Exclusive: Hizb ut-Tahrir: Banned Elsewhere But Not in the US: Why?
(Part Three of Four)


Author: Adrian Morgan

Date Published: 2007-09-19


 

While there is no proof of Hizb ut-Tahrir being directly involved in terrorist acts, it has attracted members who openly practice violence. FSM Contributing Editor Adrian Morgan describes ways the group intimidates others – from universities, to mosques, to the streets of South London.

 

Hizb ut-Tahrir: Banned Elsewhere But Not in the US: Why?

(Part Three of Four)

 

By Adrian Morgan

 

 Intellectualism or Incitement?

 

 

Hizb ut-Tahrir presents itself as an intellectual group, but there is a gap between what it professes and what is practically possible. It claims to be non-violent, yet argues for the installation of a world-wide Caliphate. To institute a new "world order" would unavoidably lead to violence. Political revolutions, by their nature, involve some amount of violence. There have been few examples of bloodless revolution. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" of the former Czechoslovakia was bloodless, yet could have been crushed with violence, had the Soviets so desired.

 

The founder of HT, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, spent much time discussing the nature of thought, but such sophistry is limited by its dogma. He believed that Islam was rational and therefore could be promoted through persuasion and rational discussion. Contradicting this, he maintained that the Koran cannot be questioned, and is thus beyond the bounds of true discussion. Persuading non-Muslims to accept Islam as a political system which allows no dissent from the tenets of one book would naturally result in conflict. This conflict was specifically alluded to on the group's U.K. website last November (since removed). The statement claimed that Hizb ut-Tahrir "also aims to bring back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world."

 

For Nabhani's successors in Hizb ut-Tahrir the "non-violence" paradox is not resolved. The dogma assumes that there can be rational discussions to implement a non-negotiable fundamentalism. Violence is officially eschewed, but HT promises that all social and political ills would be solved under a Caliphate, as explained in a tract I took from their U.K. website in 2005:

 

Its aim is to resume the Islamic way of life and to convey the Islamic da'wah to the world. This objective means bringing the Muslims back to living an Islamic way of life in Dar al-Islam and in an Islamic society such that all of life's affairs in society are administered according to the Shari'ah rules, and the viewpoint in it is the halal and the haram under the shade of the Islamic State, which is the Khilafah State.

 

How people would live under such a Caliphate is spelled out in detail in its "draft constitution" (for the proposed Caliphate). Within parts of the Islamic world (Dar al-Islam, the "abode of submission") it may be possible to persuade Muslims to achieve such goals, but for democratic, non-Muslim lands (Dar al-Harb, "the abode of war"), or even democratic or clan-ruled Muslim lands, implementation will be harder to achieve without violence or extensive manipulation.

 

GlobalSecurity.org succinctly describes HT's proposed three-step strategy:

 

The first involves educating Muslims about its philosophies and goals. In the second step, the Muslims would then spread these views among others in their countries, especially members of government, the military and other power centers. In the third and final step, Hizb ut-Tahrir believes its faithful will cause secular governments to crumble because loyalties will then lie solely with Islam – not nationalities, politics or ethnic identifications.

 

Effectively, the strategy will involve indoctrination, infiltration, and undermining national stability. The arrival of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the Central Asian republics exemplifies all three modes, particularly undermining stability. In Tajikistan, for example, HT arrived in a country already destabilized by a civil war (1992 to 1997). In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Hizb ut-Tahrir already appears to have infiltrated parts of the government administration. On September 3, 2007 it was revealed that two HT activists from Kara-Suu were able to have new identities issued to them in August, apparently with the assistance of municipal officials. The identification included birth and military registration certificates and medical security cards.

 

Such infiltration has happened in Britain, where HT has a strong following. In November last year it was revealed that Hizb member Abid Javaid works in the U.K. government's Immigration and Nationality Directorate, part of the Home Office. 41-year-old Javaid had been issued with a government grant to mount an HT exhibition. He is also one of the HT organizers at Croydon mosque in south London. At this mosque, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been involved in attempts to radicalize worshippers, using violence. This has gone on for years, to the consternation of the mosque administration.

