Ed Hussain, once a proponent of radical Islam in London, has written a book, The Islamist, which apparently chronicles how he came to revolt against the Islamism he had been promoting. At the weekend, the Sunday Times gave us a taste:
Two weeks after the terrorist attacks in London another Saudi student raised his hand and asked: ‘Teacher, how can I go to London?’
‘Much depends on your reason for going to Britain. Do you want to study or just be a tourist?’
‘Teacher, I want to go London next month. I want bomb, big bomb in London, again. I want make jihad!’
‘What?’ I exclaimed. Another student raised both hands and shouted: ‘Me too! Me too!’
Other students applauded those who had just articulated what many of them were thinking. I was incandescent. In protest I walked out of the classroom to a chorus of jeering and catcalls.
My time in Saudi Arabia bolstered my conviction that an austere form of Islam (Wahhabism) married to a politicised Islam (Islamism) is wreaking havoc in the world. This anger-ridden ideology, an ideology I once advocated, is not only a threat to Islam and Muslims, but to the entire civilised world. I vowed, in my own limited way, to fight those who had hijacked my faith, defamed my prophet and killed thousands of my own people: the human race. I was encouraged when Tony Blair announced on August 5, 2005, plans to proscribe an array of Islamist organisations that operated in Britain, foremost among them Hizb ut-Tahrir. At the time I was impressed by Blair’s resolve. The Hizb should have been outlawed a decade ago and so spared many of us so much misery. Sadly the legislation was shelved last year amid fears that a ban would only add to the group’s attraction, so it remains both legal and active today. But it is not too late.
Ed Hussain should be applauded for his courage in writing this. It should also serve to wake people up to a truth they are continuing to deny, that fanatical ideas can kill — and that if we in Britain are serious about halting the scourge of Islamist terrorism, the government must ban the fanatics of Hizb ut Tahrir who do so much to propel impressionable young people towards mass murder. Ed Hussain displays intellectual honesty and guts. The British government displays neither.
