Zeyno Baran: "Will this be the much-needed wake up call for the West?"

By Andrew Cochran

Zeyno Baran is on travel in Europe and asked me to post the following comments on the Danish cartoon controversy - please quote her:

Many Western governments have been so focused on defeating the �terrorists� they have actively ignored combating groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Muhajirun, who incite others to violence but are not violent themselves. In simplest terms, the division is between those who use violence and those who don�t. This inability to see how these groups have tactical differences but common end goals, has even led several European countries to work with people like Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, believing that working with the Muslim Brotherhood will make them safe.

If the latest set of incidents in relation to the cartoons is not a wake up call, then I don�t know what will be one. Denmark has been the key target of the radical Islamists, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, for years; they even have a webpage in Danish. In 2002, Fadi Abdel Latif, the spokesman for HT Denmark was already referring to the Koran and urging the killing of Denmarks� members of the Jewish community. Since then HT Denmark has incited Danish Muslims to kills members of the government and encouraged Muslims to go fight the Americans in Iraq. Denmark like many Western countries has for too long been �tolerating intolerance� which I have been now arguing for many years. They should not have tolerated such incitement to violence. No Western or Muslim government should tolerate people calling for killing of people in the name of their religion�tolerating such statements is appeasing the radicals, and is betraying the more than 90% of Muslims who do not want to be represented by these people who claim to speak in their name.

Similarly, the West also should not have tolerated insulting the world�s 1.3 billion Muslims in the name of �freedom of speech�. Regardless of the initial purpose of publishing the cartoons, once it was made clear to non-Muslims how in the Islamic faith Muslims don�t even portray the face of their Prophet, common sense should have prevailed. Second, in the atmosphere when radical Islamists (those using violence and those who have different tactics) are trying to convince the world�s Muslims that the �war on terror� is really a �war on Islam� and the �Christian world� is united against the �Muslim world� and �we are already in a clash of civilizations� it is extremely depressing to see that over 4 years after 9/11, so few Western leaders, strategists and commentators have understood how these cartoon case was going to be used by the �enemy��the enemy of not just the �Western civilization� but of those 90% of Muslims.

CT Blog has already explained how a delegation of Danish Muslims, led by Copenhagen imam Abu Laban, toured the Middle East to garner support and orchestrate the mass protests we have been seeing over the last several years.

They also met with Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the chair of The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). There have been many articles written about Qaradawi�s extremist position on suicide killings; it is incredible that IUMS was launched in July in London (remember 7/7?) as an independent body and a reference for all Muslims worldwide.

According to a local media report, Al-Aqsa Denmark was operating out of an address associated with Abu Laban-- Mj�lnerparken 8 in Copenhagen. That is not surprising because Laban is a fervent supporter of the "Palestinian cause". Al-Aqsa Denmark was listed as a member organization of the 101 Days Campaign which is headed by Qaradawi. Al-Aqsa Denmark was designated by the US Treasury in May 2003 and its officers are being prosecuted by the Danish government. In short, Laban is linked to an organization that was part of Qaradawi's fundraising network.

And what the Qaradawi do to help calm the situation?

Following the meeting with the Danish delegation in January, the IUMS called for a boycott of Danish and Norwegian products. Over the last several days, Qaradawi reportedly urged Muslims, �We must tell Europeans, we can live without you. But you cannot live without us� We can buy from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia... We will not be humiliated.�

As published by the Gulf Times, in his Friday sermon in Omar bin al-Khattab Mosque, Qaradawi was further inciting his followers to violence. Given that many in the Muslim world listen to Qaradawi, (and given that he has become even more legitimized thanks to Western governments treating him as a key representatives of the �Muslims�), his five demands are rather worrisome. To read all, see the link. But his urging Muslims to feel the outrage, which in this case he calls as �virtue� and calling on Muslim governments to recall their ambassadors from Denmark.

It is now widely reported that in London, the protests were organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Muhajiroun�the two organizations Tony Blair after 7/7 declared as dangerous and needing to be proscribed, but since then those so eager to �tolerate intolerance� have not acted upon. Among some of the demonstrators outside the Danish embassy in London were reportedly two dressed as suicide bombers and some carried placards declaring �Butcher those who insult Islam� and others who chanted slogans threatening another 7/7.

And in the months following 7/7, Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Muhajiroun have also began forming new groups, and are increasingly calling themselves �the people of the Sunnah and the Jama�ah� (Ahl ul-Sunnah Wal Jama�ah) and thus trying to unite Muslims around an umbrella identity. See Al-Muhajiroun leader Omar Bakri Mohammed�s book here.

The longer such radicals who claim to speak for the Muslims are allowed to do so, and worse, are treated as such by the Western government who want to �have channels to the Muslims� we will see more of the worldwide demonstrations, riots and killings in the name of Islam. The protests and the burning of the embassies, and other horrendous crimes we may still see in light of the cartoon issue are NOT done �spontaneously� by Muslims, but are urged to do so by a small group of radicals who want to bring about a clash of civilizations.

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