After last week's killings and Oslo bombing by Anders Behring Breivik, someone in a part of London was asked about the reaction of Muslims there. His response was that they are just relieved and saying "Alhamdulillah (thanks be to God), the gunman was not a Muslim". In addition, they are pointing out the contradictions in the media reporting noting that if he had been a Muslim, he would have been labelled a ‘terrorist' whereas he is being labelled a "lone madman".

Why is a lot of the Muslim community's reaction limited to this? Well, after nearly 10 years of stops and searches when travelling through airports, anti-terror laws, the media's demonization of Muslims and Islamic practises and beliefs (niqab, hijab, Danish cartoons e.t.c.), many Muslims feel that the best course of action is to lie low and keep their heads down.

However, given that Breivik has justified his mass murder by claiming he aimed to spark a war to stop Muslims "taking over" Europe, the issues this raises and the wider societies and politicians' response to them must be of concern to Muslims. Some of the issues raised include:
• The widespread climate of xenophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice pervading Europe.
• The rise of the far right and the reaction of mainstream political parties to that.
• The responses of European governments and the effect on Muslim citizens.

The issues the political class are choosing to address - the wrong ones - mainly surround questions of security: How do you secure a society from lone gunmen? Is there sufficient information sharing between governments? This deflects some attention from the serious problem Europe faces from racist and xenophobic attitudes, the rise of the far right, and a worsening economic situation. All of this shows the paradoxes and stark contradictions in policy making towards Muslims and non-Muslims.

European xenophobia
The rise of the far-right across Europe has been noticed by many over the past few years - whether the rise of Jorge Haider, Geert Wilders, the right-wing parties in Eastern Europe some of whom are allied to mainstream political parties in the European Parliament, or the British National Party (BNP) and English Defence League (EDL) in the UK. Concerns about this stem from Europe's 20th century experience with fascism and xenophobia.

Paradoxically, the policies adopted 30 years ago that was aimed at diminishing such attitudes - the doctrine of multiculturalism - is now attacked by mainstream European politicians like David Cameron and Angela Merkel as having failed. They therefore reinforce racist views demanding Muslims assimilate and westernize, ban symbols of Islam (like hijab, niqabs and minarets) and frequently criticise immigration (though their economies depend on immigrant labour). Consequently, their position is now praised by those on the far-right such as the leader of France's racist National Front, Marine Le Pen - illustrating the political affinity between mainstream politicians like Cameron and the extreme right-wing who dislike all forms of foreign culture. Both are unified on anti-Islamic rhetoric, and policies that would force Muslims to assimilate.

Europe's Muslims find themselves caught between a far-right - that hates foreigners and anything foreign - and the political class, who dislike their adherence to their Islamic values, which is part of a global revival of a rival ideology (Islam), which threatens the hegemony of capitalism in the Muslim world.

In addition, Muslims see the silence of politicians regarding the Islamophobic media coverage, which they helped to create in the first place.

From the reaction since the Oslo bombing and Utoya shootings, it appears that we will now see another double standard. The July 2005 London bombings resulted in a hastily assembled series of workshops and discussion, after which a narrative rapidly dominated that the cause of the bombings was an Islamic political ideology that needed to be tackled. The argument evolved into not merely clamping down on ‘violent extremist' ideas but any ‘extremist' ideas. This is the current working model in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, leading to extrajudicial pressures on Muslim speakers and Islamic groups and banning of visitors to the UK (e.g. sheikh Qaradawi).

It is highly unlikely there will be any comparable strategy to deal with the ideas that may or may not have contributed to the ideology of Anders Behring Breivik - a Christian and Freemason. Whatever actions politicians take regarding individuals and fringe groups, we are not likely to see the banning of right-wing conservative thinkers and commentators - who may or may not have influenced the ideas of the ‘fringe' - from the airwaves. Indeed, one of Silvio Berlusconi's former ministers has defended the thinking of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Interviewed on a popular radio show, Francesco Speroni, a leading member of the Northern League, the junior partner in Berlusconi's conservative coalition, said: "Breivik's ideas are in defence of western civilisation." Others have said that there needs to be more of a discussion about the "assimilation" of Muslims and still some talk of the danger Muslims pose to European culture.

