
Cranmer has written about Hizb-ut-Tahrir before:
here,
here and
here.
They are not very nice.
Not nice at all.
So it comes as something of a surprise (or perhaps not) to learn that this amoral, deficient, anti-Christian Labour government are subsidising a terrorist-supporting, kuffar-hating, strife-inducing Islamic agenda for world domination.
His Grace has been sent a very interesting letter by the Conservative Party (at last, they are trusting him with their intelligence).
It was sent from the Michael Gove MP to Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
It concerns the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation, which runs an independent school in Slough and an independent school and nursery in Haringey. The foundation allegedly has strong links to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Mr Gove says he believes that the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation not only has very strong links to Hizb ut-Tahrir, but is in fact a front for its political activity. He says:
‘I believe that the Foundation’s schools are teaching an educational philosophy that is incompatible with Britain’s liberal democratic values. Furthermore I am greatly concerned the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation is in receipt of public money to further radical Islamist aims despite appearing not to meet basic DCSF criteria.’
Most concerningly, the headmistress of the Slough school, Farah Ahmed, is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and has written for its journal attacking the ‘corrupt Western concepts of materialism and freedom’.

When Mr Gove asked the DCSF what had be done to ensure the senior staff at the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation schools were suitable people to be teaching children, they responded that all school staff ‘had undergone a CRB check’.
It beggars belief that even this Labour government believes that a CRB check would ascertain whether or not a teacher or school leader is a political extremist.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose supporters and members run the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation and teach in its schools, defines Israel as an enemy state and sanctions the killing of Israeli Jews. The party’s ideology is therefore inherently anti-Semitic.
It is not therefore clear how the headmistress of the Slough school can possibly fulfil her statutory duty to promote racial equality. Perhaps someone from the DCSF, or a Labour supporter, or even a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir (should any be sufficiently enlightened to read His Grace’s blog) could explain how a school whose head teacher is a member of a radical Islamist organisation; which teaches an educational philosophy imbued with an Islamist world view; and whose foundation was started and run by members of Hizb ut-Tahrir can possibly be ‘meeting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils’.
But Cranmer has another interesting question:
The DCSF has recently conducted a review into safeguards to protect young people from discrimination and prevent the teaching of partisan political activities. One high profile suggestion which came from this was the banning of BNP members from working in schools.
If BNP members may not be teachers, how is it that members of Hizb ut-Tahrir may be head teachers?
At PMQs today, David Cameron disclosed that £113,000 of taxpayers money has so far been donated to the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation. Ironically, this has been secured from the Pathfinder scheme, whose objective is supposed to be the prevention of violent extremism.
A few facts:
Tony Blair promised to ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir: On 5 August 2005, the Prime Minister set out a twelve point plan on new measures to tackle terrorism. He said: ‘We will proscribe Hizb-ut-Tahira and the successor organisation of Al Mujahiroun. We will also examine the grounds for proscription to widen them and put forward proposals in the new legislation’.
‘Kill Jews wherever they are found’ was a Newsnight Reporter on August 2003: ‘We went to Denmark, where Hizb Ut Tahrir has come to the attention of the police and the courts because of its anti-Semitic views. In March and April 2002, Hizb Ut Tahrir handed out leaflets in a square in Copenhagen, and at a mosque. The leaflet, which also appeared on the Danish groups internet site, makes threats against Jews, using a quote from the Koran urging Muslims to 'kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have been turned you out.' The leaflet also said, 'The Jews are a people of slander...a treacherous people... they fabricate lies and twist words from their right context.' And the leaflet describes suicide bombings in Israel as "legitimate" acts of "Martyrdom"’.
Then: ‘The Danish magistrate described Hizb Ut Tahrir as secretive, but the case did expose something of the way the group is organised. The Danish police established that the web site on which the offending material was published was being hosted in the UK. That wasn't relevant to their case so they didn't pursue it any further. However, Newsnight can reveal that it wasn't only being hosted in the UK, it was actually being run from the UK. Computer records show that the Danish web site shared the same internet address as web sites registered to a mailing address here, at 56 Gloucester Road, London, the British Headquarters of Hizb Ut Tahrir, and that's not all. Newsnight can reveal that the leaflet, which has been successfully prosecuted for racism in Denmark, is on the British group's web site today. The document is in English and has been on the web site since March 2002’.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir constitution. Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s constitution states that non-Muslims in non-Muslim lands are ‘in a state of war’ and are ‘combatants on the battlefield’ whose ‘blood is lawful [to be spilt].’ (Muqadimmat al-Dustur aw asbab ul-Muwajjabbatlah, p.450, cited in the Centre for Social Cohesion’s report, Hizb ut-Tahrir: Ideology and Strategy, p.26)
Islam4UK
Islam4UK is an extremist organisation which calls for Islamic rule in Britain and the blanket imposition of Sharia law. Members of Islam4UK, including its leader, Anjem Choudary, are linked to the banned terrorist groups Al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect.
Anjem Choudary described the 9/11 hijackers as ‘magnificent’ and organised a protest against British soldiers returning from Iraq in March this year. He and his demonstrators shouted at the Royal Anglian Regiment in Luton, calling them ‘murderers’ and ‘rapists’.
Same as banned organisation. For all practical purposes Islam4UK is the same organisation as Al-Ghurabaa, listed as a proscribed group in 2006.
Organisations can be banned if they are the same as others that are already banned. The Terrorism Act 2000, as amended by the Terrorism Act 2006, allows the Home Secretary to proscribe a group that he believes is to be treated as another name for a group that has already been proscribed.
Links with Al-Ghurabaa. Al-Ghurabaa was proscribed in the UK on 26 July 2006 because it was ‘concerned with terrorism.’ Al-Ghurabaa still run a website aimed at a British audience which hosts lectures inciting terrorism. At the moment, the website is offering a free download of a lecture by Anwar al-Awlaki (considered the spiritual guide of several of the 9/11 hijackers and also linked to the gunman who attacked Fort Hood, Texas recently). The lecture, delivered in March 2009, urges on the Pakistani Taliban and their allies against the Pakistani government. There are strong links between two of the people known to be involved in Al-Ghurabaa, Anjem Choudary and Omar Bakri Mohammed, and Islam4UK:
Anjem Choudary, a British-born agitator, was the spokesman for Al-Ghurabaa. He was interviewed by The Guardian a few days before the group was banned. Asked what he would do once the group was disbanded: ‘[Choudary] makes it clear that he sees nothing to prevent members of al-Ghurabaa regrouping under a different banner, as long as they avoid the glorification of terrorism, the offence which has allowed the Home Office to ban the organisation.
‘One could still have an organisation that calls for Islam and sharia, and calls for an alternative to the capitalist ideology, and doesn't do those things which caused the other organisation to be proscribed. I could join Labour tomorrow, and they're not going to proscribe the Labour party just because I've joined, are they?’ (The Guardian, 22 July 2006).
Choudary is now the spokesman for Islam4UK and his mobile phone number is often the contact number given at the end of Islam4UK press releases (Islam4UK website, accessed 9 November 2009). He has lived on benefits for many years (Daily Mail, 24 July 2009).
Anjem Choudary quotes:
On the aims of Islam4UK: ‘On this day we will call for a complete upheaval of the British ruling system, its members and legislature, and demand the full implementation of Shari’ah in Britain’ (The Daily Express, 15 October 2009).
On a British army homecoming parade in Luton: ‘A vile parade of brutal murderers’ (The Daily Express, 15 October 2009).
On blasphemy: ‘Whoever insults the message of Muhammad is going to be subject to capital punishment’ (Evening Standard, 19 September 2006).
