Recently in Hizb ut-Tahrir Category

They act as though they are going to get ready-made good government in a box if they opt for the caliphate. First, they would need to find a caliph. Beyond that, if they suppose that the caliphate is going to be immune to cronyism, a lack of transparency, misappropriation of resources, and other symptoms of the corrupting influence of power, they are in for a surprise.

In neighboring Egypt, we have already seen where the Muslim Brotherhood, which also aspires to reconstitute the caliphate, railed against the corruption of the Mubarak regime only to show a strong propensity for the same, particularly during the elections.

For that matter, the system of government that will be imposed is Sharia. Not a coulda-woulda-shoulda, experimental, drawing-board, hypothetical Sharia floated by apologists. Not a prototype, but the production model, whose performance is well documented. The glowing generalities full of half-truths and empty promises will lose their luster as the specifics of governance fall into place.

"Hundreds of women call for Islamic governance," from Agence France-Presse, March 10:

Hundreds of Muslim women gathered near Tunis Saturday to call for the return of the caliphate, the defunct Islamic system of governance which they said was the only means of guaranteeing their rights.

The members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party came from Islamic countries including Arab states, Indonesia and Turkey, as well as from Europe to debate the benefits of the system that disappeared nearly 90 years ago.

"This conference raises questions about the secular liberal way of life and asks whether it is a system that has succeed in securing the dignity and rights of women," chief spokeswoman Nasrin Nawaaz of the British branch of the party told AFP.

"Muslim women are gathering together saying that we no longer want to live under secular liberal democratic systems," she added.

"We want a new system, we want the khalifa system that historically has been tried and has succeeded in securing the rights of women."

Nawaz said that countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran that promote themselves as Islamic states "in reality they implement nothing but the rules of dictatorship."

Men were banned from the conference, which opened with a film castigating Western political systems and calling for "patient and determined work to re-establish the law of Islam."

Founded in 1953, Hizb ut-Tahir has members and sympathisers in more than 50 countries. It seeks the return of the caliphate, based on Islamic charia law, by political means.

The caliphate was introduced after the death of Mohammed to govern the Muslim world and held by a succession of dynasties based in different cities before the emergence of nation states.

The fifth and last caliphate held sway under the Turkish Ottomans and was abolished in 1924 by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The same group on whose TV program Obama adviser Dalia Mogahed recently defended Sharia. "Islamists who want to destroy the state get £100,000 funding," by Andrew Gilligan for the Telegraph, October 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Leading members of a group that wants to bring down the British state and replace it with a dictatorship under Islamic law have secured more than £100,000 of taxpayers' money for a chain of schools.

Accounts filed at the Charity Commission show that the Government paid a total of £113,411 last year to a foundation run by senior members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir -- a notorious Islamic extremist group that ministers promised to ban.

The public money helped run a nursery school and two Islamic primary schools where children are taught key elements of Hizb's ideology from the age of five....

Hizb regards integration as "dangerous" and says that British Muslims should "fight assimilation" into British society. It wants to create a global Islamic superstate, or "caliphate", initially in Muslim-majority countries and then across the rest of the world.

It says that "those [Muslims] who believe in democracy are Kafir", or apostates. It orders all Muslims to keep apart from non-believers and boycott "corrupt" British elections and political processes. It has a tiny following and its views are rejected by most British Muslims.

Hizb, which operates worldwide, insists it is non-violent and condemned the London bombings.

However its website previously displayed a leaflet urging Muslims to "kill [Jews] wherever you find them" and at a rally in London earlier this year, Imran Waheed, its chief media adviser in Britain, said that there could be "no peace" with Israel, calling on Muslims to "fight" a "jihad... in the way of Allah" against it.

Its anti-Semitism has resulted in the group being banned in Germany and on some British university campuses....

On Obama adviser Dalia Mogahed's appearance on Hizb ut-Tahrir's TV show, see here. She says now that she was "misled."

In any case, the Bangladeshi government has done well. If only the U.S. government would follow suit.

"Bangladesh Islamist group banned," from the BBC, October 23 (thanks to Maxwell):

The Islamist organisation, Hizb-ut Tahrir has been banned in Bangladesh, the home ministry has announced.

Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar said the government feared Hizb-ut Tahrir posed a threat to peaceful life.

It is the first time that an Islamist group which has not been implicated in any terrorist acts been outlawed.