 

Activities at Croydon mosque were reported by the BBC in November 2006 (video here). Journalist Richard Watson spoke to Shuaib Yusaf, one of Croydon mosque's administrators. Mr. Yusaf spoke of how HT members had instigated fights in the street outside the mosque. This "gang warfare", as Mr. Yusaf described it, involved knives and even a sword.

 

An undercover member of HT, code-named "Jay," gave testimony. He said he was part of a five-man cell, one of 50 within the south London region. To gain full membership he had to gain five more recruits, part of a pyramid structure. To prove his allegiance to HT, he was told to "mug" a non-Muslim on the street. He said that he was told: "It's all right to hurt non-believers...They asked me to take money from three guys...by force."

 

The BBC reported that while filming, information came that some HT members were intending to fire-bomb a synagogue. Incendiary substances were located in woodland, at the same time as police arrived. As expected, HT's official spokesman, Dr. Abdul Wahid, disassociated Hizb ut-Tahrir from the claims made in the report.

 

 

There have recently been high-profile defections of Islamists from Hizb ut-Tahrir U.K. These individuals – Ed Husain, Shiraz Maher and Maajid Nawaz – are still Muslims, but have rejected the methods and ideology of HT. Maajid Nawaz, who grew up in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, had spent years in jail in Egypt for promoting HT, which has been banned in Egypt since 1974. Nawaz (center in picture), along with two other British nationals and 23 Egyptians, had been convicted in 2004. Sentenced to five years' jail for membership of a banned group, Nawaz and his British companions were released in February 2006.

 

After 12 years' membership, he now condemns HT, saying: "They are prepared to, once they've established the state, to fight other countries and to kill people in the pursuit of unifying this state into one state. And what I'd like to emphasize is that such a policy is not agreed upon within Islamic theology.. I think that what I taught has not only damaged British society and British Muslim relations and damaged the position of Muslims in this society as British citizens, I think it's damaged the world."

 

It was in his Egyptian prison that Nawaz discovered that "what I had been propagating was far from true Islam. I began to realise that what I had subscribed to was actually Islamism sold to me in the name of Islam...Now I am involved in trying to counter the black and white mindset that I once so vehemently encouraged. Although I was young when I was recruited to Hizb ut-Tahrir, I take full responsibility for my actions. I made the decisions that I did and I am responsible for undoing them. With this in mind I hope to publish a series of papers reevaluating certain core Islamist ideas that are essential to their message."

 

Ed Husain (a pseudonym) is the author of The Islamist, an account of his times in Hizb ut-Tahrir. Within a week of the book's publication, he was receiving death threats. He states: "From my involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir I know it to be a sophisticated organisation: it rarely ever pulls the trigger. It raises the temperature and allows others to do the deed. That is how the murder of an innocent young man, Ayotunde Obonobi, took place in Newham in 1995." Husain had attended Newham College when the Nigerian student was murdered by Hizb followers.

 

Husain recently wrote: " The rhetoric of jihad introduced by Hizb ut-Tahrir in my days was the preamble to 7/7 and several other attempted attacks. By proscribing Hizb ut-Tahrir, we would send a strong message to extremists that Britain will not tolerate intolerance."

 

From 2001 to 2005, Shiraz Maher was a regional officer for Hizb ut-Tahrir U.K. in the northeast of England. He also wrote many of the articles produced by HT. He found it hard to leave the group and de-program its ideas from his thinking. He now advises the BBC on political Islam. In a July 4, 2007 video report from the BBC, Maher affirms that there is now a vast disparity between what HT publicly pronounces and what it privately preaches.

