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Terror Networks
Hezb’s peaceful jihad
2003-11-26
Not a bad article, for Pepe Escobar
A constant smirk is imprinted on his face. In his black-padded traditional Uzbek cloak, black boots, white skullcap and sporting an incipient beard, Alisher (not his real name), a young man in his mid-20s, is either despondent, extremely self-assured, or both. Alisher is a member of the Islamic movement Hizb ut-Tahrir (HUT). Most HUT members, like Alisher, are ethnic Uzbeks, living in the country itself or in neighboring Central Asian republics. Uzbek President Islam Karimov simply does not tolerate what he views as radical Islam. His war against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) — affiliated with the Taliban — has been merciless, and vice-versa.
Seems like there's good reason for that. He doesn't want to go the way of Najibullah in Afghanistan...
Thousands of HUT militants now languish in Uzbek jails — the HUT claims there are more than 100,000 — as well as in other parts of Central Asia. The HUT is not the same thing as the IMU. IMU supporters are basically impoverished farmers living in the Fergana Valley - in Uzbekistan a densely-populated area including the cities of Namangan, Andijan, Kokand and Fergana. The HUT appeals to what passes as the urban intelligentsia in Central Asia: students who have finished college and who are unable to find a decent job.
That's what happens when you waste four years on a B.A.Lit...
The HUT - whose underground headquarters is now probably in Jordan - has defined itself in a communique on its website as "a political party that does not undertake material actions". It has been branded as an illegal Islamic movement all over Central Asia. As configured by Alisher, it is above all a giant proselytizing machine that has not resorted to guerrilla warfare - at least not yet. Inside Kyrgyzstan, the movement has been blamed for two recent bombings, on a market in Bishkek and an exchange office in Osh. But no evidence has been produced.
I actually think that if they were involved in those bombings, it was probably decided at the local level rather than by the leadership.
The HUT is essentially a pan-Islamic secret society, founded in 1953 in Saudi Arabia and Jordan by a Palestinian from the diaspora, Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, who studied in the famous al-Azhar University in Cairo. Sheikh an-Nabhani’s writings remain very influential: they are the letter of the law as far as HUT is concerned. The sheikh hates "depraved democracies" imposed by the West on Muslim nations and advocates "a single state over the entire Muslim world". He clearly equates Islam with a permanent, global revolution: Leon Trotsky meets the holy Koran.
A winning combination.
Imagine a world where "pagan sects" like Buddhism and Hinduism are banned, along with Islamic "sects" such as Shi’ism and Ismailism. A world where only Islam, Judaism and Christianity - "peoples of the Book" - are allowed to practice their faith. A world where all religious matters are regulated by Sharia law, according to the Sunni hanafi interpretation. A world where all non-Muslim nations face a stark choice: either they join a worldwide caliphate or they pay a tax. And failure to pay the tax entails a military attack by the caliphate. This is the world envisaged by HUT. Forget about democracy - as well as capitalism, socialism or nationalism, all of them "depraved Western notions". Democracy as practiced in the European Union is considered "a farce". The US, the United Kingdom and Israel are "the work of the devil" - although they would be given the option of joining the caliphate. Forget about cinema, music, modern art, rap videos, fast food and Internet chat rooms. As for Jews, they will be invited to leave "because they do not belong in Central Asia". In this Sharia-induced paradise, women would be permanently veiled outside their homes, and Christians and Jews would be able to drink alcohol "only inside their own communities".
And in only in connection with their religious rituals...
Karimov may be fighting a movement whose platform is not even relevant to the harsh daily lives of most people in Uzbekistan, not to mention Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. But the HUT is tremendously popular, not only in Central Asia but also in Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan and the Maghreb. The HUT is now active in at least 40 countries around the world. HUT’s intolerance proves how its ideology is an Arabian import that does not even bother to connect the Middle East with the real problems of Central Asia. While southern Kyrgyzstan is being Islamicized, northern Kyrgyzstan is being slowly Christianized. This nationwide split in the long run is working towards the HUT’s aims. Christians represent at least 17 percent of the whole Kyrgyz population of almost 5 million. Russian Orthodox followers are building churches everywhere. Christian evangelists are very active - profiting from Akhmad Akayev’s drive to halt the exodus of skilled Russians. The HUT views this situation as a total disgrace.
"Who needs skills when you've got the Koran?"
Alisher is mum about the HUT leadership. They may have been leading the movement from "Londonistan" - but as European intelligence sources told Asia Times Online a few months ago, Londonistan has been effectively neutralized by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government, via a couple of media-frenzy-inducing arrests.
Primarily Abu Qatada, I would think.
Alisher confirms that the HUT usually operates invisible five-man daira (cells, or circles) in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Uzbek secret police may have arrested hundreds of cell members, but no leaders so far. The HUT leadership remains essentially invisible: no photos, no records, no addresses, just avalanches of books, pamphlets and leaflets translated from Arabic to Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Dari and Russian and churned out by a network of underground desktop publishing presses all over Central Asia. There are also posters and shabnamas - night letters - surreptitiously appearing in the morning under people’s doors. Like al-Qaeda, the HUT massively uses the Internet and digital technology to propagate its own version of globalization: not neo-liberalism, but the one-system, worldwide Sharia-law government. Urbanized Uzbeks in the capital Tashkent say that the model may be the Ottoman Empire - something that pan-Turkic Uzbeks can easily relate to as many eyes and minds follow closely what happens in Istanbul and Ankara. Alisher, though, is vague on the economic and social policies of this one-global-state caliphate.
Once you’ve found the key to utopia, it doesn’t matter how you actually get there.
Posted by:Paul Moloney

#6  This belongs under "Short Attention Span"! If they really understood how POORLY the Caliphate functioned, how poor the majority of Islamic nations were under the caliphate, they probably would want to re-think their ideas. We're talking about 2/3 of the Arab world where the 10th Century AD would be considered "heretical" in its MODERNITY.

One of the few things that keep me going is the knowledge that if these turdbrains ever did get in charge, the government they implemented would either totally collapse in six months, or the non-Muslims would walk all over them.

Two key factors: Islam does NOT encourage innovation, improvisation, or individual thought; and is inimical to non-Islamic inspiration. Those two factors have kept the Islamic world always playing catch-up. If you can't think for yourself, you can't find answers to questions others are not asking. The West will either self-destruct or come together to stand against the Islamofascists, but under either scenario, the Islamofascists cannot win in the long run. There are too many people in this world who will NOT become willing slaves, and most of them are capable of doing something these nutjobs are not - thinking for themselves.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-11-26 10:02:48 PM  

#5  Advertising paid for by Jabba.
Posted by: Raptor   2003-11-26 7:36:04 PM  

#4  "The HUT - whose underground headquarters is now probably in Jordan "

that doesnt make sense, does it?
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-11-26 10:12:26 AM  

#3  "Urbanized Uzbeks in the capital Tashkent say that the model may be the Ottoman Empire..."

What they want: The Ottoman Empire
What they'll get: The Automan Empire

-Vic
Posted by: Vic   2003-11-26 8:53:29 AM  

#2  The Ottoman Empire...@-@...
Posted by: Lucky   2003-11-26 1:21:39 AM  

#1  Christians represent at least 17 percent of the whole Kyrgyz population of almost 5 million. Russian Orthodox followers are building churches everywhere. Christian evangelists are very active - profiting from Akayev’s drive to halt the exodus of skilled Russians.

This is Pepe letting his bias show. Islamic proselytization is good, but Christian proselytization is inflammatory.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2003-11-26 1:19:44 AM  

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