The group has condemned the ban and pledged that it will not be silenced by a government it said was guilty of a "pro-imperialist stance".

Officials say that Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in at least 20 countries and topped a government list of about 10 groups suspected of plotting subversive acts in Bangladesh.

Mutiny

"The government has decided to ban Hizb-ut Tahrir because they are against the interest of law and pose a threat to public security," Mr Sikdar said....

British MP Harriet Harman got quite the surprise last week when members of Hizb ut-Tahrir came for a visit, taking advantage of Harman’s open-door office policy. The representatives of the violent Muslim group were there to complain about the British government’s efforts to outlaw their organization, in a story recounted by Nick Cohen in the Observer:

A few weeks ago, Harriet Harman was holding a surgery for her Peckham constituents. As always, it was an open house, and every variety of south Londoner was coming to her office. She had dealt with the usual run of complaints and appeals when the door opened and for the first time in her life Harman confronted authentic anti-democrats.

If she had been less startled, she might have seen the funny side. The members of Hizb ut-Tahrir hated democracy and all that went with it - secularism, the separation of church and state, the emancipation of women. It's not just that they would establish a dictatorship if they came to power, the successor parties to the communists and the fascists would do that. The Islamists regarded it as sinful to stand in elections or even vote.

Yet here were totalitarians and misogynists going to a woman democratic politician and begging her to persuade Tony Blair not to take authoritarian measures against their authoritarian sect. The scene could have been bettered only if Harman had been a Jewish lesbian.

In fact, she is a courteous and patient politician. She listened politely to what they had to say and the more she heard the more despairing she became. As they were leaving, she said, 'you're British citizens. Shouldn't you try to play a part in British society?'

'We're not a part of British society,' they told her. 'We stay here like guests in a hotel.'

"Extremist groups active inside UK universities, report claims," from the Guardian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Extremist organisations are operating on university campuses across the country and pose a serious threat to national security, according to a new report.

Yesterday the education secretary, Ruth Kelly, ordered vice-chancellors to clamp down on student extremists in the wake of the July terror attacks in London.

But a report due to be published next week by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's centre for intelligence and security studies, lists more than 30 institutions - including some of the most high-profile universities in the country - where "extremist and/or terror groups" have been detected.

"This is a serious threat," Professor Glees told the Guardian. "We have discovered a number of universities where subversive activities are taking place, often without the knowledge of the university authorities."

The study states that the Islamist groups Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun, which are subject to a "no-platform policy" by the National Union of Students, are active on many campuses and often operate under different names....

Among the universities named are...the London School of Economics and Manchester University, which both had active Islamist extremist groups.

Rhumba, Són Montuno, Guaracha, Mambo, Cha cha cha, Sharia, Khalifa, Shehada. "Hardliners try to lead Quakers a merry dance," from the TimesOnline, with thanks to Interested:

A HARDLINE Islamist group attempted to book a conference at a Quaker meeting house by disguising itself as a Latin American dance organisation.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which Tony Blair plans to ban as an extremist organisation, had booked Friends Meeting House in Central London using the name Salsa Bill Publishing House.

The group, which describes itself as a non-violent political party seeking to establish an Islamic state, had called a national conference to be attended by 1,000 followers on Sunday. But the Quakers said yesterday that they had cancelled the booking and refunded the fee because they were unhappy that insufficient details and contact information had been provided.

A Quaker spokeswoman said: “We are a pacifist movement and any group which books with us is expected to follow our guidelines.”

A spokesman for Hizb-ut-Tahrir said the conference had been advertised widely but claimed not to know details of the booking. He said: “I don’t deal with the bookings so to be quite honest I don’t have a clue about it.”

It is not clear now where the conference, entitled Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the Vision of the Caliphate, will take place.

No, not jihadist media: Hizb-ut-Tahrir is still legal in Denmark, despite calling for the killing of non-Muslims. (Since they are a non-violent group, they must be, as Fjordman points out, advocating peaceful killing). But the Danish government has targeted Kaj Wilhelmsen, who has called for the expulsion of Muslim populations in Europe or the extermination of jihadists.

Of course, silencing Wilhelmsen will backfire on the Danish government. His extreme recommendations are born out of frustration that the government is not doing enough to combat the threat of jihad, and is kept from doing so by political correctness and multiculturalism. This action will only reinforce such perspectives. If they really want to discredit Wilhelmsen and strip away any credibility his views may have among Danes, they should move decisively against Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other jihadists in Denmark.

From the BBC, with thanks to Fjordman:

A radio station in Copenhagen has had its broadcasting licence taken away for three months after calling for the extermination of Muslims.

In the controversial broadcast, Radio Holger presenter Kaj Wilhelmsen said: "There are only two possible reactions if you want to stop this bomb terrorism - either you expel all Muslims from Western Europe so they cannot plant bombs, or you exterminate the fanatical Muslims which would mean killing a substantial part of Muslim immigrants."

Following the London bombs on 7 July, at least three extremist websites have warned that Denmark could be the next target.

The reason for such threats is the 500 Danish troops working alongside US and British troops in Iraq....

On Tuesday, the Danish Radio Licence Commission ruled the programme in breach of the Broadcasting Act and decided to withdraw the station's licence for three months.

But Kaj Wilhelmsen has vowed to fight on. He says he will continue to broadcast on the internet, for which no licence is required....

In a separate development, Copenhagen Police charged Kaj Wilhelmsen with breaking the anti-racism law which makes it illegal to incite hatred against groups on the basis of religion, race or sexual orientation.

Henning Koch, a legal expert from Copenhagen University, told Danish Radio he believed Kaj Wilhelmsen was in serious breach of the anti-racism law and faces a possible prison sentence.

'Exterminate your rulers'

Since the bomb attacks in London, there has been an increased focus on extremist groups in Denmark. Only last week, the spokesman for the Danish branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Fadi Abdullatif, was charged with calling for the killing of the Danish government.

On a flyer distributed in Denmark, Hizb ut-Tahrir said: "So, travel to help your brothers in Falluja and exterminate your rulers if they block your way".

Danish Justice Minister Lene Espersen is looking to find a legal way to ban the organisation. Those kind of remarks "have no place in our society", said Mrs Espersen in November.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has already been banned in neighbouring Sweden and Germany.

Copenhagen Police is also investigating another extremist group, according to Politiken newspaper.

The paper says the group is linked to a Copenhagen mosque and its website provides links to an al-Qaeda recruiting video showing Osama bin Laden calling for the killing of non-Muslims and demonstrating how to build a bomb.

The non-violent jihadists, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, are not going to go gentle into that good night. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Among the measures Blair announced Friday is the outlawing of the Muslim group Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The government did not elaborate on why the group was being proscribed, only naming it as part of the drive to uproot Islamic extremism.

A Hizb-ut-Tahrir spokesman, Nasreen Nawas, said at a news conference Saturday that the government's aim is "the curtailment of legitimate Islamic political debate."

Hizb-ut-Tahrir, formed in Jerusalem in 1953, has a presence in several European nations and has been active in Britain for almost two decades. It insists it is a nonviolent political organization, although it has been outlawed in Russia and several Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries and faces restrictions in Germany.

The group's aim is to overthrow "unelected dictators and despots who rule the Muslim world with the West's approval," Nawas said.

He said Hizb-ut-Tahrir advocates establishing a caliphate including all Muslim lands — a state he said would have a democratically elected government, independent judiciary and respect for human rights.

So says Nawas via AP. Here, from Forum 18, is a bit more forthright report about the organization's goals:

Hizb-ut-Tahrir, whose headquarters is illegally based in Jordan, is banned or treated as illegal in all the Central Asian republics. It aims to achieve the unification of Muslims worldwide under a single caliphate and believes that western democracy is unacceptable to Muslims. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel are considered to be the work of the devil. Blatant anti-Semitism is a characteristic of the party's ideology. For example, Hizb-ut-Tahrir leaflets distributed illegally in Uzbekistan invariably call the Uzbek president Islam Karimov a "Jewish kafir". One Uzbek member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir expressed his regret to Forum 18 that Hitler had not succeeded in eliminating all Jews.

Hizb-ut-Tahir members told Forum 18 that ideally an Islamic state should be formed, as the prophet Mohammed decreed, at the initiative of citizens. However given today's conditions, it was said that such a step "would become a farce, like the so-called European democracy", and so the decision to form an Islamic state should be taken by the most "influential people" (i.e. powerful politicians and businessmen). Ideally it was said, all the countries of the world would join the caliphate although Hizb-ut-Tahir plans to allow non-Muslim countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, not to join the caliphate provided that they pay a tax to it. They would then fall under the protection of the caliphate and it would defend their interests. If non-Muslim countries refused to pay the tax, the caliphate would launch military attacks against them.

In the caliphate itself Christian and Jewish communities would be permitted because, according to the Koran, adherents of these religions are "people of the Book". Other religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and the Hare Krishna faith, would be considered pagan sects and would be banned. In particular, the caliphate's leadership would oppose what it regards as sects within Islam itself (including Ahmadiyya, Bahai'ism and Ismailism). In Hizb-ut-Tahrir's view, the only true Muslims are those who adhere to the four Madhabs {i.e. the four separate schools of legal interpretation within Shariah law). Those who depart from the Madhabs would be considered as apostates and liable to punishment according to Islamic law.

All citizens in the caliphate would have to abide by Sharia law when outside their homes. For example, all women would have to wear long dresses and scarves when in public places. However, Hizb-ut-Tahir members told Forum 18 that in Christian and Jewish quarters women could wear clothes permitted by the laws of their own religion. Christians and Jews would also be allowed to drink alcohol within their own communities, if that was required for religious rituals. Although all citizens of the caliphate would be subject to Sharia law, Christians and Jews could administer justice according to their own laws in what were described as internal matters (i.e. marriage, divorce and the assignment of possessions).

An update on the journalist who authored the "We Rock the Boat" editorial right after 7/7. It seems people are starting to ask questions they may not have asked before the bombings. From the UK Guardian News Blog, with thanks to D.M.

Trainee journalist Dilpazier Aslam had his contract with the Guardian terminated today.

The move followed an internal inquiry into Aslam’s membership of the political organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir.

A statement said: “The Guardian now believes continuing membership of the organisation to be incompatible with his continued employment by the company.”

“Mr Aslam was asked to resign his membership but has chosen not to. The Guardian respects his right to make that decision but has regretfully concluded that it had no option but to terminate Mr Aslam’s contract with the company.”

The inquiry followed a piece written by Aslam for the Guardian’s comment pages entitled “We rock the boat”.

The statement added: “The Guardian accepts that it should have explicitly mentioned Mr Aslam’s membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir at the end of his comment piece.”

From AsiaTimes (thanks to Lek) comes this profile of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group, one of the leading global exponents of the ideological jihad:

KARACHI - From the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Bay of Bengal, there are violent reactionaries in the Muslim world who will kill and get killed, but beyond these fanatics there exists a real hardcore silently swaying the hearts and minds of many in the Muslim world.

Their religion is not obvious from their demeanor or the cut of their clothes, yet it is embedded in the very core of their hearts, and is the driving force behind all their actions.

They are an overwhelming emerging force, and even though they have been widely banned, they don't believe in retaliation. They have made a hub in Pakistan, where they outnumber many large religious parties, yet they remain difficult to pinpoint as they are political, but have been forced underground. They are the largest single movement in the Islamic world, the Liberation Party - Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT).

In in the mid-1990s, a large conference was held in London, where the topic was the revival of a caliphate in the Muslim world for the "implementation of pure Islamic doctrine", as is the goal of the HT. The conference was attended by delegates from around the world, and a key question was to determine an ideal place for the Islamic revolution. Many agreed on Pakistan, a land of valiant Muslim tribes that have traditionally responded enthusiastically to Islamic issues. And strategically, the country is well situated to embrace the Asian sub-continent and Central Asia - where initially the caliphate will be created.

Subsequently, hundreds of HT members, British but of Pakistani origin, many of them students at the London School of Economics and other centers of excellence, packed their bags and departed for Pakistan. By 2000, the HT had established itself in all urban centers of the country, but within three years it was banned. All police stations were given strict instructions to round up any person who claimed an association with the HT.

Hundreds of HT members were rounded up, and may reports of torture emerged. Of those produced in court, the only charges that were made to stick were those related to being a member of the HT.

This correspondent has spoken to senior Pakistani officials on the reason for the HT being banned, but none of them appears to have a clue - especially as the HT does not espouse violence or militancy.

HT members have even been encouraged by the authorities to change the name of the organization, as most other banned outfits do so that they can carry on with their activities, but the HT has refused to do so.

Pakistan, especially as a leading ally in the US "war on terror", has been urged by international intelligence agencies to continue cracking down on the HT. President General Pervez Musharraf has visited the United Kingdom and publicly advised parents to beware of the HT and keep their children away from its influence.