On Jihad: ‘What the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Palestine are doing is defending themselves from foreigner fighters coming to kill them. It's outrageous that we get called terrorists if we speak about the right to defend ourselves’ (Daily Mail, 24 July 2009).
On non-Muslims: ‘At the end of the day, when we say “innocent people” we mean “Muslims”. As far as non-Muslims are concerned, they have not accepted Islam. As far as we are concerned, that is a crime against God’ (BBC Interview, accessed 4 January 2007).
On Jihad: ‘This honourable act must be carried out according to your own capabilities because... Muhammad said strike the [infidels] with your wealth, hands and tongue’ (The Times, 14 January 2007).
On the 9/11 hijackers after Al-Muhajiroun branded them ‘The Magnificent 19’: ‘Those individuals are Muslims, they were carrying out their Islamic responsibility and duty, so in that respect they were magnificent, and the Muslims worldwide hope that they are accepted as martyrs in the eyes of God’ (CNN, 10 September 2003).
After 7/7: According to the Evening Standard, ‘after the July 7 atrocities in London, he vowed he would not tell the police if he knew a terror attack was being planned and urged Muslims to defend themselves against perceived attacks by “whatever means they have at their disposal”’ (Evening Standard, 19 September 2006).
On the role of his groups in creating terrorists: ‘To say that we radicalise people is unfair. I don't think it is a surprise that a small number of people who have met us might go on to do other things. But it is not the case that anyone who comes across us automatically becomes a radical and commits a martyrdom operation’ (The Independent, 17 June 2009).
Statement on behalf of Islam4UK: ‘We have had enough of democracy and man-made law and the depravity of the British culture’ (The Daily Express, 15 October 2009).
On Nelson’s column: Under his Sharia government it ‘would be removed and demolished without hesitation’ (The Daily Express, 15 October 2009).
Omar Bakri Mohammed. Omar Bakri Muhammad is a Syrian-born cleric who lived in London until banned from Britain shortly after the 7/7 terrorist attacks. He is considered to have inspired the group that formed al-Ghurabaa and, subsequently, Islam4UK. Anjem Choudary, spokesman for both organisations, has said that he was first drawn towards Islam4UK’s perverted form of Islam when he ‘bumped into Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed’ at a mosque in Woolwich in the early 1990s (The Guardian, 22 July 2006). The websites for al-Ghurabaa and Islam4UK have both been used to host video messages from Omar Bakri Mohammed to a British audience.
The Islam4UK website carries audio lectures by both Anjem Choudary and Omar Bakri Mohammed. One of Bakri’s lectures is on the life of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder and former leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, who was killed by the United States in 2006.
Omar Bakri Mohammed quotes:
On suicide bombings: ‘We call it self sacrifice. You must fight for the way of Allah - to kill first and be killed. If somebody decided to land an aeroplane over 10 Downing Street, for example - this is a form of self sacrifice’ (The Times, 21 July 2005).
On Jihad: ‘The jihad is halal [permissible] for the Muslims wherever they are, the whole ummah [Muslim community] wherever they are. OK brothers - wherever you are, do it’ (The Times, 21 July 2005).
On the deaths of British servicemen in a Nimrod crash: ‘Allah has his own soldiers and I was so happy. I was just thanking Allah’ (The Sun, 11 September 2006).
On terrorism: ‘We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity…they are our brothers, the terrorists’ (The Age, 19 April 2004).
On Tony Blair: ‘A legitimate target’ for assassination (Sunday Mercury, 31 May 2009).
On Osama bin Laden: ‘An honourable man’ (Sunday Mercury, 31 May 2009).
On Osama bin Laden again: ‘Why I condemn Osama bin Laden for [sic]? I condemn Tony Blair, I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims’ (The Times, 21 July 2005).
On the 7/7 bombings: ‘I blame the British Government and I blame the British people. They are the ones who should be blamed’ (The Times, 21 July 2005).
As His Grace said, they are just
not nice people at all.