Hizb ut-Tahrir

[Petronas]

Fatah leaders meet to discuss Hamas
Aug. 24, 2006

For the first time since the Hamas victory in the parliamentary elections earlier this year, the Fatah central committee, a key decision-making body in the Palestinian Authority, began a three-day meeting in Jordan on Wednesday to discuss internal reforms and relations with Hamas.

Meanwhile, a radical Islamic group called Hizb al-Tahrir (Liberation Party) is planning to declare the birth of an Islamic caliphate in the Gaza Strip on Friday. The relatively small party, which is seen as more extreme than Hamas, is said to have increased its popularity following what is perceived as a Hizbullah victory over Israel.

On Tuesday, thousands of the party's supporters staged a demonstration in Gaza City to mark the anniversary of the end of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was the first demonstration in the Gaza Strip in which demonstrators called for establishing an Islamic caliphate that would rule not only in the PA territories, but the entire world.

Buoyed by the large turnout, the party's leaders are now considering declaring an Islamic caliphate in the Gaza Strip during Friday prayers, sources close to the party said.

Jordanian security forces recently foiled a similar attempt by the party's followers in the kingdom and arrested most of their leaders. Ramzi Sawalhah, the leader of Hizb al-Tahrir in Jordan, was arrested shortly after he delivered a sermon in a mosque in which he called for replacing the monarchy with an Islamic caliphate. ...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525933042&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Petronas]

Head of extremist group arrested in Uzbekistan
UPDATED: 11:21, August 24, 2006

The leader of the Uzbek branch of a banned extremist group was arrested in the eastern Uzbekh city of Namangan, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday. Abdurakhim Tuhtasynov, the internationally wanted man and head of Hizb-tu-Tahrir (the Islamic Liberation Party), was captured after police received a phone call describing a bearded man with a broken leg hiding in an abandoned house, the report quoted a local anti-terror official as saying. It did not reveal when the arrest was made. Tuhtasynov has been sent to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, to be interrogated.

Hizb-tu-Tahrir is accused of instigating deadly attacks and bombings in 2004, leaving more than 50 people dead. Uzbek police intensified crackdown on terrorist activities after the revolt in the eastern town of Andijan in May, 2005. So far, they have arrested 25 members of Hizb-tu-Tahrir and other extremist groups.

http://english.people.com.cn/200608/24/eng20060824_296403.html

[Petronas]

2 arrested in Siberia on suspicion of involvement in banned Islamic extremist group
November 16, 2006

Two men have been arrested in Siberia on suspicion of belonging to the outlawed Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, a news agency reported Thursday.

Mikhail Kapeko, an official with Prosecutor General's branch for the Tyumen region in western Siberia, said the suspects had been accused of spreading the group's ideology and recruiting new members, according to the Interfax news agency. "The organization was eliminated before it had a chance to begin plotting any terrorist attacks," Kapeko was quoted as saying.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Liberation Party, advocates the creation of an Islamic state in Central Asia and has been banned in Russia as well as in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The group claims to reject violence.

Russia's Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Wednesday that Hizb ut-Tahrir and other banned Islamic extremist groups had spread across Russia's North Caucasus, Volga River and Siberia regions and number more than 16,000. He said that more than 370 "emissaries" of banned Islamic groups have been extradited from Russia in the past year.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/16/europe/EU_GEN_Russia_Extremism.php

[Petronas]

Hate videos of Muslim group they failed to ban
Last Updated: 1:58am GMT 15/11/2006

A Muslim organisation which the Government chose not to ban is preaching hatred and has infiltrated the Home Office, an investigation has revealed. Hizb ut-Tahrir is showing inflammatory videos to small groups of followers then encouraging them to attack non-believers.

An HuT member has gained a job as an information technology worker in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office and been given a grant to organise an event for the radical group, it has been claimed in an undercover investigation by Vigil, a group campaigning against religious extremism.

In a mocked-up video shown to new recruits, a woman interrogator at Guantanamo Bay was shown wiping blood over the face of a prisoner to make him confess. A student in his twenties, who posed as a recruit to HuT, said: "The reaction was shocking. The group were clenching their fists and shouting, 'We'll kill her, how can you do this to our brothers? F****** kuffars [non-believers]. Afterwards the mushrif [leader] asked for our opinions and people seemed to think the British were the same, they were saying, 'A kuffar is a kuffar and f****** British troops, we have to do something.' They said, 'we have to attack from the inside' and I think they meant terror attacks."

The young man, who is known as Jay - not his real name – was forced to rob three people to show his loyalty to the group.

The group, which met at West Croydon Mosque, comprised five black and Asian men, aged between 18 and 28, most of them unemployed and four of them converts. Each group had a number and theirs was in the fifties. "They were thugs," said Jay, who spent six months with them. Jay said the group were shown DVDs on three occasions, each accompanied by a talk by the mushrif. The last showed a mock-up of soldiers attacking prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

"The last video was about 45mins or 60mins long and showed Americans beating and torturing chained Guantanamo prisoners," said Jay. "They told us what to obey and what to believe - it was like brainwashing. They tell you that they are allowed to hurt the kuffar, do whatever they want if they feel like it and they'd say, 'let's go out and beat someone up and take their money.' If they're not stopped somebody will get hurt."

Patrick Mercer, Conservative security spokesman, said of the investigation, screened last night on BBC2's Newsnight: "We need legislation that allows us to deal with these groups in whatever guise they appear. If it can be proved that they are doing wrong they should be banned and any individuals associated with them prosecuted."

Hizb ut-Tahrir was omitted when new legislation banned other radical groups, making it a criminal offence to belong to them or organise a meeting to be addressed by a group member. Although the group claims it is non-violent, their website advocates the introduction of shariah law and adds: "We begin fighting the enemy even if he did not start fighting us." Last night the group said in a statement: "We do not advocate or otherwise promote the use of violence or any criminal activity against civilians in the UK or anywhere else in the world."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/15/nmuslim15.xml

[Petronas]

Hizb-ut-Tahrir's Growing Appeal in the Arab World
December 14, 2006

Hizb-ut-Tahrir (or Hizb al-Tahrir) is an ostensibly non-violent Islamic political movement dedicated to the recreation of a global caliphate. Although founded in Jordanian-ruled Jerusalem in 1953, it has traditionally been strongest in Europe and Central Asia. Today, however, it is becoming increasingly popular in the Arab world [1]. Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) works covertly to convince Muslims to overthrow their present governments peacefully and establish a worldwide caliphate, which will then impose conservative Islam over all Muslim majority countries. Once this is accomplished, HT hopes that the caliphate will make the whole world Islamic through conversion in the first instance and, as a last resort, offensive jihads against all non-Muslim states. HT is highly organized and has national leaderships as well as an overall leader, Abu Rashta, who lives in secret in Lebanon. The group says that it will take power peacefully by persuading influential members of the elite to overthrow the government. The organization is illegal in all Arab countries except for Lebanon, Yemen and the UAE where it is tolerated. The group does not believe in using either elections or violence to take power and there is no evidence that HT members have carried out any attacks in the Arab world. There is mounting evidence, however, that HT is growing in popularity in the Arab world.

Evidence of Growing Popularity

Throughout the fall of 2006, an apparently unprecedented spate of HT campaigns and related arrests took place throughout the Arab world, suggesting that the group could become an increasingly important factor in Islamic politics in the region. In the last two years, HT has slowly become more visible in Palestine. In August, several thousand members of HT marched through central Hebron on the anniversary of the dissolution of the caliphate [2]. On October 27, several hundred members demonstrated on the Temple Mount to call for the recreation of the caliphate (Arutz Sheva, November 14). In Morocco, the largest-ever arrests and trials of HT members occurred on October 3. In September, 14 members of HT were jailed after being arrested in Meknes, Casablanca and Tetouan [3]. The convicted men were mostly well-educated, engineering graduates who had studied in Europe. They were given short sentences for forming unauthorized associations and receiving money from abroad (Maroc Hebdo International, October 6).

In Zanzibar, HT members launched a massive new publicity campaign. Overnight, the group's estimated 3,000 members on the predominately Muslim archipelago plastered the region's towns with posters arguing that a caliphate would stop the islands' Islamic culture from being corrupted by Western tourists (al-Jazeera, October 31). No arrests were reported. In Jordan, HT appears to have found its greatest opportunities. Senior Jordanian members of the party claim to have gained numerous recruits in senior positions in the army and government, while they also enjoy growing support among the Amman intelligentsia. Numerous arrests have taken place and around 40 HT members are believed to be in prison [4].

In Lebanon, there is increasing evidence that HT stepped up its activities after the government legalized the group in May. Anecdotal evidence suggests that HT is becoming especially popular among Palestinian refugees (for example, in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp), in Sidon and in Sunni areas around Tripoli. Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat, however, warned that he would take action against any HT members who were planning violent actions or threatening the state's security (al-Balad, October 17). In Syria, HT's popularity is harder to measure. Since the late 1990s, however, there has been a steady stream of arrests of HT members [5]. The Syrian government treats HT members as it does members of the Muslim Brotherhood, trying them in State Security Courts and sentencing them to long prison terms. In other repressive Arab countries, HT's underground following is harder to estimate; members have been arrested in 2006 in Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia.

Trends Collide

HT's growing popularity is partly due to its increasingly organized and media-savvy leadership, and partly because in many Arab countries a series of local and global factors have combined to increase HT's appeal. In Palestine, the movement's growth reflects dissatisfaction with the policies of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. While Hamas has thwarted certain Israeli policies, it has publicly failed to rejuvenate Palestinian society, repair the economy or reverse the constant deterioration of education, infrastructure and healthcare. In Jordan, dissatisfaction with the country's Westernizing monarchy is increasing. However, the main Islamist opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood Islamic Action Party, is dominated by Palestinian refugees and has been linked to alleged attempts by Hamas to carry out attacks in the kingdom. HT allows Palestinians and native Jordanians to work together to address their common problems, while its non-violent approach has obvious appeal following several al-Qaeda attacks that killed mainly Muslims.

In other countries like Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia, HT presents itself as a religious alternative to existing regimes as well as a way to overcome ethnic and sectarian tensions. In addition, HT offers an attractive alternative to the many Arabs who, although increasingly observant, are also uneasy with the willingness of Salafi or Muslim Brotherhood-influenced jihadis to kill innocent Muslims during anti-Western operations.

The idea of reviving the caliphate has also been given a boost by Osama bin Laden, who has publicized neo-caliphate concepts. Al-Qaeda's actions have demonstrated how Muslims can unite to defend the ummah. Caliphatist dreams have also been lent new credibility by the expanding and increasingly interlinked Islamist insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere that might, if successful, someday unite to form a caliphate-like alliance—just as elements in Algeria's GSPC have recognized Mullah Omar as caliph. While al-Qaeda at present offers little beyond the nihilistic policies of perpetual opposition, HT presents the caliphate as a viable solution to the Muslim world's problems. Al-Qaeda focuses almost entirely on its military struggle to defeat the enemies of Islam. In contrast, HT has published detailed plans for the organization of the economy, society and structure of the caliphate that they aim to establish [6]. In addition, HT plays down Sunni-Shiite divisions, claiming to accept Shiites as party members without reservation. This stance is likely to become more attractive if sectarian conflict in Iraq continues to worsen, giving new credence to HT's argument that Western powers deliberately exploit Sunni-Shiite rivalry to divide the Muslim world.

The internet has allowed HT's ideas to spread faster than ever, while also proving that recreating the caliphate in the modern, ever-shrinking global community is no mere fantasy. HT members in Jordan point to the internet and the success of the European Union as evidence that a global caliphate can realistically overcome historical differences and national rivalries. HT has deftly played a lead role in many recent pan-Islamic issues. For instance, it rapidly deployed its members to organize global boycotts and protests against Denmark following the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons by the Jyllands-Posten.

Nevertheless, the group does have limitations. Its gradualist approach has a limited appeal for the Arab world's increasingly numerous, unemployed and ill-educated youths who generally demand immediate action against their rulers and against Israel. HT's calm, non-violent methodology—largely developed by well-educated South Asian immigrants in Western Europe—also falls slightly flat among Arab cultures that appreciate bold, confrontational rhetoric. The movement has apparently failed to gain significant traction in countries like Egypt or Oman whose people are reluctant to see their distinctive historical, ethnic and cultural identities submerged within a caliphate. HT has also floundered in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states where political discourse is often simplistic and clan-based. Gulf citizens recognize that a caliphate would force them to share their oil wealth with the rest of the Muslim world.

HT may have been set back by the recent Lebanon war in which Hezbollah won a strategic military victory over Israel. The conflict reignited belief that Israel can be defeated militarily. The fallacy of this position, however, is likely to be exposed (at least in the short-term) as Israel adapts to its defeat and the region's true military balance reasserts itself. Once this happens, HT may receive a further boost if its non-violent position is vindicated.

Increased Significance

HT is regarded with some confusion by Western analysts because while its goals of recreating a caliphate and then converting the world to Islam by force if necessary are almost indistinguishable from bin Laden's, its methods are entirely different. Although HT members sincerely believe that the caliphate will be recreated soon, HT's real significance is likely to be its increasingly important role in radicalizing and Islamizing the Middle East. For example, HT's ideologies also fuel the increasingly common view that the present conflict between Western democracies and Islamists is not a resolvable dispute over land, territory and temporal politics, but is rather an inevitable clash of civilizations, cultures and religions.

HT, by saying that non-Muslim attempts to prevent the creation of a global Islamic empire amount to the deliberate persecution of Muslims, feed the victim culture that fuels Islamic radicalism today, as well as provide the necessary theological justification for individual acts of defensive or pre-emptive jihad. HT argues that the Quran says that all non-Muslim countries, cultures and individuals must submit to Islam. HT members who accept this theory naturally begin to see the world exclusively in terms of Muslims and non-Muslims, and inevitably begin to see all non-Islamic entities as worthy of destruction. In addition, HT's absolute rejection of democracy as un-Islamic is considerably more hard line than that of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups, while the group also takes highly conservative positions regarding women, alcohol and freedom of speech.

HT's long-term strategy is to take over countries by progressively winning over the elite. More pressing, however, is the threat posed by the "conveyor belt" effect of HT [7]. The conveyor belt theory says that HT members often leave the group much more radicalized than when they joined and that they might then consequently commit terrorist acts [8]. In Europe and Central Asia, this theory is supported by growing evidence that a larger flow of people through HT leads to an increased number of attacks against Western targets and non-Islamic governments by former HT members. Although it is presently impossible to fully document this trend in the Arab world, it seems logical that the conveyor belt theory would apply there just as it does elsewhere.

In addition, HT splinter groups tend to be Salafi-Jihadi movements led by people dissatisfied with HT's gradualist approach and its refusal to alter its opposition to political violence. For example, in the UK, a senior leader, the Syrian-born Omar Bakri Muhammad, quit HT to establish al-Muhajiroun, which advocated violent attacks against British, U.S. and Israeli targets around the world. Several peripheral members of al-Muhajiroun later carried out jihadi attacks, while Bakri now lives in Lebanon where he is believed to be involved in radical Islamic politics among Palestinian refugees (particularly in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp) and among Lebanese Sunnis in the Tripoli region [9].

In conclusion, despite HT's increasing popularity in the Middle East and its stated aims of overthrowing existing Arab regimes, the group is not in itself a threat to regional stability. Instead, for the moment at least, the group's growing importance is in the effect that its rhetoric has on its members, former members and those who hear its message.

Notes

1. Most of the background information on HT in the Arab world came from interviews conducted with senior members of HT's Jordanian branch in Amman in April 2006. The three members interviewed were Abdullah Shakr, the group's Jordanian spokesman, and Abu Abdullah and Abu Muhammad, who were described as being senior leaders of the Jordanian branch. All three have been members of HT for more than 20 years and each has spent several years in prison for their membership in the group.
2. See Hizb-ut-Tahrir Britain, http://www.hizb.org.uk.
3. See http://www.khilafah.com.
4. Interview with Jordanian HT members.
5. Syrian Human Rights Committee, http://www.shrc.org.uk.
6. See http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.info/english/constitution.htm.
7. The "conveyor belt" theory has been most notably put forward by Dr. Zeyno Baran of the Nixon Center.
8. For example, Omar Sharif, the British Muslim who carried out a suicide attack in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2003, was a member of al-Muhajiroun. British police recovered a substantial amount of HT literature from his house (although Sharif never formally joined HT).
9. For example, Richard Reid, the British "shoe-bomber," was closely associated with al-Muhajiroun.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370234

[Petronas]

PM shelves Islamic group ban
Sunday December 24, 2006

The Prime Minister has been forced to shelve a central plank of his 'war on terror' strategy after opposition from senior police officers and the Home Office. Plans to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, the radical Islamic group, have been dropped in the past few days following intense discussions between Number 10 and legal advisers. Counter-terrorism sources said Tony Blair had been warned that banning the group, which campaigns for Britain to become a caliphate - a country subject to Islamic law - would serve only as a recruiting agent if the group appealed against the move.

The decision is a significant personal blow to Blair, who announced his intention to outlaw it shortly after the London bombings on 7 July, 2005, as part of a 12-point strategy to counter Islamic extremism.

On a trip to Pakistan last month, he is understood to have given personal assurances to President Pervez Musharraf that the ban would go ahead. Musharraf made clear to him that outlawing the group - banned in Pakistan since 2003 - must be a priority for Britain. In the past couple of weeks Blair has held high-level discussions with police and counter-terrorism experts with a view to reviving plans to proscribe the group. But The Observer understands he has been persuaded it is impossible based on evidence collected so far.

The debate over Hizb ut-Tahrir's right to operate in Britain comes as its influence is growing. The group has a presence in 40 countries. But it is banned in Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Sudan and in almost every Arab country.

Last month a BBC investigation claimed to expose its methods to radicalise young British Muslims. It reported that in Croydon, south London, Hizb ut-Tahrir encouraged an undercover researcher posing as a recruit to commit crimes to 'prove his loyalty'. Hizb ut-Tahrir has denied this and said it intends to sue the BBC. The group's British wing has distanced itself from the more radical views of international sister organisations such as those expressed on leaflets handed out by Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters in Copenhagen which claimed suicide bombings in Israel were 'legitimate' acts of 'martyrdom'. The British wing has also distanced itself from its former leader, Omar Bakri Muhammad, who left the group to set up the more extreme al-Muhajiroun organisation in 1996 and is in exile in Lebanon after being caught on tape praising the London bombers as the 'fantastic four'.

Despite public concerns about Hizb ut-Tahrir's perceived extremism, Home Office lawyers, the Foreign Office and representatives of the Association of Chief Police Officers have quietly lobbied against outlawing the group and have, for now, won the argument. 'If there was evidence for proscribing Hizb ut-Tahrir, we would support a move to proscribe it,' said Rob Beckley, Acpo lead for communities and counter-terrorism. 'But we think such a move would be counter-productive and not in the spirit of the government's [anti-terrorism] legislation. It is not an offence to hold extreme views.'

The news comes as the Conservatives expressed fresh concerns that Britons determined to martyr themselves in the name of jihad are being released into the community because police lack powers to prosecute them.

Up to a dozen people suspected of being en route to join the fight against British forces in Iraq or Afghanistan, or to become suicide bombers overseas, have been detained by one major police force alone in the past year. But because evidence gained by covertly intercepting conversations by phone or email is not admissible in British courts, they could not be charged with any serious offence. Patrick Mercer, the Conservative homeland security spokesman, said he was told by Greater Manchester police there was now a persistent pattern of such suspects causing serious concern.

'They were graphically described to me as men who have come to terms with death, who are then going back into the community,' Mercer told The Observer. 'The police are convinced that these are the sort of people who will pull an incident, probably in Manchester but maybe in London or Birmingham or elsewhere.'

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1978581,00.html

[Vancouver]

I don't know why the UK is having a problem banning HuT. That cult is patently anti-democratic, just for starters. HuT is already banned in Canada and Germany, and in all Arab dictatorships of course, and I'll bet in lots of other countries.

[Petronas]

Hizb ut-Tahrir Emboldened in Kyrgyzstan
12-Mar-07

The outlawed Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir is engaging in increasingly sophisticated actions to raise its public profile in Kyrgyzstan and fend off the authorities’ attempts to curb its influence. The latest case involves a group of men who were arrested on charges of belonging to the banned organisation after arriving in Naryn to help rebuild an area hit by an earthquake on December 26. More than 5,500 buildings were damaged by the tremor measuring seven on the Richter scale.

In February, Hizb ut-Tahrir sent a press release to Kyrgyz media saying it was sending a team of builders to Naryn and would also be handing out aid to people who had suffered in the quake. On February 15, police arrested 11 men who had just arrived in Naryn region. The men detained are still being held at the local offices of the National Security Committee, which deals with such sensitive cases relating to Islamic groups.

About 20 relatives around held a demonstration in Naryn on February 26 to demand their release. Seven of the wives had earlier approached the Kylym Shamy human rights groups for help. They may be successful. Commentators including Arkarbek Sadabaev, deputy head of the government’s State Agency for Religious Affairs, note that Hizb ut-Tahrir members are increasingly aware of the finer points of Kyrgyz law.

The criminal code does not explicitly ban Hizb ut-Tahrir membership, although the country’s Supreme Court issued a ruling prohibiting the group from operating in 2003, and the constitution prohibits faith-based political parties in general. “They know that unless they openly campaign to change the constitutional system, they cannot be charged solely for belonging to the party,” said Arkabaev.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which originated in the Middle East but gained a foothold in Central Asia in the Nineties, advocates the replacement of secular governments by a Caliphate governed by Islamic precepts. It does not advocate violence as a means of achieving this, although regional governments have accused it of being behind a number of attacks.

Despite the arrest of thousands of members in its stronghold Uzbekistan, and smaller numbers of detentions in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the group still seems to attract members, in part because its fragmented cellular structure makes it resilient to police surveillance, and because its message appeals to socially and economically marginalised groups.

Hizb ut-Tahrir now appears to be exploiting the relatively liberal climate in Kyrgyzstan to engage with the wider public at various levels. Jenishbek Ashirbaev, spokesman for the police in the southern Osh region, said, “They don’t like the fact that our constitution separates religion from the state, and they say they want to be heard by the authorities. They also want to participate in politics. They accept only shariah, Islamic law.” Last year, the group entered the debate on a new constitution by sending its own draft – outlining the foundations of an Islamic state – to the national newspapers, which did not publish them.

In late December, at a time when Kyrgyz Muslims were celebrating the Eid Al Adha festival, the group campaigned for the abolition of the secular New Year holiday, which in Kyrgyzstan is of Soviet origin. As part of this strategy, Hizb ut-Tahrir is attempting to expand its base from southern Kyrgyzstan, which is near Uzbekistan and had many ethnic Uzbeks, to the predominantly Kyrgyz north.

Since January, police have made several arrests and confiscated leaflets and other publicity material in the capital Bishkek and the surrounding Chui region. As political analyst Orozbek Moldaliev told IWPR, “Previously, they were active only in the south, emerging first near the Uzbek border in Karasuu, Uzgen, Osh, Jalalabad and Batken. Subsequently, they have moved to northern regions such as Issykkul and Bishkek, and now they are in Naryn.”

Another other area of expansion is the recruitment of women, say local experts. “They have a focused and wide-ranging policy of attracting women into their ranks, forming a women’s wing,” said Sadabaev. “When women with babies take part in protests, the law enforcement agencies cannot resort to strong-arm measures. Hizb ut Tahrir is exploiting this factor.”

Sadabaev drew a sharp distinction between the increasing public visibility of Hizb ut-Tahrir members nowadays and the time a few years ago when the group operated completely underground, broken up into cells of three to five people who would know little about the rest of the organisation. “Now they openly travel around and make speeches in all parts of the country, showing who they are. They freely collect money from people to hold [Muslim festivals], lay on meals and hold charity campaigns to draw people in.”

Sadabaev believes all these changes in tactics are less a reflection of a growing strength than of a more nuanced approach by Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders to negotiating their way around the ban. “If you calculate the number of Hizb ut-Tahrir members who are totally devoted to the cause, there are only 2,000 of them. They are fanatical people, and they do present some threat. But they don’t have the capacity to resort to violence or mount acts of terrorism. Substantial funding would be needed for that.”

Sadabaev said police had so far been unable to prove that Hizb ut-Tahrir relies on foreign funding. “There is information that Hizb ut-Tahrir is financed from inside Kyrgyzstan. They use commercial organisations – they run businesses.”

Ashirbaev agreed that there was only a small core of committed members. “Most of them are educated people. In Osh region there are 600 registered Hizb ut-Tahrir members out of a population of 1.3 million,” he said.

But he added that there was a broader rank-and-file membership who, in his view, are only there because the group pays them a fee for distributing material and other work.

An Hizb-ut-Tahrir activist interviewed by IWPR insisted that the party remained steadfast to its non-violent line, and he denied suggestions that have been made in Kyrgyzstan that a more aggressive splinter group has emerged.

“Our party will never take part in mass disturbances, looting or acts of intimidation,” said the activist, who gave his first name as Artyk. “The party’s tactics for achieving its primary goal of establishing an Islamic state… worldwide, not just in Central Asia, have remained unchanged since 1953, and will not change under any circumstances. This is not out of fear of the authorities or because we lack the money or people, but because the Prophet only used political and ideological methods in Mecca. of combat.

“There is no split within the party ranks, let alone a shift to armed struggle, and this is quite impossible.” Artyk said the actual number of Hizb ut-Tahrir members had to remain “confidential information”.

Sadabaev and other commentators point to the economic problems and unemployment that drive people to consider alternatives to the kind of government they have now. “They [party recruiters] say, ‘See, we have corruption everywhere and the courts are unjust, but if there was a Caliphate, these problems would resolve themselves’, he said. “And people are forced to believe it; the realities here drive them to join Hizb-ut-Tahrir.”

Many analysts suspect the authorities are beginning to lose the argument with Hizb ut-Tahrir, since police methods alone are inadequate, the state has not come up with its own clearly-defined ideology as a response to anti-government propaganda, and the clergy have failed to defend the position of mainstream Islam. “Essentially, you could put all the party’s supporters in jail, but then they would simply conduct propaganda in jail,” said Sadabaev. “People need to be made aware that this ideology is mistaken.”

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=rca&s=f&o=334010&apc_state=henprca

[Petronas]

Hizb-ut-Tahrir's Activities in the United States
09/06/2007
By Madeleine Gruen (from Terrorism Monitor, August 16)

Five years ago, most Western observers did not consider Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) much of a threat—its goal of overthrowing governments in order to replace them with a caliph who would implement Sharia law seemed unrealistic and unlikely to resonate with Muslims raised in the West. Even though HT did manage to exploit political circumstances to gain a foothold in certain regions, such as in Central Asia, overall it was perceived as stagnant. During the last five years, however, turbulent world events and the changing tide of public opinion toward the United States has given HT a framework to advance its agenda. Five years ago, scholars estimated HT had a presence in approximately 40 countries [1]. Today, that estimation has risen to more than 45 countries. During the last five years, several branches became large enough and strong enough to transition from their covert gestational phase to a publicly active stage, including those in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Malaysia, Palestine, Pakistan, Turkey and Bangladesh. Its membership has swelled, putting on track its objective of persuading the global ummah that the establishment of a caliphate—ostensibly through non-violent means—is essential to reverse the decline of Islamic society. Globally, HT presents itself as confident and optimistic, and it is progressing according to the strategy its founding members outlined in 1953 [2]. Hizb-ut-Tahrir America (HTA) is enjoying a similar pattern of progress.

In its first 13 years of development, HTA was perceived as being too small and ineffective to present any kind of serious threat (Orange County Register, August 25, 2005). Its founders, most of whom immigrated to the United States from the Middle East as adults in the early 1980s, had a hard time overcoming cultural differences with their young American target audience, and they were sometimes unable to compete with other extremist groups with more money, more aggressive strategies and better established operations. However, the HTA founders managed to bring in enough committed members during the first 10 years to secure the party's future. HTA has continued to evolve, using the same methodology as its other branches and is now exhibiting signs of vitality.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir in America: Temporary Setbacks and Long-Term Successes

Like every HT branch around the world, HTA's foundation began with a "nucleus" of committed members [3]. Chief among them were Palestinian-Jordanian Iyad Hilal, an Orange County, California-based grocer, who was most actively engaged in HTA's development from the late 1980s to the beginning of 2000, and Mohammed Malkawi, a computer engineer based in the Chicago area (Spotlight on Terror, March 23, 2004). Both had been long-time members of HT in their home countries. Hilal and his associates initiated HT activities in New York and in Orange County simultaneously, while Malkawi and his associates established party roots in Wisconsin and Chicago.

HTA's growth has been comparatively slow to other countries; however, what may have been counted as impediments to their growth initially have either been overcome or may now be considered assets. The first obstacle was the mentality of its founders, who were accustomed to conditions in the Middle East, where HT is banned in most countries. They constantly worried about "spies" infiltrating their circles and the name "Hizb-ut-Tahrir" was only mentioned in whispers outside of their meetings, which were conducted sub rosa [4]. Such a degree of secrecy is practical when running a subversive political movement, but the cloak-and-dagger atmospherics seemed bizarre to young Muslims in the pre-9/11 era and many chose not to continue their association with HTA [5]. In post-9/11 America, however, where many Muslims do not feel free to express dissent, HTA's secretive method of operations could now be considered advantageous. In fact, HTA has grown without much public scrutiny and with little remark from journalists and scholars.

Another contributing factor to HTA's slow growth may have been the founders' reluctance to allow their students and new recruits to interact on the internet. They feared the free interaction between members in cyberspace would compromise HTA's covert development of a party apparatus. Again, many of their young American adherents found these limitations ridiculous and chose to ignore the restrictions [6]. The younger generation's pioneering spirit has made HTA one of the most innovative extremist groups in terms of its use of new media as a means of marketing its ideology. Some of their marketing schemes have included hip hop fashion boutiques, hip hop bands, use of online social networks, use of video sharing networks, chat forums and blogs [7]. Their ability to stay one step ahead of the trend curve has ensured their efforts endure, and their ever-changing tactics make adversarial scrutiny more difficult.

Turf battles have been an ongoing issue throughout HTA's development. Sometimes HTA wins control over the mosque, Islamic community center, or student association it has set its sights on, other times it has been stymied by its inability to compete for recruits with better-funded organizations that have had a long-term presence in the United States, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. HT is a self-funded organization that only has its ideology and inexpensive propaganda campaigns with which to compete. Hilal's first base of operations, the Islamic Society of Orange County, was rife with conflict between extremist factions vying for control over the mosque, including associates of al-Qaeda (New Yorker, January 22). Hilal's small HT faction was not allied with the group that had control over the mosque, and when they attempted to entice recruits by distributing their magazine Khalifornia, they were forced to stop by the mosque's board of directors (Orange County Register, August 25, 2005). Hilal did have better luck in Queens, New York, where his counterparts took over a small, out-of-the-way storefront mosque which was used as a base for their front operation, group meetings, conferences and editorial offices of their HT primer, thinly disguised as a news magazine called Ar-Raya [8]. Hilal moved to his current base of operations, the Islamic Center of San Gabriel Valley, in light of the ongoing impediments at the Islamic Society of Orange County [9]. There are informal indications that Hilal continues to use his weekend classes to present HT ideology, although he denies any ongoing ties to HTA (Orange County Register, August 25, 2005).

HTA's presence in the United States was not limited to the two coasts. Some of HTA's most influential members are in the Midwest, including Palestinian-Jordanian Mohammed Malkawi (also known as Abu Talha), formerly a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, and Muslim convert Jaleel Abdul-Adil, currently a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Abdul-Adil is perhaps the most charismatic of the identified members of HTA. He has spoken at major HT conferences in Britain, and was featured in a July 2007 video produced by members of HT Britain to promote their 2007 Khilafah Conference, making Abdul-Adil the first representative of HTA to be publicly identified as such [10].

HTA's Future

Despite a few bumps from the start, HTA has made inroads, recruiting enough loyal followers to generate momentum for the party's growth in the United States. As per their global strategy, HTA counts well-educated professionals who are influential in their communities among their members, including doctors, lawyers, business owners, scientists, engineers and university professors. In addition, HTA's online presence reveals that their membership has blossomed beyond New York, Orange County, Chicago and Milwaukee.

HTA likely plays an important role in the global HT network due to its success in the new media arena and its access to international students, who study at American universities for several years before they return to their home countries. Naveed Butt, the influential spokesman for HT Pakistan, was recruited to HT when he resided in the United States. After graduating from the University of Illinois, he worked for Motorola at the same time as Mohammed Malkawi (Dawn, November 9, 2003). The fact that such a high-ranking member was recruited in the United States is an important victory for the party on the whole.

Even though it is unlikely that HTA will initiate violence, it may serve as a starting point in the radicalization process (Foreign Affairs, November/December 2005). There have been several cases of individuals passing through the HT ranks and then moving on to more militant organizations, as was the case with Tel Aviv pub bomber Omar Sharif, and Abu Issa al-Hindi, who plotted to attack several New York-based financial targets (New Statesman, April 24, 2006). However, at this point in their development, because the United States does not have the same incendiary social conditions as in Europe, HTA is unlikely to have as many recruits and students going through the indoctrination process as they have in many other countries. Nevertheless, HTA's ambition to exacerbate tensions and to promote the lack of participation in American social and political systems should not be discounted [11]. HT provides organization to Muslim communities' feelings of disaffection and marginalization, as it has in the UK, Denmark and Australia. If rifts continue to grow between Muslims in the United States and the federal government, HTA will position itself to step in to exploit tensions.

Madeleine Gruen is an intelligence analyst and a candidate for a master's degree from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Notes

1. Ariel Cohen, Hizb ut-Tahrir: An Emerging Threat to U.S. Interests in Central Asia, The Heritage Foundation, May 30, 2003.
2. "The Methodology of Hizb ut-Tahrir for Change," Al-Khilafah Publications, http://www.khilafah.com/kcom/.
3. Ibid.
4. Author interview with former student of HTA, December 2004.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. See, for example, khalifahklothing.com; hip-hop bands Soldiers of Allah, Al Nasr Productions and Arab Legion; social networks on Orkut and Facebook; chat forums such as www.trustislam.com, which was shutdown in late 2005.
8. The Masjid al-Fatima is located on 37th Avenue in Woodside, Queens. The front HTA worked behind was called the Islamic Dawah Center.
9. See, for example, http://www.icsgv.com/classes.html.
10. Abdul-Adil was a speaker at the 2000 Khilafah Conference in Birmingham, England. For the 2007 promotional video featuring Abdul-Adil, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfMy2goXLSY.
11. "The Methodology of Hizb ut-Tahrir for Change," Al-Khilafah Publications, http://www.khilafah.com/kcom/.

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