Muslim girl's brother linked to Islam radicals

The brother of the girl who won a landmark court battle allowing her to wear a jilbab to school is accused of engineering the case because of his alleged support for a radical Islamic group.

A local MP said today the Muslim community in Luton was blaming Shuweb Rahman for "egging on" his sister to bring the action against her former school, which had refused to teach her when she turned up for lessons in head-to-toe Islamic dress.

A local MP said today the Muslim community in Luton was blaming Shuweb Rahman for "egging on" his sister to bring the action against her former school, which had refused to teach her when she turned up for lessons in head-to-toe Islamic dress.

Mr Rahman, a 22-year-old student, is said to be a supporter of the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose ultimate aim is a worldwide Muslim state. Hizb ut-Tahrir has admitted advising Shabina Begum, who won her appeal on Wednesday, over the past 12 months.

Shabina, 16, was orphaned last year when her mother died from a brain haemorrhage - her father died when she was three - and she lives with Mr Rahman and an elder sister. The family denies Shabina was in any way manipulated.

Margaret Moran, Labour MP for Luton South, said: "The community's view was very, very strongly this had nothing to do with the girl's education but that this was a political stunt made by a fundamentalist group. The word in the community is her brother is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. The imams know it, the community leaders know it. My view is this has been engineered by the brother and I feel very sad for this girl ... this has nothing to do with education or uniforms."

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, said: "She [Shabina] has been used as a political football by Hizb ut-Tahrir. They have been working on this girl. They want an Islamic revolution and they will try to disrupt anybody they can."

The MP has in the past likened the group to the British National Party and claimed it had a record of targeting young people to lure them away from the mainstream Muslim community. Dr Nazreen Nawaz, Hizb ut-Tahrir's women's representative, confirmed she had advised Shabina. "We offered her general support. She just needed encouragement. Our work in the west is about explaining Islam to the community. I first had contact with her about a year ago. It was to give general advice about the Islamic view on the issue of the jilbab. But it needs to be stressed she is somebody who thinks for herself.

She has discovered Islam for herself."

Dr Imran Waheed, spokesman for the group, said: "Any suggestion that Hizb ut-Tahrir motivated the girl is complete nonsense. This was a religious issue, not a political one." The group could not confirm if Mr Rahman is a member.

Denbigh High School in Luton refused to teach Shabina when she arrived for the first day of the academic year in September 2002 wearing a jilbab. Her appeal court victory is being seen as effectively ending a school's right to decide its own uniform policy.

Shabina told the Evening Standard : "When a Muslim woman reaches puberty she has to decide what path to take. I decided I wanted to follow Islam and go all the way."

The Children's Legal Centre, a charity based at Essex University, took on Shabina's case. Julia Thomas, her solicitor, said: "Shabina is a very determined young lady. We have been certain from the outset this was coming from her. There has been no adverse influence by adults."

Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 with the aim of creating a single Islamic state but was banned in much of the Middle-East after an attempted coup in Egypt in

1974. Germany also banned the group, accusing it of promoting anti-Jewish sentiment.