Hizb ut-Tahrir, whom Tony Blair promised to ban, calls for jihad and elimination of Israel at London rally

Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in numerous countries -- even by the prolific exporters of jihad in Saudi Arabia -- but legal in Australia and the U.K. Now, according to a spokesman for Britain's Home Office, "the group's status was being reassessed in light of the latest remarks but said that the decision to proscribe an organisation must be 'proportionate'."

Dr Imran Waheed, told followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir that there could be "no peace" with Israel and urged them to "fight in the way of Allah".

A leaflet distributed by the international wing of the organisation also called for Muslim countries to "eliminate the state of the Jews".

The remarks increased pressure on Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Patrick Mercer, the Tory chairman of the Commons Counter-Terrorism Subcommittee, said Dr Waheed's comments appeared to represent "incitement to violence" and accused the Government of performing a U-turn on an earlier commitment to ban it.

Speaking in Downing Street in August 2005, just a month after the London bombings, Mr Blair announced a wider crackdown on extremism, adding: "We will proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir and the successor organisation of Al Mujahiroun."

The group, advocates the setting up of an Islamic "caliphate" or nation and describes itself as "unashamedly anti-Israel".

But it insists that it is exclusively non-violent and denies accusations of anti-Semitism.

Critics say that the group, which has thrived on university campuses, is a gateway to more extremist groups, something which it also vehemently denies.

Addressing a rally at Marble Arch in January following the Israeli military action in Gaza, Dr Waheed – the group's media adviser in Britain who was banned from entering Indonesia in 2007 – said that there was "no need for conferences, no need for treaties, no need for negotiations".

In the speech, highlighted by the think tank the Centre for Social Cohesion, he added: "There will be no peace and no negotiations with the illegitimate entity of Israel."

He went on: "There is only one solution to the occupation of Muslim lands, one solution to the cries of the widows and the orphans, one solution to avenge the death of the elderly and the children ... fight in the way of Allah those who fight you. Al-Jihad."

A leaflet available on the group's international website, dated Jan 19 2009, criticises the governments of Muslim countries which have attended peace summits as "shameful".

"Instead, it was their duty to eliminate the state of Jews that has usurped Palestine," it added.

A spokesman for the Home Office said that the group's status was being reassessed in light of the latest remarks but said that the decision to proscribe an organisation must be "proportionate"....

And yet the UK still allows people like this into their country.

Irony: Islamic scholars will meet to discuss religious tolerance under sharia in Mecca, where non-Muslims cannot enter

Mecca (AsiaNews) - Religious tolerance under Sharia and freedom of expression will be two of the central themes of the 19th meeting of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), which will see the presence of experts and scholars of Islamic law from about 60 countries, and will be held at the end of April in Mecca.

At the discussion, in addition to the 200 scholars, there will be many written contributions from various parts of the world, including countries in which Muslims are not the majority, but a significant minority.

At the meeting of the IIFA, which is a branch of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the scholars will also be joined by Islamic affairs ministers from various countries. In its coverage of the news, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reports a statement from the secretary general of the IIFA, Abdul Salam Al-Ebady, who says that, together with the topics of religious tolerance and freedom of expression, there will be discussions of "wide-ranging topics, such as Islamic finance, banking, domestic abuse, health and medicine and environmental protection." He stresses that this is an international event that sees the participation of the largest number of scholars, for the purpose of confronting the problems of the modern world in the light of Islamic law.

Some topics, like diabetes and fasting, are exclusive to the Muslim world, but others, like domestic abuse, or like religious tolerance and freedom of expression, do not involve only people of different religious convictions, but have also been and are causes of criticism and dispute toward Islamic countries on the part of international organizations and human rights groups, in addition to non-Muslim countries.

Stop the presses! Pakistan on the road to becoming an Islamic state

WASHINGTON — A growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded that there's little hope of preventing nuclear-armed Pakistan from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and terrorists, posing a greater threat to the U.S. than Afghanistan's terrorist haven did before 9/11.

"It's a disaster in the making on the scale of the Iranian revolution," said a U.S. intelligence official with long experience in Pakistan who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

Pakistan's fragmentation into warlord-run fiefdoms that host al Qaida and other terrorist groups would have grave implications for the security of its nuclear arsenal; for the U.S.-led effort to pacify Afghanistan; and for the security of India, the nearby oil-rich Persian Gulf and Central Asia, the U.S. and its allies.

"Pakistan has 173 million people and 100 nuclear weapons, an army which is bigger than the American army, and the headquarters of al Qaida sitting in two-thirds of the country which the government does not control," said David Kilcullen, a retired Australian army officer, a former State Department adviser and a counterinsurgency consultant to the Obama administration.

"Pakistan isn't Afghanistan, a backward, isolated, landlocked place that outsiders get interested in about once a century," agreed the U.S. intelligence official. "It's a developed state . . . (with) a major Indian Ocean port and ties to the outside world, especially the (Persian) Gulf, that Afghanistan and the Taliban never had."

"The implications of this are disastrous for the U.S.," he added. "The supply lines (from Karachi to U.S. bases) in Kandahar and Kabul from the south and east will be cut, or at least they'll be less secure, and probably sooner rather than later, and that will jeopardize the mission in Afghanistan, especially now that it's getting bigger."

The experts McClatchy interviewed said their views aren't a worst case scenario but a realistic expectation based on the militants' gains and the failure of Pakistan's civilian and military leadership to respond.

"The place is beyond redemption," said a Pentagon adviser who asked not to be further identified so he could speak freely. "I don't see any plausible scenario under which the present government or its most likely successor will mobilize the economic, political and security resources to push back this rising tide of violence.

"I think Pakistan is moving toward a situation where the extremists control virtually all of the countryside and the government controls only the urban centers," he continued. "If you look out 10 years, I think the government will be overrun by Islamic militants."...

If you think Iranian nukes are scary, just think about the terror that will be loosed across the globe with these terrorists in charge of Pakistan.