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I wanted to add a little to my last post about Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) because their reach and influence is much greater than I originally thought.
HT has called for a jihad against the U.S., its allies, and moderate Muslim states. The purpose of the jihad is “to find and kill the Kufar (non-believers),” in fact rejecting the Islamic notion of Greater Jihad against one’s own as a sin.
In documents drafted before 9/11, HT leaders accused the United States of imposing hegemony on the world. After 9/11, HT claimed that the U.S. had declared war against the global Muslim community, had established an international alliance under the “pretext” of fighting terrorism, and was reinforcing its grip on the countries of Central Asia. HT further claimed that the U.S. accused Osama bin Laden of being responsible for the 9/11 attacks “without any evidence or proof.” The party called for expulsion of U.S. and Western citizens, including Western diplomats, from countries in which it will take power and shredding diplomatic treaties and agreements with Western governments. It further declared:
Muslims! You are religiously obliged to reject this American question which takes you lightly and despises you. America does not have the sublime values that entitle it to tell you what to support and whom to fight against. You possess a divine mission. You are the ones to bring guidance and light to mankind. God described you with the following words: “You are the best people brought forth for the benefit of mankind. You enjoin good and forbid evil. And you believe in God.”
As for Jihad…it is legal, in fact it is an obligation, it is the apex of Islamic ethics, as Almighty God says, “Keep in store for them whatever you are capable of, force and equipment with which you can frighten those who are enemies of God and enemies of yourselves….” God’s Messenger (Mohammed) said, “Islam is the head, prayer is the backbone and Jihad is the perfection.”
Muslims! The law of religion does not allow you to give to America what it is trying to impose upon you. You are not allowed to follow its orders or to provide it with any assistance whatsoever, no matter whether it be intelligence or facilities of using your territory, your air space or your territorial waters. It is not permissible to cede military bases to the Americans, nor it is allowed to coordinate any military activities with them or to collaborate with them. It is not allowed to enter into an alliance with them or to be loyal to them, because they are enemies of Islam and Muslims. God said, “Believers, Do not befriend my enemy and your enemy…. They have rejected the truth that has come to you.”
In a June 2001 article published in the party’s journal, HT ideologists claim that all methods are justified in the struggle against the unbelievers, including murder. They specifically mention that a pilot’s diving a plane hit by enemy fire into a crowd of unbelievers without bailing out with a parachute is a legitimate form of armed struggle. HT also demands that Muslims come to the support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
According to HT, the main targets of jihad–in addition to moderate Muslim regimes such as Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Uzbekistan–are America and the Jews.
[T]he war waged by America, the head of Kufr, and Britain and their allies from the Kafir states on Afghanistan is a crusade…. What America and Britain are doing is displaying their enmity for the Islamic Ummah. They are enemies; a state of war exists between them and all the Muslims that necessitates adopting an actual state of war as a basis for dealing with them according to the dictates of the Shari’ah rules. That position should be adopted with them and all those who ally themselves with them in their war against the Muslims.
The war of America and her allies against Islam and the Muslims has shown the corrupt nature of her civilization and her colonial world-view. The War on Iraq…has demonstrated that America and her allies only strive to colonize and plunder the resources of the Islamic world, not to bring about justice and security…. America is intending to deceive you…. [S]he is inherently weak as her ideology is false and corrupt…. The time has come for Islam not just in Iraq but in this entire Ummah. It is time for the Islamic State (Khilafah) to lead the world and save the world from the crimes and oppression of the capitalist system.
According to one of the HT Central Asian leaders, “we are very much opposed to the Jews and Israel…. Jews must leave Central Asia. The United States is the enemy of Islam with the Jews.”
Anti-Americanism, extremism, and preaching the violent overthrow of existing regimes make HT a prime suspect in the next wave of violent political action in Central Asia and other Muslim countries with relatively weak regimes, such as Pakistan and Indonesia. (1)
In its self-description, Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) declares: “Its work is not educational, as it is not a school, nor is its work concerned with giving sermons and preaching. Rather its work is political, in which the thoughts and laws of Islam are presented in order to act upon them and to carry them so as to establish them in life’s affairs and in the State.” Moreover, the organization professes a devotion to “the struggle against the disbelieving imperialists, to deliver the Ummah from their domination and to liberate her from their influence by uprooting their intellectual, cultural, political, economic and military roots from all of the Muslim countries.”
HT asserts that while it “does not use material power to defend itself or as a weapon against the rulers,” nevertheless “jihad has to continue till the Day of Judgement.” “So whenever the disbelieving enemies attack an Islamic country,” says HT, “it becomes compulsory on its Muslim citizens to repel the enemy. The members of HT in that country are a part of the Muslims and it is obligatory upon them … to fight the enemy and repel them.”
Former HT member Ed Husain, who left the organization and denounced it in his 2007 book The Islamist, says: “The only difference between Islamists from HT and jihadists, is that the former are waiting for their state and caliph before they commence jihad, while the latter believes the time for jihad is now.” (2)
HT has split into numerous factions since its creation. Including Hizb Waed and al-Muhajiroun
The aim of Hizb Waed, which is led by Muhammad Showeiki, is to replace all existing governments with a global Islamic government under a single ruler. According to Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who in 1986 established HT in the United Kingdom, Hizb Waed currently “is only present in Jerusalem.” (3)
The same Omar Bakri Mohammed, who founded HT, also created al-Muhajiround.
Established on February 16, 1996, Al-Muhajiroun (Arabic for “The Emigrants,” a name its founder says “refers to the early followers of the Prophet Muhammad”) was a radical Muslim organization based in England that also had branches in many other nations. The group’s disbandment was announced on October 13, 2004, though it is now believed to be operating as several splinter groups, among which are The Savior Sect, the Islamic Thinkers Society, and the Salafi Youth Movement. According to Islam scholar Daniel Pipes, Al-Muhajiroun was “the most extreme Islamist group operating in the West.”
Al-Muhajiroun described itself as “not a group or a political party,” but as a Jama’ah (collective body) within Ahl us-Sunnah wal Jama’ah (The minority saviour sect) working towards the world-wide domination of Islam.” Closely allied to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, Al-Muhajiroun taught its recruits that Israel, the Jews and the West are evil and that it is their Muslim duty to fight them. The organization referred to the 9/11 hijackers as “the Magnificent 19.”
The avowed aim of Al-Muhajiroun was to restore and expand the Caliphate, or Muslim empire, which would operate according to the principles of divinely-given Islamic Sharia law. The new Caliph, called Al-Khalifah or “leader” on Al-Muhajiroun’s website, was to be one “whose foreign policy is to conquer the whole world by Jihad.”
Under this coming worldwide “Domination of Islam,” people would not necessarily be forced to become Muslims, implied the Al-Muhajiroun website, but they would be taught “to accept it as a political way of life and a solution for their [and society's] problems.” Al-Muhajiroun said that its organizational tactics were “[t]o formulate a fifth column as a community pressure group which is well equipped with the Islamic culture e.g. ruling, social, economic, judicial, penal [sic] and ritual systems in order to become capable of implementing Islam fully and comprehensively in society.” The weapons to be used to establish global Islamic political power ranged from debate, to media appearances and the law, to the funding of Jihadists and the recruiting of suicide bombers. (4)
This statement was release on an HT website (5):
In late 2004, due to significant circumstances (post 9/11), Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad dissolved Al-Muhajiroun and consequently this highly influential organisation was unfortunately disbanded.
However, we would like to declare that after almost 15 years since the establishment of Al-Muhajiroun, and 5 years since its disbandment, Al-Muhajiroun is to be re-launched in the United Kingdom and to resume its activities as normal.
We would also like to stress particularly to the British public that Al-Muhajiroun is a completely legal organisation and hence the recommencement of its structure, activities and projects should be seen in this light.
We understand and appreciate that there may be many questions and queries regarding the re-establishment of Al-Muhajiroun as an organisation and we kindly request all such queries to be forwarded to the former Ameer of Al-Muhajiroun Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad on 00961 7095 7759.
Based on the experience of other countries with HT, the US should be very wary about Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA). While the group may not be doing any physical harm, they certainly aren’t doing the US any favors. Allowing this group to run wild in the country would be a grave mistake.
Sources:
(1) http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/BG1656.cfm
(2) http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6219
(3) http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6293
(4) http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6240
(5) http://www.islam4uk.com/current-affairs/uk-news/46-uk/298–newsflash-al-muhajiroun-to-be-re-launched
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In a world where ‘intelligence failures’ rule the media, it is nice to see a story where the plot was found and disbanded. Here is the story:
.
Egyptian officials say 25 militants suspected of having al-Qaeda links have been arrested for plotting attacks on ships in the Suez Canal.
The interior ministry said the alleged militant cell was led by a Palestinian and the other members were Egyptians.
The group planned to use explosives fitted with mobile phone-activated detonators against shipping in the canal, the statement said.
It said that most of those arrested were engineers or technicians.
“They believe in takfiri and jihadi thought,” said the statement, referring to the radical ideology followed by al-Qaeda. Takfir is the doctrine of declaring people to be unbelievers who are fit to be killed and jihad means holy war.
The ministry said one of the suspects crossed into the Gaza Strip to meet members of the al-Qaeda-linked Palestinian Army of Islam group and receive instructions on attacking targets in Egypt.
It also said that the cell had been responsible for an armed robbery on a Coptic Christian-owned jewellery shop in Cairo in May last year in which the owner and four members of staff were killed.
Officials said they had found the gun used in the attack.
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Israel may have already started a war against Iran’s nuclear program – with computers.
Defense analysts believe Israel has been targeting the Islamic Republic’s computer networks, to gather intelligence on the nuclear program and also to launch cyber attacks against it.”
This has become a very important area in Israeli strategy, and it has to be taken into account,” said Alon Ben David, an Israeli defense specialist. “It has become a more and more important element both for intelligence gathering but also for aggressive operations.”
Experts believe Israeli intelligence agencies have been hacking into Iranian computer systems in an effort to disrupt or contaminate networks with viruses and malicious software.
“We came to the conclusion, for our purposes, a key Iranian vulnerability is in its online vulnerability,” an unnamed recently retired member of Israel’s security cabinet told the Reuters news agency. “We have acted accordingly.” (1)
A recent report, quoting an unnamed Israeli source, says the attacks may also allow Israel’s intelligence agencies to do more than just acquiring classified information.
“Aside from accessing secret data, we could also set off deliberate explosions, just by programming a re-route of the pipelines.”
Another method of sabotage mentioned in the report was the use of malware — a commonly used abbreviation for ‘malicious software’ — to “corrupt, commandeer or crash the controls of sensitive sites like uranium enrichment plants”.
As Iran’s nuclear assets would probably be isolated from outside computers, Israeli agents would have to conceal the malware in software used by the Iranians or discreetly plant it on portable hardware brought in, unknowingly, by technicians.
Last year, Iran arrested 45-year-old Ali Ashtari on charges of relaying sensitive information on military, defense and research centers to intelligence officers working for the infamous Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
In a video recorded and later broadcast by IRIB, Ashtari confessed that Mossad had paid him $50,000 to buy internet cables and satellite phones and then sell them on to ’special customers’ in the hope of enabling Israel to spy on their communications.
Israeli ‘handlers,’ whom Ashtari said he met in Thailand, Turkey and Switzerland, allegedly wanted him “to sell these terminals in Iran to special customers so they could hack into this equipment”. (2)
Sources:
(1) http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=8030578&page=1
(2) http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=100110§ionid=351020202
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Interesting news out of Saudi Arabia today. Thy held the first terrorism trials ever in the country. Below is the article.
Saudi Arabian authorities Wednesday announced the convictions of 330 people accused of taking part in terrorist plots, with an unspecified number receiving prison sentences.
In a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, the court said the prisoners were convicted of membership in a “deviant group” — a reference to the al Qaeda terrorist network, founded by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.
Those convicted were “involved in the deviant group’s work, communication, coordination and working with external forces that are conspiring against the national security to spread chaos and disrupt security,” the statement said.
The plots included financing attacks within Saudi Arabia and defying King Abdullah’s order against joining Islamic insurgencies in countries like Iraq and Somalia, the statement said.
Saudi authorities announced in October that they would put on trial nearly 1,000 people accused of having ties to al Qaeda, which supports the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and carried out the 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States, the kingdom’s leading ally.
Perhaps these terrorists will be prime candidates for the Saudi Rehabilitation Center (Dr. Horgan talked about it in this post) that I will be doing a large post on in the coming months.
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/08/saudi.terror.trials/
Thanks @reneestepler for showing this to me!
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I wanted to talk today about a group that you probably haven’t heard about, Hizb ut-Tahrir. This group is raising eyebrows, specifically in the US, as it grows and emerges into the public spotlight. Before I highlight Hizb ut-Tahrir America, I wanted to give you a brief overview of the international group as a whole.
Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islamiyya (HT), also known as the Party of Islamic Liberation, combines Marxist- Leninist methodology and Western slogans with reactionary Islamic ideology to shape the internal debate within Islam. HT was founded in East Jerusalem in 1953, and over the subsequent half century has become a global network with headquarters in Jordan and London. It spreads a radical Islamist ideology that is fueling anti-American and anti-Semitic sentiments. While HT as an organization does not engage in terrorist activities, it has become the vanguard of the radical Islamist ideology that encourages its followers to commit terrorist acts.
While HT is active in most parts of the Muslim world (where it aims to overthrow governments) and in the West (where it aims to unite the Muslims around their Islamic identity and thus prevent their assimilation), its most significant operations take place in the strategically vital region of Central Asia. Which, historically, the US has avoided. (1)
According to the New York Times, HT “explicitly condemns violence” (2). On the other hand, both the BBC and the Guardian have cited evidence that HT members view Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel legitimate acts of resistance (3, 4).
Tom Harper in the Daily Telegraph quotes Hizb ut-Tahrir pamphlets as saying:
“Your forefathers destroyed the first crusader campaigns. Should you not proceed like them and destroy the new crusaders? … “Let the armies move to help the Muslims in Iraq, for they seek your help.” (5)
Authors from some conservative American think-tanks have argued that although HT may not promote or engage in violence, it acts as a “conveyor belt” for young Muslims, using its legal status to indoctrinate them before they leave HT to join more extreme groups that may advocate violence(6). Shiv Malik says Hizb ut-Tahrir “has never been directly implicated in an act of violence” (7) but he argues the idea that HT members may leave the party and move on to violent organizations “is not without foundation.” He quotes unnamed intelligence sources saying, “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda’s man in Iraq, is a former member of the Jordanian branch of Hizb. … the al-Qaeda commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also spent time with the party”.
The Terrorism Research Centre complains that the initial response to the London 7/7 bombings by the website HT 1924.org was not to condemn the killing of civilians, “but to urge British Muslims to be strong in the face of an anticipated backlash. The letter [on 1924.org] accuses [G-8] world leaders of taking advantage of the London attacks “to justify their ‘war on terror.’” (8) The full statement quoted below however does show a condemnation of the terrorist attacks.
The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a terrorist organization affiliated with Al Qaeda, issued a press release (No. 5) with a photocopy of a book written by Al Qaeda members entitled “A New Insight Into Weak and Moderate (Muslims)” listing HT’s stance against violence as weak, and accusing it of being moderate, rather than strictly religious (9).
Hizb ut-Tahrir issued a leaflet on September 18, 2001 after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York stating:
“The rules of this Message forbids any aggression against civilian non-combatants. They forbid killing of children, the elderly and non-combatant women even in the battlefield. They forbid the hijacking of civilian aeroplanes carrying innocent civilians and forbid the destruction of homes and offices that contain innocent civilians. All of these actions are types of aggression that Islam forbids and Muslims should not undertake such actions.” (10)
The party also issued a leaflet the day after the 7 July 2005 London bombings in London that said:
“At a time when fingers will be pointed at us from the wider community we need to come together as a community with one voice. Yes, the rules of Islam do not allow the harming of innocent civilians.” (11, 12).
In the month of Rajab, on the anniversary of the destruction of the Khilafah, Hizb ut-Tahrir organised political activities.
Dr. Imran Waheed, spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, said after the July 2005 London bombings that he would “condemn what happened in London only after there is the promise from Western leaders to condemn what they have done in Falluja and other parts of Iraq and in Afghanistan.” (13)
This July 6th report out of Lahore, Pakistan seems to contradict the non-violent statements, however.
Loyalists of the HT political movement are calling for a coup in Islamabad to establish an Islamic caliphate, by force if necessary.
Imran Yousafzai, a spokesman for the group, claims to have organized mass demonstrations insisting the people in the tribal regions of Pakistan favor Islamic law.
Though the group claims to favor peaceful opposition over militancy, members of its ranks say jihad is justified to oppose foreign occupation, noting only an Islamic army can wage a necessary holy war.
Members of the group based in Lahore told The Times of London newspaper that Hizb ut-Tahrir was preparing for a “bloodless military coup” in order to indoctrinate the region by “military means” if necessary.
Tayyib Muqeem, who the Times reports is a Hizb ut-Tahrir leader in Lahore, said the group was prepared to bring the Islamic caliphate to power by “waging war.”
