HT Membership – To be or not to be
This is a guest post by Imaad, who spent many years as an activist with Hizb ut-Tahrir but now campaigns for liberal secular values
Today David Cameron is back-pedalling wildly over specific details of claims he made yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions about two independent schools in North London run by the ‘Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation’ (ISF). What initially seemed to be a devastating Tory attack on Labour’s failure to prevent members of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) from gaining control over the education of British children swiftly turned into a desperate damage-limitation effort by the Tories. Ed Balls very successfully deflected debate away from the overarching issue (that ISF has close links to Hizb ut-Tahrir, received government money in the past and continues to control the education of children attending two schools) and turned it into a discussion of details, such as which fund that money came from, whether inspection reports are available online and on which website the schools’ registration numbers could be found.
Here is the video of the Tory attack unravelling:
Newsnight added to the confusion when they revealed that one ISF-run school appears to have removed the only staff member with links to HT and the headmistress of the other one, Farah Ahmed – although she never denies being an HT member in the past – categorically states that she is not a member of HT now (4:20 in the video above).
If you accept Ahmed’s assurance on face value this seems to seal the deal.
However, what Ahmed knows but few other people know – unless like me, they were formerly involved with HT – is that being a “member” of HT is not like being a member of any other organisation.
With most groupings (be they Islamic Forum Europe, the West Yorkshire Women’s Institute or the Labour Party) if you come along to a few meetings and get involved with activities then you will be asked at some point to write your name and address in a book somewhere, hand over a few pounds for subs and you are officially a member.
Hizb ut-Tahrir does not work like that. I fully accepted their ideology, campaigned for them, manned stalls outside mosques and universities to propagandise for them, helped arrange their annual conferences and even distributed Khilafah Mag (pdf) – HT’s in-house magazine for which Farah Ahmed used to write crude propaganda pieces – but I was never officially a member. I was one of the so-called Shabab (lit. Young men) who are devoted to HT and whose activism on behalf of the party HT could not operate without. They take a full role in working towards the Khilafah state (Caliphate) and attend HT study sessions (halaqas) – after they’ve attended the halaqas for a while and completed the first three core books in HT’s programme of theo-political indoctrination they even pay a subscription to the party – but they are not, according to HT, members.
HT works on the principle of plausible deniability. Some of the people who are most important to spreading HT’s ideology are not technically HT members or even Shabab. Hamza Andreas Tzortzis of the Hittin Institute can deny being an HT member all he likes but nobody can deny the similarity between the Hittin Institute’s output (pdf) and HT’s propaganda. Of course he has made certain slips that indicate where his loyalties lie, for example emailing (pdf) the Centre for Social Cohesion back in 2008 from the address info@hizb-towerhamlets.org and regularly speaking at HT organised events, but officially he is not an HT member.
Complicating this further is that, even if Farah Ahmed was a full member, her resignation from Hizb ut-Tahrir may have been entirely tactical. This theory is supported by the fact that her recent statement in the press over the Cameron-ISF affair echoes HT’s response:
“This type of vilification of the Muslim community needs to stop. We are being used as part of a wider political agenda.”
The simple fact is that Farah may not consider herself to officially be a member of HT any more but, by most normal standards of what a member of a group is, she could well still be involved with HT. Rather than simply accepting her bland assurance that she is no longer an HT member, the Newsnight team should have asked her what her views are on HT’s insane totalitarian ideology. After all, there is no difference in views between HT’s supporters, activists and fully-fledged ‘members’.
The real danger here is the fact that intolerant Islamist beliefs are being passed onto very young children without their parent or wider society full knowledge. HT’s focus on who is or isn’t a ‘member’ is just part of the smokescreen by HT to disguise their attempts at infiltrating Muslim communities who have already overwhelmingly rejected them.
The only funny, yet also tragic, part of this story is that a group which seeks to galvanise the masses behind them now has to hide their name if they want to do anything with Muslims in this country. It’s a tacit acknowledgement of failure.
Good luck with world domination.
Comments
| 26 November 2009, 5:29 pm |
I actually sat on a so-called “inter-faith discussion panel” with Hamza Tzortzis at Liverpool University in March this year. In reality, it was a sham to give Tzortzis a platform to spread his own Islamist nonsense.
You can read all about the ordeal in my afterthought piece for my own blog:
http://edthemanicstreetpreacher.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/more-than-i-could-chew/
After reading Imaad’s post and the CSC report’s comments on Tzortzis, asking whether I’d bitten more than I could chew is looking like the understatement of the flippin’ century; I’m lucky I got out of there with my head still on!
Tzortzis actually emailed me recently asking whether I’d speak against him in a debate at a London university on whether God exists.
I said I’d be prepared to do it but nothing’s definite yet. After reading this, it might be a good idea to pass…
MSP
| 26 November 2009, 6:11 pm |
Ann On
CSC got their facts right. It looks like the Tories got confused about what ‘Pathfinder’ means. Daft really – why would PVE money be going to a school? Brains evidently not engaged.
Ed Balls should be a little circumspect about giving ISF a clean bill of health …
Tzortzis is a nutter, and is a trustee of Green Crescent – info here:
| 26 November 2009, 6:52 pm |
A Nun
26 November 2009, 6:11 pm
Tzortzis is a nutter, and is a trustee of Green Crescent – info here:
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/3910
_______________________
Are you sure of him being a trustee of Green Crescent?
I have checked the Charity Commission records (No 1099233) and the trustees are listed as:
DR FAISAL MOSTAFA
MR MALIK UDDIN
MR IRFAN AKRAM
MRS SABINA MOSTAFA
MS TAHIRA HUSSAIN
No mention of Hamza Tzortzis unless he has an alias.
| 26 November 2009, 7:07 pm |
Looks like he has now resigned. Sensible man!
| 26 November 2009, 7:13 pm |
DavidT – you must be right. Jamestown, Quilliam, the Independent mention him as a trustee, shortly after the madrassa in Bangladesh was raided
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnewstt_news=34841&tx_ttnewsbackPid=412&no_cache=1
http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/index.php/component/content/article/486
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/uk-charity-connected-to-terror-camp-1654279.html
| 26 November 2009, 7:27 pm |
There were newspaper reports earlier this year indicating that he was connected. I would guess that he resigned following the anti-terror raids.
| 26 November 2009, 10:09 pm |
Adrian – the Charity Commission website is not always up to date or accurate.
| 26 November 2009, 10:18 pm |
Imaad, if I’ve understood your argument correctly, you’re saying that there was no need for Cameron and Gove to back-pedal at all, is that it? What they both said is substantially correct?
| 26 November 2009, 11:08 pm |
What they both said is substantially correct? This is from the CSC site:
CSC Statement: Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation and Hizb ut-Tahrir 26 November 2009
Yesterday the leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, accused the government of using money allocated to prevent violent extremism to fund the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF), a registered educational charity with links to the extreme Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT).
The government’s response – contesting the source of the public funds and publicising previously unpublished Ofsted inspections – is an attempt to divert attention. Public money has gone to two primary schools and a nursery set up by members of HT, a revolutionary Islamist group that supports violent jihad and uses front groups to embed its divisive ideology into local communities.
Their statement yesterday:
In today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron used evidence from the Centre For Social Cohesion’s report, Hizb ut-Tahrir: Ideology and Strategy, to grill Gordon Brown over £113,000 in Government grants received by Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) backed Islamic Shaksiya Foundation (ISF).
The report, authored by my colleagues Houriya Ahmed and Hannah Stuart, details how at the time that the ISF received a government grant, its board included two members of HT: Yusra Hamilton and Farah Ahmed. Farah Ahmed also authored the school’s Islamist curriculum which taught children as young as 7 that man-made law was inferior to the Sharia while 10 year olds are instructed on the importance of re-establishing the Caliphate.
During PMQs, Cameron told the Prime Minister that the ISF had received government funds under the Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) Pathfinder Fund. Here, he has got a small detail wrong, which Schools Secretary Ed Balls has used to divert attention away from a very embarrassing revelation. Although the ISF did receive government funding under Labour, it was not derived from from the PVE fund, and as our report makes clear, the money came from a different Pathfinder fund. This small detail has been pounced on by Labour to blur a simple and unavoidable fact: the government has provided funds to a school which is indoctrinating young children in the fascist ideology of a subversive Islamist group. This fact has righly been taken up by Cameron and Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove, and they should not let the government off the hook just because of a small detail.
| 26 November 2009, 11:38 pm |
Cameron may have got some details wrong, but I think he has brought this issue to the fore where it needs to be, and got some of our more serious analysts and commentators involved.
Thank you, amie, for that clarification. I could not make much sense of the Newsnight analysis – BBC research has unfortunately lost its once sharp cutting edge and has got lost in inconsequential detail. Small wonder that the venal Balls has reverted to spin and obfuscation (he knows and does little else), and long past time he was nailed. I hope the full truth does come out – it ought to now that so many eyes are on it.
These people (MB, their proxies, fronts and fellow travellers) are really dangerous – they are breeding the Jihadis of tomorrow, and we have been too complacent about it for too long.
| 27 November 2009, 12:18 am |
The Tories are in favour of faith schools, academies run by religious nutters, and the “Swedish Model” for parents and charities to establish schools. They have realised that attacking Labour over allowing Hizb ut-Tahir to run schools is in direct contradiction of their own policy:
http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/extremism-in-schools-why-the-tories-backed-off/
| 27 November 2009, 12:35 am |
Hi folks! Got a lot of catching up to do, it seems. :)
| 27 November 2009, 2:36 am |
Ah, baby faced Tory boy Michael Gove is behind this it seems, and so unsurprisingly it all falls apart. His 7/7 Celsius book was error strewn too, I am told.
Jim Denham is right to point out that both parties want schools to be more independent – set up and run by trusts, faith groups, etc. This may or may not be a good thing in the longer term, but it does open up opportunities for religious crazies to have a go.
| 27 November 2009, 6:54 am |
Jim Denham is right to point out that both parties want schools to be more independent – set up and run by trusts, faith groups, etc.
“The Gary Glitter Schools Trust”?
“BNP Schools Trust”?
“Hamas Schools Trust”?
| 27 November 2009, 8:18 am |
The Tories have promised to ban Hizb ut Tahrir. We should encourage and support them in this, not pick holes.
We should be petitioning Cameron to ban or inhibit other extremist groups like MAB, IHRC and MPACUK, too.
| 27 November 2009, 8:43 am |
Thank you Imaad.
Religious schools, private or state funded, are a questionable benefit to society.
Islam being taught at all, and i’ve spent years learning about it, is unfortunate.
I’m sure the particular brand of islam being taught in the two schools is a far extreme of Islam; my awareness is how often bright moslems find that sort of brand, or understanding of Islam, to be the correct one.
And i do not see how to extract the worthy in Islam from so much else in that religion that is unacceptable.
I do understand that a substantial percentage of muslims choose to only pay heed to the worthy parts of islam; however all to many cannot split the package; and let’s remember that the coolaid, whether given concentrated as in the two schools mentioned, or in the more nuanced offering of non extremists, is fed daily to young minds for years on end.
| 27 November 2009, 8:44 am |
Well unless my memory is poor, at least one of the errors comes from CSC – a minor one, to be sure – “All independent schools must register with the Department for Children, Families and Schools (DCSF) and are subject to Ofsted inspections. Whilst the ISF website provides a DCSF registration number for the school in Slough there is no listing for the school in Haringey” according to the CSC report. This was one of the issues the Conservative’s highlighted , and one of the issues Newsnight made fun of them about, I think, pointing to the Haringey registration number on the DCSF website and saying ‘it was there, but you couldn’t find it’ with a sort of sneery smile, I think.
Also, perhaps more seriously, the original CSC report looks to me like it is the origin of the confusion over which “pathfinder” fund was involved: If you look in the original CSC report it says the ISF is funded by “Pathfinder” money. The report does not say which “Pathfinder” fund, and certainly does not make clear that this is an educational fund. the report then goes on to make two references to the Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder fund. So it is hardly surprising that Gove, relying on the report, confused the two “Pathfinders” – they are brought together inan undifferentiated way by CSC (due to a somewhat scissors and paster methodology – CSC is jamming together cuttings from the Telegraph and other papers, in a ham fisted way)
| 27 November 2009, 8:47 am |
The Tories pressing for the banning of HuT, based on their interpretation of the law, is one thing.
However, decisions in relation to the proscribing of particular organisations should be removed from the bear pit of the Commons and posturing politicians. It is up to the courts, not politicians.
It should not be up to any political party, or any present or future prime minister, to ban any particular organisations. It is up to the courts and the law.
A Labour MP quite rightly made this point in the Commons. That was after Cameron had played politics with the issue, and made a fool of himself in the process.
| 27 November 2009, 8:56 am |
We should be petitioning Cameron to ban or inhibit other extremist groups like MAB, IHRC and MPACUK, too.
Cameron (or any other PM) simply banning or inhibiting organisations I hope would be impossible, since I presume the UK operates under the rule of law, rather than the rule of politicians.
It is up to the courts to decide on whether any organisation breaches the law. These are not political decisions – they are legal ones. It may be that HuT have been deemed to be within the law. Other Islamic organisations certainly are.
To change that you need a change of the law, and I suspect if it was tightened to ban other Muslim organisations the UK would end up being prosecuted in Europe.
| 27 November 2009, 9:15 am |
This struck me as a failed attempt by the Tories to borrow the BNP dog whistle, and one that has back fired. If there is no evidence that children are being raised in extremist ideology – contrary to their parents wishes then there is no problem.
| 27 November 2009, 10:22 am |
If there is no evidence that children are being raised in extremist ideology – contrary to their parents wishes then there is no problem
That’s a big ‘IF’. The twisting and turning known to Muslims as ‘taquiyya’, is instiutionalised in Islamic philosophy – this is a premier class example of spreading confusion by omission and denial. The West has still to educate itself in the finer points of Islamic thinking.
Cameron and his advisors are woefully unprepared to debate or investigate the intracacies to which Islam’s little soldiers have already embedded themselves like bott-flies under the skin of British culture.
The Jesuits say give me the boy at seven and I’ll give you the man. With all that that entails, The Muslims are doing the same. I’m not sure when Jewish indoctrination kicks in but it’s all pretty depressing.
The Educational system is where our tomorrows thinking is nurtured.
Accepted multicultural thinking cannot condemn the Muslims while they happily endorse the Jewish and Christian faith school equivalents.
The big problem is that we never bothered to critically examine just what an Islamic education contains before inviting it in and giving it the same stupid deference previously reserved for the other two.
| 27 November 2009, 10:23 am |
If there is no evidence that children are being raised in extremist ideology – contrary to their parents wishes then there is no problem
That’s a big ‘IF’. The twisting and turning known to Muslims as ‘taquiyya’, is instiutionalised in Islamic philosophy – this is a premier class example of spreading confusion by omission and denial. The West has still to educate itself in the finer points of Islamic thinking.
Cameron and his advisors are woefully unprepared to debate or investigate the intracacies to which Islam’s little soldiers have already embedded themselves like bott-flies under the skin of British culture.
The Jesuits say give me the boy at seven and I’ll give you the man. With all that that entails, The Muslims are doing the same. I’m not sure when Jewish indoctrination kicks in but it’s all pretty depressing.
The Educational system is where our tomorrows thinking is nurtured.
Accepted multicultural thinking cannot condemn the Muslims while they happily endorse the Jewish and Christian faith school equivalents.
The big problem is that we never bothered to critically examine just what an Islamic education contains before inviting it in and giving it the same stupid deference previously reserved for the other two.
| 27 November 2009, 10:32 am |
The big problem is that we never bothered to critically examine just what an Islamic education contains before inviting it in and giving it the same stupid deference previously reserved for the other two.
Except in the case of Islam, AFAIK, there are still no state funded Muslim schools, these are private schools, the ones in question.
| 27 November 2009, 10:42 am |
Cameron and his advisors are woefully unprepared to debate or investigate the intracacies to which Islam’s little soldiers have already embedded themselves like bott-flies under the skin of British culture.
Apart from the curious and over-strained use of mixed metaphor, the comparison of human beings to flies (similarly cancer and vermin elsewhere) says more about the writer than perhaps they intend.
Make your point without stooping so low.
| 27 November 2009, 11:28 am |
I’m not sure when Jewish indoctrination kicks in but it’s all pretty depressing.
If you don’t know what a Jewish education involves then how can you find it depressing? I thought judging others from a position of ignorance was an act reserved for racists and the intolerant?
| 27 November 2009, 12:07 pm |
Newsnight aren’t interested in the truth, they just wanted to get a denial from the ‘accused’ to discredit the Tories with.
| 27 November 2009, 1:38 pm |
Well, it is the BBC we’re talking about here. The same BBC who have a “Muslim Writer Awards” scheme and who have been engaged in blanket pro-Muslim propaganda for years now.
| 27 November 2009, 3:31 pm |
To change that you need a change of the law, and I suspect if it was tightened to ban other Muslim organisations the UK would end up being prosecuted in Europe.
