Summary of Statement by Maajid Nawaz, Former Hizb ut-Tahrir Official, at Senate Hearing
By Andrew Cochran
Today's hearing by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is historic for several reasons. First, as I wrote on Monday, it featured Maajid Nawaz, probably the most senior former official in any radical Islamist group to testify before the U.S. Congress since the 9-11 attacks. I will address other aspects of this hearing in future posts, but I wanted to briefly summarize a key section of Mr. Nawaz' oral statement before the committee, since he did not have time to prepare a written statement, due to the unusual circumstances of his entry into the U.S. for the hearing.
After summarizing his personal journey into and out of Hizbut, Mr. Nawaz discussed four core elements of the 20th-century Islamism which gives rise to extremism, as he has determined through years of experience and extensive academic study. According to Mr. Nawaz, these elements are not representative of previous interpretations of Islam nor of current Islamic thought held by the vast majority of Muslims:
1. Islam is treated as a political ideology rather than as a religion. There is an "Islamic Solution" to everything.
2. Sharia law must be codified into state law.
3. The ummah has a political identity, not just a religious one, and there is no allegience to any other body or group, including non-Muslims.
4. Muslims must strive to create an expansionist state, the caliphate.
Mr. Nawaz analogized between these elements and the elements of Communist ideology as proposed and developed by and through the leaders of the Sovet Union. He traced the roots of these elements, in part, to membership in the Marxist-oriented Baath Party of the 1920s by the founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani.
Mr. Nawaz also described three types of Islamists:
1. Political Islamists, nonviolent "5th columnists" who work behind the scenes;
2. Revolutionary Islamists, such as Hizbut, which seek to overthrow secular Arab regimes but are peaceful in the West;
3. Militant Islamists, such as Al Qaeda, who use armed struggle at all points.
He described these as the historical order of progression from the founding of Hizbut and the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s and in order of the degree of commitment. He also described Hizbut's influence inside the prison in Egypt in which he was held. For instance, Ayman al-Zawahiri was held in that same prison, was exposed to Sheikh an-Nabhani's writings and ideas there, and expresses virtually the same ideas as those an-Nabhani wrote of in 1953.
Mr, Nawaz explicitly agreed with a statement by Zeyno Baran in her testimony that nearly all individuals involved in Islamic terrorism start out as non-violent Islamists.
I will post the transcript of Mr. Nawaz' oral statement as soon as it is available. Here is a CQ Homeland Security story on the hearing made available to us with my appreciation.