Monday, January 15, 2007
RADICAL GOALS, QUIET METHODS
The Jamestown Foundation had a report last month on the rising popularity in the Arab world ( or at least Salafi and devout middle class circles therein) of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. An excerpt:
"HT is regarded with some confusion by Western analysts because while its goals of recreating a caliphate and then converting the world to Islam by force if necessary are almost indistinguishable from bin Laden's, its methods are entirely different. Although HT members sincerely believe that the caliphate will be recreated soon, HT's real significance is likely to be its increasingly important role in radicalizing and Islamizing the Middle East. For example, HT's ideologies also fuel the increasingly common view that the present conflict between Western democracies and Islamists is not a resolvable dispute over land, territory and temporal politics, but is rather an inevitable clash of civilizations, cultures and religions.
HT, by saying that non-Muslim attempts to prevent the creation of a global Islamic empire amount to the deliberate persecution of Muslims, feed the victim culture that fuels Islamic radicalism today, as well as provide the necessary theological justification for individual acts of defensive or pre-emptive jihad. HT argues that the Quran says that all non-Muslim countries, cultures and individuals must submit to Islam. HT members who accept this theory naturally begin to see the world exclusively in terms of Muslims and non-Muslims, and inevitably begin to see all non-Islamic entities as worthy of destruction. In addition, HT's absolute rejection of democracy as un-Islamic is considerably more hard line than that of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups, while the group also takes highly conservative positions regarding women, alcohol and freedom of speech."
This meshes with what I have previously read about the group which seems to be favored by educated and well to do " quiet extremists".
I once scanned a translated list of Hizb ut-Tahrir detainees in a Central Asian republic - the professions were heavily represented as were army officers and journalists. The group would seem to have the makings of a " vanguard" movement of radicalized intellectuals that can simmer for decades before abruptly bursting forth into a spasm of revolutionary action. ¶ 8:53 PM
The Jamestown Foundation had a report last month on the rising popularity in the Arab world ( or at least Salafi and devout middle class circles therein) of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. An excerpt:
"HT is regarded with some confusion by Western analysts because while its goals of recreating a caliphate and then converting the world to Islam by force if necessary are almost indistinguishable from bin Laden's, its methods are entirely different. Although HT members sincerely believe that the caliphate will be recreated soon, HT's real significance is likely to be its increasingly important role in radicalizing and Islamizing the Middle East. For example, HT's ideologies also fuel the increasingly common view that the present conflict between Western democracies and Islamists is not a resolvable dispute over land, territory and temporal politics, but is rather an inevitable clash of civilizations, cultures and religions.
HT, by saying that non-Muslim attempts to prevent the creation of a global Islamic empire amount to the deliberate persecution of Muslims, feed the victim culture that fuels Islamic radicalism today, as well as provide the necessary theological justification for individual acts of defensive or pre-emptive jihad. HT argues that the Quran says that all non-Muslim countries, cultures and individuals must submit to Islam. HT members who accept this theory naturally begin to see the world exclusively in terms of Muslims and non-Muslims, and inevitably begin to see all non-Islamic entities as worthy of destruction. In addition, HT's absolute rejection of democracy as un-Islamic is considerably more hard line than that of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups, while the group also takes highly conservative positions regarding women, alcohol and freedom of speech."
This meshes with what I have previously read about the group which seems to be favored by educated and well to do " quiet extremists".
I once scanned a translated list of Hizb ut-Tahrir detainees in a Central Asian republic - the professions were heavily represented as were army officers and journalists. The group would seem to have the makings of a " vanguard" movement of radicalized intellectuals that can simmer for decades before abruptly bursting forth into a spasm of revolutionary action. ¶ 8:53 PM
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I first heard of Tahrir some years ago in Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. That work was generally informative but left out the whole "conquering the world" bit.
The actual plan HT advocates seems to be this: first, foment Islamist revolution in Muslim countries. Then, get the successful revolutionaries to peacefully turn over power to us.
This does indeed bear a certain resemblance to the intellectuals in the "vanguard" of the Communist party. One wonders why intellectuals never learn from their mistakes. After all, who was the first against the wall when the Tsar was safely beaten? And how did that Hundred Flowers Movement work out again?
This does indeed bear a certain resemblance to the intellectuals in the "vanguard" of the Communist party. One wonders why intellectuals never learn from their mistakes. After all, who was the first against the wall when the Tsar was safely beaten? And how did that Hundred Flowers Movement work out again?
Hi Grim,
"And how did that Hundred Flowers Movement work out again?"
Much better for Mao ZeDong than it did for "the flowers".
Good points. The vanguard has to make the jump to what Konrad Heiden called " the armed intellectuals" in order to compete with the " armed bohemians".
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"And how did that Hundred Flowers Movement work out again?"
Much better for Mao ZeDong than it did for "the flowers".
Good points. The vanguard has to make the jump to what Konrad Heiden called " the armed intellectuals" in order to compete with the " armed bohemians".
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