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Letter - To the British deputy prime minister:

Dear Nick Clegg,

This is a request for action speaking louder than words by the new coalition. I welcome your early commitment to the restoration of civil rights as part of the mainstream agenda for the UK. However, there is a civil rights crisis in the Middle East. Both these situations were seriously ignored by the previous Labour administration.

I appreciate that you are well aware that the humanitarian disaster occurring on a daily basis in Palestine has been brought about by the well-recognised and documented unlawful activities of the Israel state. Your article in the Guardian last December admirably exposes the iniquity of the Gaza blockade. There are of course many other examples – illegal settlements, the separation wall, the demolition of Palestinian homes, sequestration of water supplies, destruction of olive groves, etc.

Abstaining From Alcohol

Like all converts to Islam, I am sometimes haunted by my past and always in awe of the mercy of God. By the grace of God, many people reading this have probably never tried alcohol themselves. For like all the prohibitions in Islam, this is one of God's mercies on believers. Yet for me, some of the most painful memories relate to alcohol. Actually, I was never one of those people who drank uncontrollably and then did hugely embarrassing things. I was what was called a “good drinker”—and that's what makes it even more frightening.

Ruling by Islam in the UK

If David Cameron succeeds in becoming the next Prime Minister and keeps his pre-election promise, the group Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) faces the prospect of a ban. The group is characterised by its noble quest to re-establish the Caliphate in the Muslim world, which will be the starting point to unify the Muslim nations and remove the oppressive regimes, establish peace and justice. The leadership of HT reassured the previous regime that it has no intention of calling for the Caliphate in the UK, and resorted to considerable amount of lobbying to prevent the ban, and it seems they succeeded in persuading the MPs to renew the current legislation that permits the group the operate.

However, the statement of HT is misleading on the subject of the Caliphate for UK. Far as I remember, the Islamic opinion adopted by HT is that - the Islamic State will have no permanent fixed borders, until the entire world is brought under the domain of Islam. Thus, it may not call for the Caliphate today in the UK, but bringing UK under the domain of the Caliphate is not to be excluded in the future. Either pragmatism or fear caused the group’s leadership not to clarify their position on the issue.

The Tories, Israel and Britain's General Election

In the run-up to the British General Election on 6th May, the Conservative Party has taken out a full page advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle, aimed at the Israel lobby. The advertisement outlines a series of pledges from the Conservatives; each pledge is accompanied by a statement from a leading Conservative politician. David Cameron's statement is from June 2009, five months after the war on Gaza in which the Israelis killed 1400 people, a third of them children: "If I become Prime Minister, IsraelIsrael to exist, to defend itself and to live in peace and security". The UN's official report into the war accused Israel of committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. has a friend who will never turn his back on her… I passionately believe in the right of

Respones (Debate) - UK Election 2010 - To Vote or Not to Vote

This is my response to Yusuf Patel’s response to my earlier article on voting in the UK. Yusuf Patel is a member of HT. His response is in red and mine is in blue.

UK Election 2010: Why and How to Vote

Many prominent scholars, including the leading Saudi dissident, Professor Muhammad Al-Massari, endorse the permissibility to vote in the UK election. Although, there are differences on how we should exercise our votes, but there is broad consensus that it is primarily aimed at protecting our rights and to cater for our expanding needs as we continue to grow as a community.

The following points will elaborate on the permissibility to vote based on the premise of the anti-voting camp.

UK Election 2010 - To Vote or Not to Vote

As the general election approaches in the UK, so does the debate on the issue of voting amongst the Muslim community, which primarily revolves around the question of - is it haram (unlawful under Islamic law) or halal (permitted) to vote? The opinion is largely divided into two opposing camps of, for and against voting. In Islamic law, different opinions (Ikhtilaf) can exist on a particular issue; this is inevitable when the textual evidences are not precise on the matter. Each faction will argue in favour of their adopted opinion as the strongest, and view other opinions as weak, rather than invalid.

Therefore, on this issue voting, do the opposing factions accept there is legitimate difference of opinion? The pro-voting camp in general tends to accept there is a legitimate difference of opinion, whereas the anti-voting factions do not, they consider the prohibition as categorical. Groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) are particularly vocal on promoting this viewpoint in the UK and in other Western countries where there is a significant Muslim population.

This seem strange given that HT has already stated their sole objective is to establish the Caliphate in the Muslim world; therefore, it is difficult to see the connection between voting in the UK election, and their sacred ‘method’ of bringing about change in the distant Muslim countries. Why meddle in the internal politics of UK, if the country is outside your radar?