An influential British Muslim has told Newsnight that unless action is taken against an extreme Muslim group operating in the United Kingdom then we could soon be experiencing terrorist attacks along the lines of those in Baghdad and Jerusalem.
Hizb Ut Tahrir or HT is an Islamic splinter group, which is banned in many countries around the world. It operates freely in Britain.
But Newsnight has discovered that its website promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred, calls suicide bombers martyrs, and urges Muslims to kill Jewish people.
In Denmark, HT's spokesman has been found guilty of distributing racist propaganda.
Newsnight's Imran Khan investigated.
This is a journey into
a side of British Islam rarely seen. An investigation into
Hizb Ut Tahrir, one of
Britains most shadowy political parties.
Its message is
attracting more and
more young Muslims,
and this is worrying Britain's wider Islamic community. The party
longs for the return
of the Ottoman empire,
but it uses the
technology of the
as the party prepares
for its biggest conference, Newsnight
has uncovered evidence
that Hizb Ut Tahrir is pedalling racism in
this country and
HT PROMOTIONAL VIDEO:
Muslims in this
country need to answer
some very serious questions. Where does
their allegiance lie?
Hizb Ut Tahrir aims
to bring about a
Muslim state, the Khilafah, through, it says, non violent means. The
party has expressed
support of suicide
bombings in Israel.
It denounces Western governments and what
it sees as their
lackey regimes in the Middle East. And Hizb
Ut Tahrir is calling
on Muslims in Britain
to decide whether their loyalty lies with this country or with God.
HT PROMOTIONAL VIDEO:
I think Muslims in
this country need to
take a long, hard look
at themselves and
decide what is their identity. Are they
British or are they
Muslim? I am a Muslim. Where I live, is irrelevant.
During the making of
Newsnight has spoken
to many Muslims who
concerns over the activities of Hizb
Ut Tahrir. None of
them were willing to
appear on camera for
fear of criticising
another Muslim in
Muslim figure in
the country has
agreed to speak
to us on condition
ANONYMOUS MUSLIM LEADER:
I believe that if Hizb
Ut Tahrir are not
stopped at this stage,
and we continue to let
them politicise and
pollute the youngsters minds and other gullible people minds, then
what will happen in
effect is that these terrorism acts and
these suicide bombings
that we hear going on around in foreign countries, we will
actually start seeing
happening outside our doorsteps.
In a rare interview,
one former senior member
of the group who joined in the early days
of its UK activities, explains its appeal.
They had a very profound analysis of why the
Islamic world is in
such an abysmal state,
how it declined and
most importantly how
we can elevate ourselves from this position,
and break free. The
group was not allied to any political regime, it was not operating on the basis
of personal or financial motivation, it didn't
have a sectarian
approach. So it had
a very open approach.
As long as you are a
Muslim and are committed to its beliefs, and
its causes, you are
welcome to join the
Three of Hizb Ut
members are currently
on trial in Egypt for belonging to an outlawed group. Hizb Ut Tahrir
is banned in a number
of Arab countries.
Well naturally, because
the party is trying to remove the existing apparatus, which is existing in nation
states and to rebuild
the countries along
the Islamic model,
the Islamic Khilafah,
part of the process involves also
unification of the
lands, so that's why
it is banned.
The group is also banned
in Germany and Russia.
In Britain the group
came to prominence in
the mid 1990s. They
held a large conference
in Wembley and
The party was well
known on University campuses.
In 1994, Newsnight reported on
fears over their rising influence and their militant message.
Hizb Ut Tahrir was controversial and
condemned as openly
racist. The National
Union of Students
described them as
'the single biggest extremist threat in
the UK' and tried to
ban them from campuses.
After fading from
view in the late 1990s, today the group is once again visible. And
this time, it's
Recently the group
has been organising demonstrations against
what they see as the oppression of Muslims
in Uzbekistan. Hizb Ut Tahrir has an
and structure. Its leadership is based
in the Middle East
and its connections
spread across the
region and into Europe. Its international links
are worth a closer look.
We went to Denmark,
where Hizb Ut Tahrir has come to the attention
of the police and the courts because of its
In March and April 2002, Hizb Ut Tahrir handed
out leaflets in a
square in Copenhagen,
and at a mosque. The leaflet, which also appeared on the Danish groups internet site,
makes threats against
Jews, using a quote from
the Koran urging Muslims to 'kill them wherever you find them,
and turn them out from where they have been
turned you out.' The leaflet also said,
'The Jews are a people
of slander...a treacherous people... they fabricate
lies and twist words
from their right context.' And the leaflet describes suicide bombings in
Israel as "legitimate"
acts of "Martyrdom".
According to the
Danish penal code,
you are not allowed
to threaten or to
humiliate people with
other ethnic backgrounds. And we thought that was exactly what the Hizb Ut Tahrir did towards the Jews.
Last October, Fadi Abdelatif, Hizb
Ut Tahrir's spokesman
in Denmark, was found guilty of distributing racist propaganda.
He had translated the leaflet from Arabic and
had access to the groups web site. Abdelatif
was given a sixty day suspended sentence.
From my point of view,
it is one of the worst cases we have had,
because of the threats.
In this case it was different, because there was this 'kill them wherever you find them'. There was this concrete threat. So I asked the court to make the sixty days not suspended, so
that he had to go to jail, but the court did not follow me.
The court rejected Abdelatif's argument that he was merely quoting from
the Koran, and the leaflet was an act of free speech. The court also did not accept that the leaflet was, as he argued, aimed solely at the Israeli state and not Jews generally.
In particular, the court found that in "linking
the quotes from the Koran to the subsequent description of Jews as
a people characterised negatively...is an evident statement of a threat against Jews."
described Hizb Ut Tahrir
as secretive, but the case did expose something of
the way the group is organised. The Danish police established
that the web site on
which the offending material was published
was being hosted in the
UK. That wasn't relevant to their case so they didn't pursue it any further.
However, Newsnight can reveal
that it wasn't only
being hosted in the UK,
it was actually being
run from the UK.
Computer records show
that the Danish web
site shared the same internet address as web sites registered to a mailing address here,
at 56 Gloucester Road, London, the British Headquarters of Hizb Ut Tahrir, and that's not
all. Newsnight can
reveal that the leaflet, which has been
for racism in Denmark,
is on the British group's web site today. The document is in English
and has been on the web site since March 2002.
Do you deny that this material
To me racism means targeting a specific set
of people because you
have an inherent discrimination against them. That's not what
they are doing.
We put it to him that
the leaflet encourages violence towards
Israelis and the Jewish people.
We don't believe peace
at any cost, first of
all. Second of all is
that, it is not
it is encouraging retaliation, there's a difference. Violence
is unprovoked, without reason. That is not
what the party is encouraging. What
they're saying is that
we have the right to retaliate.
One influential figure
in the Muslim community criticised the leaflet's quoting of the Koran.
ANONYMOUS MUSLIM FIGURE:
They are wrong. I feel that they are actually distorting the teachings
Behind all this is the argument about Islam and its role in the west, and this is pitting believer against believer. In fact, its a very big problem for the religion. A source in this mosque in Croydon told us, and I quote, although "no Muslim would disagree with the need for Islamic Khilafah, Hizb Ut Tahrir's way of going about it is un-islamic". Its a very big problem for the believers here.
Three members of Hizb Ut Tahrir have been elected to the management committee here, although they are in a small minority. We understand that Croydon mosque has become the focus of the parties activities in London after the group were banned from other mosques. The group hold regular meetings here for up to twenty people, which are monitored by the mosque.
The party is exemplified by its members. Its members have a very stable family life, good profession, they are economically productive for the society.
But it is Hizb Ut Tahrir's emphasis on recruiting amongst young people that worries many Muslims. While there is no evidence that the party has ever encouraged its members to get involved in terrorism, their anti-Western philosophy concerns many.
ANONYMOUS MUSLIM FIGURE:
One of their main agendas is to target young people, mainly because sometimes they don't know what is right for them or what is wrong for them.
the activities of Hizb
Ut Tahrir at one University, Kingston.
It has a large
population of Muslim students. The
university is proud
of its record over
Hizb Ut Tahrir, saying
it threw them out of a Freshers fair several
years ago because it expressed racist views. The university says
that it has had no knowledge of them since. But Newsnight can reveal Hizb Ut Tahrir has not
one Muslim student from Kingston who was prepared to tell us about how the group operate there.
He told us that a man called Rizwan Khaliq,
who attends the campus frequently, to recruit
for Hizb Ut Tahrir.
who was it from Hizb Ut Tahrir who was on campus?
There was one brother
And was Rizwan a student
at the college?
No, he wasn't a student.
And what were his aims?
His aim was obviously
to recruit more people
to his group.
Which is H.T?
Hizb Ut Tahrir?
And how often is he on
Pretty much everyday
We tried to contact
Rizwan Khaliq several
times for his response.
He refused to answer
between Rizwan Khaliq
and the Islamic
Will tolerate each
other, I would say. I mean, Rizwan never
puts himself in the
way of the Islamic
society, so, its
sort of like a
We asked Osman Abdullah, last years head of
Islamic Society, why he did not inform the
Union or the University about the activities
of Hizb Ut Tahrir.
He said 'What could
we have done, tell me? You're telling us to
go to the kaffir against
a muslim, is that what
you are saying we should have done?'
Kaffir is Arabic for Infidel.
This reluctance to sell
out your brother or
your sister is allowing groups like Hizb Ut
Tahrir to get in a
real place in Britain.
ANONYMOUS MUSLIM FIGURE:
The government and
the authorities are
not doing enough.
There have been no
attempts to ban their publications. There
have been no attempts
to question any of
their senior officials. I feel that the Muslim communities should
liase with the local authorities, with the police, with the special branch officers whenever there is some Hizb Ut Tahrir material
distributed outside mosques. They then
contact the police
or the local authorities
in order to safeguard
Because if we do not
do this, then we are actually promoting
Given the level of fear
we found about dealing
with Hizb Ut Tahrir,
there is a danger that their voice will grow louder as it goes unchallenged.
Kingston University issued the following statement.
Kingston University does not tolerate any illegal activity on campus, including the propagation of racial hatred. Until the Newsnight report we had no knowledge of Rizwan Khaliq's alleged activities. We will examine the allegations made by Newsnight, and consider whether any action needs to be taken by the University.
The Croydon Mosque & Islamic Centre (CMIC) issued the following statement.
CMIC does not seek to provide a platform for any political message.
CMIC operates in accordance with its Constitution, and within all statutory limits, for the attainment of its stated objectives that include community development and providing a secure place of worship. Its governance is through vetted processes and controls are in place to stop any abuse of the premises. Furthermore, management duties are largely administrative and conducted within the remit of the Constitution.
The Management and Trustees are acutely aware of ensuring the political neutrality of CMIC and the situation regarding any political activity is constantly monitored with appropriate steps taken to minimise any risks to the Centre.
This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors.