The comments made by Michael O’Leary are the symptom of the British government agenda to securitise Muslims. The policy to make ordinary people view all Muslims with suspicion as a potential security threat is applied across the policy spectrum and aims simply to create an atmosphere of hatred for Islam and Muslims.

RyanAir boss Mr O’Leary told the Times newspaper that Muslim men should be profiled as a potential security threat, saying “You can’t say stuff, because it’s racism, but it will generally be males of Muslim persuasion. Thirty years ago it was the Irish. If that is where the threat is coming from, deal with the threat.”

His offensive comments have been widely labelled as islamophobic, but that does not fully explain the context in which they are made. The government and its apologists in the mainstream media have worked tirelessly to manufacture the hatred for Islam that is resulting in increasing attacks against Muslims, verbal and physical. This state-sponsored radicalisation of the people against Muslims exists because the Muslim ummah all over the world is starting to reject the capitalist hegemony and its colonial oppression orchestrated by the governments of the west in Britain, Europe and America.

The privileged elite who want to continue to exploit the world cannot find any convincing argument or rational justification for their crimes against humanity, so they fear that the ordinary people will quickly turn to Islam, once they see its implementation and hear its clear convincing message. For this reason alone they fabricate lies against Islam and Muslims. Simple accusations of islamophobic individuals is not enough, as the whole capitalist ideology and privileged elite need to be exposed as the rotten oppressors of humanity that they are.

Muslims need not change their way of life to appease those who are caught up in the government and media hype. We have the only solution to the world’s oppression and we need to ensure that the message of Islam is delivered, whatever the obstacles are thrown in our path.

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ

فَلَا تُطِعِ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ

وَدُّوا لَوْ تُدْهِنُ فَيُدْهِنُونَ

وَلَا تُطِعْ كُلَّ حَلَّافٍ مَّهِينٍ

هَمَّازٍ مَّشَّاءٍ بِنَمِيمٍ

“Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. Then do not obey the deniers. They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you]. And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip” [Al-Qalam: 7-11]

Yahya Nisbet
Media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain,
22nd February 2020