arta

A scepter is haunting the democratic world -- the scepter of Islamic totalitarianism pursued by Hizb ut Tahrir. The party, founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani is illegal in the Middle East but is flourishing in democracies like Indonesia and Britain.

In August 2007 the party held a large gathering in Jakarta, announcing it was nigh time for a caliphate to rule the world, and denouncing democracy as an evil design to destroy Islam. Up to 100,000 people attended.

It was never made clear where this caliphate was supposed to be set up and what would happen to the states that now occupy the territory to be claimed by the caliphate. What was made clear was that the caliphate will be governed by sharia law.

As totalitarianism creeps upon pious Muslim societies under the guise of a better understanding and practice of Islam, Ed Husain's book The Islamist (Penguin Books, 2007) is timely indeed.

Ed Husain's book serves as a reminder that not all that glitters is gold. In the world of politics, not all that pretends to be benevolent, pious and Islamic, is as connected to the Koran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad as it claims to be.

Such is the case with the Hizb ut Tahrir. The Hizb (meaning the Party) is a transnational party that operates underground in cell systems.

Husain demonstrates that though it owes its thinking and methods to Hegel, Rousseau and Gramsci, the Hizb has couched its concepts in the language of the Koran and its methods are presented as the methods of the Prophet Muhammad.

Because of this fabricated but convincing connection to Muhammad, the Hizb has enormous powers of seduction and has successfully recruited many bright and well-meaning young Islamic intellectuals here and all over the world.

Due to the secretive cell system practiced by the party, it is difficult to ascertain just how many members, supporters and sympathizers it has, here or anywhere.

Like a Leninist party, in the beginning the Hizb was more concerned in creating a small, militant core than it was in recruiting large numbers.

Mr. Adyaksa Dault (Minister of Youth and Sports here) lent his influence to the party last year when he promoted the Jakarta gathering by saying: "If you want to be among those who want Islam to unite, present yourself to this International Khilafah Conference."

It is a curious and hypocritical stance for the honorable minister to take as one of the objectives of the Hizb is to struggle against the rulers in Muslim countries, to remove their regimes and establish Islamic rule.

Reading Husain's experiences as an Islamist in Britain, we can appreciate just how such hypocrisy is possible.

The Hizb follows three stages of activism, the first being undercover and gentle, forming a core of party activists who are well-versed in the *System' and the 'Concept' of their interpretation of Islam.

The second Hizb stage is when they begin to actively engage the society in an aggressive Gramscian way, expressly destroying ideas to replace them with their own.

The third stage is to seize power and establish the caliphate which will ensure the practice of sharia and through jihad, Islamize the world.

Ed Husain was born into a traditional Islamic family who followed a Sufi-influenced brand of spiritual Islam, but in his teens in London he became involved in Islamist activism, which culminated in his activism in the Hizb ut Tahrir.

His aim was to fly the banners of Islam over Downing Street, resurrect the caliphate which would subsequently launch a perpetual jihad to bring Islam to the rest of the world. Young Husain learned to see the world as a constant struggle between Islam and kufr, and to reject everything that did not originate in Islam as kufr.

Democracy, as a concept that originated among the ancient Greeks is undoubtedly kufr and against Islam, and thus should be resisted.

Only when he began to read history in university did Husain come to realize that Nabhani's ideas were not as deeply rooted in Islamic traditions as the Hizb activists claimed.

While busy trying to resurrect the caliphate and Islamize Downing Street, the young Husain found that he had grown empty inside. He longed for a spiritual connection of the kind that he had known in his childhood when he used to accompany a Sufi Master preaching around Britain.

Disillusioned, he embarked on his own personal search for Islam.

In Saudi Arabia he is appalled by the racism, bigotry and sexual harassment he and his wife encountered there.

The disparity between the absurd wealth on the one hand and the total poverty, prostitution and deprivation in the slum in Jeddah called Karantina slapped his Islamic sensibilities right in the face. If not for the traditional, heartfelt Islam of the Sufis that he had experienced in his childhood, Husain would have left Islam in disgust.

The Islamist is important because it reminds its reader that there is no such thing as the law of God in politics.

Even though a state claims to be governed by the sharia, ultimately it is the human interpretation of it that is practiced.

Claiming that sharia law is the law of God allows the rulers to assume the authority of God and declare that criticism to them is the same as disobedience to God.

In other words, the elevation of sharia into state politics only paves the way for tyrants and dictators to rule with the right to extinguish all opposition.

Husain also reminds his readers that there is a strong and healthy spiritual tradition of Islam that nourishes the soul and humanizes mankind.

The *West', which is seen as the enemy of Islam by Islamists, is just as much of a myth as the golden age of unity under the caliphs is. Islam's real enemy is whatever is within the human heart that rejects the path of Islam, which is the way of moderation.

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