Shiv Malik pretty well nails it...

   "It is time to name the war correctly: this is a war of ideologies, 
    and terrorist acts are the tip of the iceberg."

... the "war" will culminate in the battle of Gog and Magog; the nations
that come against Israel with a view to destroying it will themselves be
destroyed.

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The radical Islamic group that acts as 'conveyor belt' for terror

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a real threat to society, says Shiv Malik, who had
exclusive access to its inner workings

Published: 07 August 2005

Last year, I spent two months investigating Hizb ut-Tahrir, Britain's 
- and perhaps the world's - largest radical Islamic group, which Tony
Blair announced last week is to be banned.

I expected Hizb ut-Tahrir to be highly secretive and closed. But after
a month of negotiations, the leadership committee decided to grant me
exclusive access to the organisation's inner sanctum. I was going to
be allowed to sit in on one of their indoctrination cells, or "study
circles" as they call them.

Guided by an experienced cell mentor, new recruits would study the
organisation's ideology for two years before being given full
membership. These were the cells that US think-tanks such as the Nixon
Centre and the Heritage Foundation had accused of churning out some of
the world's most wanted terrorists and ideologues.

Zeyno Baran, the Nixon Centre's director of International Security and
Energy Programmes, had given me a warning before I attended. "Hizb
produces thousands of manipulated brains, which then 'graduate' from
Hizb and become members of groups like al-Qa'ida," she said. "Even if
Hizb does not itself engage in terrorist acts, because of the ideology
it provides, it acts like a conveyor belt for terrorists."

At a hotel just five minutes from Heathrow's Terminal One, on a Sunday
afternoon, I met members of one of Hizb's many London cells. Around a
coffee table sat four thirty-something university graduates with good
jobs and families. The group's mentor was Sajjad Khan, a middle-aged
accountant. These were not the same angry and disenfranchised youths
of the explicitly violent breakaway group al-Muhajiroun.

For three hours they sat discussing the intricacies of Marxist
economic thought with not a mention of jihad, retribution or the glory
of 9/11. It was the kind of enthused debate any university professor
would have loved. So when even the Home Office agrees that the group
is ostensibly non-violent, why does Downing Street want to see it
proscribed, a move that would rank Hizb among the likes of al-Qa'ida
and Hamas?

It would be foolish to think that because Hizb is non-violent it
doesn't represent a threat to society. Critics of the group, and 
even former members, have repeatedly said that it is a threat to 
the cohesiveness of a multicultural society.

For example, in the recent general election Hizb told its members and
the wider Muslim community not to vote as they would be participating
in a society run by kaffirs or non-believers.

"What it preaches is quite an isolationary role for young British
Muslims," a former member told me.

"I think its actions reinforce this idea that Muslims need to be
separate and they shouldn't be at one with the wider community and the
Muslim community." These anti-integration messages have, until
recently, been combined with anti-Semitism. It is for this reason the
group was banned in Germany in 2003 and the leader of the Danish
branch given a 60-day suspended sentence in 2002.

This anti-integration message has been potent. More so because it has
been left largely unchallenged by the Muslim community. For example,
its last conference in Birmingham in 2003, entitled "British or
Muslim", attracted 8,000 people. Its 2002 conference has been the
biggest Islamic event in the UK to date.

There is a second danger Hizb poses. According to Ms Baran, it acts as
a conveyor-belt for terrorist organisations. "The West can no longer
ignore the deadly impact of Hizb ideology," she said. "It provides
very simple answers to complex problems and reaches millions of
Muslims through cyberspace, leaflets and secret teaching centres. 
It is time to name the war correctly: this is a war of ideologies, 
and terrorist acts are the tip of the iceberg."

[...]

Full article at "The Independent" ...
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article304296.ece


Cheers, Steve..

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