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Revolution without bullets or
ballots
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - From the shores of the Caspian
Sea to the Bay of Bengal, there are violent
reactionaries in the Muslim world who will kill
and get killed, but beyond these fanatics there
exists a real hardcore silently swaying the hearts
and minds of many in the Muslim world.
 Their religion is
not obvious from their demeanor or the cut of
their clothes, yet it is embedded in the very core
of their hearts, and is the driving force behind
all their actions.
They are an overwhelming
emerging force, and even though they have been
widely banned, they don't believe in retaliation.
They have made a hub in Pakistan, where they
outnumber many large religious parties, yet they
remain difficult to pinpoint as they are
political, but have been forced underground. They
are the largest single movement in the Islamic
world, the Liberation Party - Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT).
In in the mid-1990s, a large conference
was held in London, where the topic was the
revival of a caliphate in the Muslim world for the
"implementation of pure Islamic doctrine", as is
the goal of the HT. The conference was attended by
delegates from around the world, and a key
question was to determine an ideal place for the
Islamic revolution. Many agreed on Pakistan, a
land of valiant Muslim tribes that have
traditionally responded enthusiastically to
Islamic issues. And strategically, the country is
well situated to embrace the Asian sub-continent
and Central Asia - where initially the caliphate
will be created.
Subsequently, hundreds of
HT members, British but of Pakistani origin, many
of them students at the London School of Economics
and other centers of excellence, packed their bags
and departed for Pakistan. By 2000, the HT had
established itself in all urban centers of the
country, but within three years it was banned. All
police stations were given strict instructions to
round up any person who claimed an association
with the HT.
Hundreds of HT members were
rounded up, and may reports of torture emerged. Of
those produced in court, the only charges that
were made to stick were those related to being a
member of the HT.
This correspondent has
spoken to senior Pakistani officials on the reason
for the HT being banned, but none of them appears
to have a clue - especially as the HT does not
espouse violence or militancy.
HT members
have even been encouraged by the authorities to
change the name of the organization, as most other
banned outfits do so that they can carry on with
their activities, but the HT has refused to do so.
Pakistan, especially as a leading ally in
the US "war on terror", has been urged by
international intelligence agencies to continue
cracking down on the HT. President General Pervez
Musharraf has visited the United Kingdom and
publicly advised parents to beware of the HT and
keep their children away from its influence.
Asia Times Online spoke to the HT's chief
in Pakistan, Naveed Butt. Butt is a graduate from
Illinois University, Chicago, in engineering. He
is a tall and smart man in his late 30s, and has
devoted his life to the cause of HT. As a result,
he is a wanted man. He traveled from Lahore to
Karachi for this interview [1].
Asia
Times Online: You claim that you are a
political organization, yet you operate
underground. Why?
Naveed Butt:
The HT is a political party and cannot
afford to operate underground. We have to remain
in touch with the masses and cultivate them for
our mission. Our leadership was open when it
founded the HT in 1953 in Jordan. However, soon
after the HT was established, Jordanian
authorities brutally crushed it. Hundreds of our
workers were arrested. So to preserve the
organization, our top leadership - Shiekh Atta Abu
Rashta and others - went underground. Since then,
the HT has been unacceptable to rulers, and we
have been forced to work underground all over the
Muslim world.
ATol: Who is
your central leadership?
NB:
It is somewhere in the Middle East. I do
not know their names and where they are located.
ATol: How come a political
party can survive with no leadership visible to
the public eye, nor even a party structure?
NB: We do not hide. We
openly claim that we are members of HT. Hundreds
of our workers were recently arrested by Pakistani
law-enforcing agencies. We admitted that we were
members of HT. However, we do not disclose the
names of our top leadership because then they
would not be able to operate and would face
unnecessary obstructions.
ATol:
You claim that HT is non-violent, but we
saw HT supporters turn violent in Uzbekistan.
NB: It was not HT. Our
leadership has already taken a position on that
issue. We never did violence, nor will we in the
future apply any violence in our struggle. Our
goal is to mobilize the masses and bring about a
peaceful revolution and revive the institution of
caliphate. What happened in Uzbekistan is in fact
a continuation of what previously happened in
Georgia and other Central Asian states, it was an
obvious power-struggle between Russia and the US
to dominate in the region. Some agent provocateur
used the Akramia group [an Islamic extremist
organization] for their designs and created
violence. There is no doubt that the HT is the
strongest force in Uzbekistan and is facing state
suppression, but we would rather bear state
torture than turn violent.
ATol: So, the HT is
non-violent, very intellectual and non-militant.
Then why is it not tolerated, whereas other Muslim
organizations are somehow tolerated and even
co-exist in societies?
NB:
To begin with, we do not accept the
existing system, which all other religious parties
accept. They claim that they are against the West,
but they support Western democracy. In other ways,
too, they are very much part-and-parcel of the
system. This inclusion has silently rounded up
those sharp edges which the West considered a
threat. They raise Islamic slogans, but they have
nothing to do with the Islamic cause. We have the
examples of Pakistan and Turkey, where Islamists
won [in elections] but failed to make any impact.
Neither bullet nor ballot can bring about
sustainable change in society. It is only when
masses willingly mobilize and demand a change and
adopt non-violent ways and replace the system with
a real Islamic system, that real change will
emerge.
ATol: Don't you
think this will create anarchy?
NB:
Anarchy is generated when the masses
mobilize without any ideal. When they have an
ideology, they will march towards the right path.
We know our job. We have to float our constitution
and manifesto among the masses and convince them
fully that it is the real salvation.
ATol: At a conference in London in
the mid-1990s, it was suggested that Pakistan
would be an ideal state to establish an Islamic
state, and from there proceed to caliphate. What
is the significance of Pakistan in your world
mission?
NB: Important
decisions evolve with the passage of time. These
decisions are not taken in conferences. Several
participants expressed their opinions about
different Muslim states, which would be ideal an
Islamic state. Pakistan was among them. There is
no doubt that Muslims in Pakistan have emotional
commitment with Islam. It is situated at a place
where an Islamic state could further its influence
up to Central Asia and Turkey, where already
Islamic movements have taken strong roots, and
then this unit could work effectively for the
liberation of Muslim-occupied territories.
ATol: In a way, the HT
represents the concept of Pakistan's strategic
depth developed by the generals in the 1980s,
which suggested the Muslim Central Asian states
Afghanistan and Pakistan come together in one
confederation.
NB: We are
not inspired by the establishment's rhetoric. We
draw our strategy from the Koran and Sunnah [the
sayings and the traditions set by the Prophet
Mohammed].
ATol: You are
branded as anti-Zionist ...
NB:
Islam is not racist at all. However, we
talk about the liberation of Muslim territories
and bringing them back into the discipline of
khilafah [caliphate]. We talk about the
liberation of the entire Palestine, and we want to
establish Muslim rule over there. We don't talk
about Kashmir alone. We talk about the liberation
of India, because India was ruled by Muslims, and
it was a Muslim state.
ATol:
Excuse me. India was invaded by Muslims
and they established their rule for 1,000 years.
However, India was never an Islamic state. There
were some adventurers who happened to be Muslim
and they captured India.
NB:
There are a lot of misconceptions which are
required to be addressed. The Muslim caliphate
remained intact in its letter and sprit for 30
years. After 30 years it turned hereditary, yet it
was a caliphate because all other tenets were
fully practiced. For instance, it was compulsory
that subjects would pledge their allegiance to the
caliph (bait). The system of the judiciary
remained intact, which strictly enforced Islamic
laws. Different schools of jurisprudence worked
independently, but their work remained
part-and-parcel in the system of governance. It
was the same in Hind [India]. There were monarchs
who were Muslims, and many were not upright in
their character. However, if you see the system of
the judiciary, it was Islamic. The education
system was Islamic, etc. Therefore, Hind was an
Islamic state and part of a Muslim caliphate.
ATol: In the West, the HT is
perceived as a serious threat to social liberties,
concepts of civil society, etc. And also in Muslim
states. Why?
