Hizb ut-Tahrir

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Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic: "حزب التحرير" meaning Party of Liberation) is an Islamist political party whose goal is to reestablish the caliphate (Khalifah) within the Muslim world. The organization was founded by Sheikh Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, a judge (qadi) from Jerusalem in 1953.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is dedicated to what it sees as the political unity of Muslims, the removal of what it considers to be neo-colonialist Western control of Muslim lands via proxy dictators, and a state based on Islamic law (Sharia). In accordance with that, the party has called for Muslims to overthrow their governments, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The party has called suicide bombings in Israel "legitimate" acts of "martyrdom."

The party is banned in many Arab countries, but permitted to operate in the more liberal UAE, Lebanon and Yemen. It is banned in Germany and Russia, and throughout the former Soviet Union states of Central Asia. It survived a ban in Australia after clearance from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. On August 5, 2005, Tony Blair announced the British government's intention to ban the group in the United Kingdom, although it is believed that he 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.

Aims

The aim of Hizb ut-Tahrir is to unite all Muslims in a single pan-Islamic state or caliphate, which will be ruled by a caliph. According to the BBC, the group "professes non-violence and calls for the return in Muslim majority countries to the caliphate which oversaw the so-called golden age of Islam before European imperialism colonised the Middle East." This state would have laws based on the paradigms of Islam, making it a theocratic regime, while concurrently rejecting the concept of clergy in Islam in their draft constitution. The group's proposed economic system has elements similar to socialism, but they claim that an Islamic system is superior to either capitalism and communism. This state would not be a post-renaissance style democracy, which the party says is incompatible with the goal of establishing an Islamic state, though it would have its male-only Caliph elected. In an unsigned comment piece on their website, calling for a "new era of peace between Muslims, Christians and Jews" (in the Middle-East), it is claimed that the caliphate "will uphold the fundamental rights of justice and will not break its treaties, torture and abuse prisoners, imprison people without charge, oppress minorities and spy on its citizens." However, they also claim: the Western definition of freedom simply does not exist in Islam, ; and that Sharia law, (defined by the European Court of Human Rights as anti-democractic, anti-pluralist, infringing "the principle of non-discrimination between individuals as regards their enjoyment of public freedoms", as well as doing "away with the State's role as the guarantor of individual rights and freedoms"), will be enforced. Furthermore, it aims for the caliphate to "wrest the reins of initiative away from other states and nations" and become the dominant hegemony, before Islam, ultimately, takes over the world: ergo, their caliphate will be totalitarian and aggressively expansionist in nature.

Methods

Hizb ut-Tahrir has set out a three-stage plan of action to achieve its goals:

1. Establish a community of Hizb ut-Tahrir members who work together in the same way as the companions (Sahaba) of the prophet Muhammad. Members should accept the goals and methods of the organization as their own and be ready to work to fulfill these goals.
2. Build public opinion among the Muslim masses for the caliphate and the other Islamic concepts that will lead to a revival of Islamic thought.
3. Once public opinion is achieved in a target Muslim country through debate and persuasion, the group hopes to obtain support from army generals, leaders, and other influential figures or bodies to facilitate the change of the government. The government would be replaced by one that implements Islam "generally and comprehensively", carrying Islamic thought to people throughout the world.

Hizb ut-Tahrir states on its website: "The party disseminates its thoughts through discussion with the masses, study circles, lectures, seminars, leaflet distribution, publishing books and magazines and via the Internet. We encourage people to attend our demonstrations, marches and vigils."

After Sep 11th 2001, Hizb ut Tahrir issued a leaflet on September 18, 2001 which stated:

"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 which contain innocent civilians. All of these actions are types of aggression which Islam forbids and Muslims should not undertake such actions."

Dr Dosym Satpayev, director of the Assessment Risks Group in Almaty, Kazakhstan, claims that "Hizb ut-Tahrir plans its development 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 legalise their party and its aims."

In July 2005, Hizb ut-Tahrir members campaigned actively for one - ultimately unsuccessful - candidate in Kyrgyzstan's presidential election.

Policies of future state

Hizb ut-Tahrir's position is that that the state should enforce Sharia (Islamic law) in all aspects of its work.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, unlike some other traditionalist movements in the Muslim world, promises to give Muslim women the right to choose a partner freely, as well as the right to vote, to seek employment, and to assume custody of children after a divorce. Under the Khilafah, women would also have the right to stand for election to the people's assembly. Although women may seek employment, they are barred (as per Islamic law) from specific positions of ruling such as that of Caliph, Chief Justice, judges of the 'Court of Unjust Acts', provincial governor, and provincial mayor. Contrasted against Western ideals of women's rights and freedoms, the Islamic standards envisioned by Hizb Ut-Tahrir's Caliphate would seem diminished in ruling positions, although would appear better than many current Arab states, where women can't vote, honour killings, forced marriages, and clitoral infibulation have a semi-legal status, or women are barred from driving cars. Article 109 of the party's draft constitution provides for the segregation of the sexes in public institutions such as schools, and during sporting events. They want the Caliphate to implement the Islamic rules of public dress, which require Muslim women to dress in accordance with khimar and jilbab (see Hijab) but not necessarily with the face veil (Niqab) favoured by fundamentalist sects such as the Salafi and movements such as the Taliban.

In the Hizb ut-Tahrir's draft constitution for an Islamic state, executive political rights in ruling, like the position of Caliph, are reserved for Muslims. Hizb ut-Tahrir has argued that Muslims have a special responsibility to respect the rights of non-Muslims. Although non-Muslims may be members of the Peoples' Assembly, article 103 says that non-Muslims' fixed membership of the Peoples' Assembly is for "voicing of complaints in respect to unjust acts performed by the rulers or the misapplication of Islam (the law) upon them". They may participate in an indirect method in the election of the Caliph, via elected representitives. They argue;

"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 (saw) said, "Whoever harms a dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen) has harmed me." Under subsequent Caliph's these rights were protected. During the reign of the second Caliph - Umar bin al-Khattab, some Muslims stole a piece of land belonging to a Jew and then constructed a mosque upon it. This clearly violated the rights of the Jew, so Umar ordered the demolition of the mosque and the restoration of the land to the Jew. In the Caliphate of Imam Ali, a citizen of Jewish belief stole his shield. Ali took the matter to court and brought his son as a witness. The judge ruled against Ali even though he was the head of state (Caliph), stating that a son cannot be a witness for a father in court. "..."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. Non-Muslims will enjoy an elevated status with respect and tolerance shown to their beliefs and places of worships. The Khilafah will look after the needs and protect the rights of all its citizens-Muslim, Jews and Christians."

The draft constitution also details an economic system which allows private enterprise, but reserves public ownership of utilities, public transport, energy resources such as oil, health care, and unused farm land, similar to Socialism. It also specifies a return to the 'Gold Standard', rather than pegging to the Euro or dollar.

The draft constitution 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 Islamic rules), 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, or divinely ordained capital punishment for certain crimes. Hizb-ut-Tahrir's constitution says 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". Its draft constitution also provides the penalty of execution as punishment for apostasy (see Apostasy in Islam).

The draft constitution 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 therefore to be accepted without debate, according to Article 12, are those based upon fair interpretations of the Qur'an, the Sunnah, the consensus of the Sahaba (known companions to the Prohet Muhammad ), and legitimate analogies (Qiyas).

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 which applies non-Islamic rules". They also view the UN, the World Bank, and the IMF and the Arab League as contradicting Islamic law and being oppressive to the developing world. Article 185 of the draft constitution states: "It is permitted to conclude good neighbouring, economic, commercial, financial, cultural and armistice treaties."

Article 56 of the draft constitution states that Jihad is a compulsory duty for all Muslims. Muslim males past the age of 15 are obliged to undergo military conscription. At least as far as Article 56 is concerned, "jihad" refers purely to religious warfare, and subsequent articles in the draft constitution detail rules regarding territory gained by the Khilafah during Jihad. While many practicing Muslims traditionally hold that definitions of jihad (translated to English, jihad roughly means 'struggle') include both the physical form (taking up arms against an oppressive force, for instance) and the more personal jihad against one's own ego; Hizb ut-Tahrir considers the later to be a 'linguistic' application of the word, while jihad in the military sense is the 'shariah meaning' of the term.

Attitudes towards the non-Islamic world

Hizb ut-Tahrir has not been elected to government in any of the countries where the party is active, and therefore it is impossible to establish with certainty what its position in terms of international relations, in practice, would be. Publications on the Hizb ut-Tahrir media websites however show a strong anti-Western sentiment that has been characteristic of most Islamist movements. Among their publications is one that compares the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to the people of the Quraysh , the tribe of the prophet Muhammad that turned against him when he founded Islam and then sought to destroy him. An article on the British Hizb ut-Tahrir website claims to expose the agenda of the British government against "Islam and Muslims" for Charles Clarke's attack on the laws of Islam (Shariah) and the notion of Islamic governance (Caliphate).

