News

A few days ago, we woke to news of the arrest of Moazzam Begg. This spread like wild fire amongst Muslims and soon it was on the front page of the BBC and other news outlets. He is a well known Muslim personality, not only in the UK but globally, and such was the international interest that later in the day, a South African radio station called me up for an interview about the arrest.

Comment

Choosing to arrest such a well known Muslim activist over supporting the uprising in Syria and seeking to portray it as another ‘terrorist' related arrest was meant to close down debate or sympathy as to why the UK government is now arresting some Muslims who intend to travel to or have returned from Syria. Years ago, Moazzam was held in Guantanamo, released without charge and successfully brought a court case against the UK government for complicity in the mistreatment of UK Muslims abroad. Upon returning to the UK, he has campaigned relentlessly against the government's criminalisation of the Muslim community under the guise of fighting ‘terrorism' and exposed its collusion and complicity in rendition and torture in various parts of the world. Indeed, it has been said that his recent arrest was just as his campaign organisation, Cage, was about to publish a report highlighting the complicity of the UK government in torture in Syria. A few weeks ago, the Home Minister had publicly confiscated his passport - in what appears to be a bid to silence him. His recent arrest bears all the hallmarks of a politically motivated detention designed to silence the wider Muslim community.

His arrest follows several other arrests of Muslim men and women travelling to Syria to aid their Ummah. It follows public pronouncements by top government officials that anyone going to Syria for whatever reason should expect to be arrested on their return. The huge Islamic outpouring of the Muslims in the UK regarding the unfolding tragedy in Syria has been amazing, masha'Allah. Many charity convoys taking over aid depart nearly every week, countless millions of pounds sterling has been raised and many Muslims have attended demonstrations and continue to campaign for the removal of the Assad regime.
As these Islamic sentiments have grown, and as many rising against Assad in Syria voice their Islamic sentiments and aspirations for a future under Islamic governance, the UK government has now labelled much of the support for the uprising in Syria as ‘terrorism'. It has attempted to create an atmosphere of fear to deter Muslims from voicing support for causes like Syria or the liberation of Palestine or Kashmir. One of the aims of recent arrests is to isolate individual Muslims, with the rest remaining silent through fear or other motives. This is dangerous, since it allows Muslims to be picked off one by one.

Apart from the many media and community campaigns urging Muslims to challenge these wave of arrests, and to continue to support our Ummah in Syria, Central Africa and elsewhere, I was recently reminded of another ingredient that we need to remind ourselves and our community about in order to counter the atmosphere of fear. That is seeking closeness to Allah (swt), reading and thinking a lot about the Seerah of the Prophet (saw) in Makkah where he was persecuted and oppressed simply for his beliefs. These reminders help us put our situation in context, remind us that the believer should expect to be tested and give us the courage to stand firm and fulfil Allah's commands to stand against oppression - fearing Him (swt) alone.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Taji Mustafa
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain