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Radical Islamic party convenes in London

Radical Islamic party convenes in London - International Herald Tribune

By Jane Perlez Published: August 5, 2007

LONDON: A radical Islamic party that has become a
focus of attention in Britain, with calls in Parliament for its
prohibition, began a frontal attack on its critics this weekend at a
carefully stage-managed conference in London that attracted several
thousands of well-dressed, mostly professional Muslims.

Calls of "Allahu Akbar," or God is great, punctuated the leaders'
speeches at the conference held by Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of
Liberation, a group that calls for a caliphate in Muslim countries, the
end of Israel and the withdrawal of all Western interests in the Middle
East.

"There is no Islam as a way of life without a Khilafah," said Kamal
Abuzahra, an Islamic academic of Bangladeshi origin, using the Arabic
work for caliphate and earning a roar of approval from the crowd
segregated into his and hers sections.

The conference was titled, "Khilafah, The Need and the Method."

The chairman of the party, Abdul Wahid, a medical doctor in Harrow,
England, took on Britain's political leadership: "They say: 'You preach
hate.' I preach a hatred of the lies of people in this country that
send soldiers to Iraq. I preach a hatred of torture."

Other speakers assailed the British government for linking the group
to terrorism and for too often treating British Muslims as terror
suspects.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, founded in the early 1950s by a Palestinian judge
dissatisfied with the Muslim Brotherhood, has existed in Britain for a
number of years, and remains legal in other Western countries,
including the United States, where it has less appeal than here.

In the aftermath of the botched terror attacks in London and
Glasgow, there were renewed calls for the prohibition of Hizb
ut-Tahrir, on the grounds that although the group proclaims advocating
peaceful means for winning the Caliphate, its rhetoric can encourage
Muslims onto a path toward terrorism.

Some analysts describe Hizb ut-Tahrir as "soft jihadists"; others contend that it veers beyond that.

"The only difference between Islamists from Hizb ut-Tahrir and
jihadists is that the former are waiting for their state and caliph
before they commend jihad, while the latter believes the time for jihad
is now," said Ed Husain, a former member of Hizb ut-Tahrir who has
criticized the group in a recent book, "The Islamist."

Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in a number of Muslim countries,
particularly those that feel vulnerable to its calls for the overthrow
of their governments - including Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The group was proscribed by the German Interior Ministry in 2003 for
"spreading hate and violence," under a chapter in the Constitution that
is often used to clamp down on anti-Semitism. Hizb ut-Tahrir is
appealing that ban.

In Britain, Hizb ut-Tahrir has waxed and waned, enjoying
considerable strength in the mid-1990s, when members recalled that it
attracted a crowd of many thousands to a meeting at Wembley Stadium.

The party, which does not announce membership numbers, remains
potent on British university campuses, frequently fields speakers on
television talk shows, and runs a slick Web site that falls short of
running into problems with British law.

During Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first question time in the
House of Commons last month, the leader of the Conservative Party,
David Cameron, asked the new Labour leader why Hizb ut-Tahrir had not
been banned.

Cameron said the group was "poisoning the minds of young people and
has said that Jews should be killed wherever they are found."

Brown replied that he had only been in office a short while and would look into it.

But John Reid, the former home secretary, jumped in, saying there
was not sufficient evidence under British laws to ban the organization.

That, say British officials, is the nub of the problem. Even under
the new 2006 anti-terrorism law that prohibits the glorification of
terrorism, Hizb ut-Tahrir cannot be prosecuted, a British government
official said.

"They are very savvy, very sophisticated, they know how far they can push," the official said.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged last year by the
Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, to ban the group on the grounds
that it "brainwashes people and that leads to violent acts," a senior
Pakistani official said. The British Foreign Office received a similar
message from Pakistani officials last month.

During a lunch break in the sunny courtyard of the Alexandra Palace,
a 19th-century brick pile in northern London, conference-goers -
information technology managers, bankers and teachers - told of the
appeal of the ideology of a Caliphate in the Muslim world.

"If you look at the political structure in the Muslim world, it's a
police state," said Mohammed Baig, 28, a second-generation British
Indian who is an asset manager specializing in corporate governance.
"You have the public opinion underground, and then staged public
opinion in the media."

Most people in the Muslim world want the introduction of Sharia, or
Islamic law, said Baig, who said he had been a member of the group for
seven years.

"Our feeling is: What gives Western governments the right to impose
a set of values on a people who don't believe in them?" he said,
referring to the United States and Britain pushing for democratic
values in the Middle East.

Asked about Hizb ut-Tahrir as a conveyor belt to terrorism, Baig
said: "I'm not going to say Hizb ut-Tahrir has been a perfect
organization for 20 years. There are people who have come and gone in
the organization. An atmosphere was created in the youth in the mid
'90s, mistakes were made."

Some of the most ardent adherence to the party's ideas about a Caliphate was expressed by women members at the conference.

Rubina Ahmed, 33, a mother of four who came on a charter bus from
Manchester, said, "It's the in-depthness of the caliphate that I like."
Hizb ut-Tahrir "doesn't compromise on the values of Islam and it's not
afraid to speak out for what it wants."

Why did Hizb ut-Tahrir not work for the goal of the Caliphate in
Britain, asked someone in the audience during a question-and-answer
session.

"We focus our work where we can get the quickest results," Abuzahra said.

August 6, 2007 at 09:38 AM in Middle East, Muslim background | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home