(Series of Answers by the Eminent Scholar Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah, Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir, to the Questions of his Facebook Page Followers "Fiqhi")
Answer to Question
To Anas Zein
Question: Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu. What is the ruling on participating in municipal elections?
Answer: Wa Alaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu.
a) Municipal elections, in their origin as services for the people and administrative matters, are permissible in principle. However, many tasks have been assigned to them until they have become—especially in our countries—a government apparatus that engages in the government's politics and rallies people in support of it, in addition to the fact that they handle the licensing of matters that are prohibited by Sharia.
b) The reality of the municipality is that it is not independent in itself to perform administrative services; rather, it is an executive organ that practically belongs to the government. Consequently, the authority obliges it to carry out any political activity it desires, in addition to the fact that it handles its funds in an illegitimate way. Therefore, the Sharia ruling regarding it is not based on it being an administrative service institution independent of the political authority; rather, it is subordinate to the apparatuses of the regime, not only nominally but also practically. The government can cancel the decisions of the municipal council even if they were taken unanimously.
c) Therefore, participation in them is not permissible from this perspective. Had they been in their original state—"services and administrative work" within the limits of the permissible—it would have been allowed to participate in them. In other words, we do not participate in these elections as long as the reality of the municipalities is as mentioned. As for when it would be permissible to participate, it is when these municipalities are administrative institutions without the interference of the political authority in them.
Your brother, Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah
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