Thursday, May 03, 2007

Ed Husein Interview

When Radio Four is too dull and Radio Five unspeakably PC (i.e. betwen 10 am and 4 pm every weekday), I sometimes listen to BBC Asian Network, easily the least PC of the BBCs output - because it's not aimed at evil Whitey and his unspeakable racism. Some good music, too, and it's mostly in English - unlike my favourite Asian station Radio XL, which plays some great music and can be picked up on 1296 AM as far south as Swindon.

Nikki Bedi's show today featured a longish interview with Ed Husain, author of The Islamist. Interesting stuff, worth a listen when they put it online.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I won't say anything about the Jenkins interview: but I'll just descant on the two top comments that appear beneath that article, both of which appear to give a clean bill of health to Hizb ut-Tahrir.
My collection of books includes "The Islamic State" by Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, who founded Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1953. As "Hizb ut-Tahrir" appears on the cover and on the title-page of this book(Al-Khilafah Publications, London 1998), it is to be presumed that it's a guide to the movement's doctrines.
A short Introduction laments the Western dominance of decadent Islam and calls for a revived Islam comprising "one single state over the entire Muslim world". An implication that this state must take over the entire world is then made obvious.
Next comes a history of Islam, beginning with a biography account of the Prophet, pulling no punches over the enthusiastic way in which he acted as Allah's executioner. The tone of rest of this section veers between the triumphalist and the paranoid as the advances and reverses of Islam are catalogued: Jews, Christians, unbelievers and Europeans are singled out and repeatedly condemned.
Here's a randomly-chosen excerpt that demonstrates how the book's slightly odd English idiom does little to disguise a virulent anti-Europeanism:

'The crusader hatred harbored by the Westerners, especially in Europe and more so by Britain, and their deeply rooted animosity and wicked malice were the cause of our eventual humiliation in our homeland. General Allenby said in 1917 when he entered al-Quds [=Jerusalem] "Only today the crusades have ended." This...reflected the hatred and malice he harbored and the same could be said about every European that fought in the battles -cultural and military - against the Muslims, and Allah (swt) says "Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, what their breasts conceal is far worse" {Al-'Imran 3:118]
What Allenby said was indeed most loathsome, and what his country, Britain, harbored was even grater without a doubt: this goes without saying for every European."
This malice and hatred has existed ever since the days of the crusades and it is still perpetuated today. What we face in terms of oppression, humiliation, colonization and exploitation...is in fact an act of brutal revenge on the Muslims. Indeed it is particular to the Muslims.'
The Caliph will enforce a constitution of 186 Articles, which legislate for the political impotence of non-Moslems and their special taxation: that the non-Moslem may not last long under the Caliphate, which will be in effect a military theocracy, is strongly implied by Article 56 -

"Jihad is a Fard [defined in the Glossary as 'An obligatory action']on all Muslims. Military training is compulsory. Every Muslim male, fifteen years and over, is required to undergo military training as a preparation for Jihad" - and by a couple more definitions from the Glossary:

"Jihad: Removing obstacles which stand against the propagation of the Islamic Da'wah to the people."

"Da'wah: the Islamic call. The process of propagating Islam to non-Muslims. (lit. 'invitation')"'

All of which seems to imply that the conversion of us unbelievers will be enforced at gunpoint.