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Last Days of Hizb ut Tahrir In Britain

Viresh Pattani - 8/13/2007

A bad few weeks for Hizb ut Tahrir Britain – the UK arm of the radical Islamist party which wishes to see its version of the medieval “Caliphate” established in Muslim lands and then across the entire globe. First, after a concerted campaign of complaints to the BBC following last November’s Newsnight program – when Hizb ut Tahrir in South London was infiltrated and exposed as being linked to violence, radicalization and threatening local mosques – their hundreds of complaints were summarily dismissed. Of thirty four complaints considered worthy of any investigation by regulators, and following a police investigation of the program, thirty-three were dismissed and only one was upheld and that was on a technicality – that the reporters involved should not have included a ten second clip (of a twenty minute piece) about a likely synagogue attack in the area, which may or may not have been planned by Hizb ut Tahrir members, but which police were investigating at the time of broadcast.

Second, a fortnight ago, another senior member of Hizb ut Tahrir Britain, who shall remain nameless, declared his intention to leave the group and declared interest in sharing his knowledge of the group and speaking out against it. This follows the high-profile departures from the group of Shiraz Maher and author of “The Islamist” Ed Husain – both of whom have spoken out against the group recently (notably, Shiraz Maher in giving a detailed account of his Cambridge Hizb ut Tahrir days, whose radical Islamist associates there included none other than Bilal Abdullah of failed Glasgow bomb attack infamy). For those who once doubted that Hizb ut Tahrir was a peace-loving talking-shop, suddenly the truth is emerging that Hizb ut Tahrir is without any doubt a conveyor belt to exactly the kind of extremism which breeds terrorism. As Ed Husain mentioned this week to the New York Times, “The only difference between Islamists from Hizb ut-Tahrir and jihadists is that the former are waiting for their state and caliph before they commence jihad, while the latter believes the time for jihad is now.”

Third, this week, at Hizb ut Tahrir’s conference entitled, “The Need & the Method”, held at London’s Alexandra Palace, Hizb ut Tahrir stewards had a very public run-in with BBC journalists, who were interviewing a young Muslim man about the conference. Unknown to the stewards, the young Muslim man had said to the interviewer he was not a member of the group but was interested to hear about what they had to say – then a steward (recorded) stormed over, interfered with the BBC equipment and was then clearly overheard warning the young man not to answer any questions because they were likely to be trick questions and the interviewer should not be trusted. The overall impression created – broadcast across the BBC – was of a group scared of getting banned and members dragooned in Stalinist fashion. (Presumably the stewards have been promised an enforcing role in Hizb ut Tahrir’s future Sharia-run Caliphate?)

Finally – and the London event was supposed to be a build-up to this much- publicized event – Hizb ut Tahrir’s Indonesian conference happened this weekend. Eighty thousand “members” showed up in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Most of those present were women (“because their husbands are in jail or freezing themselves to death in Afghanistan” quipped one journalist present). But the conference did not grab the headlines for its size as the group’s organisers had hoped (Hizb ut Tahrir is pressed to find a few thousand in the UK for its conferences and after all 80,000 readily show up to watch badminton matches in Indonesia), but rather it grabbed no headlines at all. The only news it generated was more a reflection of its true self as a group than the event itself: Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was asked to stay away on security grounds, while three national Hizb ut Tahrir leaders canceled at the last minute. The Palestinian delegate was unable to leave the Palestinian Territories and representatives from Britain and Australia landed in Jakarta on Friday but were refused permission to enter the country.

Why would a group that purports to be peaceful spend so much time and money in Britain promoting and publicizing its grand showcase Indonesian conference knowing that it had invited South East Asia’s answer to Osama Bin Laden - Abu Bakar Ba’asyir - to speak there? Ba’asyrir is the spiritual leader of the terrorist entity Jemaah Islamiyah better known as JI, which was behind – amongst other attacks – the barbaric Bali bombings. Surely a group fighting for its life in Britain – desperately trying to placate the authorities and avoid a ban – would be a bit more intelligent than to invite a terrorist (ranked number 35 on the UN list) to its conference?

But then this is the Hizb ut Tahrir which shaped the jihadi mind of once member savage Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Other former members include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the sick mastermind of 911 and Omar Sharif the British suicide bomber who cowardly attacked innocents in Israel thinking – theologically incorrectly - it was a step to paradise not hell.

This British Government does not have the stomach for banning Hizb ut Tahrir in case Hizb ut Tahrir attempts to overturn the ban in the courts. This is why they hope the ban will come from a higher legislative source, which they are obliged to agree with.

To prevent further Islamist radicalization, Hizb ut Tahrir must be brought to its knees – either with an enforced ban or by forcing them to become a democratic party. By forcing the latter, it will soon become clear to British Muslims and those elsewhere that Hizb ut Tahrir is a fringe party and – likely to get less votes in Britain than the Monster Raving Loony Party – is unwelcome in Britain and the rest of the free world.

For those Hizb ut Tahrir apologists – or, worse still, those Britons who stand with Hizb ut Tahrir because they don’t like those who expose the group’s misdeeds – look again. For those who say we must confront Hizb ut Tahrir’s ideologies head on, they are correct – but we cannot confront an ideology which says one thing in private and another in public, which is why Democracy is needed to show Hizb ut Tahrir for what it really is – a delusional, anti Semitic, terror-forming, tiny rabble.

So, ban or exposure? That is the question.

Let’s all hope that answer comes soon.