Category Archives: Human Rights

Hizb-ut Tahrir and the ‘butcher of Buner’

Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT) Britain, a global Islamist revolutionary group calling for the establishment of an Islamic state (Khilafah), has recently issued a press statement titled ‘Brown welcomes the butcher of Buner to Downing Street’ – denouncing Pakistani President  Zardari’s visit to the UK. Taji Mustafa HT Britain’s media representative said:

“The whole reason why the British, American and other Western governments sponsor brutal tyrants such as Zardari is because they fear the growing call in the Muslim lands such as Pakistan for Islam and the re-establishment of the Khilafah. Their strategy revolves around the simple objective of preventing Muslims from controlling their own political destiny…”

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The Taliban’s perversion of sharia law

(This article of mine was originally published in the Guardian’s Comment is Free: Belief, 3 May 2009)

In the Malakand region of Pakistan, the Taliban have started correcting the “moral wrongs” of society by banning women from shopping in public areas, as it is believed to be obscene. They have have punished men by shaving their hair and moustaches for listening to music, seen as un-Islamic. As non-Muslims living under sharia law, the Sikh community in Orakzai Agency is being forced to pay 15m rupees, approximately £130,000, in tax to live in peace. If Sikhs refuse, then the Taliban will occupy their properties.

The Taliban are, of course, not the first to attempt to implement sharia law. Governments in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and northern Nigeria have implemented “Islamic” laws that have resulted in systematic human rights abuses by employing medieval punishments for transgressing God’s “boundaries”, such as death for apostasy and stoning for adultery. The implementation of such sharia laws leads people to question the compatibility of Islam and human rights.

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Forced into Hijab: a response to Katharine Quarmby

(This article of mine was originally published in First Draft, the Prospect Magazine blog, 18 March 2009)

In Britain, freedom of consciousness and liberalism thrive. Women can choose to wear the hijab (headscarf) or not, and so Katharine Quarmby can ponder at will its aesthetic and fashion implications. In Iran, however, such a luxury is unimaginable. A woman’s worth and modesty is dictated by misogynist Islamist clerics who force women to wear the hijab and throw feminists in jail for daring to protest for equal human rights.

Unfortunately, some do not appreciate the freedoms held in Britain. In a recent talk I attended, Alastair Crooke, a former MI6 agent, labels what we see in Iran as ‘Muslim values’, praising Iran’s leaders for using their ‘creative imaginative faculties’ to construct a society based on collective ‘Islamic’ norms. Most Iranian women recognise this as Khomeini’s politicisation of religion. Crooke rejected the idea that the Iranian regime abuses a woman’s human rights, as these are a ‘Western’ construct – Christian, capitalist and rooted in individualism.

Also posted in Democracy, Fashion, Islamism, Secularism | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments
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