About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

6 Oct 2010

Air Force Of The Islamic State


In the modern age, any nation that wants to ensure its borders are impenetrable needs a strong and technologically advanced air force. An air force is part of the national armed forces which conducts aerial warfare. An nation's air force also provides close air support (CAS) to its armed forces and allies.

The various air forces in existance today consist of fighter aircrafts, transport aircrafts, bombers, reconnaissance aircrafts and a number of other types of aircraft. Since WW2 aircrafts have played a pivotal role in the outcome of many battles and wars. Aircrafts played a significant role in World War I & II, the Falklands war, and the Gulf wars.

A nation with air superiority will have control of the skies and hence a major advantage over its opponents. These reasons alone make it essential for a future Khilafah to field the best air force in the world. The head of the air force in the Khilafah will be the Chief of Air Staff (Highest post within the air force) and this post will report to the Ameer of Jihad and the Khaleefah is the Commander in-Chief. The Chief of Air Staff will be responsible for managing and upgrading the air force. There will be various divisions within the air force and each division will have a specific responsibility. For example some divisions will be dedicated to carrying out surveillance whilst other divisions will be dedicated to carrying out aerial warfare; these divisions will primarily consist of fighter jets.

Muslim World

The Khilafah will make use of the current infrastructure that exists within the Muslim world which is used to design and develop aircrafts. The state will also take ownership of the current aircrafts that exist within the air forces of the Muslim world as these assets are the property of the state. The existing aircrafts will be used to defend the Khilafah from its inception. Countries such as Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia have made advancements in military aviation.

The Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has been producing fighter aircraft under license and this includes a total of 232 F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft for the Turkish Air Force. Many of the F-16s built by Turkish Aerospace Industries were also exported to other countries. The Turkish Aerospace Industries also manufactures the following hardware:

• Panels for the Airbus 319/320/321 aircraft
• Wing tips and flight deck panels for Boeing 737 aircraft
• Rear doors and engine cowlings for Eurocopter EC135 helicopters
• Nose landing gear doors for the Boeing 747
• UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)

Pakistan has the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) which assembles and manufactures aircraft for the Pakistani air force. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex has also developed the MFI-17 Mushshak which is used as a trainer by the Pakistani air force. The facility also carries out maintenance on various fighter jets such as the F-16 and Dassault Mirage 5. Pakistan and China jointly developed the JF-17 Thunder (4th generation fighter jet). Pakistan has also created cruise missiles which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Turkish and Pakistani fighter pilots are among some of the best fighter pilots in the world. Pakistani fighter pilots provide training to pilots of other Muslim countries. Fighter pilots from Pakistan participated in the 1967 Arab-Israeli 'Six-Day' War siding with the Muslims of the Arab countries.

Iran has developed the Saeqeh-80 single-seater fighter jet. The Indonesian Aerospace Company (IAE) has been designing and developing parts for various aircrafts and it currently produces the NC212 (transport aircraft) under license. Currently a number of Muslim countries possess air defenses and these air defenses constitute various ground-to-air missiles (GTAM), jamming devices, radars and many other aspects which are required for an effective air defence. Air defences are used in conjunction with the air force with the purpose of protecting a nation's borders.

There airbases are dotted all over the Muslim world and this is an advantage that the Khilafah will have from its inception. The airbases will provide the Khilafah with an opportunity to deploy aircrafts and ground forces anywhere within the Khilafah at a moment's notice. If there were to be natural disasters, the airbases will also be used for relief operations.

The Khilafah will ensure that it enhances the current infrastructure that exists within the Muslim world so that the state can design and develop both civilian and fighter aircrafts independently without assistance from outside. The air force of the Khilafah will have the following advantages:

• Control over strategic international airspace and naval straits

• Access to large reserves of oil and other natural resources which will be required to develop and power the air force

• One of the largest and technologically advanced air forces in the world

Strengths

The Muslim world is situated in a strategic geographical position giving the Khilafah control of a strategic airspace. Therefore both military and civilian aircrafts of other nations will have to seek permission from the Khilafah to fly through its air space. Today, the US and its allies have launched air attacks against Muslim countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan due to corrupt Muslim governments giving permission to the US and its allies to fly through their air space and this is the fundamental reason why the US and its allies were successful in the air. Had permission been refused to the US and its allies, it would have been very difficult for the US and its allies to launch an air assault upon Iraq and Afghanistan. For an air force to carry out an assault operation on a country, it requires friendly airspace which is in close proximity to the country that will be attacked. For example an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) or an air refuelling tanker requires friendly airspace to fly over as these types of aircrafts cannot fly over hostile territory.

Currently Muslim countries lack development in a number of key areas, which are essential for developing a strong air force. The Muslim countries lack development in aircraft carriers (a warship with the primary objective of deploying and recovering aircraft), air to air refueling technology, AWACS technology and many other aspects which are required to gain air superiority. The Khilafah will have policies in place that will drive forward the design and development of the necessary technology that will be required for gaining air superiority. The state will need to set up institutions that will be dedicated to nurturing aerospace engineers. These engineers will be responsible for the design and development of different types of aircraft (military and civilian), aircraft carriers, guided missiles, aircraft engines, helicopters, propulsion units and other related parts. The institutions will also be responsible for producing fighter pilots and pilots for civilian usage. The Khilafah will need to ensure that these institutions provide the best training in the world. To project an image of strength to the world, the Khilafah will provide military hardware to its allies and conduct military exercises with them.

It will take time for the Khilafah to gain air superiority. If we look at the US, it took them decades through trial and error to achieve air superiority. Despite the corrupt Muslim Governments, the Muslim world has had some limited success in the aviation field. If a sincere leadership arises within the Muslim world, this leadership will unite the Muslim world leading to the natural resources, pilots and aerospace engineers of the Muslim world merging together with the aim of developing the best air force in the world. This will aid the state in spreading Islam throughout the world. The main reason why the US has the best air force in the world is due to its vision; which is to dominate the world and be the leading nation. Any nation with global aspirations will succeed in attaining dominance as its vision will push it to acquire economic and technological might allowing it to become a super power.

The Khilafah has a vision which is to spread Islam to the whole world, and this vision will naturally push the Khilafah state to acquire technological and economic strength. At its height the Khilafah had control over large swathes of the world and the majority of the technological advancements of the time emanated from the Khilafah. This was due to the vision of the Khilafah which was to spread the light of Islam to the world.


Article written by Amar Khan
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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]