AN ISLAMIC organisation facing a ban under terrorism laws has launched a campaign to recruit university students using an anti-racist front organisation.

An undercover Sunday Times investigation has established that the party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has been recruiting under the name Stop Islamophobia at University College London (UCL), the School of African and Oriental Studies, Luton University and other institutions.

Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to establish a transnational state governed by Islamic law. It is reported to have thousands of members in Britain. One member said suicide bombers in Israel would go “straight to heaven”.

It was formerly led in Britain by Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical preacher who referred to the September 11 hijackers as the “Magnificent 19”. Bakri left the party in 1996 and went on to set up Al-Muhajiroun, which is also facing proscription.

In August Tony Blair said that Hizb ut-Tahrir, which urged Muslims not to vote in the election, would be outlawed. The party has been proscribed in much of the Middle East and in Germany, where it is appealing against a ban for distributing anti-semitic literature. The party denies being anti-Jewish or supporting violence.

The Sunday Times began the investigation after a report by Professor Anthony Glees of Brunel University, which said colleges had become breeding grounds for extremists.

The report said that Hizb ut-Tahrir, which recruited openly on campuses until earlier this year, “has issued a number of anti-semitic statements. Furthermore, it is anti-Hindu (because of the war in Kashmir), anti-Sikh, homophobic, anti-feminist and resentful of the West’s influence on Islam.”

Glees last week criticised Hizb ut-Tahrir’s use of a front organisation under a misleading and politically correct name as a “lethal cocktail”. He said it was “capitalising on the advantages that exist in a free society”.

The National Union of Students has called on universities to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir from campuses, accusing the party of “supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred”.

The undercover reporter visited campuses posing as a postgraduate student eager to help Hizb ut-Tahrir. He found Stop Islamophobia campaign stalls in freshers’ fairs at Luton University, the School of African and Oriental Studies and Queen Mary — both part of London University — and London Metropolitan University.

Ostensibly the campaign’s goal is to fight anti-Muslim prejudice in the wake of the London bombings. It asks students to sign a petition against the anti-terrorism legislation.

At UCL the group was not recruiting directly at the freshers’ fair but members of the college’s Muslim Media Forum wore Stop Islamophobia armbands. The reporter struck up a conversation with those manning the forum’s stall, expressing interest in Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Among them was Shazad Ali, a former UCL student. Ali, although not a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, offered to introduce the reporter to the group. He said it did not matter what name the party used to spread its philosophy.

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