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

 Three Muslims from Melbourne were convicted in Victoria's Supreme Court on Friday, 16 December 2011, of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack. Wissam Fattal, Saney Edow Aweys, and Nayef El Sayed were sentenced to 18 years jail. Justice Betty King emphasised in her sentencing remarks the "extremist views" of the accused whilst admitting the "amateurish" nature of their alleged plans.

Headlines:

• Europe is weeks away from economic collapse
• In Islamic law, Gingrich sees a mortal threat to U.S.
• Turkey withdraws ambassador and freeze military and economic ties
• Iraq is a mess: Fruits of US democracy
• Iran prepares for war games as tensions with West increase
• Pakistani army rejects US report on airstrikes

Details:

Europe is weeks away from economic collapse:

Europe is only weeks away from economic collapse, former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Khan told the Financial Times during a conference in Beijing . "Investors' confidence in European leaders is bleeding out day after day," Strauss-Khan said. The former IMF head noted that the €640 billion bailout plan being launched would be too slow, as it requires the approval of all euro zone parliaments, a process that will take some two months. Strauss-Khan also expressed doubt about the new fiscal treaty for Europe that Germany is pushing. The treaty would require all members to meet a deficit target of 3% of the GDP and fine nations that are in violation. "What will happen if a nation that is fined refuses to pay?" Strauss-Khan asked. "The answer is - nothing."

In Islamic law, Gingrich sees a mortal threat to U.S.:

Long before he announced his presidential run this year, Newt Gingrich had become the most prominent American politician to embrace an alarming premise: that Shariah, or Islamic law, poses a threat to the United States as grave as or graver than terrorism. "I believe Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it," Mr. Gingrich said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington in July 2010 devoted to what he suggested were the hidden dangers of Islamic radicalism. "I think it's that straightforward and that real. Stealth jihadis use political, cultural, societal, religious, intellectual tools; violent jihadis use violence," Mr. Gingrich said in the speech. "But in fact they're both engaged in jihad, and they're both seeking to impose the same end state, which is to replace Western civilization with a radical imposition of Shariah." Echoing some Republicans in Congress, Mr. Gingrich blasted the Obama administration's policy of declining to label terrorism carried out in the name of militant Islam as "Islamic" or "jihadist." Administration officials say such labels can imply religious justification for a distortion of doctrine that most Muslims abhor, thus smearing an entire faith.

Turkey withdraws ambassador and freeze military and economic ties:

Turkey's ambassador was to leave Paris Friday in a row with France over a law making it a criminal offence to deny that a massacre of Armenians by Ottoman troops in 1915 amounted to genocide. Ankara froze military and diplomatic ties with Paris on Thursday after the French parliament approved the draft law, while the Turkish embassy in Paris said its ambassador had been recalled and would leave Friday. "This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, warning of "irreparable damage" to relations and suspending political visits between the two NATO allies. "From now on we are revising our relations with France," he added. "There was no genocide committed in our history. We do not accept this." Under the draft law, people can be jailed for a year and fined 45,000 euros for denying that the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces during World War I amounted to genocide. In retaliation, Turkey's premier said the country would rule on a case-by-case basis on any French request to use Turkish airspace or military bases and would turn away French military vessels from Turkish ports. Turkey would also boycott an economic committee meeting in Paris in January, Erdogan said -- a move that will worry business leaders in both countries fearful for the fate of 12 billion euros ($16 billion) in annual trade.

Iraq is a mess: Fruits of US democracy

"Let us stipulate some ugly facts up front. Iraq remains a weak state. The political institutions are-charitably-immature. The business climate is not overly attractive and corruption is endemic. Were it not for oil, there would be no real economy. There is a serious terrorism problem. Relationships with all the neighbouring states are problematic. Sectarian divides remain tense, with some key fault lines unresolved. The country's armed forces remain incapable of defending its international borders. Given all these facts, it is still very possible that Iraq could revert to its previous state of dysfunction, or find a new variety into which to fall. The chaos of the last few days in Baghdad-in which the Shi'a Prime Minster has pursued charges against his Sunni Vice President, with the latter taking refuge among the Kurds-is likely a precursor of the sort of political drama we can expect for some time to come"( The New Republic).

Iran prepares for war games as tensions with West increase:

Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari on Thursday announced the upcoming launch of ten-day massive naval exercises in the international waters, the local satellite Press TV reported. Sayyari said at a press conference on Thursday that the naval manoeuvres dubbed Velayat 90 will start on Saturday and will cover an area of 2,000 (1,250-mile) km stretching from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden, the report said. This is the first time that Iran's Navy carries out naval drills in such a vast area, he was quoted as saying. He said that the exercises will manifest Iran's military prowess and defence capabilities in the international waters, convey a message of peace and friendship to regional countries and test the newest military equipment among other objectives, said the report.

Pakistani army rejects US report on airstrikes:

The Pakistani army on Friday rejected a U.S. investigation that concluded mistakes on both sides led to American airstrikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and severely damaged the already strained relationship between the two countries. The response indicates the report will do little to ease tensions, a worrying development for the U.S. because Pakistan's cooperation is critical for the Afghan war. The Pakistani army has said its troops did nothing wrong and claimed the attack was a deliberate act of aggression. Pakistan has retaliated by closing its Afghan border to supplies meant for NATO troops in Afghanistan and kicking the U.S. out of a base used by American drones. NATO officials have said the closure of the supply route has not affected operations so far, but it would eventually if not reversed. The army "does not agree with the findings of the US/NATO inquiry as being reported in the media," the force said in a short statement sent to reporters shortly after midnight Friday. "The inquiry report is short on facts." The army will provide a detailed response after officials receive the report, it said. Pakistan refused to cooperate in the investigation. Even though U.S. officials on Thursday accepted some of the blame for the attack on two army posts along the Afghan border, they did not apologize for the incident, as many Pakistanis have demanded. Instead, the U.S. said its forces were fired on first and acted "with appropriate force" in self-defence.