Benji, do try to post something sane just for a change. Organisations that promote terror and racism are not simply ‘Muslim organisations’.
UK politicians in the form of the justice secretary are perfectly capable of demanding that the CPS prosecute them. Yes, it is the court who makes the final decision, but it takes political will – of the kind that is entirely absent in muppets like Balls-Up – to take the first step.
Europe can go whistle where racist organisations are concerned.
So can you.
| 28 November 2009, 12:44 am |
”The real danger here is the fact that intolerant Islamist beliefs are being passed onto very young children without their parent or wider society full knowledge. HT’s focus on who is or isn’t a ‘member’ is just part of the smokescreen by HT to disguise their attempts at infiltrating Muslim communities who have already overwhelmingly rejected them”
Baita jaan, dude from a HT supporter to a ex HT supporter!
Never underestimate the power and influence of your adversary, in this the Hizb.
Globally Hizb has achieved what it ought to achieve, the call for the Khilafah is in every muslim household throughout the muslim world and beacon of light would very soon be established inshAllah!
Ata abu rashta, the incoming Khaleefah rashid inshAllah has done it and you losers are mourning about a school where Islam is being taught!
Imaad, you attack Islam in the guise of Islamism when you yourself know that you and other people like you are the outcasts in the muslim communities, you make groups like qulliam get funding from the Govt and sell your souls for petty things.
Rather than debating and challenging each other’s ideas, you people chose to back stab and propagandise anything whch you deem is against your personal belief system.
what a shame and low level of intellect you have!
ye bhi bata doon, main Islamabad sey hoon!
huh, talk abt HT influence, its everywhere meri jaan! :) hurry up imaad.
| 28 November 2009, 12:44 am |
”The real danger here is the fact that intolerant Islamist beliefs are being passed onto very young children without their parent or wider society full knowledge. HT’s focus on who is or isn’t a ‘member’ is just part of the smokescreen by HT to disguise their attempts at infiltrating Muslim communities who have already overwhelmingly rejected them”
Baita jaan, dude from a HT supporter to a ex HT supporter!
Never underestimate the power and influence of your adversary, in this the Hizb.
Globally Hizb has achieved what it ought to achieve, the call for the Khilafah is in every muslim household throughout the muslim world and beacon of light would very soon be established inshAllah!
Ata abu rashta, the incoming Khaleefah rashid inshAllah has done it and you losers are mourning about a school where Islam is being taught!
Imaad, you attack Islam in the guise of Islamism when you yourself know that you and other people like you are the outcasts in the muslim communities, you make groups like qulliam get funding from the Govt and sell your souls for petty things.
Rather than debating and challenging each other’s ideas, you people chose to back stab and propagandise anything whch you deem is against your personal belief system.
what a shame and low level of intellect you have!
ye bhi bata doon, main Islamabad sey hoon!
huh, talk abt HT influence, its everywhere meri jaan! :) hurry up imaad.
| 28 November 2009, 12:44 am |
”The real danger here is the fact that intolerant Islamist beliefs are being passed onto very young children without their parent or wider society full knowledge. HT’s focus on who is or isn’t a ‘member’ is just part of the smokescreen by HT to disguise their attempts at infiltrating Muslim communities who have already overwhelmingly rejected them”
Baita jaan, dude from a HT supporter to a ex HT supporter!
Never underestimate the power and influence of your adversary, in this the Hizb.
Globally Hizb has achieved what it ought to achieve, the call for the Khilafah is in every muslim household throughout the muslim world and beacon of light would very soon be established inshAllah!
Ata abu rashta, the incoming Khaleefah rashid inshAllah has done it and you losers are mourning about a school where Islam is being taught!
Imaad, you attack Islam in the guise of Islamism when you yourself know that you and other people like you are the outcasts in the muslim communities, you make groups like qulliam get funding from the Govt and sell your souls for petty things.
Rather than debating and challenging each other’s ideas, you people chose to back stab and propagandise anything whch you deem is against your personal belief system.
what a shame and low level of intellect you have!
ye bhi bata doon, main Islamabad sey hoon!
huh, talk abt HT influence, its everywhere meri jaan! :) hurry up imaad.
did the errors (about Prevent, Ofsted inspections) come from CSC – they have certainly been sloppy in the past – or did Gove add them as his own embellishments ?