Author Archives: Guest

This is a guest post by Chris Blackburn

There was a marriage this week, a pretty big one, and no it wasn’t anything to do with the legalisation of same sex marriages in New York State. It was the public marriage of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami movement. A major event in international Islamism. It’s also going to have a major affect on international relations and security in the future.

It is safe to say that the Egyptian event would have certainly been one of Sayid Qutb’s milestones. Islamist watchers around the world wouldn’t have been surprised; since the 1950s the Muslim Brothers and Jamaat have maintained close relations. They’ve played and flirted with each other for years.

In 1952, Said Ramadan, a leader in the Muslim Brother the father of Tariq Ramadan; the prodigal son and neo- European Islamist, was once dispatched to Karachi, Pakistan to help Jamaat organise their youth and student movements. It really was love at first sight, but cynics have said it was the Cold War which brought them together.

This is a guest post by Omar Fombo Fostock

The racist, homophobic and supremacist global Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir are having its 2011 annual event in Tower Hamlets. This event is being held at the Water Lilly Centre on Mile End Road. This is a venue that has Tesco as one of its tenants and is regularly hired out by the local council.

Tower Hamlets has recently been exposed as a hot-bed of extremist activity. Anti-Gay stickers have been plastered on lamp posts, non-Muslim teachers have been beaten up for teaching religion to Muslim students, moderate Muslims have been attacked for not practising their faith a certain way and the local mayor has strong ties to Islamist groups in the area. Is it any wonder that the aforementioned things take place in this borough when local venues are happy to host hate preachers who promote homophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-western views. Preachers who believe in killing gays, eradicating Jews, attacking moderate Muslims and encouraging Muslims to hate western nations.  These venue managers couldn’t care less who is speaking as long as they are getting paid.

This is a guest post by Shiraz Maher

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Like the fruit of the medlar, Hizb ut Tahrir turned rotten long before it was ripe.

For years the group has boasted of inspiring a popular revolution on the Arab street and said it was in a position to ‘mould public opinion’ in favour of a Caliphate if only people would rise up against the regimes. Now that it’s finally happening, the party is nowhere to be seen in the Middle East.

Hizb ut Tahrir is failed and failing. But don’t just take my word for it.

For some time now I’ve been hearing of senior members defecting from the party in the UK. I wasn’t sure what to make of it but now I’ve had confirmation about some of the most significant departures over the last two years from a source still inside the party who is also preparing to leave. Recent significant departures include: