Islamic group warns Blair about militants ban

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s pledge to ban militant Islamic groups will be seen by Muslims as “stifling legitimate political dissent”, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir said today.

Imran Waheed, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said the group would fight any ban through the courts and insisted it was a “non-violent political party”.

He added: “There will be serious repercussions in terms of community relations if this ban goes ahead. We have a lot of support among the Muslim community in Britain and it will be seen by the Muslim community as stifling legitimate political dissent.

“Hizb ut-Tahrir is a non-violent political party. It has had a history of non-violence for the last 50 years and these measures are like what we have seen in Uzbekistan where President Karimov has been burning his political opponents alive. Our members are all for political expression, not for violence.”

Mr Waheed said the group had made its position on the London bombings clear - that it was “not justified to take innocent lives”.

“We have been very clear about that and we will fight any ban through the legal system. We will continue our work. Our work is totally non-violent.”

But he added: “Our views are very similar to those in the Muslim community. We want an end to Western interference in Muslim countries.”

Mr Waheed rejected shadow defence minister Gerald Howarth’s comments that Muslims opposed to the British way of life should leave the country even if they are UK citizens.

“This is nothing to do with not liking the country,” he said. “We were born in Britain and there is nothing precluding a Muslim from a being a decent citizen in this country. By doing this, he (Mr Blair) is setting an example to the tyrant rulers of the Muslim world, encouraging them to further suppress their populations.”

The Hizb ut-Tahrir website says the group’s aim is to “resume the Islamic way of life and to convey the Islamic da’wah (teachings) to the world”.

A statement posted following the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, last month said the “colonialists, especially America and Britain, harbour a hidden hatred against Islam and the Muslims".

It continued: “They forget their differences when it comes to Islam and the Muslims. The London explosions, which took place at the time of the G8 summit, revealed this crusader viewpoint and hatred of Islam and the Muslims to the extent that every Muslim in Britain, even British citizens, have come under suspicion where even some British organisations have begun calling openly for ‘waging a crusader war to expel Muslims from the streets of Europe’.

“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 (faith).”

The site has several question and answer-style pages arguing that America is trying to create an “evil empire which will control the whole world”.

Other statements read: “Western capitalism is a shameful and licentious civilisation for which there is no precedent known in history. Abnormal behaviour, mutilation and nudity can be found amongst human beings.”

The common link between Al Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahir is Sheikh Omar bin Bakri bin Mohammed.

Bakri Mohammed has been investigated by police over his allegedly inflammatory language, but no charges have ever been brought.

After living in Syria and Lebanon, he was expelled from Saudi Arabia as an extremist and arrived in Britain in 1986.

He set up a branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), which recruited from mosques and colleges.

He split from the group in 1996 and created Al-Muhajiroun (The Eyes and Ears of the Muslims), which praised the “Magnificent 19” hijackers after September 11.

Last October, Bakri Mohammed announced he was disbanding Al-Muhajiroun in the interests of unity in the Muslim world, and has since adopted a lower profile.

However, he is now head of one of the “successor organisations” referred to by Mr Blair today – the Saviour Sect (Ahl ul-Sunnah wal Jammah), which disrupted a Muslim Council of Britain press conference in April.

A group of chanting militants stormed the meeting, condemning the Council as “a mouthpiece” of Mr Blair’s and claiming that voting in the General Election would go against Islam.

There were chaotic scenes as a group of more than a dozen men, two of them masked, broke down the door of the library in the Central London Mosque in Regent’s Park.

The men who burst in said they represented the Saviour Sect, from the disbanded Al Muhajiroun group and headed by cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed.

They also targeted election candidates George Galloway and Oona King in violent scuffles during hustings in London’s East End in April.

Another Al-Muhajiroun offshoot is known as Al Ghurabaa, or “The Strangers”.

This week, Al Ghurabaa spokesman Abu Izzadeen refused to condemn the July 7 bombings and said he hoped they would make people “wake up and smell the coffee”.