The future?
Despite its history and two world wars ‘against facism', to this day, Europe has not found a model that brings sustained harmony between peoples or how to accommodate citizens who are of a different colour or belief.

Taji Mustafa
Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain

Today once again, Islamabad High Court deferred the hearing of the case of three abducted members of Hizb ut-Tahrir from Islamabad for a further seven days. Deputy to the Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir  in Pakistan, Imran Yousafzai, and members of Hizb ut-Tahrir , Hayan Khan and Usama Haneef, have been under unlawful detention of government agencies for several days. Today, Additional Attorney General adopted the stance in court that he has been unable to get the compliance of the court notice from the ISI and MI and therefore the court should serve the notice itself! It is a characteristic of this Kufr system that anyone seeking speedy justice only gets postponement of dates. This only encourages the oppressor to oppress and the oppressed to learn to bear oppression, rather than seeking justice. We condemn these delay tactics and demand from the judiciary that if they could secure the release of a paid killer like Raymond Davis from government custody and send him out of the country, then why can it not set free Muslim citizens from the shackles of the tyrant government agencies. Even though it has been established clearly how much these rulers and their system are supports for the Western colonialists, whilst making the lives of the Muslims a living hell.

In addition, the government became nervous after seeing the public anger in Raheem Yar Khan against the abduction of Dr. Abdul Qayyum. Initially, the District Police Officer of the city admitted that Dr. Abdul Qayyum is under the custody of agencies but when a delegation of respectful members of the city met with DPO, he retracted his earlier statement. Then after the family of Dr. Abdul Qayyum addressed a media conference and gave the details of his abduction to dozens of journalists, government agencies phoned the family of Dr. Abdul-Qayyim and tried to give the impression that government agencies are not responsible for his abduction, rather dacoits have abducted him for ransom. The government has been forced to stage such a bogus drama after facing sever pressure from people and the respected citizens. And these agencies' personnel neglected to explain why the so called dacoits left the eleven year daughter of Dr. Abdul-Qayyum who was in the car with him at the time of the abduction, when they could have taken her for an increased ransom!

The rulers and their master, America, have become frustrated at the popularity of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the masses generally and specifically in the people of power. So much so that they descend to lowly, cowardly acts like abduction and torture. These are similar to the acts of desperation from the Quraysh who tried to martyr Muhammad SAW to stop the establishment of Islamic state. Hizb ut-Tahrir  is also in the last stages of establishing Kilafah and very soon Ummah will hear the great news of the establishment of Kilafah inshaAllah. On a day of horror and disgrace for the tyrant rulers and their paid servants, on a day that Allah SWT will fill the hearts of Muslims with tranquility and happiness upon this great victory.

Naveed Butt

The Official Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan

Titles:

• Norway attacks by Christian zealot 'a sign', say UK's far-right
• NATO allies open to possibility Qaddafi could stay in Libya
• US to oppose Palestinian UN bid  
• Karzai outlines Afghan ‘conditions' for future US ties
• US military chief nominee says to press Pakistan
• China tells US to halt spy plane flights

News Details:

Norway attacks by Christian zealot 'a sign', say UK's far-right
The leader of a British far-right group to which Anders Behring Breivik claims links called the attacks a sign of "growing anger" in Europe against Muslim immigrants, while a politician in a party in Italy's governing coalition called some of the gunman's ideas "great".  Following a wave of near universal revulsion against the attacks, the comments were among the first public statements that appeared to defend the extremist views that drove the Norwegian gunman to carry out the massacre. Stephen Lennon, leader of the English Defence League (EDL), said overnight that he does not condone Breivik's rampage but "the fact that so many people are scared - people have to listen to that". "People should look at what happened in Oslo and understand that there is growing anger in Europe," said Lennon, 28. "You suppress people's rights you suppress people's voices and people will just continue to go underground - but that doesn't make the problem go away." Meanwhile, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian who belongs to Italy's rightwing Northern League party, told a mainstream Italian radio station that he sympathised with some of Breivik's ideas. "Some of the ideas he expressed are good, barring the violence, some of them are great," he told Il Sole-24 Ore radio station.

