This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3364
February 19, 2008
By Emerson Vermaat
Few people may have heard about "Hizb ut-Tahrir" (HuT) or "Party of Liberation." Although it has its roots in the Middle East, Hizb ut-Tahrir is one the fastest growing Islamist movements in Europe. Those who want to join Hizb ut-Tahrir have to swear an oath of allegiance to "the party." So far, very few dared to leave.
One of those who did leave Hizb ut-Tahrir is Ed Husain, a British Muslim. Last year, Husain wrote an alarming book about these well organized fanatics showing how they penetrate university campuses and universities all over Britain. Their real goal, eventually, is to take over the government. They know how to deny, lie and deflect, Husain writes. Always telling the outside world they espouse a policy of non-violence, in reality, though, they are not peaceful at all. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, was (and still is) an open admirer of Osama bin Laden. (He told me so personally when I interviewed him for Dutch television in 2002.) Hizb ut-Tahrir is linked to the "Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan" (IMU) which is closely affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Both Al-Qaeda and Hizb ut-Tahrir want to establish a Caliphate, Allah's kingdom on earth. (A kind of utopia not so different from the Marxist or Communist utopia of the kingdom so brilliantly described by George Orwell in his "Animal Farm," a kingdom indeed where all people are equal, but some people "are more equal than others.") A Muslim state ruled by Islamic law or "sharia." Today's Muslim leaders and kings are apostates, they must be deposed. In addition, Hizb ut-Tahrir and Osama bin Laden share their militant anti-Semitism: Jews must be killed, wherever you find them.
Hizb ut-Tahrir and Haj Amin Al-Husseini
Hizb ut-Tahrir Al-Islami ("Islamic Party of Liberation") was founded in Jordan in 1952 (some claim it was in 1953) by Taqi Al-Din Al-Nabhani, a Palestinian born in the village of Ijzim in Northern Palestine in 1909.
Al-Nabhani studied Islamic Law at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the most important Islamic institution in Egypt and the intellectual bulwark of Islam.1] The new party was described as "a political party with Islam as its ideology and the goal of resuming an Islamic way of life by establishing an Islamic state (Caliphate, Al-Khalifa, V.) which will implement Islam (through Sharia law, V.) and propagate it worldwide." "Al-Nabhani was one of the first Arab intellectuals to argue the case for a modern political party using the constructs of Islamic discourse," writes Suha Taji-Farouki in her book "A Fundamental Quest."2]
Some authors claim that Al-Nabhani was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood but later quit it over a difference of opinion. The Muslim Brotherhood regarded Hizb ut-Tahrir as a new rival. But Al-Nabhani was close to Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, whom he had first met in the 1930s. Al-Husseini was among those who financially supported Hizb ut-Tahrir in the 1950s. The Jordanian government did not like the close ideological ties between Hizb ut-Tahrir and Haj Amin Al-Husseini, an arch-enemy of the moderate Jordanian Hashemites.3]Transjordanian Emir Abdallah firmly sided with Britain during World War II. Al–Husseini, however, sided with Nazi Germany. He met Hitler in November 1941 and the Nazis granted him policial asylum paying him a monthly "salary' of 20,000 Reichsmark for rallying Muslims in the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle behind the Nazi cause.
In Berlin, Haj Amin Al-Husseini also met Heinrich Himmler, the notorious SS Reichsführer, and his assistant Adolf Eichmann.
Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann's deputy for Slowakia and a personal friend as well, made detailed notes when he was on trial in Nuremberg. Wisliceny claimed in his notes (dated 26 July 1946) that Eichmann personally briefed the Grand Mufti on the "final solution of the Jewish question" (=Holocaust):
"After Mufti Ali-Husseini arrived in Germany, he paid a visit to Himmler. A shortwhile thereafter the Grand Mufti visited the director of the Jewish Section at the Gestapo Department IV, Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, in his office in Berlin, 166 Kurfürstenstrasse. I no longer remember the exact date of the visit. Possibly it was at the end of 1941 or the beginning of 1942.
