News

As the Muslim lawyer spoke, you could see that he had people's undivided attention at this Muslim community event in a South London mosque. Why shouldn't he have their attention? After all, he was speaking about the issues which affects all Muslims in some way nowadays: the UK's anti-terror laws, the stopping and questioning of thousands and thousands of Muslims at airports when leaving or returning to the country, the mass spying on the Muslim community, the labelling of normal Islamic practices as ‘extremism' and charging and arrest of Muslims for aiding oppressed Muslims in Syria. I don't believe the lawyer set out to scare people, but that was part of the effect of his presentation on the audience - and I was the next person to speak after him at this Muslim community event. Other speakers were sheikhs and Islamic activists from various Muslim groups.

Comment

What is clear is that most Muslim groups and organisations now feel the heat of the situation; the relentless pressure, interrogation, official visits and scrutiny of Muslim charities, Mosques, and individuals. The situation we face is an attempt - using many means - to pressure Muslims to abandon basic Islamic practices and beliefs which are deemed o be incompatible with secular liberal values or that oppose the UK government's foreign policy in the Muslim lands.

So what would I say after the lawyer had spoken? The organisers asked me to talk about how to express and hold onto Islam confidently. So I spoke about the two paths facing us. One path that would ensure we are left alone and not hounded is the path where we endorse same-sex marriage, laugh off insults against Prophet Muhammad (saw), support British troops when they are sent to fight in Muslim lands, claim democracy is better than the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" system and other such matters which secular liberals or the government would endorse. Such a path is a sure way to the anger of Allah (swt) - indeed, it is not a path for the believers.

The other path is to follow the example of our beloved Prophet (saw) in Makkah, where like us, he lived amongst non-Muslims, faced pressure to abandon aspects of Islam and was offered money, women and bribes that we can only dream of. His uncompromising reply that he would not give up this dawah even if they put the sun in his right hand and the moon in his left hand - is well known. So we need to:

1) Believe in the correctness of our Deen and all that Islam says regarding morals, the shariah laws and solutions to life's problems, the best values that humans should have, the best system to govern human societies, the raising of children, and every other matter under the sun. We should be unashamed in believing, explaining and standing firm on that belief.

2) We need to know how to respond and rebut the arguments they make against the specific aspects of Islam that they attack. We need to be armed with the intellectual arguments that show the strength of Islam and the weakness of the secular capitalist values and system

3) In these testing times, we need to strengthen our link with Allah (swt) by reading the Qur'an, Seerah and the struggles of the Sahaba in Makkah so our situation and struggles are put in perspective and we are motivated to stand firm like they did.

4) Despite our different groups, madhabs and views, we need to stand united in the face of the current intimidation and bullying.
May Allah (swt) strengthen the Muslim community in holding onto His Deen and may we be deserving of His mercy, help and forgiveness.

Written for the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Taji Mustafa
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain