Hizb ut-Tahrir Banned? By Which Countries?
Comment at end
Ban Blair-Baiting
August 15th 2007
- Terror Groups Banned in the UK
- The Guardian Cif-ers and Other Such …
- Go to Blair Videos Page – to fill that Blair-shaped hole in politics
- Watch my videos on Tony Blair at YouTube
- And Brown on Hizb ut-Tahrir? Click here
- Wikipedia on HuT
WAKE UP, BRITISH DEMOCRATS – AND SMELL THE FUTURE
UPDATE: In March 2010 I was sent this information from the Home Office, after their ‘proscribed list’ could not be found by the usual search at their website:
You will note that you STILL get a ‘Page Not Found’ error message.
According to Islam Watch Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) is banned in virtually all Arab nations in the Middle East, such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. It is banned in Tunisia and Libya, and also Turkey. It is regarded as such a threat that it is even banned in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which are already cauldrons of extremism. It is banned in all the former Soviet states in Central Asia, and since February 2003 it has been banned in Russia. It has been banned in Germany – on account of its anti-Semitism and its desire to use force for political ends – since March 2003, and it is also banned in the Netherlands. Recently banned too in Bangladesh.
Yet in Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia, the group remains free to operate.
Read it through and make up your own minds. Who knows how long you will be permitted that basic liberty?
Excerpt from this page on Massive Support for the Caliphate in the Muslim World:
“Blair has said in many speeches that the Muslim world does not have to choose between dictatorship and a ‘Taleban style theocracy’. Rather, he has argued, that the shared universal values of western democracy and liberty should be the future for Muslims.
It is true people hate dictatorship, occupation and corruption. However, it is false to think that the Muslim world feels the only way this can end is to choose a system like the one Blair, Bush and others advocate.
Muslims see the Shariah in governance as guaranteeing their authority in appointing the ruler, and giving the checks and balances of accountability. Islam, Shariah and Khilafah are what Muslims see as their liberation from dictatorship, occupation and corruption. It is a system that comes from their beliefs and values and is in accordance with their history.”
ONE DAY THIS MIGHT BE YOUR CHOICE! Let this religious … political group “appoint” leaders. THAT’S their plan. That’s a caliphate. Suddenly democracy might not look so bad.
Where exactly is Hut banned? When I find a comprehensive list I’ll let you know. According to Wikipedia it operates in over 40 countries:
The Heritage Foundation says the organization is active in 40 countries with 5,000 to 10,000 “hardcore” members and tens of thousands of followers. The Foreign Affairs Journal claims a report that argues Hizb ut-Tahrir “dominates the British Scene” with some eight and a half thousand members in the United Kingdom; “while the MAB could only boast 1000″. It is proscribed in Russia, and in some Muslim countries, but is permitted to operate in the more liberal Muslim nations. It had a ban lifted on it by the Lahore High Court in Pakistan, and it survived proposed bans in Australia and the UK after clearance from the intelligence services and police.
HuT members have not won elections in any government. It is therefore impossible to establish with certainty what its position in terms of international relations, in practice, would be. However, publications on HuT’s media websites show an anti-Western sentiment that has been characteristic of most Islamist movements.
[…]
United Kingdom
Hizb ut-Tahrir also survived a proposed ban in the UK after clearance from the intelligence services and police. After the 7 July 2005 London bombings Tony Blair announced the British government‘s intention to ban the organization under new legislation. Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Imran Waheed said, “The move is a perilous route that is harming community relations and could lead to civil unrest comparable to that which affected the black community.” 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.” According an alleged leaked government report produced for Tony Blair, quoted in The Guardian, 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 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.
On December 24, 2006 an article in The Observer revealed that the government had shelved their plans to ban the organisation because there was a home office opinion that a legal ban would not stick. It also confirmed that the request to ban had come to prime minister Tony Blair from General Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, himself often the political target of Hizb ut-tahrir campaigns.
Mohammed M. Ramadan, a 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 Qadhafi of Libya. He was assassinated on 11 April 1980 by Libyan operatives outside London’s Regents Park Mosque.
Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain emphasized the importance of Muslims choosing loyalty to their religion above loyalty to Britain or any other nation/country, whether majority Muslim or non-Muslim. In HT’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.
In 2006 it joined the British Stop the War Coalition and participated in its national demonstration.
Dr. Abdul-Wahid, executive committee member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has conceded their past failings, writing on “Open Democracy” 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.”
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.
Watch Jeremy Paxman’s Newsnight iinterview with Abdul Wahid. The “evidence” part of the programme is missing, strangely.
Fuad Nahdi editor of the British newspaper Q-news said
“The issue of political agency and political action is important. Muslim youth have to find some channel for their political rage and anger. But it does not have to be called rage and anger. If we are talking about the left, it is called a political opinion. Hizb-ut-Tahrir is one organisation where Muslim people have found a political voice. There needs to be a series of options for people to choose from”
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.
At massive rally, Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for a global Muslim state
More than 80,000 Muslims gathered in a Jakarta stadium on 12th August, 2007, where clerics also called for implementing sharia.
NOTE:
The speaker last week at the London rally, which I reported here, with moderate sounding comments by this individual, was, however, deported from the country on arrival!
Quote: “Imran Waheed and Sheikh Ismail al-Wahwah, speakers from England and Australia, were deported upon arrival in Indonesia. It was not immediately clear why they were not allowed to attend.”
VERY INTERESTING, CONSIDERING WAHEED WAS REPRESENTING THE NON-MUSLIM COUNTRY WHERE HUT IS MOST ACTIVE WORLDWIDE!
THE UK – IN CASE YOU DIDN’T REALISE
By Tom A. Peter
from the August 14, 2007 edition
On Sunday more than 80,000 members of the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir filled a stadium in Indonesia’s capital to call for a united Muslim state that would span the entire Islamic world. Speakers, who came from around the world to Jakarta, blamed Indonesia’s economic and social troubles on secularism and democracy.
Eurasia Net has an article on Hut published 14th August, 2007:
Authorities in Central Asia say membership in the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Liberation Party) has been on the rise in recent years despite it being illegal and many of its members prosecuted and jailed.Analysts say the main reason is that the group serves as a way for people to express dissent in countries whose governments don’t tolerate opposition. Also, the group’s tactics — or means of propaganda — seem to play a significant role in its popularity.
Persecuted And Prosecuted
Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) is a highly secretive organization with a well-organized structure and strict hierarchy.
In Central Asia, where hundreds of the group’s members have been harshly prosecuted in recent years, HT members are generally cautious to speak to outsiders. But in some areas of Kyrgyzstan where HT’s popularity is fairly high group, members are becoming bolder in expressing their opinions publicly.
The creation of an Islamic state — or caliphate — is the group’s proclaimed goal. It officially denounces violence and says the goal should be achieved through peaceful means.
Hizb ut-Tahrir was first created by Palestinians in the early 1950s and the philosophy of the group does not seem to have significantly evolved even as its influence has spread into regions like Central Asia.
Though the HT in Central Asia seeks the overthrow of the region’s secular regimes in order to establish a caliphate, HT members are usually unable to articulate any program for governing the people who are outside of the imposition of Shari’a.
No Real Plan To Govern?
For example, HT members cannot explain what their agricultural or health-care policies would be if the group came to power. The group generally shows intolerance toward other religions and indeed other sects of Islam, which would be a great problem for them in Central Asia today as there is a significant Christian population and some Shi’ites (notably in eastern Tajikistan).
Official statistics in Kyrgyzstan (the government’s Institute for Strategic Studies, published at ferghana.ru) put HT membership as high as 10,000 in that country alone.
The group’s activists claim they have tens of thousands of members and many sympathizers in Central Asia.
Studies have shown that HT works as a network organized into cells. Each cell is called a “halqa” and comprises between four and seven people. Only the halqa supervisor knows the next level of leadership, but he does not know the whole hierarchy. Such a structured organization prevents the domino effect of prosecution or imprisonment in case of a member being detained and interrogated.
Observers also say HT members take an oath when they join the party. It is not clear whether there is a formal procedure for leaving the party. Former members, if there are any, have apparently not sought publicity.
Lectures And Seminars Spread Ideas
Maksat Sabirov ( name has been changed to protect his identity), 33, is a Hizb ut-Tahrir member. Speaking to RFE/RL from the southern Kyrgyz town of Karasuu, he admits he also took oath when he joined the group 10 years ago.
Sabirov says he would comment on political issues or explain HT’s goals and political positions (including HT’s view of the upcoming Bishkek summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization). But he is reluctant to talk about the group’s means of propaganda.
However, Sabirov admits that lectures and seminars — or “lessons” as he calls them — are the group’s most used means of attracting new members.
“Hizb disseminates ideas. It organizes lessons for interested people and teaches them in cells, halqa,” he said. “Those satisfied with the ideas join it. That’s all.”
Sabirov adds that group gatherings are held in accordance with Shari’a, or Islamic law, which requires that men and women be segregated.
HT also disseminates its ideas through leaflets, books, and magazines. Advanced technology, often with computers and with printers, has made printing easier and cheaper than it previously was.
Critical Of The West
HT distributes a newspaper called “Ong — Al-Waie” (Awareness) in the Uzbek language. Each member has to buy every issue. For potential members and interested parties, the newspaper is distributed for free, Sabirov says.
HT sends “Ong — Al-Waie” to media organizations and embassies. The newspaper’s coverage is not limited to issues of faith and Islam. It also addresses a wide range of political issues and is usually highly critical of the West, especially the United States. It also puts harsh criticism on local governments and their leaders, and calls Uzbek President Islam Karimov a Jew (HT also calls Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a Jew).
That these methods are effective is clear since HT members give standard answers to basic questions — seemingly memorized from the same texts — and share a pessimistic view of the future under secular governments. Central Asian government officials have called such uniform indoctrination to be brainwashing.
In recent years, the group has resorted to the Internet as its penetration slowly and steadily grows in Central Asia.
Different Means Of Promotion
In rural areas, where there is virtually no access to the Internet, HT uses different tactics.
“Hizb ut-Tahrir has existed [since 1953],” Sabirov said. “It uses the Internet wherever there is access to it. If there is no Internet, we distribute leaflets, for example. You know, there are gatherings in villages, when people get together and eat rice pilaf, for example. We distribute ideas there. The means of distribution are not important. Ideas are important. For different places, we have different ways to disseminate them.”
Lately, audio and video equipment have been added to HT’s arsenal. Shavkat Kochkorov of the Kyrgyz National Security Service addressed journalists in the southern Kyrgyz city of Jalal-Abad earlier this month.
“They have means of transportation [and] the best video and audio equipment,” Kochkorov said. “They come to places where Muslims — elders and imams — gather and propagate their ideology among the people. They openly say: ’There’s little time left until we will have a caliphate, and then in the caliphate you all live very well, your life will improve and you will have freedoms.’”
Sabirov says that HT distributes audio and DVDs in the cities as well as in villages.
Nowadays, a simple DVD player is affordable for many Kyrgyz or Uzbek families at the price of $30-$50.
Gaining Prominent Supporters
Sabirov says that HT collects membership fees like any other political party. Each party member is expected to pay 10 percent of their income to the party.
Toigonbek Kalmatov, who heads the Kyrgyz governmental agency on religious affairs, said last week that many prominent people are HT members.
“They have attracted many members of parliament, well-known businessmen and government officials and thus [they have] gained financial, moral, and other support for their activity,” he said.
Analysts say ethnic Uzbeks from the Ferghana Valley make up the group’s core membership.
However, one-fifth of HT’s members are representatives of nonindigenous ethnic groups such as Russians, Tatars, Chechens, Meskhetian Turks, Kurds, and others.
In recent years, mostly women, youths, and former convicts have been behind HT’s membership growth, with those aged 18-35 being the generation mainly joining HT.
Most Central Asian officials insist that HT is a militant group and must be eliminated. Kalmatov said that weapons were found in recent raids of HT places in southern Kyrgyzstan.
Violent Or Peaceful
“They have changed their tactics,” Kalmatov said. “They aim to change the constitutional system with force; not through peaceful means, but by taking up arms. Weapons and ammunition, bullets and grenade launchers were found [in HT members’ houses]. They are using all kinds of methods in order to achieve political power.”
HT has denied accusations that it seeks a violent overthrown of the current political systems in Central Asia.
Sabirov says his party is able to achieve its goal through peaceful means and added that there is no need to take up arms.
For him, the secret of HT’s success is obvious: “We speak with people in their language,” Sabirov says.
“A representative of Uzbekistan’s Fidokorlar once said: ’Hizb ut-Tahrir’s members [go to the cotton field] on a bike and pick cotton with farmers, sit at computer desks with an IT specialist, play computer games together, and meanwhile disseminate their ideas. But our Fidokorlar members go to meetings with cotton-growers in Mercedes Benzs wearing white suits. [HT members] are inside the society and [Fidokorlar members] are outside [of society],’” he said. “Yes, I recall him saying so once. And it is absolutely true.”
Editor’s Note: RFE/RL Uzbek Service correspondent Elmurod Jusupaliev contributed to this report from Bishkek.
Adrian Morgan has written several articles on Islamist terrorism. Start here 30th July, 2007:
Who is the True Godfather of Islamic Fundamentalism?
Britain’s New Leadership Fails to Prevent Terrorism, Threatens America (Part 1 of 4)
He criticises Tony Blair for “failing to outlaw” Hut, without ANY explanation as to why!
This might be a reminder:
In August 2005, Tony Blair announced that he wished to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. His then-friends at the Muslim Council of Britain argued that they would only support the banning of the group if the government banned the British National Party. Hizb ut-Tahrir also responded with threats to bring young Muslims onto the street to riot, should the group be banned.
Blair still wanted the group banned, and wanted a clause in his Terrorism Act 2006 to outlaw the group. However, in November last year, the Association of Chief Police Officers argued that four of the Bill’s fourteen clauses, including the plan to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir and successors to the group Al-Muhajiroun, should not become law. The Association argued that these would “risk alienating Muslims”.
The clause to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir was never included in the final bill, which was made law in March this year.
Tony Blair has faced innumerable foes, many home-grown, in his fight against terrorism.
But never let it be said that he did not deeply feel that HuT should be banned.
As for Gordon Brown – on his first Prime Minister’s Questions, he was asked by the Tory leader, David Cameron, what he intended to do about Hibz ut-Tahrir.
Gordon Brown (Prime Minister) Link to this | Hansard source
“We can ban it under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. Of course— [Interruption.] The Leader of the Opposition forgets that I have been in this job for five days.” [Interruption.]
Five days!? He’s been around the problem for years! Or didn’t he realise what a prime minister has do deal with on a regular basis? Should have stayed more chummy with the previous, then shouldn’t he? Might have learned something.
The rest of this parliamentary session can be read here. Please don’t be shocked!!! WHAT did you expect?
Read this report for a further angle on Blair’s intentions.
Tony Blair 
July 22, 2008 at 9:37 pm |
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