News:

When the uprising in Libya against Gadaffi started, there was a story of a young Muslim boy of Libyan origin which the BBC featured in a TV report. It showed his reality as a student who was selflessly giving up his studies and travelling to far off land and his sincere desire to help people fighting a tyrant was portrayed as what it is; a very noble act.

Comment:

Fast forward to 2014 and a few weeks into the year, more than 16 people have been arrested in the UK allegedly in relation to the fighting in Syria. Some have not even left the UK for Syria, yet there were arrested for alleged ‘terrorism offences’. How? One teacher was released on bail after being arrested and we are told that he is not a danger to the public. So why was he arrested? UK anti-terrorism laws are so loose and the burden of proof required for convictions are sometimes so low that having a memory stick with a document that journalists and others freely download from the internet has been enough to secure ‘terrorism’ convictions. The recent arrests were made as part of a crackdown on Muslims in Britain believed to be heading out to Syria or on their way home from the war zone. The 16 arrests in four weeks contrast with 24 arrests linked to Syria for the whole of last year.

Some of those arrested were later released without charge after questioning, while others have been arrested for trying to take money collected from Muslims here – for aid efforts in the region. The message that has gone out is that anyone travelling to Syria or Turkey should expect to be arrested or have their passport confiscated – all under allegations of ‘terrorism’. This serves to obscure the government’s real motives while also serving to frighten the general public to lend support to draconian crackdowns.

The justification given this time is that people who go to the region will become ‘radicalised’ and return to the UK as so called ‘terrorists’ ready to blow up their neighbours. There is little evidence backing this narrative. Many Muslims have gone and continue to take aid convoys to the region and help in aid efforts there feeling that they cannot stand by and watch as their Ummah suffers. The few who have gone to help those fighting Bashar’s regime have said their issue is with Bashar’s regime and not about returning to fight or kill their neighbours in Britain and that it is unfair that they are suddenly labelled as ‘terrorists’. Indeed there are two cases featured on the BBC and another TV channel of two young men who have now been killed in Syria who made this point to the media. That evidence is conveniently put aside and so-called experts in the lucrative and thriving ‘counter extremism’ industry are being wheeled out in the media to justify the government’s crackdown on the Muslim community in the UK.

Amongst many Muslims, there is a strong feeling in support of the uprising in Syria. This further strengthens the feeling of being part of an Ummah as opposed to simply being Muslims here divorced from the Ummah. Is this one of the reasons for this crackdown? Also, as the British government struggles to realise the Western vision for a secular Syria post-Bashar, where those who take over from Bashar may simply be new faces who continue to serve the West, anyone who supports the alternative project that seeks to see the return of the justice of the Islamic Khilafah system in Syria are conveniently labelled as ‘extremists’ and ‘terrorists’ who deserve to be fought, arrested and imprisoned in the UK or Syria. The return of Islamic rule, in the Muslim lands including Syria is an inevitable matter which UK government policies at home and abroad will be unable to stop and which Muslims must naturally support.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Taji Mustafa

Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain