When breathtaking events and transition are the only constant throughout the Arab world and the Tahrir (Revolution) Square in Cairo has gained the symbolic status of popular uprising against the three-decades-old Hosni Mubarak regime, the global Islamic movement, Hizb- ut-Tahrir (HuT), should be elated. The Mubarak regime has always been one of its most hated targets. Formed in Jerusalem by the Palestinian scholar Taqiuddin al-Nabhani in 1953, it was banned in Egypt after an alleged coup in 1974.
The excitement is not at all hidden when a HuT member’ report from Cairo on the developments concludes with the remark, ‘I pray that it’s not all for nothing, and that the rest of the corrupt oppressive regimes take heed and know that their time is coming to end, but more importantly, I pray that there will be true change and that the momentum continues and we unite as one, and live under true justice, Allah’s Justice, Allah’s System, Allah’s Shade.’
Interestingly, HuT’s focus is not the jasmine and other fragrant revolutions in West Asia. Its gaze is fixed on cooler climes like Scandinavia which is reported less vividly in media. It is not only the crucial issue of terrorism when Denmark was found to be on the itinerary of the international terror strategist, David Coleman Headley, a suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who blew his own car and died in downtown Stockholm in December-end, and Somali youth, Muhideen Mohammad Geele, whom a Danish court sentenced last Friday on the charge of attempting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the artist of controversial cartoons on the Prophet in the Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten.
Mark Hughes of the London daily, The Independent, who tracked the terror trajectory of Taimour and ended up in Luton, aptly describes the small British town as ‘the epicentre of the global clash of the civilisations’. Going by some recent developments, Scandinavia also can claim to be a theatre of conflict between civilisations.
Creators of non-conformist forms of art have time and again faced the threat of physical harm, even in the most liberal societies in the West. 1989 witnessed libricide of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in the British city of Bradford. The author, Salman Rushdie, had to live under state protection for years.
In the rapidly changing European canvas, young Muslims are often found to have committed physical attacks against the artists or the publishing houses. The most ghastly incident was the killing of Dutch film director, Theo van Gogh, on November 2, 2004 in Amsterdam by a Moroccan-Dutch, Mohammad Boyeri. And threat to the artistic freedom continues with the instance of Kurt Westergaard.
Radical Islamist organisations like the HuT have been active in Europe and especially in the Scandinavia, and their fulminations on Internet and their street demonstrations have not only caused concern to the security agencies and policy makers, but also created social cleavages, inter-community tensions and reactive nativism amongst the host societies. The reaction is manifested in the popular anti-mosque construction and minaret building movements in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
An increasing uneasiness about the growing number of refugees and foreigners and the changing face of their immediate neighbourhood (a ‘Mogadishu Avenue’ in eastern Helsinki or more pejorative, ‘Londonistan’), economic downturn, declining demographics, the future of smaller but economically-strong welfare states given the ‘onslaught’ of refugees from strife-torn territories, and finally immigration, have pump primed the demand for checking immigration, and brought upfront fears connected with terrorism and internal security. It is a negative vicious spiral. Politicians and parties, who have been traditionally considered liberal and accommodative, have taken strong position expressing apprehension about the dilution of their national identity. Leading German Social Democrat, Thilo Sarrazin, is the latest to join the band wagon. In his latest bestseller, he not only upholds eugenics but laments the dilution of the German uniqueness, for instance, efficiency.
Deployment of European armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is an issue continuously exploited by terrorists like the July 7 suicide bombers, and the organisations like the HuT. The latest controversy fuelled by the call of the HuT is encouraging resistance against the presence of Scandinavian soldiers in Afghanistan. The call is not only sensational but outrageous, as pointed out by the Scandinavian media, and resulted in an all-party protest demonstration against the HuT in Copenhagen in late January.
Whether the HuT really has the capability to implement its agenda in Denmark or whether it is indulging in mere rhetoric, is to be determined by Scandinavian security agencies. It is also upto the Danish security to decide to place a ban on the organisation like many other European countries. One thing is clear though. It is very difficult to legally prove, much less quantify, as to what extent the HuT rhetoric will propel either individual Muslims or Muslim groups to accept terror recourse, join a terror group or act as ‘lone wolves’. There is no gain saying however that the vicious multilingual propaganda needs to be monitored regularly. For two key reasons. Firstly, is exploiting the democratic tradition of European society. Secondly, latest communication tools are used to smartly package HuT’s ultimate panacea – a Global Caliphate. The target audience of HuT in any country is primarily not the common people, but the intellectual class, the professionals and most importantly the army.
HuT, UK branch, which is not prohibited so far, is playing a pivotal role to keep HuT propaganda alive on the Internet; it is also maintaining clandestine activities like study groups. As the HuT wants to build an international Islamic fraternity, transcending national borders, its global propaganda needs a global response in these days of abridged distances.
— Alok Rashmi Mukhopadhyay
