| Hizb ut-Tahrir حزب التحرير |
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Ata Abu Rashta |
| Founder | Taqiuddin al-Nabhani |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Membership | Estimated 1 million |
| Ideology | Pan-Islamism Islamic fundamentalism |
| International affiliation | Worldwide |
| Website | |
| http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/ | |
Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic: حزب التحرير Ḥizb at-Taḥrīr; English: Party of Liberation) is an international Sunni.[1][2][3] pan-Islamic political organisation but keeps it open for all including shias, some of its beliefs are against sunni school of thought, whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph head of state elected by Muslims.[4]
The organization was founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar and appeals court judge (Qadi)[5] from the Palestinian village of Ijzim. Since then Hizb ut-Tahrir has spread to more than 40 countries, and by one estimate has about one million members.[6] Hizb ut-Tahrir is very active in the west, particularly in the United Kingdom, and is also active in several Arab and Central Asian countries, despite being banned by some governments. The group also has a growing presence in North America, known as Hizb ut-tahrir America, or HTA.
Hizb ut-Tahrir believes a caliphate would provide stability and security to both Muslims and Non-Muslims in the predominantly Muslim regions of the world.[7] The party promotes a detailed program for institution of a caliphate that would establish Shariah and carry "the Da'wah of Islam" to the world.[8][9] Hizb ut-Tahrir is also strongly anti-Zionist and calls for Israel, which it calls an "illegal entity," to be dismantled.[10]
Some observers believe Hizb ut-Tahrir is the victim of false allegations of connections to terrorism, pointing out that the organization explicitly commits itself to non-violence.[11] Other thinkers postulate that the group's opposition to violence is tactical and temporary,[12] and that it works to create a politically charged atmosphere possiby conducive to violence.[13][14][15]
Contents
|
Hizb ut-Tahrir states its aim as unification of all Muslim nations over time in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, headed by an elected caliph.[4] This, it holds, is a religious duty, "an obligation that Allah has decreed for the Muslims and commanded them to fulfill. He warned of the punishment awaiting those who neglect this duty."[16] One analyst, however,[17] quotes the work of Hizb ut-Tahrir founder Taqiuddin al-Nabhani[18] to suggest that once Hizb ut-Tahrir has succeeded in creating a unified, transnational Islamic state it should press on to expand the state into non-Muslim areas. According to al-Nabhani's work The Islamic State, Muslims abroad `should work towards turning their land where Islam is not implemented, and which [thus] considered as Dar al-Kufr into Dar al-Islam".[19]
Although hizb means party in Arabic, according to Zeyno Baran of the Washington, D.C.-based Nixon Center think tank, Hizb ut-Tahrir hasn't registered as a political party nor attempted to elect candidates to political office in the countries where it is active.[20] This is not true in all countries or throughout Hizb ut-Tahrir's history, however. For example, Hizb ut-Tahrir ran for office in Jordan in the 1950s when it was first formed, according to Suha Taji-Farouki, but was banned by the regime later.[21] Kyrgyz Hizb ut-Tahrir members campaigned unsuccessfully for an affiliated candidate in Kyrgyzstan's national presidential election in July 2005,[22] and have participated in municipal elections where their followers have won in a number of regions.[23]
According to an analyst of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kazakhstan,[24] where the group is outlawed, Hizb ut-Tahrir plans its political progress in three stages: "First they convert new members. Secondly, they establish a network of secret cells, and finally, they try to infiltrate the government to work to legalize their party and its aims."[22] A more sympathetic description of this strategy is that Hizb ut-Tahrir works to:
According to a BBC program on the group's activities in Indonesia, "unlike many other Islamist movements here, Hizb ut-Tahrir seems less interested in a broad mass following than a smaller more committed core of members, many of them drawn from Indonesia's educated middle classes."[26] Zeyno Baran describes the party as a "vanguard party" because he states it is interested in achieving power through "hundreds of supporters in critical positions" rather than "thousands of foot soldiers."[27] However, at least one of its leaders in Indonesia, Jalaluddin Patel, states that that is an untrue characterization of the group.[28]
In countries where the party is outlawed, Hizb ut-Tahrir's organisation is said to be strongly centralized, with its central leadership based in the Palestinian Territories. Underneath its center are "national organisations or wilayas, usually headed by a group of 12, control networks of local committees and cells."[6] The basic unit of the party is a cell of five members, the leader of which is called a mushrif. Only the mushrif knows the names of members of other cells.[29]
This is a partial annotated timeline of Hizb ut-Tahrir actions relating to their adopted method to fulfil the party's original raison d'etre[30] by assuming authority and implementing Islamic law.
| Year | Snapshot of status |
|---|---|
| 1953 | Party founded by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani in Jerusalem. |
| 1956 | Party yet to decide how it would assume authority[31] |
| 1960 | Interaction Stage begins in Jordan, and society is unresponsive. Party revises its method.[31] |
| 1961 | Party adopts the method of seeking support from the influential faction(s) to assume power.[32] |
| 1964 | Party announces that society in Jordan had responded positively to its call, forcing it to attempt to take power in Jordan.[33] |
| 1968/69 | Party allegedly involved in two (failed) coup attempts in Jordan and Syria.[34] |
| 1974 | Party allegedly involved in (failed) coup attempt in Egypt.[34] |
| 1977 | Party founder and leader Taqiuddin al-Nabhani dies in Lebanon, succeeded by Abd al-Qadim Zallum, a Palestinian cleric.[35] |
| 1978 | Party acknowledges that the Muslims had reached a state of total surrender and despair and was not responding to anything.
