Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain Issues Message to Muslim Community in Aftermath of London Attacks

London, UK, July 7 – In the wake of today's attacks in London, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, the well known global Islamic political party, has issued a message to the Muslim community in Britain. Tens of thousands of copies of the message will be distributed at all major mosques across the UK after Friday prayers tomorrow and via the Internet.

The message outlines how the Muslim community should respond to the challenges it faces in the aftermath of the London attacks. While making it clear that Islam does not allow the harming of innocent civilians, the message reminds the Muslim community of the need to "come together with one voice", be ambassadors of Islam and speak the truth, even in difficult situations.

Dr Imran Waheed, the Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "Despite the intense scrutiny that our community will find itself under after these attacks, it is imperative that the Muslim community is not silenced about the colonialism of western governments."

"It is lamentable that some politicians and commentators are apportioning blame for these attacks on Muslims, without evidence, as Muslims rightfully feel that they have far greater experience of being the victims rather than the perpetrators of terror."

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain is the UK branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global independent Islamic political party. The global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ata Abu Rushta, is in the Muslim world. The party works throughout the Islamic world to resume the Islamic way of life by re-establishing the Islamic Khilafah [Caliphate].

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For those not familiar with Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, since they're "peaceful", at least haven't been caught, they're legal in Britain and the US, though considered a terrorist group in much of the Arab world, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation)

Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation) a radical Islamic political movement that seeks 'implementation of pure Islamic doctrine' and the creation of an Islamic caliphate in Central Asia. The group's aim is to resume the Islamic way of life and to convey the Islamic da’wah to the world. The ultimate goal of this secretive sectarian group is to unite the entire ummah, or Islamic world community, into a single caliphate. The aim is to bring the Muslims back to living an Islamic way of life in 'Dar al-Islam' [the land where the rules of Islam are being implemented, as opposed to the non-Islamic world] and in an Islamic society such that all life's affairs in society are administered according to the Shariah rules.

Its basic aim was struggle with infidels and the organization of a universal caliphate embracing all Islamic countries. This objective means bringing the Muslims back to living an Islamic way of life in Dar al-Islam and in an Islamic society such that all of life’s affairs in society are administered according to the Shari’ah rules, and the viewpoint in it is the halal and the haram under the shade of the Islamic State, which is the Khilafah State. That state is the one in which Muslims appoint a Khaleefah and give him the bay’ah to listen and obey on condition that he rules according to the Book of Allah (swt) and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saw) and on condition that he conveys Islam as a message to the world through da’wah and jihad.

The work of Hizb ut-Tahrir is to carry the Islamic da’wah in order to change the situation of the corrupt society so that it is transformed into an Islamic society. It aims to do this by firstly changing the society’s existing thoughts to Islamic thoughts so that such thoughts become the public opinion among the people, who are then driven to implement and act upon them. The political struggle is manifested in the struggle against the disbelieving imperialists, to deliver the Ummah from their domination and to liberate her from their influence by uprooting their intellectual, cultural, political, economic and military roots from all of the Muslim countries. The political struggle also appears in challenging the rulers, revealing their treasons and conspiracies against the Ummah, and by taking them to task and changing them if they denied the rights of the Ummah, or refrained from performing their duties towards her, or ignored any matter of her affairs, or violated the laws of Islam.

The group - also known as the Islamic Party of Liberation - believes it can achieve its utopian Islamic state in three steps. The first involves educating Muslims about its philosophies and goals. In the second step, the Muslims would then spread these views among others in their countries, especially members of government, the military and other power centers. In the third and final step, Hizb ut-Tahrir believes its faithful will cause secular governments to crumble because loyalties will then lie solely with Islam - not nationalities, politics or ethnic identifications. At that point the group says a supreme Islamic leader, a Caliph like those of past centuries would rule all Muslims with both political and religious authority.

It was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 by an appeals court judge, Taqiuddin al Nabhani. The Hizb began and started to carry the da’wah within some of the Arab countries. The group first appeared in the 1950s in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It then proceeded to expand the delivery of the da’wah naturally until it began to function in many Arab countries and also in non-Arab Muslim countries as well. The rulers in Iraq, Syria, Libya and others have killed dozens of its members. The prisons of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are full of its members.

There is little information on the number of its members. It is active all over the world. Hizb ut-Tahrir now has its main base in Western Europe, but it has large followings in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, as well as in China's traditionally Muslim Xinjiang Province. Most of its members are believed to be ethnic Uzbeks. Its expansion into Central Asia coincided with the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. By one estimate there are more than 10,000 followers in Central Asia. Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami has been active in Central Asia since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Unlike similar Islamic groups, the radical Sunni Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir recruits new members irrespective of differences among the various tendencies within Islam. Unlike more traditional Islamic parties, it is supranational and refuses to be involved in local politics. Therefore, it is impossible for regional leaders to co-opt the group, as happened with the former Islamic opposition in Tajikistan. Hizb ut-Tahrir is not a political party in the sense that it does not want to participate in national politics. It does not want to go for elections. It does not want to be part of any coalition government.

The group has never been overtly involved in any violent actions, and Hizb ut-Tahrir has long claimed it wants to achieve its objectives through nonviolent means. It has so far not been involved in any known terrorist activities. One of the most secretive fundamentalist Islamic organizations, it remains a radical organization. Hizb ut-Tahrir is not against violence as such. It is just against the use of violence now. But they still think jihad [holy war] is a positive concept.

The United States Government is continuing to monitor Hizb ut-Tahrir. Despite the statements of governments of the region, the United States 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 terrroism. Nor has it been proven to give financial support to other groups engaged in terrorism. Because of that, it falls outside the definitions used by the United States and others to designate a terrorist group.

In 1999, the group was blamed for a series of bomb attacks in the Uzbekistan capital, Tashkent. It 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.

It is being fiercely repressed by regional governments, which consider its radical ideology a major threat. Hundreds of members of Hizb ut-Tahrir have been jailed in Central Asian countries and dozens in Azerbaijan in recent years. In Uzbekistan alone, rights groups say, heavy prison sentences were handed down to an average of 50 Islamic activists a month in 1999 and 2000. The relative decrease in arrests that followed is explained by the fact that Hizb ut-Tahrir went underground to avoid persecutions. Uzbek President Islam Karimov's intolerance of the group seemed to catch on with Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tajik authorities, who stepped up their repression of the group, arresting, trying, and convincing dozens of members for distributing leaflets and other nonviolent activities.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has long accused Hizb ut-Tahrir of links with separatist fighters and alleged Arab mercenaries combating Russian troops in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. It claims the group was recently joined by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a radical Central Asian-based Islamic organization. The IMU is linked to the Taliban religious militia and was also routed during the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.

In February 2003, the Russian Supreme Court put Hizb ut-Tahrir and 14 other groups on a list of banned terrorist organizations. A month before, Hizb ut-Tahrir was outlawed in Germany on charges of anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli propaganda.

In June 2003 Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested 121 illegal immigrants suspected of having ties with Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami. The arrests -- the largest swoop yet on the organization within the CIS -- were conducted on 6 June 2003 at a Moscow research plant where the suspects were reportedly hiding from police and immigration authorities. Among the the detainees were Alisher Musayev of Kyrgyzstan and Akram Jalolov of Tajikistan, whom the FSB suspects of being the leaders of the dismantled cell. Moscow media reports said hand grenades, explosives, and ammunition were found on both men, as well as Islamic propaganda leaflets. The FSB said the arrests had only uncovered the tip of the iceberg and claimed Hizb ut-Tahrir has a network of cells covering all of Russia. Most of the detainees were Central Asians, although there were some Slavs and Arabs among them.

11/14/2004-Russia Arrests Hizb ut-Tahrir Terrorist Kingpin, Seize Al Qaeda manuals

Russian law enforcement officials have detained the leader of a terrorist cell from the internatial Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which intelligence has linked to Al Qaeda.

Alisher Usmanov, who headed a cell in central Russia’s Tatarstan, was arrested Wednesday, carrying explosives and Al Qaeda training manuals and flyers, the Lenta.ru news site reported, citing police sources in the republic.

The explosives indicate that the man, who was already suspected of organizing a number of terrorist attacks, including a deadly blast in Uzbekistan last March, was planning yet another attack, Interior Ministry officials told the Russian Information Agency Novosti.

Earlier, four other members of the cell were arrested in the region.

Usmanov allegedly formed the cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir group, which is banned in many countries, in 1996. He was on the international wanted list.

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Hizb-ut-Tahrir-al-Islami: Profile of a New Suicide Terror in Central Asia

PG Rajamohan
Institute for Conflict Management

Three well-coordinated suicide attacks took place in Uzbekistan capital Tashkent on 30 July 2004, killing four local Uzbek guards and injuring eight others. The attacks were targeted on the embassies of United States and Israel and the chief of the prosecutor's office in the capital. Fifteen suspects mostly members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir-al-Islami (HT) with alleged links to al-Qaeda were being tried for first ever suicide bomb attacks in Central Asian region and subsequent wave of violence during March-April 2004 that left at least 47 people dead. Islamic Holy War Group took responsibility for these attacks and also claimed that "martyrdom operations carried out by the group will not stop. They are directed against the injustice of the apostate government and in support of our Muslim brethren in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and other Islamic countries ruled by apostates."

Uzbek President Islam Karimov indicated the involvement of two outlawed groups, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT). Earlier, Uzbekistan authorities had blamed Hizb-ut-Tahrir for previous bombing incidents in March 2004 and arrested its members. It was reportedly spreading into the other Central Asian republics and in the Russian region and engaged in vigorous recruitment. Observers also contend that al-Qaeda might have executed this attack through HT terrorists.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir-al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation), believed to be headquartered at Birmingham in Great Britain is an emerging Islamist fundamentalist group in Central Asia. Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani al Falastini founded the Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Jordanian occupied East Jerusalem in 1953, with the aim of representing the universal Caliphate embracing all Islamic countries. It appeared for the first time in Central Asia after the collapse of Soviet Union, initially in the Ferghana valley in Uzbekistan (in early 1990's), and then in neighbouring Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the late 1990s. HT's goal is jihad against America and other 'Colonial' powers and replacement of existing political system in the respective countries with a 'righteous' Caliphate (Khilafah in Arabic), a theocratic Islamic state based on the Shari'a (religious Islamic law), similar to the state which existed during Prophet Mohammad. Unlike other similar Islamist fundamentalist groups, Hizb-ut-Tahrir makes no preference among the various schools of Islam, which makes it more popular among the commoners and thus it recruits new members for its ranks irrespective of differences among the various tendencies within Islam.

Hizb activists have been operating clandestinely in over 40 countries around the world. It is believed that the HT has as many as 10,000 members in Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakstan, and now in Ural-Volga region of Russia as well. Analysts believe that anti-state feeling alone could not feed for the successful operations of these groups, but there must be a strong patron for these groups. HT has been targeting the economically, politically and socially deprived sections of the society and unemployed and frustrated youths in the region. Apart from Uzbekistan, HT is now reportedly gaining a strong base in northern Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan. The intelligence sources have been claiming that sources of funds, their external linkages and their operational strategies are ambiguous at this moment.

An investigative report from Moskovskii Komsomolets in July says "five students form a unit or 'Halqa', where members of one group do not know others and do not talk to them." Even the teachers themselves are subordinate to higher-ranking members and this goes all the way up to the Amir [commander] of the caliphate in Jordan. Its structure parallels the army. Observers believe that HT had started pursuing the path of violence due to repressive measures against this group and the overwhelming pro-US policy of the governments in Central Asia.

Russia declared Hizb-ut-Tahrir a criminal organization in 1999 and it was banned after detecting links with the Chechen terrorists in Russian territory. On 9 June 2003, the FSB announced the mass arrest of 121 members of HT in its southern region. In 2001, the head of the anti-terrorism center of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Major Gen Milnikov, declared Hizb-ut-Tahrir to be an international terrorist organization, a threat not only to Russia but also to all of the CIS.

In March 2004, chiefs of security forces of four Central Asian republics, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan formed a permanent joint working group to combat radical regional groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) etc. HT, a transnational organization with fundamentalist ideas prevalent in the strategically important region would be used as operational hand for the 'International Islamist Terrorists' to target pro-US establishments in this region. HT has won the support of thousands of young people, who are committed to an idea of overthrowing the region's governments and establishing an Islamic system. Persecution of HT members alone will not solve the problem; instead, it would aggravate the anti-state feeling more.

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