The Centre For Social Cohesion

Husain writes of HT:

‘In 1995, at college in east London, I was part of the secret cell structure of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist organisation banned in most Muslim countries and rejected by most mosques in Britain. Yet the group had a free rein on university and college campuses, where it advocated that British Muslims were a community whose allegiance lay not with Queen and country, but to a coming caliph in the Middle East.

‘This caliph would instruct us to act as agents of the caliphate in Britain, and open a "home front" by assisting the expansionist state. We believed that all Arab governments were not sufficiently "Islamic" and were liable to removal; entire populations would submit to the army of the caliph, or face extinction.’

Perhaps most tragically he states:

‘I was part of a generation of young British Muslim teenagers who were raised in mono-cultural ghettoes, disconnected from mainstream Britain and receptive to the message of separatism preached by Arab political asylum seekers’.

He also absolutely correctly says that:

‘Moderate Muslims have common cause with the West to extinguish extremism in our midst.’

Part of the way to make common cause, and to solve the current problem, is described by the brave young Mr Husain towards the end of his article, and it should be both listened to and acted upon by the British government and all others guiding UK policy.

One of the things that the Bluewater case has reminded us of is that once again young men now in prison serving life sentences might not have been radicalised, and would not now be in prison, if they had been born in any number of other countries. Unfortunately for them, they were born in Britain, where radical teaching, preaching and indoctrination has long been permissible.

Husain finishes his elegantly-argued piece with the following unarguable suggestion:

‘The rhetoric of jihad introduced by Hizb ut-Tahrir in my days was the preamble to 7/7 and several other attempted attacks. By proscribing Hizb ut-Tahrir, we would send a strong message to extremists that Britain will not tolerate intolerance. Yes, we are a free country with a proud tradition of liberty, but it has always had limits.

‘In 1991, Omar Bakri, then leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, called for the assassination of John Major - we ignored it. In 1997, Osama bin Laden declared a jihad against the West - we ignored it.

‘Today, in our midst, Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for an expansionist, violent, totalitarian Islamist state - and we continue to ignore it. There is no quick fix to the problem of home-grown terrorism, but banning Hizb ut-Tahrir would be an excellent first step, sending a strong signal to aspiring terrorists that Britain has not changed the rules of game. We no longer play that game.’