NATO allies open to possibility Qaddafi could stay in Libya
The U.S., the U.K., Italy and France now say they're willing to accept an outcome in Libya that would allow Muammar Qaddafi avoid exile or a trial on war crimes charges.  After conducting four months of daily bombings, NATO-led allies are willing to let Qaddafi stay in Libya on the condition that he gives up power.  "If the Libya people believe an internal solution is acceptable, then Italy agrees," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday in Guangzhou, China, according to ANSA news agency. A spokesman confirmed his comments. "One of the scenarios effectively envisaged is that he stays in Libya on one condition, which I repeat: that he very clearly steps aside from Libyan political life," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said July 20 in a television interview with French news channel LCI.  As the military campaign enters its fifth month, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies want to wrap up a mission that Juppe promised at its March 19 outset "will be counted in days and in weeks, not in months." Politically, they have pressing concerns at home: For Europeans, it's saving the euro and for Americans, it's defending an AAA credit rating by cutting federal spending.  "It shows some desperation, because the entire military operation didn't deliver what the U.K., France and also the U.S. had hoped for," Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the European center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a telephone interview. "You get pragmatic and you change the targets." 

US to oppose Palestinian UN bid  
US envoy terms Palestine's approaching of UN as "unilateral action", despite backing of over 120 countries.  The US is to oppose Palestine's application to the UN for full membership status when the body's General Assembly convenes in September. Rosemary DiCarlo, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, said that the US would not support "unilateral action" by the Palestinians at the UN. DiCarlo was speaking at the final, regular UN Security Council discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. "Let there be no doubt: symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September will not create an independent Palestinian state," DiCarlo said. "The United States will not support unilateral campaigns at the United Nations in September or any other time." DiCarlo said the US is pressing for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, insists on a negotiated settlement, and will oppose any unilateral action by the Palestinians at the UN. The US is among five veto-power members of the Security Council. It only considers UN admissions to the General Assembly from recommendations by its 15-member council.

Karzai outlines Afghan ‘conditions' for future US ties
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday outlined conditions governing negotiations for a future strategic partnership with the United States as he met defence chiefs at his palace. The new US ambassador in Kabul, Ryan Crocker, has said the US has no interest in permanent military bases in the country and does not want to project its influence in the region by remaining in Afghanistan. Karzai said Afghanistan's conditions included foreign forces working within Afghan legal rules, US troops not taking prisoners or maintaining jails, and an end to controversial night raids by elite commandos. He gave no details how the demands would shape negotiations, as he addressed heads of the army, police and intelligence services in a speech marking the end of the first phase of security transitions from foreign to local forces' control. "There are many other conditions on the economy and sovereignty and all other aspects... and about respect to the Afghan constitution," Karzai said. "They also have their own conditions, but we haven't agreed on anything yet." Seven parts of the country were ceremonially handed over from foreign to Afghan forces last week, although Nato officials say it will be up to two years before each area will assume full control for security and governance. All Western combat troops are due to leave by the end of 2014. "Nato and the international community are helping our country. But this will not go on forever and we don't want it forever," Karzai said. 

US military chief nominee says to press Pakistan
The nominee to be the next chief unformed officer of the US military pledged on Tuesday to press Pakistan to rein in extremists, saying that the war partner falsely considered India to be its top enemy. General Martin Dempsey, answering questions from senators at his confirmation hearing, said that he would urge Pakistan not to eliminate the safe haven enjoyed by militants in its lawless areas bordering Afghanistan. Dempsey told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that he will "continue to work with Pakistan to reduce the safe haven on the (Pakistan-Afghanistan) border." "As you know, they persist in the idea that India poses an existential threat to their existence while the terrorists that operate with some impunity in North West Frontier Province and FATA are less of a threat to them, and therefore they allocate their resources accordingly," he said, referring to two parts of Pakistan. The United States is working to convince Pakistan that extremists in the West are "as great a threat and probably a greater threat to them than any threat that India might pose," he said. Dempsey, who led troops through insurgency in Iraq, was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed Admiral Mike Mullen as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

China tells US to halt spy plane flights
China has demanded that the United States stop spy plane flights near the Chinese coast, saying they have "severely harmed" trust between the two countries, state-run media reported Wednesday. The comments came after Taiwanese media reported two Chinese fighter jets attempted to scare off an American U2 reconnaissance plane that was collecting intelligence on China while flying along the Taiwan strait in late June. Beijing's defence ministry said the US must discontinue such flights, calling them a "major obstacle" as the two Pacific powers try to put a series of military disputes behind them, China's Global Times reported. The flights "severely harmed" mutual trust, the paper quoted the ministry as saying."We demand that the US respects China's sovereignty and security interests, and take concrete measures to boost a healthy and stable development of military relations," it added.

Just a few minutes before midnight on Wednesday 27^th July 2011, Dr. Abdul-Qayyum, member of Hizb ut Tahrir   and a renowned senior dentist of Rahim Yar Khan, Southern Punjab, Pakistan, was abducted by government thugs. He was taking his young daughter to a bakery for food, on the eve of his eldest son's wedding waleema, when an agencies' four wheel drive vehicle blocked the path of his car. Four masked men with guns snatched him from his car. He protested about the safety of his daughter and they said that it does not matter and left her, a daughter of Islam of a tender eleven years of age, in a car on an empty street, in the dark of the night, with none but Allah SWT as her guardian! The whereabouts of Dr. Abdul-Qayyum remain unknown. And the thugs are now reportedly looking for other members of Hiz ut Tahrir in the family of Dr. Abdul-Qayyum, whose only crime is to uphold the word of Allah SWT before the tyrant rulers.

( وَمَا نَقَمُوا مِنْهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ ) البروج: 8

"And they had no fault except that they believed in Allah, Al-Azeez, Al-Hameed." [Surah Al-Burooj ] 85:8"

This was the latest despicable act by traitor rulers who have crossed all limits in desire to please its American masters. They care neither for honour, or truth, or justice, or Muslims or Islam. The latest escalation of Hizb ut Tahrir has seen raids on houses and abductions of its members to unknown locations comes after the visit of the US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, after the country wide rallies by Hizb ut Thrir  on 17 April 2011, against the American presence in Pakistan.

The traitor rulers must know that their lords and masters, the kuffar Americans, have never understood the Muslims and that is why they are lighting fires that are consuming them throughout the Muslim World. This Ummah bows only to Allah SWT and will never submit to tyranny, but will rise up against it and so today it is on the verge of establishing the Khilafah "Caliphate". For the Muslims know that they are never alone as they have the Lord of the Worlds, Al-Qawwi, Al-Jabbar as their Helper. As such these desperate acts will be a cause of despair for these rulers and their kafir masters, the Americans, when the Khilafah "Caliphate" exacts justice upon them that they deserve. Every dollar and every dime they spend in this cause, every gun they raise and every muscle they move will be a cause of anguish for them in this life and the next.

  إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ لِيَصُدُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَسَيُنفِقُونَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسْرَةً ثُمَّ يُغْلَبُونَ )الأنفال: 36)

"Verily, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend it; but in the end it will become an anguish for them. Then they will be overcome." (Surah al-Anfal 8:36)

Naveed Butt

The Official Spokesman of Hiz ut Tahrir in Pakistan