I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network - a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology - I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.

More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

The attempts to cause mass destruction in London and Glasgow are so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that they are likely to have been carried out by my former peers.

And as with previous terror attacks, people are again saying that violence carried out by Muslims is all to do with foreign policy.

For example, on Saturday on Radio 4's Today programme, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: "What all our intelligence shows about the opinions of disaffected young Muslims is the main driving force is not Afghanistan, it is mainly Iraq."

I left the British Jihadi Network in February 2006 because I realised that its members had simply become mindless killers. But if I were still fighting for their cause, I'd be laughing once again.

Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the July 7 bombings, and I were both part of the network - I met him on two occasions.

And though many British extremists are angered by the deaths of fellow Muslim across the world, what drove me and many others to plot acts of extreme terror within Britain and abroad was a sense that we were fighting for the creation of a revolutionary worldwide Islamic state that would dispense Islamic justice.

If we were interested in justice, you may ask, how did this continuing violence come to be the means of promoting such a (flawed) Utopian goal?

There isn't enough room to outline everything here, but the foundation of extremist reasoning rests upon a model of the world in which you are either a believer or an infidel.

Formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion: they are considered to be one and the same.

For centuries, the reasoning of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.

But what radicals and extremists do is to take this two steps further. Their first step has been to argue that, since there is no pure Islamic state, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr (The Land of Unbelief).

Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world.

Along with many of my former peers, I was taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief.

In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians.

The notion of a global battlefield has been a source of friction for Muslims living in Britain.

For decades, radicals have been exploiting the tensions between Islamic theology and the modern secular state - typically by starting debate with the question: "Are you British or Muslim?"

But the main reason why radicals have managed to increase their following is because most Muslim institutions in Britain just don't want to talk about theology.

They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that Islam can be interpreted as condoning violence against the unbeliever - and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace and hope that all of this debate will go away.

This has left the territory open for radicals to claim as their own. I should know because, as a former extremist recruiter, I repeatedly came across those who had tried to raise these issues with mosque authorities only to be banned from their grounds.

Every time this happened it felt like a moral and religious victory for us because it served as a recruiting sergeant for extremism.

A handful of scholars from the Middle East have tried to put radicalism back in the box by saying that the rules of war devised so long ago by Islamic jurists were always conceived with the existence of an Islamic state in mind, a state which would supposedly regulate jihad in a responsible Islamic fashion.

In other words, individual Muslims don't have the authority to go around declaring global war in the name of Islam.

But there is a more fundamental reasoning that has struck me as a far more potent argument because it involves recognising the reality of the world: Muslims don't actually live in the bipolar world of the Middle Ages any more.

The fact is that Muslims in Britain are citizens of this country. We are no longer migrants in a Land of Unbelief.

For my generation, we were born here, raised here, schooled here, we work here and we'll stay here.

But more than that, on a historically unprecedented scale, Muslims in Britain have been allowed to assert their religious identity through clothing, the construction of mosques, the building of cemeteries and equal rights in law.

However, it isn't enough for responsible Muslims to say that, because they feel at home in Britain, they can simply ignore those passages of the Koran which instruct on killing unbelievers.

Because so many in the Muslim community refuse to challenge centuries-old theological arguments, the tensions between Islamic theology and the modern world grow larger every day.

I believe that the issue of terrorism can be easily demystified if Muslims and non-Muslims start openly to discuss the ideas that fuel terrorism.

Crucially, the Muslim community in Britain must slap itself awake from its state of denial and realise there is no shame in admitting the extremism within our families, communities and worldwide co-religionists.

If our country is going to take on radicals and violent extremists, Muslim scholars must go back to the books and come forward with a refashioned set of rules and a revised understanding of the rights and responsibilities of Muslims whose homes and souls are firmly planted in what I'd like to term the Land of Co-existence.

And when this new theological territory is opened up, Western Muslims will be able to liberate themselves from defunct models of the world, rewrite the rules of interaction and perhaps we will discover that the concept of killing in the name of Islam is no more than an anachronism.

I thought that the comments were a good half of the article -

Add your comment Comments (18)

18 people have commented on this story so far. Tell us what you think below.

Very good article. Wish more people would listen to you and wake up.

- Suze, USA

I think a lot of the problem, as expressed in this article, is simply that some things that are in holy books, not just 'The Koran', were written a long time ago and simply no longer apply. It take a great deal of individual courage to identify what no longer applies however... and even more to live that way.

- John, NZ

Brilliant.

- James Callahan, Los Angeles, US

That is a brave article, but I'm afraid it is not enough, my friend. Far too little, and far too late. People in this Christian country who hurt others intentionally have rights and privileges removed from them, sometimes by legal means, and sometimes by other means.

- Seb Carroll, London, United Kingdom

You guys seem very fond of your book. Here's a line out of ours:

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Galatians VI.

- Seb Carroll, London, United Kingdom

Quite simply, we should not even have this problem now.

- John, Sevenoaks UK

This is a refreashing view of the underlying problems of Muslims. It also points squarely to the greater need for Muslims who are moderate to stand up for their beliefs. Instead of being steamrollered into a position of feeling if they are anti-terrorism they are anti-Muslim. The mosques in the UK have an opportunity to work with their followers to promote a modern peaceful way of life and give strong message that medeival ways of thinking that involve slaughtering innocent people will not be tolerated.

- J Balcazar, London UK

It is good to read an article like this and try to understand - but likewise extremists should realise that there are other ancient scriptures of profound depth in this world also revered and respected like their own - like Christianity and the message that Christianity purveys which is unconditional love. Is is not better to love than hate? Love conquers everything. Hate is a wasted emotion.

- Debbie Viggiano, Swanley Village England

Very interesting piece. Now at least I am beginning to understand the reason why.

- Caroline, Manchester

It's about time that someone in his position laid bare the facts for all to see. This is the evil that dare not speak it's name previously, namely, the truth. I applaud Hassan Butt for breaking ranks to write this article, it was brave of him to do it, he may have put himself in a dangerous place. I hope every politician and the liberal intelligentsia read it.

- Peter, Brentwood, Essex

This is by way of an explanation, but does this mean we will always be in conflict? As I for one, do not and will not live in an Islamic state, the ideology is flawed, if violence and terror is their only way of getting 'The Cause' to the fore.

- Maggie, Middlesbrough UK

What constitutes a "former radical Muslim"? At what point did he grow up?

- Bob Edwards, Warks

Wow. I take my hat off to this man. I hope that his fellow Muslims don't have him killed because he challenges thier ideology. Perhaps this could help the Christian fundamentalists as well.

- John Sizeland, Eccles on sea Norfolk

"For my generation, we were born here, raised here, schooled here, we work here and we'll stay here."

The English have never been asked for their consent to that. On the contrary, English ethnic interests are reviled by the political and cultural elites.

While this injustice lives there can never be contentment in these isles and the question of Mr Butt's continued presence here can never be settled.

- John Standing, Brighton

I wish people would stop Blair bashing for a moment and listen to what this man is saying. THIS is what Blair understood only too well and it takes a PM with a deep interest in theology to comprehend what most of us find too incredible to contemplate. If we don't stop playing political games we will be responsible for our own downfall. This terrorism is not about Iraq or any other on going dispute. It's a difference in ideologies. The terrorists want us to believe it's about our actions as this is a good recruiting tool for them and it also helps to shift responsibility. It also leads to us pulling down our leaders, something you would never see them do. Yes they are laughing at us and with good reason. Wake up all of you. Support your country, your leaders and stop taking the blame for the terrorists.

- Kathy Jones, UK

Illuminating and honest it would seem. Radical Islamists are playing into the hands of 'terror control' which will affect all of us, good and bad alike.
The building of the largest Mosque in europe here is being funded by the radical Islamists of Saudi Arabia, true Muslims should reject it as being built with evil intent. Help us to beleive in you.

- Kacey, Plymouth England

It's strange how many people have been saying just what Hassan Butt says in this article for many years now, but only the sensation of a former jihadist writing this article brings these concepts to light in a national newspaper. But this is not news to those of us with the means and desire to educate ourselves as to the nature of the concepts Hassan Butt writes about.

Mr Robert Spencer has written for years on this subject and been decried as a racist or 'Islamophobe' for merely making the exact same points as the above article, albeit in much more detail and with a much wider range of knowledge and information on the subject for reading. His readers did not need Hassan Butt to tell them that radical Islamism has no basis whatsoever in poverty or disagreement with foreign policy. Why is it taking so long for the penny to drop in the West?

- Simon Harkner, Liverpool UK

What a wonderful article, you have seen the light and truth. Muslim scholars must go and revert back to their great books, you are a true Muslim brother. salams.

- Sorraya Ahmed Chohan, Croydon

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