http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Nov-2003/20/national/k6.asp
Hizbut-Tahrir leader sees Khilafat on the horizon
By Our Monitoring Desk
The Hizb ut Tahrir is a political party which is making sincere efforts to establish Islamic Khilafat in the Muslim world as the people are fed up with the corrupt puppet regimes and want to see a change there. The Khilafat is on the horizon. British spokesman of Hizb ut Tahrir Dr Imran Waheed stated this while speaking in the BBC World’s Hard Talk programme.
“We are a global Islamic political party having thousands of members across the world,” he said and added “in the UK over the last few years, tens of thousands of Muslims have attended our conferences.”
According to the BBC TV, Muslim group in Britain wants to create an Islamic state somewhere but is not making a great progress. Hizb ut Tahrir is banned in a number of Arab countries as well as Germany and Russia. One of its members in Denmark was found guilty of inciting racial hatred.
Dr Imran Waheed said that in democracy and in western capitalism, a man is the one who has to decide what is right or wrong and “in Islam, we believe that our Creator Almighty Allah has decided what is right or wrong”.
Responding to a question whether this is just a way that his group doesn’t dare to go before the electorate because it has got nothing to offer them, he said “Millions of people are marching all around the Muslim world and we have completely changed the political concept. In 50 years, we have completely transformed the political landscape of the Muslim world to a world where now we feel that we are on the brink of establishing this (Islamic) state,” he added.
He further said, “50 years ago, the Muslim world had ideas like Arab nationalism and it looked up to the West . Now, the people in the Muslim world are looking for an Islamic state,” he added.
Dr Imran said, “At the time of Iraq war, we saw millions of people marching in Egypt and other parts of the Muslim world to oppose the aggression against this Muslim country. We have seen across the Muslim world the people rising up saying that they are fed up with these corrupt puppet rulers and we want to see a change in the Muslim world,” he added.
He maintained that the West wants the autocratic rulers to continue to govern the Muslim countries. The western leaders support dictatorial regimes of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, King Fahd in Saudi Arabia and General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan, but the Hizb doesn’t back these dictators, he added.
To another question, he said, “We are banned in the Muslim world because we want to discard the rulers in the Muslim world in the dustbin of history. We want to establish an Islamic state which ends political subservience to Washington and London, unifies our armies, resources and lands of the Muslims to bring about our economic sovereignty and ends our dependence for our defence on the western countries,” he added.
Asked as to who he is to demand this, he replied “Because the Muslims are demanding and recently, a conference was held in Pakistan to demand this. Islam does not allow Muslims to incite racial hatred,” he added. “Since 9/11, we have seen that anyone, who is against the state of Israel, is called anti-semitic,” he stated. He further said that Israel is occupying the Muslim land, adding “we support the right of Muslims everywhere to resist that occupation.”
“Whether it is by Jews or anyone else, we oppose the occupation of our land in Israel, Held Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya,” he said and added “this has nothing to do with Jews and this is to do with the rights of Muslims to resist occupation of their land.”
Dr Imran Waheed said, “We have articulated the case that the Islamic Khilafat, when it returns, will unify the Muslim lands and their armies and will deal with this occupation.”
Asked that his group supports the destruction of Israel, he replied, “We support the reversal of the occupation. When the Islamic Khilafat returns, we will remove the occupation,” he added.
Asked as to what is the legitimate force to be used to remove Israeli occupation, he replied “The legitimate force is the Islamic army of the Islamic Khilafat. Muslims have the right to resist occupation and if that means that they have to undertake such actions (suicide attacks) then we will never condemn that,” he added.
“I condemn terrorism if by terrorism you mean the attacks on innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq and actions of the tyrant rulers of the Muslim world in rounding up the Muslims who call for establishment of Islamic Khilafat,” he said and added “defending the land from foreign occupation is not terrorism.”
He further said that the houses of the Palestinians have been demolished by the Israeli occupation forces, they have been deprived of their land and denied basic healthcare, adding “my obedience is not to any law, rather my obedience is to the law of my Creator.”
The British representative of Hizb ut Tahrir further said that he does not care about the laws of Pakistan and Britain, adding “I feel that I have the responsibility to articulate the case for political Islam.”
Asked as to why he lives in a society (Britain) that he rejects and he takes the advantage of all the freedom this society offers to say the kind of things the society offers in Britain that he would not have a chance of saying in the Muslim countries, he replied “We say these things in the Muslim world. Our members are in jails in the Muslim world,” he added.
“We have seen freedom very quickly overturned in the US where people have been incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay,” he stated.
He further said, “We do not believe in democracy as democracy means you can change the laws from time to time. Our laws are constant and unchanging,” he added. To a query, Dr Imran said that Israel is occupying Muslim land and “from our position, it has no right to exist and therefore, when the Islamic Khilafat returns, we will seek to reverse the occupation not only in Palestine but also in Iraq, Kashmir and Afghanistan,” he said, adding “that is our position.”
He said “Islam does not condone activities like the recent bomb explosions in Turkish city of Istanbul, but I also do not condone it because the Istanbul was the seat of Khilafat. Now, Western secularism has created a climate of fear and insecurity across the whole world where the religious worship places are attacked in such a manner,” he added.
He said, “That is what saddens me. It is the legacy of Western secularism imposing Western values on Muslim world.” On host’s insistence, Imran said “I condemn Istanbul blasts but I also condemn Western secularism for creating this fear and insecurity in the Muslim world. I am saddened by the fact that when the Islamic Khilafat existed, Muslims and Jews lived together. What the colonialists have created a situation where Muslims and Jews in Palestine are in a situation where both of them either they’ll be killed or they are killed. This is a very sad situation.”
To another query, he said, “Hizb ut Tahrir is probably the only Islamic party in the world which has contacted minority groups in the Muslim world and explained to them our vision of an Islamic state and we have been at the forefront of articulating the position of non-Muslims in the Islamic state.”
He said, “The problem is that the discussion throughout the world is being silenced in favour of the Western-imposed values. The Muslim world is ready for the Khilafat rule. There is no Islamic state in the world today. Majority of Muslims around the world wants Islamic Khilafat. All it takes is one phone call from a General in one of the armies in the Muslim world to realise that it is about time he rescues the Muslim people from the Western colonialists.”
Responding to yet another query, Dr Imran said, “Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein butchered our members. Some of the children of our members were put through meat-mincing machines as torture. We supported the Iraqi people in their struggle. This is a fact.”
He said, “Musharraf who locks up his political opponents, Karimov who boiled his political opponents, Mubarak who tortured his political opponents, all of these people are inclined towards the West. We condemn every single one of these rulers unreservedly. We condemned Saddam Hussein in 1960s, 70s and 80s and throughout the 90s when the West was arming this man.”
When asked whether he is at war with Britain, the British representative of Hizb ut Tahrir said, “Britain and the US are occupying Muslim land. We support the right of the people to resist their occupation. I care for the laws of Islam only,” he stated.
Comment:
Indeed the return of Islam is close and we will see the agents of the west and the defeated muslims criticizing and condemning sincere muslims and groups who are working tirelessly for the victory of Islam, while they are doing nothing for Islam.