There follows an interview with HT's Naveed Butt. Read it all.

From Turkish Press, "Seven jailed in Tajikistan for membership in outlawed Islamic group," :

DUSHANBE - A court in Tajikistan handed down prison sentences of three to nine years Wednesday to seven people accused of belonging to an outlawed Islamic group Hizbi Tahrir and agitating for the overthrow of the Central Asian country's government.

"They were found guilty of fomenting racial and religious hatred, organising an armed group, calling for the overthrow of the government, and participating in an extremist group and illegal party," said Sadyk Kurbanov, the judge in the northern Sogd district.

"The extremists, among whom were two students, were arrested six months ago while handing out Islamic leaflets in a local market. During searches of their home Hizbi Takhrir literature was found," he told AFP.

Hizbi Tahrir, or the Freedom Party, was founded in the 1950s in the Middle East and is considered one of the most active fundamentalist Islamic organisations. Thousands of people in Muslim Central Asia are believed to be members.

The party's main goal in Central Asia, which was under Communist rule until the Soviet collapse in 1991, is the creation of a religious state throughout the region...

"Islamists See Opening in C. Asia Chaos," from Newsday, with thanks to JS:

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- The only splash of color in the drab bluish gray office of Kyrgyzstan's Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society was a wool orange scarf thrown over the back of its president's chair.

It was Edil Baisalov's souvenir from Ukraine's Orange Revolution that swept opposition leader Victor Yushchenko to the presidency. Baisalov had been in Kiev in December as an election monitor. He returned home inspired: "I was intoxicated by the protests, by the desire for change, the power of the people."

The popular uprisings in Ukraine and in Georgia a year earlier have fired up Central Asia's nascent political opposition and brought protesters into the streets of Kyrgyzstan.

The movement is unsettling authoritarian regimes who have ruled since the Soviet Union collapse 15 years ago. But it's also exposed the frailty of opposition groups who lack charismatic leaders -- and created an opening for extremist Islamic parties to gain power in a strategic oil-rich region known as a terrorist haven....

Although the Bush administration supports pro-democracy movements, the turmoil in the region also has created a potentially dangerous opening for extremist Islamic parties.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, has a following among the young in Central Asia. It has called for Islamic rule to replace secular governments and unite the Muslim world. And its pamphlets criticize U.S. bases established in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to support the war on terror.

A senior Western diplomat in Tajikistan confirmed that Hizb ut-Tahrir's influence is growing across the region, particularly among the young who are looking for alternatives to what they perceive as corrupt, totalitarian regimes with links to the Soviet past.

The United States has not declared Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization because it does not advocate violence, but the diplomat said some of its literature is virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic and could inspire violence.

Leaders across Central Asia have banned Hizb ut-Tahrir. Kyrgyz security authorities have accused the group of having links with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is allied to al-Qaida and operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Kyrgyz government has also warned of cooperation between Hizb ut-Tahrir and Uighur separatists in China, but has not provided evidence. Russia has accused Hizb ut-Tahrir of involvement in breakaway Chechnya.

The south of Kyrgyzstan is where Hizb ut-Tahrir is strongest, residential spokesman Seghizbayev told the AP. He said the group blames the government for every problem and makes promises it cannot fulfill.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has become more politically active. In Jalal-Abad, the scene of some of the fiercest anti-government protests, the group collected 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for more Islamic instruction in schools and segregation of the sexes.

The petition, circulated in November, also demanded state sponsorship of Muslim schools and restrictions on the sale of pornography. Candidates who espoused a like-minded philosophy got support from Hizb ut-Tahrir members.

Askarov Azimjan, a human rights activist whose office in southern Kyrgyzstan is partially funded by Freedom House, says Hizb ut-Tahrir has emerged as an alternative for residents frustrated by corruption.

"Most ordinary people I think support them now because they feel that in a democratic society it is difficult to get anything done without corruption. People believe that if the government was religious the situation would change," he said from Bazar Korgon, about 20 miles from Jalal-Abad....

Charles at LGF has posted a Times article revealing that Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the "peaceful" Islamic group that wants to establish Sharia wherever it can, was behind the girl who sued for the right to wear Islamic dress to school in England.

