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Demo calls for Islamic solution to war threat

1/ 3/2003

MANCHESTER police made a video film of an anti-war demonstration held by the militant Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir outside the Pakistan Consulate.

A single officer trained his video camera on over 80 banner carrying demonstrators who chanted slogans against a war on Iraq. Other officers stood by in a van while members of the Hizb ut Tahir (HUT), some of whom had travelled from Yorkshire to the consulate on Dickinson Road, said they opposed the war but also opposed the main stream anti-war movement which attracted over one million protesters in London. They said this protest was "un-Islamic" and was dominated by leftist groups.

The demonstrators handed over a letter demanding the ejection of American forces from Islamic countries and an end to all relations with the US until the Bush government ended its "war on Islam". The letter demanded Islamic rule in Pakistan and the use of the Pakistan army to defend Iraq.

HUT member from Sheffield, Abdul Hamid Jassat, told the demonstrators that the 15 February demonstration was "un-Islamic". He said: "The march called for a second United Nations resolution, which HUT says is unrealistic. This is like saying UN can give a valid reason for war. The Stop the War Campaign is full of socialists, communists and a whole bunch of leftists with no belief in god. Our faith requires us to look to god not people with their own opinions based on a material value system.

"Why don't they join us and march behind our banner to put pressure on the people of Muslim lands to change their rulers?"

He added: "HUT says it can achieve the avoidance of war and a change to regime in the eastern countries without bloodshed. We don't call upon the people to rise in arms but call for change through public opinion."

• A ROCHDALE parliamentary candidate mobilised his own family for an anti-war march in the town. Mohammed Salim marched with his wife, children and supporters to lobby local Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimmons. Mr Salim, who once went on hunger strike against Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses', condemned the war as an Imperialist oil grab by US capitalism.