He said the group sought to influence Pakistani military officials to push the movement forward, adding it was the Pakistani armed forces who held power in Islamabad, not the Western-backed government. (14)
All of this begs the question, is HT, or HTA, a threat? It asks us to draw the line between violent statements and violent acts. Would we rather have a group that only talks about how much they hate the West, or a group that acts out on those beliefs? The conveyer belt is a very apt description. The US cannot allow a group, especially within its own borders, to advocate radical Islamist views. Which raises the next statement…you can’t censor their freedom of speech. The arguments can easily go both ways with this group, however, if they are radicalization the minds of Muslim Americans, and if that leads to violence, the group must be targeted.
Madeleine Gruen wrote on article for Jamestown.org a few years back highlighting Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA).
In its first 13 years of development, HTA was perceived as being too small and ineffective to present any kind of serious threat (Orange County Register, August 25, 2005). Its founders, most of who immigrated to the United States from the Middle East as adults in the early 1980s, had a hard time overcoming cultural differences with their young American target audience, and they were sometimes unable to compete with other extremist groups with more money, more aggressive strategies and better established operations. However, the HTA founders managed to bring in enough committed members during the first 10 years to secure the party’s future. HTA has continued to evolve, using the same methodology as its other branches and is now exhibiting signs of vitality.
Chief among them HTA’s founding fathers were Palestinian-Jordanian Iyad Hilal, an Orange County, California-based grocer, who was most actively engaged in HTA’s development from the late 1980s to the beginning of 2000, and Mohammed Malkawi, a computer engineer based in the Chicago area (Spotlight on Terror, March 23, 2004). Both had been long-time members of HT in their home countries. Hilal and his associates initiated HT activities in New York and in Orange County simultaneously, while Malkawi and his associates established party roots in Wisconsin and Chicago.
HTA’s growth has been comparatively slow to other countries; however, what may have been counted as impediments to their growth initially have either been overcome or may now be considered assets. The first obstacle was the mentality of its founders, who were accustomed to conditions in the Middle East, where HT is banned in most countries
Another contributing factor to HTA’s slow growth may have been the founders’ reluctance to allow their students and new recruits to interact on the internet. They feared the free interaction between members in cyberspace would compromise HTA’s covert development of a party apparatus.
The younger generation’s pioneering spirit has made HTA one of the most innovative extremist groups in terms of its use of new media as a means of marketing its ideology. Some of their marketing schemes have included hip hop fashion boutiques, hip hop bands, use of online social networks, and use of video sharing networks, chat forums and blogs [7]. Their ability to stay one step ahead of the trend curve has ensured their efforts endure, and their ever-changing tactics make adversarial scrutiny more difficult.
Turf battles have been an ongoing issue throughout HTA’s development. Sometimes HTA wins control over the mosque, Islamic community center, or student association it has set its sights on, other times it has been stymied by its inability to compete for recruits with better-funded organizations that have had a long-term presence in the United States, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. HT is a self-funded organization that only has its ideology and inexpensive propaganda campaigns with which to compete.
HTA’s presence in the United States was not limited to the two coasts. Some of HTA’s most influential members are in the Midwest, including Palestinian-Jordanian Mohammed Malkawi (also known as Abu Talha), formerly a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, and Muslim convert Jaleel Abdul-Adil, currently a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Abdul-Adil is perhaps the most charismatic of the identified members of HTA. He has spoken at major HT conferences in Britain, and was featured in a July 2007 video produced by members of HT Britain to promote their 2007 Khilafah Conference, making Abdul-Adil the first representative of HTA to be publicly identified as such. (15)
Then, on 17 November 2008, HTA re-emerged. A leaflet credited to HTA was posted to Khalifah.com, one of the few official Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) web sites. The leaflet, originally dated October 28, 2008, is titled “Cooperate in Piety or Sin? Participation in the American Election.” It calls for American Muslims not to participate in the U.S. presidential election. This is the first time that the global organization has formally acknowledged the existence of HTA. (16)
Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has indicated that it has transitioned from its covert status to a public phase of operations by issuing an announcement, signed in its own name, that it will host a conference in July 2009 to support the establishment of a Caliphate. The promotional video can be viewed on YouTube. The event, titled “The Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam,” is scheduled for Sunday, July 19th, 2009, at the Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Illinois.
Bridgeview is a suburb of Chicago. Chicago has been a major hub of HTA’s activities for the past ten years, approximately. According to information available on the internet, the Aqsa School is a private Islamic primary and secondary school. Although HTA’s Khilafah conference will be held at the school, there is no public indication that the school, its staff, or its board members are directly involved with HTA.