Party acknowledges that this had caused the level of activity to decline almost to standstill, mainly due to misconceptions.[36] |
| 1998 | Party indicates that the Caliphate is now the wish of all the Muslims.[37] |
| 2003 | Party leader Abd al-Qadim Zallum dies in Lebanon, succeeded (earlier that year) by Ata Khalil Abu-Rashta, a Palestinian civil engineer.[38][39] |
Article 56 of the draft constitution of the proposed state describes conscription as a compulsory individual duty, for all citizens. "Every male Muslim, fifteen years and over, is obliged to undergo military training in readiness for jihad." Responsibility for defense in the state would go to the Amir al-Jihad. In Hizb ut-Tahrir's vision of the caliphate, the Amir al-Jihad "is the supervisor and director" of four departments comprising "the army, the police, equipment, tasks, armament supplies," internal security, foreign affairs, and finally industry — since "all factories of whatever type should be established on the basis of the military policy." However, the Khaleefah [Caliph], not the Amir al-Jihad, is the leader of the army, he appoints the commander-in-chief, a general for each brigade and a commander for each division."[40]
Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy as a western system and un-Islamic despite aspects of it such as elections existing in the Islamic political system. Hizb ut-Tahrir argues democracy as a system is
the rule of people, for the people, by the people. The basis of the democratic system is that people possess the right of sovereignty, choice and implementation. ... it is a Kufr system because it is laid down by man and it is not from the Shari'ah Laws.
However, Hizb ut-Tahrir believes the Caliph, i.e., the head of the Caliphate state, should be elected and should be accountable to those who have appointed him. The position should not be inherited through blood lines, or imposed on Muslims, but elected by them, contrary to the principles of Shia Islam. Muslims should then pledge their loyalty to the Caliph. The Caliph
"is the head of state in the Khilafah. He is not a king or dictator but an elected leader whose authority to rule must be given willingly by the Muslims through a special ruling contact called baya. Without this baya he cannot be the head of state. This is completely opposite to a king or dictator who imposes his authority through coercion and force. It argues the tyrant kings and dictators in the Muslim world are examples of this, imprisoning and torturing their populations and stealing their wealth and resources."[41]
Hizb ut-Tahrir favor a system of elections for Muslims to choose the Caliph.
Also part of the Hizb ut-Tahrir proposed draft constitution is a Majlis al-Umma for the Caliph, an institution for consultation and accountability of political rulers.
The founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, is careful to note that Shura differs from Western representative democracy in that while part of "the ruling structure" of the Islamic caliphate, it's "not one of its pillars."
This is because the shura (consultation) in Islam is for seeking the opinion and not for ruling. This is contrary to the parliamentary system in democracy.[42]
In another book Nabhani elaborates further, stating that when the Majlis makes a decision after the Caliph consults them it is binding on the Caliph to accept the decision; the Caliph's powers outlined in the draft proposed constitution refer only to foreign affairs when in a state of war that he considered existent during his life.[43]
The draft constitution also details an economic system that allows private enterprise, but reserves public ownership of utilities, public transport, health care, energy resources such as oil, and unused farm land (similar to communitarianism). However, it calls for use of the Gold Standard, gold and silver coinage. The draft constitution gives quite specific instructions for the gold and silver weight of the coins, arguing
... it is the duty of the Khilafah State to make its currency in gold and silver and to work on the basis of gold and silver as it was during the time of the Messenger of Allah and his Khulafa'a after him... to fix the weight of dinars equal to the Shari'ah dinar or 4.25 grams (of Gold) for one dinar... the dirham has the weight of 2.975 grams (of Silver). The basis of gold and silver as currency is the only way to solve currency related economic problems and the high inflation rates that are common in the world, and to produce currency stability for rates of exchange and progress in international trade.... Only by taking gold and silver as the standard, can the American control and the control of the dollar as an international currency, be demolished in international trade and world economies.[44]
In Hizb ut-Tahrir's draft constitution for its unified Islamic state, any non-Muslims living in the state may not serve in any of the ruling offices, such as the position of caliph, nor vote for these officials, as these positions require those who fulfil them to believe in the system. Muslims have "the right to participate in the election of the Khaleefah [head of state] and in giving him the pledge (ba'iah). Non-Muslims have no right in this regard." However non-Muslims may voice "complaints in respect to unjust acts performed by the rulers or the misapplication of Islam upon them."
Hizb ut-Tahrir claims the
rights of Jews and other non-Muslims are enshrined within statuary Islamic Law (Sharia). These were laid down by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) when he established the first Islamic State in Medina in the 7th century. He said, "Whoever harms a dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen) has harmed me.... Non-Muslims in the khilafah (caliphate) will have established channels to air any grievances or denial of their rights. All citizens will be empowered with the right to speak out where necessary."[45]
In regards to foreign policy, Article 186 of the draft constitution states: "The State is forbidden to belong to any organisation that is based on something other than Islam or that applies non-Islamic rules". This includes organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund and the Arab League. Article 185 of the draft constitution states: "It is permitted to conclude good neighbouring, economic, commercial, financial, cultural and armistice treaties."
Two areas in which Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects the notion of freedom are religion and economics. Article 7 of its Draft Constitution declares that Muslims who "have by themselves renounced Islam... are guilty of apostasy (murtadd) from Islam [and] are to be executed." David Commins of Department of History at Dickinson College, writes that according to Hizb ut-Tahrir, "individuals do not have absolute freedom as in capitalism: Apostasy, adultery, alcohol, and certain economic practices are forbidden. But within well-recognized bounds, the Muslim enjoys much freedom.[46]
Many freedoms are included in the Hizb ut-Tahrir party's draft constitution., It argues that "there is no such thing as a clergy in Islam", that "every Muslim has the right to perform ijtihad", (personal exertion to derive hold opinions in Islamic law), and that "every thing or object is permitted, unless there is an evidence of prohibition" in the Qur'an,. It is incumbent on Muslims to implement the hudud law, divinely ordained capital punishment for certain crimes. Hizb ut-Tahrir's constitution states that "every individual is innocent until proven guilty", "no person shall be punished without a court sentence" and that "torture is absolutely forbidden and whoever inflicts torture on anyone shall be punished." Article 7 of the constitution institutes capital punishment for ridda (see ridda article for various definitions). It maintains that under the caliphate, "Arabic is the language of Islam and the sole language of the state."
The only sources of legislation to be considered divine and statutory, and therefore to be accepted without debate, according to Article 12, are those based upon fair interpretations of the Qur'an, the Sunnah, consensus of the companions (Ijma al-Sahaba), and legitimate analogies (Qiyas) from the previous three.
Hizb ut-Tahrir opposes any Western influence in the Muslim world. Its founder, Nabhani, has been described as preaching that "British plots in particular and western imperialist conspiracies in general pervade the modern history of the Muslim world and ultimately explain its main lines of political evolution."[8] In his book, The System of Islam, which is studied by all Hizb ut-Tahrir members, Nabhani states:
If not for the influence of the deceptive Western culture and the oppression of its agents that will soon vanish, then the return to the domain of Islam in its ideology and system would be quicker than the blink of an eye.[47]
According to the same book, the Muslim world has not lagged behind the West, East Asia, the Hindu or any other non-Muslim society because it has failed to borrow some political, cultural or social concepts of the West, but rather:
Muslim stagnation commenced the day they abandoned this adherence to Islam and ... allowed the foreign culture to enter their lands and the Western concepts to occupy their minds.[48]
Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia spokesperson, Ismail Yusanto said to Nikolaos van Dam, the Dutch ambassador for Indonesia that the Dutch government is responsible for the Fitna (film) of Geert Wilders and said aslim taslam.[49]
The Hizb ut-Tahrir draft constitution states, "the primary role of a woman is that of a mother and wife. She is an honour ('ird) that must be protected.".[50] Unlike some Muslim traditionalists, Hizb ut-Tahrir, advocates women's suffrage or right to vote (i.e., Muslim women, as only Muslims have the right to vote for the Caliph[51]), the right of Muslim women to choose a Muslim partner freely (Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslim men), right to seek employment, serve in the military, have custody of children after divorce even if she is not Muslim,[52] and run in elections.
However, Hizb ut-Tahrir believe Islam forbids women from ruling positions such as caliph, Chief Justice,[53] provincial governor, or mayor citing Prophetic traditions. Article 109 of the party's draft constitution prescribes segregation of the sexes in public activities such as school, sporting activities, etc. Muslim women would be required to hide “their charms,”[54] i.e. their body with the exception of hands and face, so dress in accordance with khimar and jilbab,[55] although not necessarily with the niqab favoured by more fundamentalist movements.[56][57] Article 114 of the constitution specifies that women should not be allowed to be in private with men other than their husband or members of their immediate family (father, brother, son). Article 116 stipulates that once married a woman is obliged to obey her husband.[58]
While opponents may consider this unequal status, Hizb ut-Tahrir maintains
Women in the Khilafah are not regarded as inferior or second class citizens. Islam gave women the right to wealth, property rights, rights over marriage and divorce as well as a place in society. Islam established a public dress code for women – the Khimar and Jilbab in order to establish a productive society free from the type of negative and harmful relationships prevalent in the west.[59]
Hizb ut-Tahrir strongly opposes Zionism and the state of Israel. Statements by Hizb ut-Tahrir differ on what its position toward Israel and the Jews. "Palestine – why only a one state solution will work," pledges Hizb ut-Tahrir support for a "one state solution" for Israel and the Palestinians. However, by the phrase "one state solution" Hizb ut-Tahrir does not mean a united secular state (see: Binational solution), but rather, making Palestine part of the united Islamic caliphate state where everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, follow statutory shariah Islamic law.[60]
Other statements by Hizb ut-Tahrir and officials have been less temperate. A 2001 statement removed from the Hizb ut-Tahrir website includes the statement, "In origin, no one likes the Jews except the Jews. Even they themselves rarely like each other"[61] (see below). Global head of HT, Ata Abu-Rishta is reported to have "whipped the 100,000-strong crowd" at the Hizb ut-Tahrir August 2007 annual conference in Jakarta, Indonesia "into a frenzy ... by calling for a war on Jews."[15]
In a 2000 article entitled "The Muslim Ummah will never submit to the Jews", Hizb ut-Tahrir lamented what it saw as the innate behavior of Jews:
... In origin, no one likes the Jews except the Jews. Even they themselves rarely like each other.... The American people do not like the Jews nor do the Europeans, because the Jews by their very nature do not like anyone else. Rather they look at other people as wild animals that have to be tamed to serve them. So, how can we imagine it being possible for any Arab or Muslim to like the Jews whose character is such?... Know that the Jews and their usurping state in Palestine will, by the Help and Mercy of Allah, be destroyed "until the stones and trees will say: O Muslim, O Slave of Allah. Here is a Jew behind me so come and kill him."[61]
In October 2002, a court in Denmark handed down a 60-day suspended sentence to Fadi Abdelatif, Hizb ut-Tahrir's spokesman in Denmark, after he was found guilty of distributing racist propaganda. The title of a leaflet he distributed was a quote from the Quran: "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out," followed by a passage stating: "the Jews are a people of slander... a treacherous people."[62]
In January 2003, Hizb ut-Tahrir was barred from public activity in Germany, German Interior Minister Otto Schily stating that the group was spreading violence and hate and had called for the killing of Jews.[63] Membership in the party is still permitted. The charges originate from a conference at the Technical University of Berlin, organized by a student society allegedly affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir. The furor was caused because the conference was attended by members of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which allegedly sparked fears of an alliance between neo-Nazi groups and Islamists. Schily banned Hizb ut-Tahrir three months later, for going "against the concept of international understanding" contained in the German constitution, a charge that has been used in the past against neo-Nazi groups. Party spokesperson Assem Shaker responded that the group was not anti-Semitic. He added, "We do not call to kill Jews. Our call is addressed to the Muslim people to defend themselves against the Zionist aggression in Palestine. And they have the right to do so."[63]
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 was exposed he was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Citing the antisemitic 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. Aslam refused to leave the group, saying he was not an antisemite and did not consider Hizb ut-Tahrir's website to be antisemitic.[64] Dilpazier later sued for unfair dismissal and there was an out-of-court settlement.[64]
After allegations that party members had spread antisemitic propaganda, in 2004 the British National Union of Students imposed a No Platform order.[65] The party then resumed recruiting at British universities under the name "Stop Islamophobia."[66]
Hizb ut-Tahrir states on its British website that it adopts the methods "employed by the Prophet Muhammad [who] limited his struggle for the establishment of the Islamic State to intellectual and political work. He established this Islamic state without resorting to violence." [67] In addition, seven days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York Hizb ut-Tahrir issued a statement that "The rules of this Message forbids any aggression against civilian non-combatants. They forbid killing of children, the elderly and non-combatant women even in the battlefield. They forbid the hijacking of civilian aeroplanes carrying innocent civilians and forbid the destruction of homes and offices that contain innocent civilians. All of these actions are types of aggression that Islam forbids and Muslims should not undertake such actions."[68] The U.S. government, according to the Global Security thinktank, "has found no clear ties between Hizb ut-Tahrir and terrorist activity. Hizb ut-Tahrir has not been proven to have involvement in or direct links to any recent acts of violence or terrorism. Nor has it been proven to give financial support to other groups engaged in terrorism."[69]
The British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir immediately condemned the 7 July 2005 London bombings.[70] Imran Waheed, the group's spokesperson in Great Britain, however, stated just after the bombings that "When Westerners get killed, the world cries. But if Muslims get killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's the smallest of news. 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."[71] Waheed later stated that "The entire Muslim community has made its position on the London bombings clear — these actions have no justification as far as Islam is concerned."[72] The spokesperson of the Danish branch of Hizb-ut-Tahrir echoed Waheed's comments, calling the attacks un-Islamic but refraining from directly condemning them as long as the occupation of Iraq continued.[70]
Hizb ut-Tahrir’s opposition to violence has been questioned. For example, the think tank Globalsecurity.org states that Hizb ut-Tahrir "is not against violence as such. It is just against the use of violence now."[73] Similarly, in 2007 "senior members" of Hizb ut-Tahrir are quoted condemning Hamas on the grounds that sending poorly-armed Palestinians now against the Israeli army is "fruitless," and that military operations against Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands should await a united Caliphate and the combined armies of Islam.[74] Writer and broadcaster Ziauddin Sardar wrote in 2005 that Hizb ut-Tahrir's intolerance of any compromise with its goals was "a natural precursor of, and invitation to, violence."[75] He added that, in the long run, “violence is central” to the goal of an Islamic Caliphate.[14]
Zeyno Baran of the Nixon Center and Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation[6] have argued that although Hizb ut-Tahrir does not promote or engage in violence, it acts as a "conveyor belt" for young Muslims, using its legal status to indoctrinate them before they leave the group to join more extreme groups that may engage in violence.[76] An investigative journalist specialising in British terrorism, Shiv Malik sympathizes with the position, stating that it "is not without foundation."."[6][77] In support of this perspective, Malik quotes unnamed intelligence sources stating that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are both former members of Hizb ut-Tahrir.[6] Omar Sharif, who attempted a suicide bombing in Israel in 2003, is also alleged to have been affililated with Hizb ut-Tahrir, but the group denies this, stating that "despite extensive investigations by the police and security services, including legal proceedings against members of the Sharif family, no link to Hizb ut-Tahrir has ever been proven."[78] The British government, in a classified report, discounted the conveyor belt theory, stating "We do not believe that it is accurate to regard radicalisation in this country as a linear 'conveyor belt’ moving from grievance, through radicalisation, to violence … This thesis seems to both misread the radicalisation process and to give undue weight to ideological factors."[79]
Britain’s National Union of Students has asked universities to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir from campuses, accusing the group of “supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred."[80]
The Panorama programme on the BBC showed an August 2006 speech by Ata Abu-Rishta, the global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, in which he called for the "destruction" of Hindus living in Kashmir, Russians in Chechnya and Jews in Israel.[15]
The Heritage Foundation in the US reports the organization is active in 40 countries, with 5,000 to 10,000 "hardcore" members and tens of thousands of followers.[81] Shiv Malik in the New Statesmen magazine estimates Hizb ut-Tahrir has about one million members.[6] It is proscribed in Russia,[82] and in some Arab countries.[83] It had a ban lifted on it by the Lahore High Court in Pakistan,[84][85] and it survived proposed bans in Australia and the UK after clearance from the intelligence services and police.[64][86]
Hizb ut-Tahrir is proscribed in many Arab countries, but is permitted to operate in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Yemen.[83]
Throughout 2006 a spate of Hizb ut-Tahrir campaigns and related arrests took place throughout the Arab world. There were arrests in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and visible public activities in the Palestinian territories, Zanzibar, and Lebanon, enjoying growing support among senior army staff, government officials, and the intelligentsia.
According to Amnesty, four Muslim Britons and several Egyptians were tortured in Egypt for suspected affiliation with Hizb ut-Tahrir.[87] Eventually 26 were put on trial for what observers in Egypt considered "contradictory" and "weak" charges.[88]
The Egyptian government banned Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1974 after an alleged coup attempt.[89]
In 1969 when the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim was arrested and allegedly tortured, during widespread persecution of Shia, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Badri, a Sunni Islamic lawyer (Alim) and local Hizb ut-Tahrir leader, criticised the regime, and was killed under torture. A Sunni member of Hizb ut-Tahrir is thus seen as the first martyr for the rights of Shia in Iraq, against the old Baathist regime.[90] The party has called for Sunni, Shia, Arab and Kurdish citizens to unite in Iraq.[91] Some of the party's prominent members have been murdered there, the bodies showing signs of torture.[92] Regarding the hanging of former president of Iraq Saddam Hussain, Ismail Yusanto, spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Indonesia, said: "The punishment should have been given to Saddam, because Saddam killed many Iraqi people and also members of Hizb ut-Tahrir there," and that President Bush and Tony Blair "deserved no better.".[93]
According to a 2007 report by Globe and Mail reporter Mark MacKinnon, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been "capitalizing on public unhappiness with the recent bloodshed between the mainstream Hamas and Fatah movements that has split the Palestinian cause in two. A recent rally in the West Bank drew a crowd estimated in the tens of thousands." He quotes Hizb ut-Tahrir Sheik Abu Abdullah as preaching to Muslims
Why are we watching infidels prosper in this world and not stopping them? ... Muslims in China, Indonesia, Pakistan and everywhere in their thousands are asking for God's government through the Caliphate. They demand the return of God's rule on Earth.[94]
Mohammed M. Ramadan, a Libyan journalist and announcer at the BBC's Arabic section in London, was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and opposed to the regime of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi. He was assassinated on 11 April 1980 by Libyan operatives outside London's Regent's Park Mosque. Several other members were killed in extrajudicial detention in Libya during the 1980s.[95] According to Hizb ut-Tahrir along with the Muslim Brotherhood are the "important organizations causing anxiety" for the Libyan regime with Hizb ut-Tahrir endorsing "armed resistance" and successfully recruiting "students from the universities and military academies."[96] As of 2003, Amnesty International reported that while Libya report that "five prisoners of conscience ... who had been imprisoned for almost three decades for their peaceful involvement with the prohibited Islamic Liberation Party, Hizb al-Tahrir" were released, but that many more remained in prison.[97]
In Syria, party members, along with their relatives and acquaintances, have been subject to repeated extrajudicial arrest. The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin issue July 2000 and the Syrian Human Rights Committee quoted on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees website, in its annual report of June 2006 reported that the Syrian authorities began its clampdown on Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1998–1999 with hundreds of members being arrested in a nationwide manhunt led by Air Force Intelligence (Mukhabarat). The MEIB issue of December 2000 states that "Representatives of the group have said that 1,200 of its members were arrested by Syrian security forces in December 1999 and January 2000." In its 2005 report Amnesty International stated that in 2004 dozens of Islamist students and clerics were arrested, many with links to Hizb ut-Tahrir and tried before military courts.[98][99]
Syrian ex-member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Omar Bakri notorious for his activity in the UK, claims that a significant number of members primarily in Jordan split from the original body of Hizb ut-Tahrir members and formed another Hizb ut-Tahrir known abusively as Nakithoun 'Renegades' by the organisation under the leadership of Abdul Qadeem Zallum. This led to a further two minor splits of no significant membership. He attempts to partly attribute this to himself while simultaneously denying self aggrandization.
Most Hizb ut-Tahrir in the former Soviet Union are ethnic Uzbeks.[69] Hizb ut-Tahrir has been accused by the governments of Central Asia of terrorist activity or illegal importation of arms into their countries. According to globalsecurity.org, the group "is believed by some to clandestinely fund and provide logistical support to a wide range of terrorist operations in Central Asia, and elsewhere, although attacks may be carried out in the names of local groups."[69] Human rights organizations and a former British Ambassador have accused central Asian governments of torturing Hizb ut-Tahrir members and violating international law in their campaigns against the group.[100]
Hizb ut-Tahrir is also suspected of having several hundred members in Azerbaijan. Dozens of its members have been arrested.[101]
In 1999, Hizb ut-Tahrir "was blamed for a series of bomb attacks in the Uzbekistan capital, Tashkent." The Uzbek government reportedly withdrew its accusation of terrorism and blamed the IMU for terrorist attacks. Amnesty has accused the Government of Uzbekistan of giving Hizb ut-Tahrir members unfair trials, saying members are convicted on little evidence and given heavy sentences.[102] Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, has made many claims about Uzbek President Islam Karimov and his alleged dictatorial practices, specifically against Hizb ut-Tahrir. He alleged that members were tortured into signing renunciations of their faith, to stop praying the five daily prayers of Islam (Salah), and that two members who refused to do so;
...had been plunged into a vat of boiling water and had died both of them as a result. I didn’t know that at the time, I just saw the photographs of this body in this appalling state; I couldn’t work out what could account for it. I sent it to the pathology department of the University of Glasgow; there were a lot of photographs. The chief pathologist of the University of Glasgow, who is now chief pathologist of the United Kingdom, wrote that the only explanation for this was “immersion in boiling water”.[103]
In February 2003, the Russian Supreme Court put "Hizb ut-Tahrir and 14 other groups on a list of banned terrorist organizations."[69] In June 2003 Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested 121 illegal immigrants suspected of having ties with Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami. "Moscow media reports said hand grenades, explosives, and ammunition ... as well as Islamic propaganda leaflets" were found on two of immigrants, Alisher Musayev of Kyrgyzstan and Akram Jalolov of Tajikistan.[69]
Human rights groups have complained that authorities are increasingly becoming repressive and have planted evidence on Muslims to justify charges.[104]
In 2006 the global leader of Hizb ut Tahrir urged his follewers to kill ethnic Russians in Chechnya.[15]
Hizb ut-Tahrir also works openly in Malaysia and Indonesia and has never been banned in these two Muslim countries. It held an international khilafah conference in Indonesia on August 12, 2007 at the Bung Karno Stadium, which has a capacity of 100,000 people and thus has the joint 10th largest capacity for any stadium worldwide. The event was attended by around 100,000 people.
Bangladesh banned Hizb ut-Tahrir on 22 October 2009, for "destabilizing" the country, a day after a bomb attack targeting a ruling party lawmaker, and a relative of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Home Minister Sahara Khatun told AFP that Hizb ut Tahrir Bangladesh has been banned for "unleashing destructive activities" and work that goes against the "laws of the land".[105] The party started its activities in Bangladesh in 2000.[106]
In Pakistan, Hizb ut-Tahrir was proscribed by Pakistani President General Musharraf in 2004, although it had the ban on it lifted[107] after a legal challenge against its proscription in the Lahore High Court.[84][85]
According to "a senior Obama Administration official" interviewed by journalist Seymour Hersch in 2009, "HT has "penetrated the Pakistani military and now have cells in the Army." Hersch reports that the Pakistan Army denies this.[108]
About Hizb ut-Tahrir's activities in Pakistan and subsequent political crackdown Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court said in March 2005 : "Hizb ut-Tahrir has shown dissatisfaction on the policies of the [Pakistan] government that is the right of each and every citizen ... I am unable to understand as to how distribution of these pamphlets in the general public was termed as terrorism or sectarianism."
Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid writes in Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, that there are "strong links and cooperation between the rank and file" of Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan especially when they are from the same village or town. However, according to Jean-François Mayer of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs; the insinuation ‘that the party will turn violent and has links with the IMU’ is inaccurate: the comments attributed to a member ‘contradicted the party’s ideas’. Representatives of Hizb ut-Tahrir report that they have repeatedly attempted to contact Ahmed Rashid in order to make their views known, but say they have not succeeded. They are even considering writing a rebuttal of his book.[109]
On May 6, 2011, Brigadier Ali Khan of Pakistan Army was detained, just four days after the US-led Abbottabad Operation; for his alleged links with Hizb-ut-Tahrir, official military sources said.[110]
The Hizb ut-Tahrir is outlawed in Turkey, however it is still in operation.[111] According to Today's Zaman, lieutenant Mehmet Ali Çelebi, detained in the Ergenekon investigations in 2008, had links with Hizb ut-Tahrir.[112] Çelebi was allegedly the key that made possible the arrest of five Hizb ut-Tahrir members in September 2008.[112]
On 24 July 2009, Turkish police arrested almost 200 people suspected of being members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. [113]
In 2005, the party survived a proposed ban in Australia after clearance from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.[114]
The party planned its first Khilafah conference in Sydney for 27 January 2007. The planned conference led to allegations in newspaper reports that the party was linked to the July 2005 London bombings.[115] Opposition politicians called on the local and federal governments not to grant visas to foreign speakers attending, and to re-consider proscribing Hizb ut-Tahrir. The demands for a ban were rejected by Attorney General Philip Ruddock, on the grounds there was insufficient evidence to warrant banning the group.[116] Radical clerics from the group demanded the establishment of a Muslim superstate, and warned Muslims they must be prepared to kill anyone who threatened its existence.[117]
Hizb ut-Tahrir members originally planned to hold the conference in the town hall of Bankstown Bankstown, New South Wales, a satellite city of Sydney which with adjacent Lakemba is Australia's biggest Muslim electorate, but the Sydney council cancelled it.[118] Hizb ut-Tahrir secured another location the next day on 28 January. According to the Herald Sun, he also stated, "if you people are united and a third person comes along and tries to incite disunity ... kill him..., Muslims are not unique in doing so, as most nations kill those charged with treason...."[119]
Conference spokesman Wassim Doureihi said the work of Hizb ut-Tahrir was not to change the political landscape in Australia. He added, "It is because of Islam and my allegiance to Islam that I am responsible for ensuring to do what I can to protect the safety and security of all peoples in this country and beyond."[120]
Morris Iemma Premier of New South Wales and MP for Lakemba, which with adjacent Bankstown has Australia's largest Muslim community, [121] stated around the time of the conference that Hizb ut-Tahrir "is an organisation that is basically saying that it desires to declare war on Australia, our values and our people." even though according to Sydney Morning Herald, the speakers at the Khilafah Conference "made it clear they did not see Australia as part of their fundamentalist society"[122] Attorney General Philip Ruddock responded that the local government of Iemma should "stop playing politics and if it had any evidence helpful to the security agencies, it should give it to them."[123]
One opponent of a ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir, Irfan Yusuf, writing in the on-line publication Crikey, stating in No need to be alarmed about Hizb ut-Tahrir that the opposition Australian Labor Party "clearly wants to look tougher than the government on national security. But it risks alienating much of its support base in some Muslim circles by picking on a group many Muslims regard as harmless."[124] Ban supporter Rebecca Weisser, however, alleged in The Australian that former members of Hizb ut-Tahrir include Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Omar Bakri Mohammed "four of the seven suspects in the failed terror attacks on London on June 29 and in Glasgow on July 1."[125] In Australia, writer Thomas Lehmann criticized the party and its former media representative, Wassim Doureihi, because they "openly flout our hospitality and tolerance while advocating the replacement of our democratic system with theocratic fascism," and for refusing "to condemn the September 11, Bali or London terror attacks."[126]
Hizb ut-Tahrir is legal in Denmark but ran into controversy in 2002, when it distributed leaflets in Copenhagen that a Danish court determined were racist propaganda. Imran Khan of the BBC program "Newsnight" described the leaflet as follows:
In March and April 2002, Hizb Ut Tahrir handed out leaflets in a square in Copenhagen, and at a mosque. The leaflet, which also appeared on the Danish groups internet site, makes threats against Jews, using a quote from the Koran urging Muslims to 'kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have been turned you out.' The leaflet also said, 'The Jews are a people of slander... a treacherous people... they fabricate lies and twist words from their right context.' And the leaflet describes suicide bombings in Israel as "legitimate" acts of "Martyrdom".[127]
In August 2006, Fadi Abdelatif, Hizb ut-Tahrir's spokesperson in Denmark, was given a suspended 60-day jail sentence for distributing the leaflet.[128] Abdelatif was also found guilty of threats against the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.[129] The court rejected his claims that he was just quoting from the Koran, that it was an act of free speech and that it was aimed only at the Israeli state and not Jews.[127]
In 2007 Berlingske Tidende reported that a kindergarten in Copenhagen was being run in line with the ideology of Hizb ut-Tahrir.[130] Also that year, several well known imams in Copenhagen attended a convention of Hizb ut-Tahrir and announced that they were willing to work together towards mutual goals. This move attracted criticism from a variety of Muslim and non-Muslim voices.[131]
German police expelled a member of the party from Germany for alleged ties to one of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, German police said the raids and searches in offices and homes revealed little.[63] The German government then banned Hizb ut-Tahrir from public activity after a charge of distributing antisemitic propaganda (see above section on Controversy over anti-Semitism). The anti-semitism charges were not upheld in German courts, but the ban was continued based on the state's finding that the group's activity opposed the idea of understanding among nations and endorsed force as a means towards its political aims. A lawsuit against the ban was rejected on 23 January 2006 by the Federal Administrative Court in Germany. The organization appealed the ban to the European Court, stating in 2008:
“We note that the German courts did not uphold any of the German Interior Ministries accusations of anti-Semitism against HT, however, they have now relied on an obscure principle of the ‘idea of international understanding’ to ban all of our activities (speeches, study circles, articles, vigils, political meetings, books, magazines, and debates).”
From 1986 to 1996, under the leadership of Syrian-born Omar Bakri Muhammad, Hizb ut-Tahrir grew from a very small organization in Britain to a one of the most active Islamic organizations in the country. In 1996 Bakri split with Hizb ut-Tahrir over disagreements on policy, style and methods, and focused on another organization Al-Muhajiroun.[133]
A report in Foreign Affairs Journal claims that Hizb ut-Tahrir "dominates" the British Islamist "scene" with some 8,500 members in the United Kingdom, compared to only 1,000 for a rival, Muslim Association of Britain.[134]
According to ex-Hizb ut-Tahrir member Ed Husain, "Britain remains vital to the Hizb, for it gives the group access to the global media and provides a fertile recruiting ground at mosques and universities."[135]
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain emphasized the importance of Muslims choosing loyalty to their religion above loyalty to Britain or any other country.[136] In Hizb ut-Tahrir's view, Islam is anti-nationalist, transnational and pan-Islamic in nature. In a promotional video shown on BBC News a party representative asked:
I think Muslims in this country need to take a long, hard look at themselves and decide what is their identity. Are they British or are they Muslim? I am a Muslim. Where I live, is irrelevant.[137]
Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings the British government announced its intention to ban the organization[138] but abandoned the ban. According to The Independent Blair "shelved the ban after warnings from police, intelligence chiefs, and civil liberties groups that it is a non-violent group, and driving it underground could backfire."[86][139] and according to the Observer because the Home Office believed a legal ban would not stick.[140]
In July 2007, Leader of the Opposition David Cameron asked the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown why the organisation had not been banned from the United Kingdom, arguing it was an extremist group. Gordon Brown responded that more evidence would be needed before banning a group and, when pressed further, John Reid the previous home secretary stepped in arguing that there had already been two reviews of the group with insufficient evidence to justify a ban.[141][142]
In November 2009, Mr Cameron again questioned the Government over Hizb ut-Tahrir, claiming that government Pathfinder fund aimed at combating violent extremism was being used to fund schools run by an organisation with links to extremism.[143] He later acknowledged that this statement was an error as another government fund was perceived.[144]
In November 2006, the BBC reported that a street gang in South London, which claimed to be Hizb ut-Tahrir, encouraged an undercover reporter to rob another gang to "prove his loyalty". 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. Dr Abdul Wahid when questioned on the program condemned the behaviour, asked the BBC to hand over all material to the police, said 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.[145]