The party's antipathy is not only reserved for the United States and Britain. Following a massive bombing attack on cities in Bangladesh (August 17th, 2005), Hizb ut-Tahrir responded with an analysis accusing India of continuing a campaign to destabilize Bangladesh. Investigation by the Bangladeshi authorities (that some would argue were favourable to the Indian policy) later revealed the terrorist attack was allegedly executed by a Bangladeshi Muslim movement, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh. Hizb ut-Tahrir regularily accuses India, along with "Western colonial powers" of 'conspiracy' against the Bangladeshi people, using rhetoric not dissimilar to that used against the United States or Britain in the Middle East and Europe, by socialists.

Controversy over anti-Semitism

Germany

In January 2003, Hizb ut-Tahrir's activities were banned in Germany on charges of spreading anti-Jewish propaganda and of being "hate preachers," a ruling currently being challenged in the German courts. German Interior Minister Otto Schily ruled that the group was "spreading hate and violence," and had called for the killing of Jews. The charges originate from a conference at the Technical University of Berlin, organized by a student society allegedly affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir. The conference was attended by members of the neo-fascist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), although they say they did not attend the meeting to support it. 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. Interestingly the NPD whose attendance to the Hizb ut-Tahrir meeting caused the stir are not banned despite attempts in 2003, after it was discovered that a large percentage of the leadership were in fact undercover agents of the German secret services; the court found it impossible to decide which actions of the NPD were based on genuine party decisions and which were controlled by the secret services.

Denmark

Fadi Abdelatif, Hizb Ut Tahrir's spokesman in Denmark, was found guilty of distributing racist propaganda in 2002. The title of the pamphlet he distributed was "And Kill Them Wherever You Find Them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out." Fadi Abdelatif was given 60 days prison time. Again in August 2006 he was sentence to 3 months in prison for threats against Jews and the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Hizb ut-Tahrir reject the interpretation of the Danish court insisting that the leaflet distributed by Abdelatif referred to the need to remove the dictators of the Muslim world who had not supported the Muslims of Iraq, and the leaflet made no reference to the Danish Prime Minister. They also insist that the leaflet was in the context of Israeli occupation of Palestine and reject the notion that they had called for the killing of Jews.

Britain

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 saying he rejected anti-Semitism. Citing the 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.

Website

In an article entitled "The Muslim Ummah will never submit to the Jews", removed from the website, stated:

In origin, no one likes the Jews except the Jews. Even they themselves rarely like each other. He said: "You would think they were united, but their hearts are divided" [TMQ 59:14] 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 which 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." [1]

Response

In response, Hizb'ut Tahrir stated:

We reject decisively the charge of anti-Semitism because Islam is a message directed to all humankind. However, at the same time we decisively reject Zionism represented in the form of Israel, and Hizb ut-Tahrir, like the majority of other Muslim organisations, is opposed to the continued occupation of Palestine by the Israeli State. The state of Israel is founded upon a land that it took by force, after it drove out its people, both Muslim and Christian. This is injustice, which we will never accept from an Islamic perspective, regardless of the race of the perpetrators. In Palestine, Islam is in conflict with Israelis — not in their capacity as Jews who historically had lived alongside Muslims in peace and security for centuries — but in their capacity as occupiers and aggressors.

On August 15, 2005, British executive committee member Dr Abdul-Wahid explained why Hizb ut-Tahrir removed the material from the party's websites:

[S]ome who do challenge our political views often resort to partial understandings of individual texts that are detached from context — either of the Muslim world or of global history in general. For example, the war rhetoric prevalent in Europe fifty years ago was full of derogatory epithets and proud declarations, but these are no longer seen as appropriate.

Winston Churchill's "fight them on the beaches" is relevant to Normandy in 1944, not Barbados in 2005; the language of "freedom" used in campaigns for independence today differs between Scotland and Aceh. It would be ridiculous to assume that rhetoric relevant to a population that sees itself under occupation is symptomatic of the viewpoint of Muslims generally, and Hizb-ut-Tahrir specifically, on all issues relating (say) to Jews and Americans. Yet that is all too often what we see in these so-called challenges to our political ideas. In fact, the decision to remove some of our overseas literature from our British website was a considered response to the legitimate proposition that people who read it out of its context might see it as offensive.

Prominent members

• Shaykh Taqiuddin al-Nabhani (founder)
• Shaykh Ahmed Dauor (Jordanian parliamentarian 1955-1957 now deceased)
• Shaykh Abdul Qadeem Zalloum (second leader, now deceased)
• Shaykh Ata Abu-Rashta (current global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir)
• Jamal Harwood [Chairman of UK Executive Committee]
• Taji Mustafa [Media Representative and UK Executive Committee member]
• Dr Imran Waheed (Media Representative and UK Executive Committee member) [2]
• Dr Nazreen Nawaz (Women's Representative) [3]
• Dr Abdul Wahid (GP & UK Executive Committee member) [4]
• Maajid Nawaz (UK Executive Committee member. Former prisoner of conscience in Egypt) [5]
• Shaykh Ali Syed Abul-Hassan (Imam of Masjid as-Sahaba, Khartoum, Sudan spokesman, deceased)
• Mohammad Nafi Abdul-Karim Salih (Prominent Jordanian member, now deceased)
• Shaykh Mahmoud Abdul-Latif Uweidah - Abu Iyas (Prominent Jordanian Member)
• Shaykh Taleb Awadallah (Prominent Palestinian Member from al-Khalil - Hebron)
• Shaykh Yusuf Ba'darani (Prominent Lebanese member)
• Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Badri (Prominent Iraqi member, deceased - credible sources indicate that he was killed by Saddams regime in Iraq)
• Jalaluddin Patel (a prominent UK leader)
• Wassim Dourehi (Australia spokesperson)
• Naveed Butt (Pakistan spokesperson)
• Imran Yousufzai (Pakistan spokesperson)
• Yilmaz Celik (Turkey spokesperson)
• Ayman Qadri (Lebanon spokesperson)
• Muhammad Ismail Yusanto (Indonesia spokesperson)
• Shaykh Ibrahim Othman - Abu Khalil (Sudan spokesperson)
• Mohiuddin Ahmed (Bangladesh Chief Coordinator and Spokesperson)
• Farhad Usmanov [Uzbekistan, died in uzbek prison, credible sources indicating he was tortured to death]

See also

• Taqiuddin al-Nabhani
• Islamic democracy
• Sayyid Qutb
• Islamism
• Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom
• Al-Muhajiroun
• Dilpazier Aslam
• List of political parties in the Palestinian National Authority
• Islam in Indonesia
• Islam in Uzbekistan
• May 2005 unrest in Uzbekistan
• UK Islamist demonstration outside Danish Embassy

Further reading and references

• Photo report of Hizb ut-Tahrir street protest in London, Moonbat Media, August 19, 2006
• "BBC Hard Talk interview with Maajid Nawaz", BBC News 24 Hard Talk with Sarah Montague, April 2006
• "al-Jazeera interview with Ian Nisbet and Maajid Nawaz - Arabic", al-Jazeera interview in Arabic, March 2006
• "Tony Blair and Hizb-ut-Tahrir: 'Muslims under the bed' Abdul Wahid, openDemocracy.net, August 9, 2005
• "The prime minister's statement on anti-terror measures" The Guardian, August 5, 2005
• Hizb ut-Tahrir's draft constitution
• "Background: the Guardian and Dilpazier Aslam", no byline, The Guardian, July 22, 2005
• "Cartoons ignite cultural combat in Denmark", International Herald Tribune, December 31, 2005
• "Fighting the War of Ideas", Foreign Affairs, November/December 2005
• "Hizb ut Tahrir", BBC Newsnight, August 27, 2003
• FAQ about Hizb ut-Tahrir by Khilafah.com
• Hizb ut-Tahrir official website in Urdu, German, English, Russian, Turkish and Arabic languages
• Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain
• Hizb ut-Tahrir Pakistan
• Hizb ut-Tahrir official Media website
• Inside ‘Islam’s political insurgency’ in Europe
• Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh
• Q&A with Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman by MSNBC
• BBC Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian interview with Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman
• BBC Hardtalk's Sarah Montague interview with Maajid Nawaz, who was imprisoned in Egypt for belonging to the political party
• Arabic website
• Interview with leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain by the Jamestown Foundation - PDF Format
• Recent interview with IRSN
• Interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• Recent article in Guardian with interview of female members
• Simon Jones comment, journalist currently based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
• 'The West needs to understand it is inevitable: Islam is coming back'
• Q&A: Hizb ut-Tahrir by BBC
• Article in New Statesman