Questions Time

Two questions emerge from Tony Blair’s anti-terrorism announcement yesterday.

Number One. According to the New York Times:

The measures announced by Mr. Blair are…making it an offense to glorify, prepare for or incite acts of terrorism. Mr. Blair made clear on Friday that the law would include such acts committed outside Britain, suggesting that threats against the United States and Britain ascribed on Thursday to Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy in Al Qaeda, would become a formal offense under British law.

In that case, what about “Gorgeous” George Galloway’s latest comments on Arabic TV? Can the British Member of Parliament get away with words like the following for much longer:

Galloway (on Al-Jazeera TV, July 31, 2005): They can control the skies, but only if they don’t come within range of an RPG, but they can’t control one single street in any part of occupied Iraq. Not one street. Not one street anywhere. These poor Iraqis - ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons - are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable by the people who occupy it.

[...]America is losing the war in Iraq, and even the Americans now admit it. Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad know it. The former puppet minister (Iyad) Allawi admitted it three times in the last month. America is losing the war in Iraq. And this will not change. The resistance is getting stronger every day, and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker everyday. Therefore, it can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.

Number Two. In response to Tony Blair’s decision to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, the group had this to say:

Imran Waheed, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, said the move to outlaw it would cause “serious repercussions” among British Muslims and “will be seen by the Muslim community as stifling legitimate political dissent.”

No democracy wants to ban opposition groups/parties, whatever their views. But when those groups have the following to say, can it really be decribed as legitimate political dissent? And should we really allow it?:

O Muslims:

You can see these states, especially the colonialist states and those which have ambitions over our countries, may disagree on everything but they are united against you and against your Deen. Here they all move in one direction; they want to keep the issue of the Muslims in a state of crisis, separated and disconnected; they want the Muslims to be under their sphere of influence and under Jewish influence, so that, as they themselves admit, they can prevent the Muslims from returning as one Ummah in one state; the Khilafah Rashidah which will put the world in its right place and give back the rights to its people, and spread goodness to all corners of the world.

[...]Hizb ut-tahrir is steady in following this path, it will not undertake material actions nor does it view that as a correct solution. It does not accept the killing of civilians or the harming of those who have security. But despite this, it takes the view that because the powerful nations spill the blood of Muslims, violate their honour and desecrate their sanctities, that these are the real reasons which produce these material reactions [terrorist attacks--ed]. If the big nations wanted to put a stop to these actions they would have thought and reflected on the questions that we mention above - but we know that the arrogance of these states will stop them from thinking in a sound manner and following the correct path.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, already banned in a couple of European countries, seems to think that just by adding a couple of lines renouncing violence in its press statements that it can cover up its support for terrorism. Meanwhile, its attempt to expunge calls to violence from its website have been well documented at Harry’s Place here. They include statements like the following:

(Hizb ut-Tahrir, 25 Rajab 1420, 3/11/1999) Know that the Jews and their usurping state in Palestine will, by the Help and Mercy of Allah (swt), be destroyed ‘..until the stones and trees will say: O Muslim, O Slave of Allah. Here is a Jew behind me so come and kill him’. The signs indicate that this time is about to come In the forthcoming days the Muslims will conquer Rome and the dominion of the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) will reach the whole world and the rule of the Muslims will reach as far as the day and night. And the Deen of Muhammad (saw) will prevail over all other ways of life including Western Capitalism and the culture of Western Liberalism.

If that’s legitimate political debate, I would love to see their idea of extremism. I assume it looks something like this.