ties that bind - sep 11

identity. It is not an identity grounded in either the East or West, but instead negates
all culture and is more interested in cultivating an abstract and transcendental
confessional identity. This is precisely what HuT aimed to popularise in 2003 when
it organised a major conference in Birmingham entitled ‘British or Muslim: Identity,
values, vision’, which attracted just under 10,000 delegates. The question of identity
was reduced to a simple binary choice between Islamism and Britishness.
The conference suggested Muslims should seek to create parallel communities
which do not rely on the British state
and are self-sufficient. A special edition
of Khilafah magazine, then a monthly HuT
publication, carried a series of articles
explaining how this could be done by
exploring a range of social issues from
housing to education; and drug abuse
to marital problems. It even contained ‘a
rough guide to living with
non-Muslims’! 282
HuT also even produced a slick film for the conference. This masterstroke of
propaganda juxtaposed cold, atomised and sterile images of the British state
against those of personalised and character-led Muslim actors. One participant in
the film – a member of Hizb ut Tahrir – told the audience:
I’m not British even though I was born in this country, and I’m not Palestinian even though my
parents were born in Palestine – and my children, they’re not Pakistani even though their mother’s
parents were born in Pakistan. No. We are Muslim, and our allegiance is not to Britain or any Arab
culture or any Pakistan culture. Our allegiance is only to Allah and to Islam. 283
It can be tempting to dismiss these examples from Hizb ut Tahrir and Al-Ghurabaa
as representing only the fringes. Yet, while they are at the forefront of articulating
this idea most vociferously – it is by no means restricted to them alone. Two
Dispatches investigations by Channel 4 have obtained footage showing children
being taught an isolationist message in schools. 284 The presenter of the latter
documentary wrote at the time of its release:
We recorded a number of speakers giving deeply disturbing talks about Jews, Christians and atheists.
We found children as young as 11 learning that Hindus have 'no intellect'. We came across pupils
being told that the 'disbelievers' are 'the worst creatures' and that Muslims who adopt supposedly
non-Muslim ways, such as shaving, dancing, listening to music, and – in the case of women –
removing their headscarves, would be tortured with a forked iron rod in the after-life. 285
One of the best known Deobandi leaders in the country is Riyadh ul-Haq. A large-scale
investigation conducted by The Times into his preaching in 2007 also revealed him to
be promoting an exclusionary religious and political identity for British Muslims. In
one sermon entitled ‘On Our Responsibilities as Muslims’ delivered in May 2006, Haq
reinforces the idea of a politicised, global ummah consciousness.
It’s become insane that as Muslims in this country we are more concerned about the frequency
of our bins being emptied than we are about Muslim women being raped, children being
Bri�sh Muslims and Barriers to Entering the Armed Forces
“ The concept of the ummah is therefore
inextricably intertwined with an iden�ty that is almost
exclusively formed on confessional lines and informed
by a series of Islamist values that are deemed to be
incompa�ble with those of the West ”
282 Khilafah Magazine
(September, 2003). A copy of this
is in Policy Exchange’s possession.
283 ‘British or Muslim: The
identity dilemma’, Hizb ut Tahrir
video (2003). A copy of this is in
Policy Exchange’s possession.
284 See: Undercover Mosque,
2007, transcript supplied to Policy
Exchange by Hardcash
Productions; and Lessons in Hate
and Violence, broadcast February
14, 2011.
285 http://www.channel4.com/
programmes/dispatches/articles/l
essons-in-hate-and-violencefeature
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