Around 130,000 Muslims have attended the biggest Khilafah conference in Islamic history in Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Hizb ut-Tahrir held the conference titled “Big change of the World towards Khilafah”. Prior to this, 30 regional conferences were organized by HT Indonesia in various stages during the month of Rajab.
The conference included speakers and participants from around the globe including Australia, Lebanon, Europe, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan and elsewhere.
Numbers
The event started at 8am Indonesia time and by then the stadium was already around two thirds full. Bung Karno stadium was effectively at a capacity crowd of roughly a 100,000 people within an hour.
5 Pillarz was told by HT Indonesia that the demand for the conference was so great and so many tickets were sold that the athletics track around the field was also used as a seating area. This brought the total number of people inside the stadium to about 110,000.
There were also roughly 20,000 people outside of the stadium, so between 130,000 – 140,000 people would be a relatively safe approximation.
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Atmosphere
Hamzah Qureshi, an attendee from Australia described to 5 Pillarz the atmosphere. He said: “The environment was incredible. It is truly difficult to express in words. It felt quite surreal in the sense that the atmosphere was so lively, electric and completely consuming.”
“You felt as though you were one amongst many. There was joy in appreciating the goodness of the Ummah, it’s unity and its insistence on calling only for Islam and the Khilafah.”
“But there was also sadness in the fact that the world today does not have the Khilafah and is suffering terribly due to that. Overall however, the atmosphere was phenomenal.”
Main message of the conference
The main message of the conference was that the world is experiencing a great and imminent transition towards the Islamic Khilafah. This theme allowed for a number of topics to be addressed and some exploration of issues such as secular liberalism, democracy, capitalism, and then subsequently looking at the Khilafah as an alternative solution.
Mr Qureshi said: “The unified call for the Khilafah was awe-inspiring, humbling and mesmerizing. From all around the world, from the rich to the poor, from the famous former Indonesian rock star Hari Mukti, to your everyday Muslim, there was only one thing on the minds of the people at the conference, and that was the Khilafah.”
HT Indonesia said to 5 Pillarz: “HT has maintained a consistent conceptual course and methodological approach since its inception and has not strayed from this even an inch. It is amazing to see a spectacle so grand that demonstrates the true global traction of the concept of Islam as our only solution through the re-establishment of the Khilafah.”
UK media representative of HT, Taji Mustafa was one of the guest speakers. He said to 5 Pillarz: “Alhamdulillah the event went great. The turnout was over 120,000 and that was only in the stadium. Today’s conference truly demonstrated the zeal and the will power of the Ummah in striving for this noble cause.”
The notion of a unified Muslim world under one ruler and shariah law has come under the spotlight since the Arab Spring demonstrated mass public support for Islamic groups in the Muslim world. However, some say that sectarianism, division, foreign domination and the presence of strong secular forces make the notion of Khilafah an unrealistic prospect.