 

HT in Britain has exercised this duplicity for some time. Last year, under the "front" name of the East London Youth Forum it organized paint ball sessions as a means to recruitment. Other front groups have been named the Debate Society, the Muslim Women's Cultural Forum, the Islamic Society, the One Nation Society, the Millennium Society, the Pakistan Society and the 1924 Committee.

 

In September 2005 when the group was facing a possible ban, HT used deception to rent meeting rooms at the Quaker Friends House in Euston, North London. Rather than booking the space under their name, the booking was made under the name "Salsa Bill's Publishing House." The meeting was to discuss "Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the Vision of the Caliphate". Only after the booking was secured did the group produce fliers to advertise the event.

 

 In 1995, Hizb ut-Tahrir was banned from university campuses for its rabid anti-Semitism and its physical assaults upon women students who would not wear the hijab or Muslim headscarf. Despite the ban, in October 2005 the group reappeared on campuses, calling itself "Stop Islamophobia." This infiltration was taking place at University College London (UCL), the School of African and Oriental Studies, Luton University and other establishments. Around the same time, it was reported that Hizb ut-Tahrir members had tried to take over the Students Union of a West Yorkshire University, and had once again resumed its campaigns of bullying young women to make them wear the hijab. In the fall of 2005, HT had already taken control of the university's Islamic Society.

 

Techniques of infiltration appear to have taken place within the news media. In September 2005, journalist Shiv Malik reported that two Hizb members were working within the computer firm IBM, and "that Reuters, the international news and financial information agency, has at least one member among its employees." Shortly after the London bombings of 7/7, which killed 52 innocent people, a blogger – Steve Burgess of the Daily Ablution – revealed that a Hizb member was working as a trainee journalist at the Guardian newspaper. This man, Dilpazier Aslam, had even written articles about the London bombings, and co-written profiles of the four suicide bombers.

 

Dilpazier Aslam's Guardian articles show selective bias. An article on a Manchester-based Islamic faith school is entitled: "Islam is the secret of our success." An article celebrating Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, is presented as a cheery discourse on cookery for Guardian readers. He reported on Shabina Begum, a schoolgirl (supported by Hizb ut-Tahrir) who tried to challenge existing school dress regulations to accommodate her Islamist costume. When she won a minor battle, Aslam's article was entitled "I could scream with happiness. I've given hope and strength to Muslim women." Begum later lost her case.

 

Six days after the London bombings, Aslam wrote an article entitled: "We rock the boat – Today's Muslims aren't prepared to ignore injustice." In this, he wrote: "Some 2,749 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. To discover the cost of "liberating" Iraqis you need to multiply that figure by eight, and still you will fall short of the estimated minimum of 22,787 civilian Iraqi casualties to date. But it's not cool to say this, now that London's skyline has also has plumed grey."

 

When Aslam was confronted by his employers, and apparently refused a request to resign from HT, he was fired. He later threatened legal action, but in May 2006 he and the Guardian settled out of court.

 

A case of media bias in an already biased newspaper is infiltration, but not as serious as undermining democracies and societies. In Bangladesh, democracy was suspended indefinitely, amid reports of widespread corruption within the major parties. It is now under a "caretaker" administration. Dominic Whiteman of monitoring group VIGIL has noted that HT has been recruiting Bangladeshis in east London, and has been taking out advertisements in local newspapers for the migrant Bangladeshi community. With the nation of Bangladesh in a political crisis, it seems that HT has designs which would exploit the current situation.

 

 

The "coordinator and spokesman" of the HT in Bangladesh is Mohiuddin Ahmed, who lectures in business management at Dhaka University. He is able to mobilize large gatherings for Islamist causes in the nation. In February 2006 HT mobilized 5,000 people to demonstrate at Dhaka, the capital, against Danish cartoons of Mohammed. Slogans on banners read: "Death to those who degrade our beloved prophet!", "Hang culprits", "Free speech is war on Islam."

 

Shortly after democratic campaigning was suspended this year, members of HT's youth front, the Bangladesh Chhatra Mukti, mounted an active campaign against the respected economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus. In 2006, Yunus won the Noble Peace Prize for his work in establishing the Grameen ("village") Bank. This bank exists by making micro-loans and charging minimal interest, and has lifted untold people in Bangladesh, mostly women, out of the mire of poverty. When Dr. Yunus was due to visit the university to receive an honorary Doctor of Law award, HT's youth wing circulated leaflets condemning him. In protests outside the university, Bangladesh Chhatra Mukti activists waved black flags and called Dr. Yunus an "imperial agent."

 

In July 2004, HT Bangladesh was accused of making death threats against ten individuals. These included politicians, thinkers and journalists. Hizb denied any involvement. Two months before, HT was under suspicion when the British High Commissioner, Anwar Choudary, was injured in a bomb blast at an Islamic shrine in Sylhet, in the northeast of the country. Three people had died. Two days before the attack, Hizb had distributed leaflets around the shrine, condemning the British and Americans.

 

On its website and on the ground, Bangladesh HT has been making capital out of another cartoon crisis, this time involving the drawings of Swedish artist Lars Vilks. In protests made by HT, several people have been arrested, though some have recently been freed.

 

HT in Bangladesh began its life after Khondakar Golam Mowla, a lecturer in management at Dhaka University had gone to study in London in 1993. Here he met Nasimul Gani and Kawsar Shahnewaj. Following Mowla's return to Bangladesh, in 2000 the three individuals established Bangladesh HT. Some of Mowla's opinions can be found here. He is the author of the book "The Election of Caliph/Khalifa and World Peace". In 2005, intelligence officials were concerned that the group would try to mount a coup. During the current political crisis in the country, HT needs to be watched carefully.

 

HT is no stranger to attempts at destabilizing nations, as demonstrated in the volatile environments of the Central Asian republics. It is also active in Africa. Yemen is (with the United Arab Emirates) one of the few Arab nations where HT can operate legally. In Tanzania, HT appears to be deliberately attempting to destabilize the local economy of Zanzibar. This island is semi-autonomous, and most of its economy survives on tourism. IN 2005, a total of 500,00 tourists had visited the island. In September 2006, HT was campaigning on Zanzibar to persuade the Muslim population to turn against tourists. Abbas Hussein, a senior HT leader justified this action by saying: "Tourism is the source of moral and religious decay in Zanzibar. Visitors are just coming here to pollute the culture and religion of Zanzibar."

 

Traditionally, regional leaders of HT have been secretive. In Britain, Jalaluddin Patel, the leader of HT has spoken openly about his role. He can be seen addressing a conference in a YouTube video (nb - it is boring). He told the Jamestown Foundation in 2004 that he had been elected to his role in 2000 and 2002. Patel works in information technology. A lackluster speaker, Patel has been involved in HT UK since 1992, becoming a full member in 1994 when he was 18.

 

When Patel joined the British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, its leader was Omar Bakri Mohammed who was born in Syria in 1958. Unlike Patel, Bakri was immensely charismatic, even though he has openly supported terrorism. In 1991 he issued a "fatwa" against prime minister John Major. While senior leaders are currently defecting from U.K. HT, Bakri was able to attract young members to the group. With a Syrian man named Farid Kassim, Bakri (also called Omar Bakri Fostok) had founded the British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1986. Bakri had been in Saudi Arabia before he arrived in Britain in 1985. He had been expelled from the kingdom after he founded a group called "Al Muhajiroun" (the emigrants) which the Saudi authorities identified as a "front group" for Hizb ut-Tahrir. A decade later founding the British branch of HT, Bakri left, or was expelled. He took with him his most ardent supporters and founded a group which he called Al Muhajiroun.

 

 As I will show in the final part of this article, Bakri's followers were directly involved acts of Jihad, and also colluded with the establishment of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United States.

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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Adrian Morgan is a British based writer and artist who has written for Western Resistance since its inception. He also writes for Spero News. He has previously contributed to various publications, including the Guardian and New Scientist and is a former Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society.

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