Islamic Activism and the Counterterror state: The Impact of the Securitised Lens on Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain and Denmark

Abstract

This project aims to answer the following research question: How has the development of a securitised lens impacted on Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain and Denmark? To achieve this, it will explore the construction of a securitised lens, the impact of securitisation processes and the difference between responses within Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) in Britain and Denmark through the following three sub-questions: 1. How do we know securitisation is an issue for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain and Denmark? 2. How can we understand securitisation as creating patterns of repression through perception? and 3. What are the long-term effects of this experience of perceived repression in the different contexts? It aims to do this through an approach that brings together the two theoretical discussions of social movement theories and securitisation theories through the nexus of repression. This enables the project to understand patterns of repression and mobilisation response, as well as respond to the limitations of both theoretical facets – social movement theory’s difficulty in understanding subtler, long-term and multi-spatial forms of repressions and securitisation theory’s disposition to assume power only travels downwards, from monolithic repressor to repressed, without an interactive response amongst all actors. The project took an empirical approach grounded in interaction with members, ex-members and those who operate in and around security – something considered particularly important in the study of an organisation that is semi-clandestine in its operation. This included attendance at demonstrations, public talks, da’wah stalls, Friday prayers and mosques talks, as well as halaqat (private study circles), social events, meetings at coffee shops, family meals, weddings and even participation in football practice, with fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2018. Conceptually, the thesis is designed to fill gaps in contemporary study of the Islamic Activist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, updating the literature on an organisation that study has largely neglected in recent years but has become more relevant with the addition of discourse about ‘extremism’ in European counterterror. However, this thesis aims to offer a basic framework not just for understanding Hizb ut-Tahrir or even Islamic Activism, but for any forms of activism that are problematised under the increasing rubric of ‘extremism’, and explore how different groups from diverse movements change tactics in response to the threat or perception of repression by policies, practices or policing under the counterterror lens. It suggests the following findings: 1. Increased securitisation has been instrumental in the decline of HT in Britain and Denmark; 2. However, securitisation has had different effects in the UK than in Denmark, leading to adaption and institutionalisation in the British context and a continuation of contention in the Danish context; and 3. This is because different perceptions of repression have been created by the use of different securitising mechanisms, suggesting that the concept of counterterror securitisation needs to be reconsidered as a more interactive and diversified process, to account for the quanta of securitisation and mobilisation responses produced. The thesis is structured accordingly: Chapter one briefly outlines the questions to be addressed through the project. Chapter two explores the current literature on the topic and the gaps requiring redress. Chapter three details how the research was carried out and why such methodology was chosen. Chapter four outlines the theoretical tools used to understand what has been taking place. Chapter five details the case study of who is being researched, profiling Hizb ut-Tahrir ready for analysis. Chapter six explores the first sub-question: how do we know securitisation has become an issue for Hizb ut-Tahrir? Chapter seven responds to the second sub-question: how do we understand securitisation as creating patterns of repression for Hizb ut-Tahrir? Chapter eight analyses the final sub-question: what are the long-term effects of this experience of securitisation on Hizb ut-Tahrir and how can we understand this as an interactive process? Finally, chapter nine brings together all findings to determine the impact of the securitising lens on Hizb ut-Tahrir, examining alternative explanations and the limitation of this approach, as well as detailing the study’s implications for the field and drawing recommendations for future research.