesmanship.

The West now seeks once more to advance its colonial aims under the banner of offensive war. Are the Islamic Ummah—and the rulers of Afghanistan—prepared to cast aside defensive labels and redefine their role? Has the time not come to break through borders, to strive for the succor of the oppressed, and to restore jihad—not merely as defense against occupation, but in its broader form as a method of foreign policy—to the agenda?

Therefore, we must abandon economy-centered, “balanced,” defensive policies and revive the authentic course by establishing the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate). For only the Caliphate upon the Prophetic Method grounds its foreign policy in dawah and jihad—so that Islam may prevail on earth and fitnah be removed.

[وَقاتِلُوهُمْ حَتّى لا تَكونَ فِتْنَةٌ وَيَكونَ الدِّينُ كُلُّهُ لِلَّهِ] “And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion is entirely for Allah.” [Al-Baqarah 2:193]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Afghanistan