In regard to Hassan Butt, Anas Altikriti had this to say in the Guardian:
Now that he has changed sides, rather than see the error in the methodology and ideology to which he once subscribed and which he peddled for years, he has adopted the posture of extremist once again - and is hurling abuse once more, albeit from the opposite side.
Throughout my life, I have been part of a deeply religious family from which I learned to question, to analyse, to criticise and never to follow blindly. Throughout my life, and since the days when my father fled Iraq after being persecuted by the Ba'athist intelligence agencies in 1970, I have found that violence is the means of the weak, the coward and the one who has no intellectual resources with which to defend his or her argument. I was taught from a very early age, and then went on to teach myself, that Islam rejects violence unless in a clear and unquestionable case of self-defence. Otherwise, I read in the prophetic heritage (Hadith) that to be wrongfully killed is far better than to be a killer.
For Hassan Butt to now accuse this ideology of mine and of more than a billion Muslims around the world, or to lay the blame for the breakdown in security and social harmony with Islamic theology or the verses of the Qur'an, which he and his fellow extremists not only failed to read or properly interpret, but skewed for their own agendas, is false, misleading and dangerous.
However, our gains were compromised, and our success considerably undermined in the wake of 9/11 and the launch of the "war on terror". I know it because I continue to talk with youngsters who feel that they have no footing within the structure of society, and feel that they are misfits and aliens. It is not the Qur'an that tells them that the only way is to kill non-Muslims. Most of them hardly ever read the Qur'an or frequent mosques. It is the preachers of hate who show them images of slaughtered children in Palestine, raped women in Iraq, burnt-down homes in Afghanistan, and instruct them that it is their duty to avenge those victims by unleashing terror and destruction on the streets of London, Glasgow and Birmingham.
As the new buzzword of evil is now "Islamist", this Islamist asserts that while it would be too simplistic, and possibly even wrong, to lay the blame entirely on this country's foreign policy for the terror threat under which we all live, it is almost beyond question that the government's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as its unethical policies in Palestine, Lebanon and elsewhere, have contributed towards the significant resurgence that Hassan Butt's former peers now enjoy.
It also the government's failings in identifying the source of the problem and its launch of a vicious attack - with the unconditional support of large sectors of the media - against the very organisations, groups and individuals who have been heavily involved in combating the rise of extremism throughout Britain, and who had long suffered the verbal and physical brutality of Hassan Butt's former associates. So, to him and to all those who continue to peddle the same old mantra, we do disown and renounce violence, as Muslims and as human beings. We have done so all along and will continue to do so as a result of our religious and humanitarian obligations - and not because we've just realised the error of our ways as a result of your newly-discovered enlightened ideas.
The call to change the face of Islam, attacking Islamic doctrine through the copy-and-paste methodology that falsely makes the Qur'an seem like a book of evil, is unjust and disingenuous. Criticising organisations and individuals who have been fighting an internal war against extremism - while continually being stabbed in the back by misguided government policies and media prejudice - will not solve the problem. Not to recognise this is to put in jeopardy everyone's safety and security, and ultimately our society's aspirations for success and prosperity.
--http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anas_altikriti/2007/07/the_new_fundamentalism.html
~Merry