By chance I was with Eichmann in Berlin a few days later, when he told me in detail about this visit. Eichmann lectured to the Grand Mufti in his Map Room, where he had collected statistical acounts of the Jewish population of various European countries – he lectured in detail about the solution of the Jewish Question in Europe. The Grand Mufti, according to him, was most impressed and said to Eichmann that he had already asked Himmler and had in fact secured Himmler's consent on this point, that a representative of Eichmann should come to Jerusalem as his personal advisor when he, the Grand Mufti, would go back after the victory of the Axis Powers. In that conversation Eichmann asked me whether I was not willing to take the post. But I rejected in principle such Oriental adventures.
Eichmann was greatly impressed by the personality of the Grand Mufti. He repeately said to me, both then and on a later occasion, that the Mufti had made a powerful impression on him, and also on Himmler, and that he had an acknowledged influence in Arab-Jewish affairs.
To my knowledge, Eichmann saw the Mufti from time to time and spoke to him."4]
In his excellent book "Justice in Jerusalem" Chief Prosecutor Gideon Hausner points out that the ex-Mufti's ties with Eichmann were of long standing:
"At the beginning of 1942 Eichmann received him and his retinue at the department's headquarters and lectured to them on the Final Solution in Europe. The ex-Mufti was so strongly impressed that he immediately requested Himmler to designate someone on Eichmann's team to be his ‘personal adviser' on ‘finally solving' the Jewish problem also in Palestine, once the ex-Mufti was reinstated in his office by the victorious Axis. Eichmann welcomed the offer... The personal ties between the two continued through the Mufti's nephew, who was later a caller on Eichmann at his office."5]
When Attorney General Hausner asked Eichmann if he remembered that a proposal had been made for Wisliceny to become the Mufti's advisor after the great victory, Eichmann said: "I do not remember that, but I am sure that would necessarily have happened. I can safely say that. But I do not remember that." When Hausner asked if he could not dispute Wisliceny's words in the matter, that it was suggested that he be the Mufti's advisor, Eichmann replied: "I believe this is pure imagination on Wisliceny's part."6] (This kind of contradictory responses was typical for that way Eichmann often sought the evade controversial issues.)
After the war the Mufti's diary was found by the Allies. On a page bearing the date of 9 November 1944 the following words had been written: "The best of the friends of the Arabs. Eichmann." Above the word "Eichmann" (written in Latin charaters) appeared the Arabic words in Al-Husseinis' own handwriting: "fairus nadira jiddan" and "Kheir mukhlis lil-arab" – "a very rare diamond" and "the best redeemer for the Arabs."7]
A number of Mufti friends attended a brief crash course at the Gestapo offices in order to be "reconditioned into experts for any Gestapo to be set up in the Near East." One of them was called the "Heydrich of the Neast East." Eichmann corfirmed this, although he would not call it a course.8]
Attorney General Hausner later made the following observation in the courtroom:
"Haj Amin Al-Husseini was a man who obviously found in Eichmann a precious jewel. He had begun the spilling of Jewish blood in Palestine, his heart was wide open too an unclear partnership with the spiller of Jewish blood in the world, and in his Section Eichmann trains minions of th Mufti, among them the man who was dubbed ‘Heydrich of the Near East.'
And what was meant by this, Your Honors? After the victory, which was coming, as they hoped, these people were planning the same bloody work in the whole world, which would fall at their feet. And the Mufti who had spilled the blood of the Jews in Hebron, in Jaffa and in Jerusalem, in the riots of 1921, 1936 and 1939, was looking for a man like himself who would help him finish the job. He saw that they did it better there."[9
Ernst Verduin, Dutch Jew who survived Auschwitz 3 ("Monowitz") and whose number was 150811 (tatooed by the SS in his arm), actually saw the Mufti there in the second half of 1943. He saw 50 men wearing strange clothes and golden belts, accompanied by high ranking SS from Stammlager (=original camp) Auschwitz. Verduin was curious and tried to take a closer look, but an SS guard stopped him. He asked the guard who these people were. The guard replied that they were "the Mufti of Jerusalen and his retinue who wanted to see how the Jews worked themselves to death, so that he could do the same things to the Jews who lived in Palestine."[10 It was known that the Mufti had visited Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek, what was not known was that he had also visited forced labor camp of Monowitz, which, as "Auschwitz 3", was part of the vast Auschwitz complex.
The Grand Mufti was also deeply involved in recruiting, mobilizing and motivating young Muslims to fight in special Waffen SS Muslim divisions operating in Yugoslavia and Hungary where they committed terrible atrocities. For this reason, Yugoslavia requested the Mufti's extraditon after the war with a view to indicting him as a war criminal.
