5 Pillars, the mouthpiece for British Islamic fundamentalists, invited Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain (HT UK) to their weekly show “The Big Picture” to discuss whether Muslims should work towards the re-establishment of the Caliphate. The discussion was timed to mark the abolishment of the Ottoman Caliphate a century ago.
Formed in Jerusalem in 1958, Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a global pan-Islamic political party whose stated mission is the re-establishment of the Caliphate. Islamic fundamentalists believe that restoring the institution of Caliphate restores their honour and their rightful role as lords of all creation with dhimmis in their proper subservient place. The failure of the ISIS Caliphate has not diminished support for its restoration.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir has a track record of virulent antisemitism. Members of the group approve of violence against Jews, call for the destruction of Israel, and promise that Jerusalem will serve as the capital of their Caliphate which they believe is all but an inevitability. When the daughter of Omar Bakri – the Syrian born founder of HT UK – was revealed to be working as a topless dancer in London clubs, Bakri’s reactions to the tabloid media varied from denial to shouts of “Islam will conquer Britain.” In an interview with an Arab newspaper, Bakri claimed that the allegations were malicious rumours fabricated by the “British Jewish media organs” seeking to hinder his noble mission of Islamising Britain. HT UK claim to operate within the law and insist that do not support violence. However, the transnational group stands accused of being a de facto conveyor belt for terrorists.
Roshan Salih, the editor of 5 Pillars and Yahya Nisbat the media spokesman for HT UK, hosted the podcast “Do Muslims need the Khilafah?”
A brief precis:
The Western powers dismembered the Caliphate because they feared its might… prior to which Muslims were the superpower…Islamic civilisation led the world out of darkness… non-Muslims did not suffer in a Caliphate…the Zionists would not have been able to steal Palestine had the Caliphate not fallen… 1.2 billion Muslims can easily defeat the enemies of Islam… the reason the Arabs failed to liberate Palestine is because they fought pretend wars… It is a myth that America is invincible militarily when it could not even win wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan Iraq… we can establish peaceful relations with non-muslims until we are strong enough to defeat them … join us in establishing a new utopian world order.
Much of the discussion amounts to standard Islamist propaganda. A notable exception is the revelation that HT UK have their sights set on a new stalking horse:
The suggestion by a member (51:40 minutes) of an alliance with leftists to advance the HT UK agenda is warmly received. Nisbat recommends courting the marxist types who share the movement’s anti-capitalist agenda. There appears to be a consensus that this should not be at the expense of supporting supporting democracy and LGBT rights, for these are issues which could not be accomodated in a Hizb-ut-Tahrir Caliphate. The Sharia-based constitution of Hizb-ut-Tahrir has neither room for atheism nor man-made laws. Nisbat suggests that this dilemma can be overcome with an approach that combines Islamic dawa when recruiting members. He claims that he often holds meetings with atheist and marxists where discussions about the evils of the Western democracies are combined with a victim narrative portraying Muslims in the role of the underdog. This, Nisbat claims, helps to lure them away from their atheist beliefs and adopt Islam.
The fate of those leftists/marxists/atheists who choose not to convert was not discussed, that is, once they have outlived their usefulness.
