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August 07, 2005

Outlawing Hizb-ut-Tahrir Won't Stop It's Message

On August 5th, 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that Hizb-ut-Tahrir Britain and Al-Muhajiroun would be outlawed in the United Kingdom. Since then, much has been written, pro and con, about the banning, which is part of new security measures imposed in Britain since the July 7 and July 21, 2005 bombings in London by British Muslims, whose parents were born in former British and French colonies in Africa and Asia. Some were born there themselves.

One view I found particularly interesting is in the August 7, 2005 edition of for The Conservative Voice online. It is headlined "Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a Scary Group That Needed to be Outlawed," and was written by Texas Attorney and law instructor Joseph Gutheinz, Jr, who contends that:

Today, much of the threat to the West comes from the Moslem world, a world which increasingly is becoming global. That is not to say Moslems are inherently evil, of course their not, but within the Moslem world are many radical organizations which are actively at war with the West. One organization which offers an anti-West philosophy is Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has advocated the overthrow of Moslems countries friendly to the West, and this organization supported Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. They were parties to the creation of PLO, and can be found throughout Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Mr. Gutheinz also said:

Of specific concern to the United States and Great Britain is that they have a major presence in Syria and Pakistan, a strategic ally. While no outsider knows exactly how many hard core members exists within Hizb-ut-Tahrir, it is estimated that they could have as many as 100,000 members, each working within three man cells to help conceal their identity.

If this issue concerned me, the way it does Mr. Blair and Mr. Gutheinz, I would be worried about people who are not organized. I suspect there are thousands of angry Muslims, perhaps millions, seething over the U.S. and Britain's arrogant, high profile roles in the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the stationing of U.S. forces in Muslim countries. The question is how long before a "lone actor," with ties to none of the known Mujahid groups, step onto the world's stage with a spectacular bombing or high profile assassination, to be followed by a succession of others. It's bound to happen.

As for stopping the message of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other Muslim groups that scare many in the west, it can't be stopped. There are millions of cassettes, videos and DVDs in circulation around the world that contain their messages. The lectures of some Muslim leaders are traded by Muslims the way some kids trade video games. Others are duplicated and distributed in communities and prisons. And with the Internet, speeches and articles are sent around the world in minutes, if not seconds. Others are posted online, for anyone to hear.

Posted by Munir Umrani at August 7, 2005 03:17 PM

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