According to party doctrine, Hizb ut Tahrir (HT) implements its strategy in three stages–The first stage is the covert level of development in which members are recruited and trained. In the second stage, members promote the party’s methods and objectives publicly in order to win the support of the Muslim population. The final stage is the establishment of an Islamic government and military, in order to carry HT’s “message to the world.”
Indeed, HTA’s announcement that it will host the Khilafah conference in July indicates that the U.S.-based branch now perceives itself as solidly prepared to emerge from its covert status into the second stage. HTA has held Khilafah conferences, and other major conferences, in the past, but has only done so from behind fronts and covers.
The conference promotional video does not provide a list of speakers or an agenda for the conference. However, Khilafah conferences hosted by branches of HT in other countries most often include prominent HT members invited from overseas. It is likely members of HT will travel from abroad to the conference in Bridgeview, Illinois, to enhance the credibility of HTA and to solidify the commitment of its members.
Although HTA appears to have transitioned to the second stage of development, it is important to note that aspects of HTA’s activities will continue to be conducted covertly, such as recruitment and ideological training.
HT is not designated as a terrorist organization in the United States, however many consider it to be a stepping stone to more militant organizations. (17)
HTA launched a Web Site to promote its July 19th, 2009 Khilafah Conference in Bridgeview, Illinois. (18)
A Hizb ut-Tahrir rally in Indonesia.
The site provides an agenda for the conference, but does not provide a list of invited speakers or any contact information for the organizers. The well-designed site indicates that HTA is taking steps to create an impression with the public and with its target audience that it is a solidly established institution.
Most likely, HTA’s membership and support base in the United States numbers only in the hundreds. Due to the fact that HTA’s operations have been largely clandestine until now, it has been difficult to determine the size of its ranks. However, several known members have status and influence in universities and in their communities. (19)
The Aqsa School is now unwilling to play host to HTA Khilafah Conference, according to an announcement that has been posted on HTA’s Khilafah Conference 2009 web site. The event was scheduled for Sunday, July 19th. The HTA conference web site provides no further explanation for the cancellation. The Aqsa School web site does not mention the Khilfafah Conference– officially titled “Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam”– or the subsequent cancellation.
It is possible that the school did not welcome the association with HTA. It is also possible that the board and administrators of the school anticipated unwelcome attention from the public and government officials as a result of hosting the conference. HTA intends to find a new venue in which to hold the conference, according to the conference web site. Now that HTA has come out publicly, and is thus openly linked to the Khilafah Conference concept, it may be difficult for it to find a venue willing to host the event.
The Aqsa School’s business manager later told a CBS News reporter that the representatives of HTA had “misrepresented themselves and the event” and the school did not “want to be in the middle of something like that.” (20)
HTA has booked the Hilton in Oak Lawn, IL for the “Fall of Capitalism & Rise of Islam” conference, according to an update on their Khilafah Conference web site.
According to the announcement on the HTA conference web site, the conference will still be held on July 19th, from 11 am to 5 pm, as originally planned.
The Hilton Oak Lawn reservations department does not have any record of guest rooms held under the name “Hizb ut-Tahrir,” or “Khilafah Conference,” or “Fall of Capitalism & Rise of Islam.” The Hilton’s catering department, which keeps a record of the organizations that have booked event spaces at the hotel, was not open at the time of the publication of this article; therefore, it cannot be determined at this time whether HTA booked under its own name or if it has used a cover name to reserve the Grand Ballroom. *** UPDATE: 7/2/09 – Hizb ut-Tahrir reserved the banquet space at the hotel under its own name and apparently did not find it necessary to use a cover name. *** (21)
There are some small but visible signs of prospective conference attendance. In the last two weeks, three Facebook pages have been created to promote HTA’s Khilafah Conference. More than 100 of those invited on the Facebook pages have indicated that they may attend, and approximately 40 have confirmed that they will definitely attend.
The Facebook page with the largest number of invitees to the conference (more than 1000) is administered by Abdur Rafay. Rafay belongs to the “Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science Grad Student ‘12″ and the “N. Illinois Alum ‘06″ networks on Facebook. The second Khilafah Conference page is administered by Meenara Jamal Khan, who is part of the “Chicago” network on Facebook. The third page, and the least popular of the three, is administered by someone who uses the name Kalifat Hamza.