Here is Hizb-ut-Tahrir's agenda, as I summarized it at Jihad Watch last October:

1. Restore a worldwide Caliphate, uniting the world under Islamic rule;

2. Ban all faiths apart from Islam, Judaism and Christianity (members of other religions are not listed as "People of the Book" in the Qur'an);

3. Regulate all religious practice according to Sharia law;

4. "Give all non-Muslim states a choice between either joining the Caliphate under Sharia law, or paying a tax to the Caliphate. Failure to pay the tax would be punished by military attack."

Isn't it nice that these good folks can operate freely in Britain?

March 29 Terrorist Attacks (REUTERS)

Reuters has an update on the situation in Uzbekistan (complete with quotes around the word "terrorist", but that is just part of their "objective" "journalistic" "style").

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - At least 19 people were killed in a series of explosions and shoot-outs in Uzbekistan in "terrorist" actions aimed at splitting the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, officials said Monday.

Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov said a further 26 people had been wounded in the ancient city of Bukhara late Sunday and the capital Tashkent Monday morning.

"This has been committed by the hands of international terror, including Hizb ut-Tahrir and Wahhabis," Foreign Minister Sadyk Safayev told a news conference. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which aims to set up a pan-Islamic state that would include post-Soviet Central Asia, and the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam are both outlawed in Uzbekistan.

"That's the hallmark of the terrorist acts we have already witnessed abroad," Safayev said. "Attempts are being made to split the international anti-terror coalition."

Kadyrov said three policemen and one child died in two suicide bomb attacks in Tashkent. Both female suicide bombers also died.

He said that late Sunday about 10 people had died in a blast at an apartment block in Bukhara, some 600 km (375 miles) southwest of Tashkent, when a "terrorist" was preparing an explosive device.

Kadyrov also said that three policemen were killed in overnight shoot-outs with "suspected terrorists."

Uzbekistan is a close Washington ally in the U.S.-led "war on terror" in neighboring Afghanistan (news - web sites). It provided a key airbase for U.S. troops in operations there following the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on the United States.

A series of killings of officials in Uzbekistan's Fergana Valley in 1997 was blamed on Islamic extremists and led to severe restrictions on any non-state-sponsored Islamic activity.

Under hard-line President Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan has been sharply criticized by human rights bodies and some West European nations for its intolerance of any opposition and the harsh treatment meted out to political and religious prisoners.

A United Nations (rapporteur on torture has said that torture is "systematic" in jails in the impoverished Central Asian nation of 25 million. But Karimov retorts that he has to be tough to stop the creeping influence of militant Islam from neighboring Afghanistan.

Tashkent, which has a population of some three million, has been subject to extremely tight security controls since February 1999 when a series of blasts in the center of the city killed 16 and wounded over 100 people.

Those bomb attacks were blamed on the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which is closely linked to al Qaeda which the United States holds responsible for the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Update: Make that 21

Pankhurst, Nawaz, and Nisbet (BBC)

Egypt, which has an authoritarian government still to some degree rooted in Gamel Abdel Nasser's Arab nationalism, has convicted 26 men of trying to revive the outlawed Hizb-ut-Tahrir group, which states openly that it wants to restore the caliphate and sharia -- ostensibly through peaceful means, although that is hardly comforting to all those who would suffer as dhimmis under their rule. From AP:

Shouts of "God is great!" rang out in a court Thursday after judges sentenced 26 men, including three Britons, to prison terms of one to five years for trying to revive an outlawed Islamic group.

One of the Britons, Ian Malcolm Nisbett, accused the Egyptian government of oppression and said he hoped God would reward the defendants after death. Nisbett and fellow Britons Maajid Nawaz and Reza Pankhurst received five years' imprisonment each, as did nine Egyptian defendants.

The defendants trooped into the court in white robes, escorted by police officers. Many held up copies of the sacred Islamic book, the Qur'an.

The chairman of the three-judge panel read out the verdicts and sentences and left the court. The text of the judge's findings is expected to appear within a month.

"This demonstrates the weakness of Egypt, which can't even tolerate peaceful dissent," Nawaz, 26, told reporters afterward. "I stand here as a prisoner of conscience and my beliefs are stronger than ever."

His mother, Abida Nawaz, called the verdict an "injustice against not only Islam, but humanity."

Zara Pankhurst, the mother of Reza, said the proceedings were "a goofy trial with a goofy judge."

"They are not going to beat us. We are strong," she told The Associated Press.

Nisbett's British wife, Humera, who does not understand Arabic, started weeping when her husband in the caged dock held up five fingers to indicate his sentence.

The defendants do not have the right of appeal as they were tried in an Emergency State Security court. They may only ask President Hosni Mubarak for clemency.

"I would rather die than appeal to the president," Reza Pankhurst, 28, said.

The rights group Amnesty International condemned the convictions and accused the authorities of failing to investigate the defendants' allegations of torture.

"We believe that they have been convicted solely for their peacefully held views and consider them prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately," said Amnesty spokeswoman Lesley Warner in London.

"Most worryingly of all, reports that the men were tortured during the initial period of detention have never been properly investigated," she added.

During the trial, the court said that medical examinations of the Britons found no evidence of torture, but the defendants told reporters they were only examined several weeks after they were tortured.

The defendants were arrested in April 2002 and charged with attempting to revive an Islamic group called Hizb ut-Tahrir or the Liberation party, which the government banned in 1974.

The chief defendants in the trial, which began in October 2002, were also charged with possession of propaganda leaflets of the Liberation party.

Defence lawyers argued in court that the defendants had only studied the ideology of the Liberation party and had not recruited to revive the group.

"This case shouldn't have been transferred to the judiciary in the first place," lawyer Montasser el-Zayat told the Associated Press on Thursday. "It doesn't have violence, weapons or overthrowing the regime. It's a case against peaceful thought."

El-Zayat said that he thought the British defendants would be used as bargaining chip with the London government. Egypt has long asked Britain to extradite Egyptian dissidents whom it regards as militants.

"It's not anti-British case, but anti-Islam case," said Nisbett, 29, who has adopted the Arabic first name Yehiya.

"Thank God for everything," Nisbett added. "We hope God is going to award us in the afterlife. We tried to change oppression in Egypt. Now, they are admitting that they are oppressors."

One of the Egyptian accused, Medahat Hamdi, 36, an engineer, told reporters from the dock: "It's very strange that we are being tried in Egypt for our beliefs, which don't call for violence, but prohibit it."

Seven defendants were sentenced to three years. Another seven received one year in prison. One defendant was convicted in absentia.

The Britons and Egyptians who received five years' imprisonment have 22 months left to serve, according to their time in detention and Egypt's sentencing procedures.

The Liberation party was founded in Jordan in 1953. It has long operated underground. Its current leader, Ata Abu-Rushta, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was elected in 2003 and lives in Lebanon.

There's a new report on religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan. It is instructive because there is a substantial Muslim population in the country formerly a part of the Soviet Union.

"As in other Central Asian republics, authorities in Kyrgyzstan have banned Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international Islamic organization advocating the creation of a region-wide Islamic caliphate and a return to Islam in its pure, original form.

"Ambassador Markus Muller, head of the Bishkek mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), agrees with Rotar's assessment. 'The religious groups in general are working and functioning here very freely,' Muller said. 'And I did not hear [of] any major problems.' But he added that there may be one exception -- Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he said 'is considered by some people as a militant Islamic group. The group [has] faced some problems.'

"According to Rotar, the most serious problem is the authorities' temptation to launch a campaign against Christian proselytism. The correspondent says Protestant missionaries are actively working in southern Kyrgyzstan, which arouses great displeasure among the local population.

"'The policy of freedom followed [by the] Kyrgyz authorities [allows] proselytism. Now, maybe for authorities proselytism will become a big problem [because it] may provoke conflicts in the south of Kyrgyzstan, [where] 30 percent of the population is Uzbek. And these people are very [devout Muslims] and are very unhappy that Protestant priests can preach freely,' Rotar said."

Horrors. Non-Muslims can preach freely? What will come of that?

"Occasionally, rural communities shun Christian converts and try to exile them or refuse to let them be buried in the local cemetery.

"But according to Markus Miller of the OSCE, there is no negative opinion in general against new religions. He stressed that all religions, including Islam, are developing -- much as they are elsewhere in the former Soviet Union.

"'[New religions] are observed. People are very much attentive to their work. But for the time being they have not had any major problem. Religion itself is becoming a topic again. And people discuss religion, they are becoming religious again. Now the [Protestants], the Catholics, the Orthodox but also the Muslims [are] developing again. They are filling a vacuum which was created during the Soviet times,' Miller said.