Although the Grand Mufti was a war criminal implicated in Nazi war crimes and the Holocaust, Egypt sheltered him after the war. Haj Amin Al-Husseini was very popular among the Arabs and the Palestinians, only the pro-British Jordanians were his traditional arch-enemies. Because of his immense popularity in the Arab world, Western leaders and Russia declined to ask for his extradition and prosecute him.
The Grand Mufti continued to support Islamist causes. Hizb ut-Tahrir was one of the new causes he supported. Besides, he and Hizb ut-Tahrir founder Al-Nabhani were close friends, and the Jordanians did not like this at all. As early as March 1953 Jordanian authorities decided to arrest the founding members and banned the party.
Hizb ut-Tahrir's involvement in failed coup attempts
Yet, the party continued grow and together with other opposition groups, was involved in organizing disturbances. The leadership of the party was situated outside the country and could not be arrested. The situation improved in the 1960s and in 1969 the leadership claimed that the movement had created an effective support base for itself in Jordan.
Hizb ut-Tahrir was even involved in two failed coup attempts in Amman in 1968 and 1969.[11 The party had obviously managed to infiltrate the traditionally pro-Western military, the backbone of the Hashemite Kingdom. Hizb ut-Tahrir wanted to replace the moderate Hashemites by an anti-Western Islamic Caliphate or state.
Meanwhile, the movement had spread to other countries, notably Iraq and Syria where the military was also successfully infiltrated. In 1972 Hizb ut-Tahrir attempted to stage a coup in Southern Iraq. In 1993 Hizb ut-Tahrir was once again implicated in a plot against Jordanian king Hussein (who would make peace with Israel one year later.)[12
Although spokesmen for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Europe emphasize today that their movement espouses a strategy of non-violence, Hizb ut-Tahrir founder Al-Nabhani urged his followers to fight against the unbelievers under the Caliph's banner (=jihad) and to actively propagate the movements' ideas by construing a popular support base.[13 The movement's role in several failed coup attempts shows that we are dealing here with a fanatical but well organized and extremely dangerous group which seeks to penetrate the government and the army.
Al-Nabhani died in 1977 in Beirut and was succeeded by Abd Al-Qadim Zallum. The new leadership sent a delegation to Paris to meet Ayatollah Khomeini before his return to Iran. Two further delegations were later sent to Tehran to meet the new Iranian leader there. The last delegation arrived in Tehran in May 1979 and presented Khomeini with Hizb ut-Tahrir's proposed "constitution for an Islamic state." But Khomeini had his own ideas about such a state and showed no interest in the proposals. Subsequently, frustrated Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders denounced the Iranian leader as "a virtual American agent."[14
In the second half of 1980s and 1990s the movement followed the strategy of taking advantage of the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Australia. Hizb ut-Tahrir spread to many countries and developed a particular strong base in Uzbekistan where it cooperated with Al-Qaeda. They also have a strong base in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, China's Xinjiang Province, North Africa (Tunesia, Libya, Egypt), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gulf States, Turkey, Pakistan and Australia. (In Turkey, 23 Hizb ut-Tahrir members were accused of "undermining the state" and sentenced to four years in August 2000; in Australia, Hizb ut-Tahrir heightens tensions among Muslims and endangers their integration into society.)
The party or movement is organized like a fascist party, loyalty to the leadership ("Amirs" of "Emirs") is absolute. It is also a kind of totalitarian brotherhood operating through cells.
Members have to swear an oath:
"I swear by God Almighty to be loyal to Islam and to defend it, to embrace Hizb ut-Tahrir's opinions and constitution, to have confidence in its leadership, and to implement its resolutions, even if they are contrary to my own opinion, as long as I remain a member."[15
Members are obliged to give one tenth of their income to the party.
In many respects, Hizb ut-Tahir's ideology is completely in line with the thinking of Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who also wanted an Islamic state (Caliphate) ruled by Sharia law and who was an uncompromising anti-Semite. The official Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman in Amman, Jordan, made the following statement in 1994:
"There can be no peace with the Jews; this is prohibited by Islamic law. It is also prohibited to settle for only one part of Palestine. There can be neither negotiations, co-existence nor normalization of relations with the Jews in Palestine. None of the Jews in Palestine who arrived after the destruction of the Ottoman Empire have a right to remain there. The Islamic legal rule requires that those of them who are capable of fighting be killed until none survive. Any others should be forced to leave...
