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Hizb ut Tahrir – we hate it here but let us stay

This is a guest post by Abu Wannabe Arab

The global Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir recently held an annual conference in Sydney Australia. The speakers at the conference, many of whom were British, spouted all the usual nonsense about western conspiracies and an Islamic state taking over the world. However, in the run up to the conference they produced a propaganda video that has to be seen for entertainment value alone. The video is followed by an interview with a truly clueless member of HT who does so badly that you end up feeling sorry for him. But putting the pathetic interview to one side, I want to look at some of the points raised in the propaganda video.

The HT members doing the talking mention how there is a new brand of ‘secular Islam’ being promoted by western governments, that encourages Muslims to adopt a ‘western reading of history’. I’m not sure what a ‘western reading of history’ is, it’s perhaps history without all the mad and baseless conspiracy theories that characterise Nabhani’s (HT’s founder) reading of history in which no reference or footnotes are supplied. I’m not sure a secular understanding of Islam is new either. I am quite certain that Ibn Rushd, Muhammad Abduh and Ali Abd al-Raziq were not western stooges nor were they recent. In fact, modern secularism owes much to the works of great Muslim scholars such as Ibn Rushd, Al-Farabi and others.

The HT members also mention the fact that European colonialists travelled half way across the world to conquer ‘Muslim lands’. Isn’t that exactly what the great Caliphates, which HT is seeking to revive, did? Didn’t they travel half way across the world to invade Spain and India?

They then moan about how Islam is being abused and insulted by western leaders. Which western leader has done that? Oh its Geert Wilders the Dutch nutcase, I’m not sure which nation he is a leader of nor are his views representative of western leaders. But how is what Mr Wilders is doing any worse than what HT does? Why is it wrong for him to demonise Muslims and Islam yet it is acceptable for HT to demonise Jews, Gays and western societies in general. Such blatant hypocrisy.

Finally, they complain about the fact that Muslims are being asked to integrate. Now that wasn’t such a bad thing the last time I checked. So let’s get this straight. HT want to attack western societies that their members live in, discourage integration, promote hatred of western governments and other minorities and then complain when they are criticised. How does that work? They hate western societies but love staying in them too.

The truth is people everywhere are getting sick and tired of HTs nonsense and they know it. The quality of their output is getting worse and worse and their events are receiving record low attendances. They fear Muslims rising up and rejecting their modern politicisation of their faith and re-claiming an Islam that is free from post-colonial totalitarian political discourse. However, they continue to provide us with good entertainment and if you want more pop along to Friends House in Euston and ask about the latest HT events.