"Nevertheless, Bishkek resident Stalbek Nurmambet-uulu says there are risks of conflict, even in the capital's surroundings. 'Religious diversity creates different opinions in the society and could lead to divisions between the people. Some religious sects are using this moment when people are experiencing hardship and poverty. They are attracting Kyrgyz youth from outside Bishkek. They convert them by using tricky methods. In these areas, there are risks of clashes. I think we have to work more to explain Islamic rules,' Nurmambet-uulu said."

Exactly so, Nurmambet-uulu. In the developing religious freedom of Kyrgyzstan, Christians and Muslims are free to battle it out in the marketplace of ideas. That is the exact opposite of dhimmitude. Let us hope that the Muslim rage against this will not overwhelm religious freedom in this nation.

At Jihad Watch I just posted information about a remarkable story in which the radical Muslim group Hizb-ut-Tahrir discloses its aims.

In the story, this organization shows that the laws of dhimmitude are very much part of the radical Muslim program. This is how non-Muslims would be treated in a Hizb-ut-Tahrir state -- and everything in this list is taken straight from traditional manuals of Islamic Sharia law:

1. "Within the Caliphate, Christians and Jews would be allowed to drink alcohol, if that was required for religious rituals, and to regulate within their own communities marriage, divorce and the assignment of possessions."

This is Sharia "tolerance." But read on: laws mandating inequality on a large scale would also be in place.

2. "Islamic Sharia law would be imposed on all and faiths not mentioned in the Koran would be banned."

3. "Ideally it was said, all the countries of the world would join the caliphate although Hizb-ut-Tahir plans to allow non-Muslim countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, not to join the caliphate provided that they pay a tax to it. They would then fall under the protection of the caliphate and it would defend their interests. If non-Muslim countries refused to pay the tax, the caliphate would launch military attacks against them."

This is referring to the jizya, the special tax on non-Muslims, by which they buy their "protection." It is designed to make non-Muslims feel "subdued" under Islamic law. It is the focus of an elaborate legal superstructure, and is ultimately based on the Qur'an's Sura 9:29: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

4. "In the caliphate itself Christian and Jewish communities would be permitted because, according to the Koran, adherents of these religions are 'people of the Book'. Other religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and the Hare Krishna faith, would be considered pagan sects and would be banned."

Throughout history, Muslim rulers have treated Buddhists and Hindus even worse than they treated Jews and Christians, because the former are not "People of the Book."

5. "In particular, the caliphate's leadership would oppose what it regards as sects within Islam itself (including Ahmadiyya, Bahai'ism and Ismailism). In Hizb-ut-Tahrir's view, the only true Muslims are those who adhere to the four Madhabs {i.e. the four separate schools of legal interpretation within Shariah law). Those who depart from the Madhabs would be considered as apostates and liable to punishment according to Islamic law."

Note that almost 90 percent of the world's Muslims adhere to one of the 4 madhhabs. Hizb-ut-Tahrir thus envisions itself as a mainstream group.

6. "All citizens in the caliphate would have to abide by Sharia law when outside their homes. For example, all women would have to wear long dresses and scarves when in public places. However, Hizb-ut-Tahir members told Forum 18 that in Christian and Jewish quarters women could wear clothes permitted by the laws of their own religion."

"In Christian and Jewish quarters!"

Meanwhile, "one Uzbek member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir expressed his regret to Forum 18 that Hitler had not succeeded in eliminating all Jews."

Note also: this illegal group has "thousands" of members in prison, and who know how many operating freely today.

The Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir has given Forum 18 News Service a remarkably open acknowledgment of radical Muslim goals.

It's all here. Hizb-ut-Tahrir wants to:

1. Restore a worldwide Caliphate, uniting the world under Islamic rule;

2. Ban all faiths apart from Islam, Judaism and Christianity (members of other religions are not listed as "People of the Book" in the Qur'an);

3. Regulate all religious practice according to Sharia law;

4. "Give all non-Muslim states a choice between either joining the Caliphate under Sharia law, or paying a tax to the Caliphate. Failure to pay the tax would be punished by military attacks."

What the story doesn't say is that Hizb-ut-Tahrir is not saying anything new; it's expressing classic principles of Islamic jurisprudence that are shared by many Muslims worldwide who are not members of this particular organization. Sheikh Omar Bakri in England, for example, has said much the same thing. I profile many others in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

More on this remarkable story at Dhimmi Watch.