Is there now to be a court trial for many Muslims in Britain for having Sayed Qutb's book Milestones (Ma'alim fi al-tareeq) on their bookshelves? I do not think so. Why do I pose the question? It is because of a recent trial in which the ideas contained in Milestones and other books were effectively on trial and ruled as unacceptable by a British judge and jury.

 

What has been called the Milestones trial did not make huge news headlines in the wider society but has set an extremely dangerous precedent in another step where the Briiish state has prosecuted a Muslim for the ideas they hold or publish rather than for them planning or committing any acts of violence. This is its latest attempt to intimidate Muslims into accepting what the state decides is an acceptable or ‘moderate' Islam.

 

On the 13^thDecember 2011, a well known Birmingham bookseller Faraz Ahmed,  was sentenced to three years in prison for publishing and distributing a number of books and DVD's now classed as terrorist material. The court used the opinions of an ‘expert' Muslim witness whose understanding of Islam was clearly different to that of the authors in question, and hence his opinion was a difference of thought, not expertise. In recent cases, British courts have ruled that certain books and videos are terrorist material, effectively banning them and classing the ideas contained within them as not being genuine Islam. Part of the ‘expert'witnesses credentials was that he had memorised two juzz of Qur'an.

 

The books  being judged and sold by Faraz Ahmed inlcluded  Sayed Qutub's Milestones, writings by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam , Hassan al Banna and others. These were written in a different era, and for different conflict situations, yet judgements were made on them in Britain in 2011 regarding whether their interpretations of the Qur'an and sunnah constituted legitimate Islam as defined by the states prosecution and ‘expert'. Having decided that the thoughts in this book regarding jihad and other matters differed from that of the state's ‘expert' witness, Faraz Ahmed was bound to be found guilty sincere he was the publisher of these books.

 

Such ideas have been labelled dangerous and a precursor to people committing acts of ‘terrorism' hence the trail was prosecuted unsing anti-terrorism laws. As people in the Arab and Muslim lands seek to overthrow regimes which labelled ideas of Islamic governance, jihad, shariah and Khilafah "Caliphate" as dangerous and subsequently banned books, imprisoned scholars and Islamic activists, the secular British state is today pursuing a similar path to those regimes but hiding it by labelling this as a fight against ‘terrorism', not against Islam and its ideas. So Faraz Ahmed was sentenced under terrorism laws which don not only target people committing acts of violence but people promoting Islamic ideas of governance, jihad and resistance which challenge Western domination and interference in the Muslim lands.

 

The message from this trial is not that every Muslim with a copy of Milestones will now be tried - the courts could not cope with the numbers. The message is that certain Islamic ideas e.g. jihad, Khilafah "Caliphate" and resistance are unacceptable and that if Muslims here want to be left alone, they need to let go of these aspects of Islam otherwise they would get into trouble.

 

Similarly, the message to Muslims around the world - especially those in Arab countries currently going through uprisings - is that if you establish a system that conflicts with Western norms, then expect to be treated as a pariah state by the West.

 

The challenge for the Muslim community in the UK is whether we clearly see this as another attempt to redefine and enforce a ‘British Islam', whether we will speak against this injustice and whether we continue to support and promote the Islamic ideas the British government seeks to ban.

 

 

Taji Mustafa

Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain