I have just finished reading an excellent paper by a Turkish Muslim woman, Zeyno Baran from the Hudson Institute, on the rise of the Islamist group Hizb Ut-Tahrir. I think that the paper, Hizb Ut-Tahrir: Islam's Political Insurgency, is crucial reading for us all. It was published in December 2004, so I may be a bit behind the times in recommending it, but I believe it is still relevant, especially for those of us who are still trying to get to grips with the challenge of radical Islamism, and to support and encourage moderate, progressive Muslim democrats.
Rather than give you lots of opinion myself, let me provide a few extracts in the hope that you will read it in full and learn from it. Remember, Zeyno Baran is a Muslim herself, so her study of Hizb Ut-Tahrir should be taken especially seriously. In the Executive Summary, she writes:
So far, the main tools used against the terrorists have been the military, the intelligence agencies and the nation's law enforcement personnel .... Though such methods will reduce the ability of the terrorists ... they do not address the existential problems of the spread of an ideology that is fundamentally in contrast to the democratic capitalist system and the Western conception of freedom.
She references the 9/11 Commission Report, which emphasises ideology and notes, as Baran argues, that "terrorism itself is only a tool; one must look at the political objective for which it is being utilised".
Hizb Ut-Tahrir, says Baran, "spreads a radical Islamist ideology that is fueling anti-American and anti-Semitic sentiments", and while Hizb Ut-Tahir does not itself engage in acts of terror, "it has become the vanguard of the radical Islamist ideology that encourages its followers to committ terrorist acts".
Zeyno Baran argues that in addition to trying to understand HT's ideology, we must also do more to promote the alternative: democratic values:
... in order to defeat an ideology that consistently denounces democracy and capitalism, people also need to experience the positive aspects of these concepts
That means doing more to challenge the horrific human rights violations and tyranny in countries such as Uzbekhistan. Much of the report focuses on Central Asia.
Baran is understandably critical of some of the Bush Administration's errors and unwise phrases, but she traces the rise of Islamism way back to the works of Ibn Taimiyyah in the 13th Century, and Ibn Wahhab in the 18th century, through to Hassan al-Banna (1906-49) and Sayyid Qutb (1906-65).
The real danger with Hizb Ut-Tahrir, Baran says, is precisely the fact that it is not a terrorist organisation itself. She writes:
Since it is not a terrorist organisation, it is much more appealing to the average Muslim, who may agree with the ultimate goal of al-Qaeda but would not support the killing of innocent civilians. This aspect of HT has made it extremely hard for Westerners to categorise the movement. However, upon closer analysis, it is clear that HT's renunciation of violence is only superficial
HT never condemns terrorist attacks, for example. "In many ways, HT is part of an elegant division of labour", she writes, continuing:
The group itself is active in the ideological preparation .... while other organisations handle the planning and execution of terrorist attacks. Despite its objections to this description, HT today serves as a de facto conveyor belt for terrorists
The challenge of all this, Baran says, is for the US and ourselves to:
... help create political space for moderate Muslims so that mainstream Islam is no longer in the hands of the radicals such as HT. All religions have radicals, but in contemporary Islam the radicals have become the mainstream, and the moderates are pushed to the sides of the debate
HT argues that Islam and democracy are incompatible. It works for the establishment of the Caliphate, ruled by Shariah law. All of us, non-Muslim and Muslim alike, need to work together to ensure that HT's vision of the world is defeated. To do that, we need to ensure that moderate Muslims such as Zeyno Baran are able to move from the sidelines of the Muslim world to the epicentre of Muslim thought.
