Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom

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Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir have operated and recruited in over 50 British universities. Due to its anti-Semitic propaganda, HT was subject to a No Platform banning order by the National Union of Students in the early 1980s.^[1] However, Hizb ut-Tahrir has since resumed recruiting at universities under the name Stop Islamophobia^[2]

The British wing of HT was known for its charged and sometimes abusive character in the early 1990s. Its chairman was Omar Bakri Muhammad, who was expelled and then set up the more extreme al-Muhajiroun organisation in 1996.

HT in Britain was not founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed, who entered the UK in 1986. Mohammed M. Ramadan, a journalist and announcer at the BBC's Arabic section in London, was a member of HT in opposition against the military regime of Qadhafi. He was assassinated on 11 April 1980, by Colonel Qaddafi's (Libyan) operatives outside London’s Regents Park Mosque. HT was founded in 1953 by Taqi-ud-deen an-Nabhani, in Al-Quds. HT on 6 August stated on www.1924.org that:

"We would also like to point out for the record that we have no relationship whatsoever, by word or deed, with the organisation al-Muhajiroun."

Dr. Abdul-Wahid, executive comitee member of HT has conceded their past failings, writing on "Open Democracy" [1] in August 2005:

"I welcome much of the sincere personal advice we have been offered by Muslims and non-Muslims since Hizb ut-Tahrir hit the media spotlight in the past few weeks. I have learned how our message to the Muslim community – one whose context, I truly believe, the community appreciates – is perceived by those outside. I also appreciate that errors made by immature young men almost a decade ago have been a factor in making our ideas difficult to reason with or accept."

1 Condemnation of terrorism in the United Kingdom
2 Proscription
3 Dilpazier Aslam incident
4 BBC report on street gang
5 Prominent members
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Condemnation of terrorism in the United Kingdom

HT in the United Kingdom warned Muslims against blaming fellow believers for the bomb attacks:

"Condemnation with scant information will only aid the leaders of the West who want to use fear as a tool as well as allow them to arrest more Muslims unjustly under draconian terror laws. Yes, the rules of Islam do not allow the harming of innocent civilians, but at the same time the rules of Islam do not allow us to condemn Muslims with little evidence in order to remove the pressure from ourselves."[2]

Dr. Imran Waheed, spokesman for HT, is quoted in the New York Times [3] as follows:

"I will condemn what happened in London only after there is the promise from Western leaders to condemn what they have done in Falluja and other parts of Iraq and in Afghanistan."

Dr. Abdul-Wahid, of HT has stated that, in contrast with Omar Bakri Mohammed [4], he would encourage HT members to report "an imminent act of violence" to the police if necessary:[5] in response to Ehsan Masood:

Ehsan Masood's piece rightly focused upon the fundamental question of loyalty, one that the government has to consider when considering issues of national security. However, he is wrong about Hizb ut-Tahrir's view on reporting terrorism to the police, a matter on which we have been consistent.

If any Muslim citizen possesses information indicating an imminent act of violence, then he has an Islamic duty to prevent this from taking place, even if this means reporting to the police. Masood’s article was the first time I had ever seen a view to the contrary presented in the media, and it was sad that he did not check his facts, and instead made assumptions – a frequent problem when people talk or write about Hizb ut-Tahrir.

[edit] Proscription

After the 7 July 2005 London bombings, on August 5, 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that HT and The Saviour Sect, an organization widely believed to be a front for the supposedly-defunct al-Muhajiroun, were to be banned. A number of Muslim, Islamist and other political groups, including the Muslim Association of Britain [6], the Stop The War Coalition [7], the Muslim Council of Britain [8], and the Islamic Forum of Europe [9], have opposed the proposed ban.

According to a leaked unpublished and unauthenticated government report produced for Tony Blair, Guardian 8 August 2005, the prime minister was advised that HT did "not directly advocate violence. Indeed membership or sympathy with such an organization does not in any way presuppose a move towards terrorism."

The document added that young people attracted to terrorism may shy away from Hizb ut-Tahrir because they do not espouse violence, and would be seen as only engaged in "pointless pontification and debate." However, the Guardian article went on to report that the "document does say membership of groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir 'may indicate ... the possibility of a few of its members being open to gradual consideration of far more extremist doctrine'."

In November 2005, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) opposed the government's proposal to ban the party, arguing that it knew of no intelligence to justify proscribing HT.[10]

[edit] Dilpazier Aslam incident

In July 2005, Dilpazier Aslam, a 27-year-old British Muslim and trainee journalist with The Guardian lost his position with the newspaper when it discovered he was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and refused to renounce his membership despite rejecting anti-Semitism. Citing an alleged anti-Semitic statement discovered on the party's website, Guardian executives decided that membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir was not compatible with membership of the newspaper's trainee scheme.[11]

[edit] BBC report on street gang

On the 14 November 2006, the BBC reported that a street gang in Croydon, South London which claimed to be Hizb ut-Tahrir, encouraged the undercover reporter to rob another gang to 'prove his loyalty'; and watched videos on the alleged mistreatment of Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, which infuriated gang members, possibly to the point of violence. The short documentary ended with the reporter claiming that the gang maybe a lone out-of-control group simply influenced by Hizb ut-Tahrir's notoriety after Tony Blair announced his intention in 2005 to ban the organization (although ultimately it was not among the organizations banned in the Terrorism Act 2006).

Dr Abdul Wahid of Hizb ut-Tahrir, when questioned on Newsnight, told Jeremy Paxman that the BBC should hand over all material to the police, that he would be extremely surprised if any of the gang were members of his organisation, and that if they were he would have them removed. He condemned any such behavior, repeated that such activities are not acceptable, and that Hizb ut-Tahrir would do as much as possible to repair any damage to community relations, ruined by the fall-out from the British government's foreign policy, and media sensationalism about Muslims. Paxman informed Wahid that the BBC were handing the material to the police for their investigation. The Home Office minister, Tony McNulty, confirmed that Hizb ut-Tahrir was "currently under review and if we think we need to take action it will be proscribed". ^[3]

Hizb ut-Tahrir's website announced they intend to start legal proceedings against the BBC, claiming they have "a dossier of evidence that disproves the allegations made by the BBC about the organisation's activities in South London. The dossier, including letters from leading community figures, proves that Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain has been at the forefront of confronting criminality in the community."[12]

[edit] Prominent members

Shaykh Ata Abu-Rashta (current global Leader)
Jamal Harwood (Chairman of the UK Executive Committee)
Jalaluddin Patel (a prominant UK leader) [13]
Dr Imran Waheed (Media Representative and UK Executive Committee member) [14]
Dr Nazreen Nawaz (Women's media representative Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain) GMP & cancer research [15]
Dr Abdul -Wahid (GP & UK Executive Committee member) [16]
Maajid Nawaz (UK Executive Committee member and former prisoner of conscience in Egypt) [17]
Taji Mustafa (Media Representative and UK Executive Committee member)