London, 9th September 2010 – Commenting on the decision by the Dove World Outreach Centre to burn copies of the Quran al Kareem on September 11th 2010, Taji Mustafa media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain said:

“The planned burning of copies of the Quran by this extremist group of American Christians is a disgusting act perpetrated by ignorant (jahil) people and we condemn it absolutely.”

“It is a proof that the Islamic Khilafah State is needed today more than ever to protect this Deen. The Book of Allah, the Messenger of Allah (salallahu alaihi wasallam) and the Muslims themselves have become easy targets for abuse, mistreatment and vilification in the world today due to the absence of any political authority that would stand up to such behaviour.”

“The regimes in the Muslim world continue their close and slavish relationships with Western governments despite the continued abuse of Islam in Western countries. They have done nothing in the face of the anti-Islam propaganda by Western governments in their ‘war on terror’; they were silent when the offensive cartoons attacking Allah’s beloved Messenger (salallahu alaihi wasallam) were printed or circulated on the web; they did nothing during the attacks upon the Quran by Geert Wilders or when the Quran was desecrated by US troops; they have been silent while European governments ban the Muslim woman’s dress and minarets in Europe.”

“Consequently, people like these hate-filled extremists as well as their elected governments will continue to feel they can act with impunity against Islam and Muslims.”

“Western politicians are the ones who have created this climate of hatred, while they have tried to deflect attention away from their own destructive, murderous and colonial foreign policies as the cause for instability and terror around the world.”

“America, Britain, France and other countries have a deep history of interference in Muslim lands – and elsewhere – for their own strategic and corporate interests: invasion, occupation, leaving behind conflict and division; the support for dictators and puppet regimes who oppress their people; the exploitation of the natural wealth and resources of the land by their multinational companies. When people have opposed this, they have labelled them as ‘extremists’ and ‘terrorists’ in order to justify continuation of the same policies. The demonisation of Islam – which is the foremost motivation for Muslims to struggle against this hegemony – has been a product of this.”

“Such demonisation in Europe and America for political reasons, culminating in the planned ritual mob burning of books, is reminiscent of Nazi Germany at the outset of the persecution of the minority Jewish community.”

“It is further proof that secular liberal nation states are prone to violent xenophobia and unable to tolerate the presence of diversity in their states.”

“This disgusting act of fanaticism epitomizes the savagery of the West’s war on Islam. The Muslim world now desperately needs a leadership that will stand for Islam, defend the Prophet Muhammad (salallahu alaihi wasallam) and the Quran and work to end the continued colonisation and occupation of the Muslim lands. We call upon all Muslims to work with Hizb ut-Tahrir to remove the corrupt puppet rulers in our lands and establish the Islamic leadership, the Khilafah in their place.”

[Ends]