News:

The masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John", who has been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named. He is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man in his mid-20s from west London, who was previously known to British security services. British police declined to comment, citing ongoing investigations. Emwazi first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley. He was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter. [Source: BBC 26/02/15]

Comment:

Since 2001, the British authorities have systematically shifted the spotlight away from its foreign policy and its security agencies by placing blame for violence at home and abroad solely on Muslims.

It is alleged that Mohammed Emwazi is the so called ‘Jihadi John' but not proven. As Muslims we must follow the Shariah, which requires proof of one's identity and actions along with witnesses, before passing judgment upon him.

Emwazi was a young man known to CAGE, an independent advocacy organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror. He was well loved and known to have been a gentle, kind, pious young man, with excellent manners and Islamic morals. He was well educated, had secured a good job, and was to be married.

Emails between Emwazi and the CAGE lawyers, prove that he was harassed by security services whilst living in the UK as well as on a trip to Tanzania, and was pressurised and threatened into working as an informant for British intelligence services. This has become a common experience for many Muslims in Britain during the last ten years, and has been a necessary tool of the ‘conveyor belt to terrorism' narrative; one which bullies individuals and makes them fear for their lives. It enables false flag operations, and is used as a tactic of fear mongering among the Muslim community in order to subdue Islamic activism, and purposely steer it away from issues of state and foreign policy, towards acceptable forms of Islamic work such as personal worship and self-improvement. Such pressure from the intelligence services is known to have influenced Michael Adibalago the Woolwich attacker, and has been the stated as the primary cause of disenfranchisement among terror suspects; far from the usual reasons of poverty and lack of education that are given.

Since the departure of Mohammed Emwazi from Britain, his whereabouts where unknown. Regardless of whether he is in fact the supposed executor Jihadi John, the fact remains that Emwazi and many other brothers and sisters are harassed and threatened daily by security services, who may appear at their children's schools, follow them whilst buying groceries and of course by raiding homes without cause, rendering their lives impossible and leaving them with no legal avenue to redress their situation.

The infamous "changing the goal posts" speech of Tony Blair some eight years ago, enabled a discretionary victimisation, which allowed intelligence agents to interpret emails and phone calls as they wanted; to view attendance at some demonstrations as extremist acts, and to label core Islamic ideas and principles, such as Jihad fi'sabillah, Khilafah "Caliphate" and the concept of the Ummah as extreme.

The culture of abuse now runs so deep in the UK that there are virtually entire communities, which due to security services acting outside of the rule of law, no longer have access to due process. Individuals are prevented from travelling, placed under house arrest and in the worst cases tortured, rendered or killed, seemingly on the whim of security agents.

Now, the recently passed Counter Terrorism and Security (CTS) Bill will further the Prevent Strategy and not just allow but ensure that schoolteachers, doctors, lecturers, airport staff and anyone else can assess ‘radicalisation' as they deem it, whether it be a Muslim's personal opinion, dress code, beard length, and even as has already happened, a mere reference to Islam's golden age by a fourteen year old student! The CTS Bill will prove to be more dangerous than 1950s McCarthyism and will radically change the nature of the Muslim community's freedoms, on campus, in the community and in the home.

The ‘intelligence' services are likely to ‘up' their imaginary threat levels in order to continue to vilify Islam and increase military intervention in the Muslim world. However the counter effect of this recurring strategy fuels resentment and calls by certain fighting groups for retaliation, as with IS who hadn't expressed the will to strike British interests until the coalition's bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq.

Muslims in the West are finally beginning to face the some of what the global Ummah has faced for decades; where speaking against agent rulers, un-Islamic practices and laws has led to vilification, imprisonment and torture. The duty is to withstand the pressure to reform Islam, to stand for the believers, to not compromise our noble values, practices and beliefs, and to continue to call and work for the return of the only system able to secure human rights, equality and justice... the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" on the way of the prophethood.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Maleeha Hasan