NB: They know
exactly why we are a threat. We do not believe in
using patches of the Western social system and
calling it Islam, or in applying tenets of the
capitalist economy and calling it Islam. We are
not the kind of Islamists who say that since Islam
does not forbid such systems, therefore there is
no harm in adopting them. For commodities, though,
we can say that since Islam does not forbid
something, therefore it is allowed. For instance,
if somebody drinks a syrup in which there is no
prohibited ingredient, there is no debate. It is
allowed.
However, all actions and
mechanisms in life must be substantiated and drawn
from Islam, whether it is in the economy,
politics, trading and even agriculture. This kind
of purist approach does not suit the West or its
allies in the Muslim world, who work to establish
riba-free [interest-free] banking, but at
the same time allow multinational corporations to
circulate like blood in their economies.
ATol: You mean the HT would
not allow multinational corporations [MNCs] to
operate?
NB: Let me explain
that there is a difference between MNCs and
non-Muslim traders. Non-Muslims can trade with an
Islamic state, and they are allowed to freely
operate. However, MNCs are the flag-bearers of the
colonial system and Western capitalist economies.
Whether it is Coca-Cola or McDonalds, it is not
simply the name of the commodities that is
marketed. It is a complete culture which impresses
on societies, and such cultural intrusions in the
garb of MNCs would not be tolerated.
ATol: I will repeat my
question. Are you anti-Zionist?
NB:
A Muslim cannot be anti-Zionist or
anti-Christian. Jews always had a golden period in
Muslim empires. When there was a full season
against Jews in the Christian world, Jews were
given refuge in the Ottoman empire. Hasidic
Christians and Christian Orthodoxy are still very
well preserved in the Middle East and in Egypt.
Had Muslims been so intolerant, what prevented
them from eliminating Christians? The Koran says
there is no coercion in religion. At the same
time, our name is Hizb ut-Tahrir. Liberation
Party. We are not Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami
[Islamic Party of Liberation]. Therefore, we think
of salvation of the whole of humanity, as the
Prophet Mohammed was sent for the whole of
humanity, and we are working to liberate humanity
from the cruel clutches of the Western capitalist
system.
ATol: What about
Shi'ites? In the political history of Islam, they
opposed a caliphate. [HT is often labeled in the
Western media as being a "Sunni" group".]
NB: Not in the early period.
Shi'ites of the early period were not against a
caliphate. It was a very late development when
they brought the concept of Imamat [2] versus
caliphate. We don't engage in such debates. We
would accept Imamat if it practices true Islam.
After the Iranian revolution [1979] a HT
delegation went to Tehran and welcomed the
revolution. We presented Iranians [most of whom
are Shi'ites] our constitution and offered that if
they implemented it we would pledge our allegiance
[bait] to the leader of Iran. Ayatollah
Baheshti, who was later killed in bomb blast, was
very appreciative of the HT's role and its
literature. Imam Shoqani of the Zaidiya sect wrote
a book on the Islamic state, which is a very
important part of the HT's syllabus.
In
fact, we never talk about Shi'ites and Sunnis. We
talk only about Muslims. This is what the Koran
does. In Iraq, we had historic relations with the
Da'wa Party [a Shi'ite party]. The slain [Shi'ite]
Iraqi scholar Baqir Sadr [executed by Saddam
Hussein] was very close to HT circles. Recently,
when the HT held a conference in Iraq, Muqtada
al-Sadr's representative attended the meeting. [
Muqtada is a Shi'ite cleric]
In fact,
there is no bitter division between Shi'ites and
Sunnis. As far as killings are concerned, they are
all isolated events. Had there been any division,
there would have been Shi'ite-Sunni riots
everywhere in the world where Shi'ites and Sunnis
lived side-by-side. It is again the Western
imperialist agenda which fans Shi'ite-Sunni
divisions in Muslim societies for their ultimate
objective.
ATol: What is
your strength in Pakistan?
NB:
I would never tell, but it is so
significant that the state machinery thought it
necessary to ban us after only three years of our
existence [in the country].
Notes
[1] Naveed Butt
and other HT members have an uneasy "truce" with
the authorities. As long as they lie low, they are
generally left alone, but any suspicion of
"activity" and they are liable to be arrested by
the police.
[2] According to Shi'ite
doctrine, the Imamat continues by heredity in the
Prophet's progeny through Ali and Fatima.
Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau
Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be
reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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