If conferences held by young branches of HT in other countries are any indication of prospective turnout in Oak Lawn, the attendance for HTA’s first publicly promoted conference will be relatively small. Also, as the United States is a large country, HTA’s membership is scattered from coast to coast, and some may find it difficult to travel to Chicago for a one-day conference. Chicago appears to be the most active chapter of HTA, however, even some members and supporters in the immediate area may be reluctant to appear in person at an event that would publicly reveal their affiliation.
Older, well-established branches of HT, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, attract several hundred attendees to most of their events. Generally speaking, however, most branches in western democracies do not attract as many supporters to rallies and conferences. By contract, the Indonesian branch of HT held its Khilafah conference in a sports stadium in August 2007. The conference was attended by tens of thousands of members and supporters. Smaller branches are able to fill a large hotel conference room. In HTA’s case, it anticipates hosting enough attendees to fill the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Oak Lawn. (22)
If this conference does take place, or if any announcements happen after today, I will do an update post when it happens. I am interested to see how this group evolves and whether or not they will be tagged as a terrorist group.
(1) http://www.nixoncenter.org/Monographs/HizbutahrirIslamsPoliticalInsurgency.pdf
(2) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/world/europe/12britain.html
(3) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3182271.stm
(4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/24/religion.uk
(5) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1564616/Islamists-urge-young-Muslims-to-use-violence.html
(6) http://www.newstatesman.com/200409130018
(7) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070822.whizb22/BNStory/International/home
(8) http://www.terrorism.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Intel&file=index&view=649
(9) http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lagazettedumaroc.com%2Farticles.php%3Fid_artl%3D3532%26n%3D339%26r%3D2%26sr%3D715&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
(10) http://www.newstatesman.com/200511140010
(11) http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/PDF/EN/en_books_pdf/IslamicState.pdf
(12) http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/03/14/kurt_met_police_trust_feature.shtml
(13) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/international/europe/10qaeda.html?ex=1171342800&en=9e77274863ef7360&ei=5070
(14) http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/07/06/Hizb-ut-Tahrir-set-for-coup-in-Pakistan/UPI-29551246906267/
(15) http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=4377
(16) http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/11/hizb_uttahrir_america_may_be_r.php
(17) http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/06/hizb_ut-tahrir_america_enters.php
(18) http://www.khilafahconference2009.com/
(19) http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/06/hizb_ut-tahrir_america_launche.php
(20) http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/06/hizb_ut-tahrir_america_confere.php
(21) http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/07/hizb_ut-tahrir_america_confere_1.php
(22) http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/07/support_for_hizb_ut-tahrir_ame.php
Tweet It!
My readers will notice that in the last post, I placed this Twitter button before the writing. What is this for? What can this magical button do? What is this Twitter thing you speak of? All of these are questions you may be asking yourself. If you don’t know what twitter is, crawl out of your spider hole and find out. Quite simply, I took an idea that is not currently available to WordPress users, and made a simple workaround for the time being. What you do is click on that button, then, if you are a twitter user, you can tweet a link to that specific post. You will see this most used by @mashable. Use it, don’t use it, hate me for putting it on there, do anything you like. I just wanted to give it a try and see what happens.
Thanks for reading!
-Russ
Tweet It!
I stumbled upon this report on CNN just a few moments ago, let me give you a chunk before I start talking
Plainclothes investigators sent to test security at federal buildings in four U.S. cities were successful in smuggling bomb components through guard posts at all 10 of the sites they visited, according to a government report. The investigators then assembled the bombs in restrooms and freely entered numerous government offices while carrying the devices in briefcases, the report said. The buildings contained offices of several federal lawmakers as well as agencies within the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security, which is responsible for safeguarding federal office buildings. CNN obtained the report late Tuesday, ahead of its expected release Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, conducted the tests to check on the effectiveness of the Federal Protective Service .The FPS protects federal buildings by having about 1,200 federal law enforcement officers oversee an army of 13,000 private security guards. In a videotape obtained by CNN, a covert GAO inspector places a bag containing bomb components on an X-ray machine conveyor belt and then walks through a magnetometer at an unidentified federal building. Unlike some covert tests that use simulated explosives, the GAO used actual bomb components in the test and publicly available information “to identify a type of device that a terrorist could use” to damage a building………
After the components were smuggled into the building and assembled, the GAO says, it took steps to ensure the device would not explode. But to demonstrate the device’s destructive power, the GAO videotaped the detonation of several devices at a remote site.
After the long line of dots, and before the next paragraph. CNN then quotes the report about what specifically was used to create the IED, how much it costs, that the parts could be found and bought on the internet, and provides a video depicting how the agents’ got past security.
Thank you CNN for telling me that Federal Buildings have a lack of security and that they are working towards fixing it…but why did you broadcast to the world how to blow up our buildings? I would prefer you just said it happened, not specifically how someone could do it.
The point of the report was to show a hole in security. The result of the report showed that the media doesn’t care what is in a story, or its consequences, they just care that they have something to report.
I found this interesting article on Bloomsberg.com this morning.
Somalia’s al-Shabaab (the youth) terrorist organization, thought to have ties to al-Qaeda, is calling for the Government of Somalia to lay down their arms within the next five days and make way for the group to set up a Caliphate. The group says that if the Government refuses, they will face trial in the Shariah courts. Somali President (Since January) Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has called for peace talks amongst the various Islamist groups in the country.
“I call on the apostate government soldiers who are in the frontline of battle to surrender to the Islamists and to hand over all their weapons,” Sheikh Muktar Abu-Subeyr, the highest ranking officer of al-Shabaab, said in an audio recording distributed to reporters in the capital, Mogadishu, yesterday.
Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indha’ade, Somalia’s minister of state for ministry of defense, verified the authenticity of the recording and rejected the call for surrender.
“I call on the Somali people to become ready to establish an Islamic government,” Subeyr said. “It is based on justice and Islamic brotherhood. It doesn’t need any foreign aid and it will benefit from the land of our resources.”
I don’t think that al-Shabaab is influential enough to actually make an entire Government surrender, but definitely watch the country the next couple of days as this progresses. Most likely, the Government will call the bluf and al-Shabaab will increase violence over the weekend.
This is just another of the many problems facing the country of Somalia right now. You’ll remember my post about Modern Day Piracy, based in Somalia, that, on top of 18 years of civil war really make Somalia difficult to deal with. Odds are, violence will only increase in Somalia and not much positive can be drawn from the developements there.
UPDATE: Below
A mere two days ago, the US handed Sadr City over to the Iraqi Government (you will remember my post then about how the media seemed to ignore this important moment in our relationship with Iraq). Today, a blast ripped through a marketplace killing 55 and injuring more than 100. The US is supposed to completely withdraw from Baghdad on Tuesday the 30th. That day is going to be marked as an Iraqi National Holiday.
There are many different ways you can look at this bombing:
- Sadr City militants are taking advantage of the US forces no longer being present. They are exploiting a situation that is much more vulnerable today than it was just two days ago.
- The militants, now without an enemy based in their region, are trying to cause mass panic so that the US comes back. This idea goes along with the militants wanting someone to attack to be able to show that they are still influential.
- They want the focus of the region on them and not on the US’ withdrawal.
I’m not saying that these statements are mutually exclusive, or collectively exhaustive. However, seeing what happens in the next few days and weeks will be very telling in how the Iraqi situation developes in the years to come. Will stability result from the US withdrawal? Or will the troops be back in a matter of months?
UPDATE: The troops left with only a few explosions. The news out of Iraq has been very calm, but the verdict is still out. With the US focusing now on Afghanistan, Iraq will once again float into the background. No major developements in the country is a good thing, we will see what the next few months hold.
Apparently Nicky Kundnani never locked arms with fellow students at a football game and swayed while singing “May no act of ours bring shame, to one heart that loves thy name. May our lives but swell thy fame, Dear Old State, Dear Old State.” Or if he did, he should have taken a class to improve his listening skills.
“The worst person I have ever met in my entire life”
Comments like that have poured in on the stories at ITmilk.com and OnwardState.com after the news of Kundnani’s actions broke. I know the @Daehee who ran the story first on his blog, ITmilk, pretty well and have a bunch of buddies over at @OnwardState who carried the story also. According to OnwardState back in May,
Kundnani, a finance major, was charged on Wednesday with a number of fraud and theft related charges. This very well may be the most interesting story to happen at Penn State all year.
Defrauding the school through the Financial Management Association
In his role as president of the Financial Management Association, Kundnani got reimbursed for faked purchase receipts totaling approximately $3000. He also got reimbursed for conferences that he never actually attended.
And that is only the very beginning my friends. The guy set up a fake hedge fund, accepted investment money, gloated about a high paying job at Bear Sterns, was known to drug female students at parties, the list goes on and on.
I don’t have anything new to report, I just wanted to give this crazy story more coverage. I think it is rather unique and probably the top story of my young college career. Head over to the stories on OnwardState and ITmilk and join in on the conversation there.
