Jamal Harwood, How do you respond to Ed Hussain's book 'The Islamist', where he paints you in a dangerous light and now calls for you to be banned?
Asked by ryanscribe on Sep 17 2007 4:00:03 PM and supported by 16 members
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There is nothing new in this propaganda that merely repeats Tony
Blair’s line of argument that there is a link between violence and
holding the political ideas of Islam - ideas that carry massive
public support in theMuslim world. There is also a lack of any
serious intellectual challenge from the likes of Hussain - on the one
hand they say that they want to challenge our thoughts but then they
call for banning - this is indicative of their inability to counter
our thoughts.
With regard to the proposal for a ban, this has been thoroughly
refuted. These are just a few of the many statements made by those
that have examined this question.
1. The Association of Chief Police Officers have said that they know
"of no intelligence to justify a Hizb ut-Tahrir ban". [http://
politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1647285,00.html]
2. “I see no reason why HT should be banned on the basis of available
evidence. I haven’t seen anything suggesting they have apologised for
or glorified terrorism. I might not like their views but that doesn’t
mean that they are criminal and that is an important distinction we
have to make…members are against terror but can provide an insight
into why people might become radicalised. It is important to know who
one is dealing with in order to formulate a response.” [Bob Beckley,
lead spokesman on community policing and counter-terrorism issues for
the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)]
3. "We have yet to see convincing evidence that Hizb ut-Tahrir as an
organisation advocates violence or terrorism." [UK FCO Minister Bill
Rammell, Hansard, 19/4/04]
4. "Hizb ut-Tahrir [HT] is an independent political party that is
active in many countries across the world. HT's activities centre on
intellectual reasoning, logic arguments and political lobbying. The
party adheres to the Islamic Shariah law in all aspects of its work.
It considers violence or armed struggle against the regime, as a
method to re-establish the Islamic State, a violation of the Islamic
Shariah." [Restricted Home Office Documents 19/8/03, Released to Hizb
ut-Tahrir Britain 1/6/05 under FOI Act]