It is impossible to solve the problem of Palestine by peaceful means: what is required is actual war, in the form of jihad."[16
Hizb ut-Tahrir's hidden agenda in Britain: Take over the government
Hizb ut-Tahrir has been dubbed in 1995 as "Europe's fastest growing Muslim group."[17 It is still growing today, and is particularly active in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries. In Britain the movement succesfully targeted universities and the academic community claiming it is committed to non-violence. (This is, of course, a smokescreen.) They are highly successful in recruiting young first and second-generation immigrants from Pakistan, Turkey, Somalia, and other African countries. By the end of the 1980s, study circles were often made up exclusively from young second-generation Muslims.[18 In the 1990s, Hizb ut-Tahrir's ideology was gradually taking hold among the diverse groups that make up British Islam.[19
Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK is tied to "Al-Muhajiroun" (="the immigrants"), a fanatical Muslim group founded by the Syrian hate cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, an admirer of Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Mohammed first joined the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and later joined Hizb ut-Tahrir in Lebanon. When he arrived in Britain in 1986 (as an asylum-seeker), he first founded and headed the local branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir. In 1989, he founded "Al-Khalifa Publications."
At the height of the Gulf War Omar Bakri Mohammed urged Muslims to attack British, American and French interests worldwide:
"(John) Major is a legitimate target. If anyone gets the opportunity to assassinate him, I don't think they should save it. He is the head of state which has declared war against Islam and our God says fight those who fight you. It is our Islamic duty and we will celebrate his death. I pray to God for someone to kil him."[20
Omar Bakri Mohammed left Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1996 to found "Al-Muhajiroun." [21 Although rival movements, Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Muhajiroun have common goals and they still cooperate. (They use the same symbol of a black flag showing a Koranic text.)
After 9/11, Omar Bakri Mohammed openly sided with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. When I interviewed him for Dutch TV in his headquarters in North London in 2002, he told me he strongly admired "Sheikh Osama bin Laden" and the 9/11 suicide pilots. (There were huge posters hanging on the wall behind him showing one of the burning WTC towers and a plane coming toward the other WTC tower, and below this dramatic color photograph the following text: "September 11th 2001. A TOWERING day in history. Conference room 19:00 to 22:00. 11th of September 2002. www.almuhajiroun.")
Omar Bakri Mohammed told me that if he would have advance knowledge of plans for an attack on the London underground, he would not allow his family to travel in London. (I did remember these words on July 7, 2005.) Bakri Mohammed threatened the Netherlands that if Dutch authorities would not stop arresting Muslims, terrorist attacks were bound to occur there.[22(In 2003 and 2004 the Dutch Security and Intelligence Service (AIVD) did indeed thwart a few terrorist plots linked to young Muslims from the so-called Hofstad Group.[23)
Ed Husain was once a member of the British Hizb ut-Tahir branch. He heard Omar Bakri Mohammed's powerful call for "Jihad for Bosnia" in the London School of Economics. Ed Husain was a young college student when he met his Hizb ut-Tahir recruiters who pursuaded him to join the organization. He began to recruit others and distribute leaflets with anti-Semitic texts like: "The only meeting place between a Muslim and a Jew is the battlefield."[24
One of Husain's Hizb ut-Tahrir friends was a British convert named David. He told Husain that the most important thing in life is to work towards the creation of an Islamic state through a military coup:
"Our members in different Muslim countries have penetrated Muslim armies and soon we will establish our own government. Not through democracy or parliament – that belongs to the kafir (=unbelievers) system.
We will deliver the Islamic state through a military coup. Very soon, God willing. Our members orchestrated coups in the 1960s and 1970s in several Arab countries, but the time was not right. The West will shake and crumble. The flag of Islam will rise above Downing Street."[25
This means that they also want to establish an Islamic state and an Islamic government in Britain.
His mentors told Ed Husain: "We are the elite leaders of the ‘ummah' (=Islamic community)." Activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir are "an altogether superior sort of Muslim."[26] There are three stages of taking power:
- the secret stage of building a political party with a core group of activists;
- the open stage in which the dominant paradigm of political and social constructs would be attacked in an attempt to substitude an alternative world view;
- the third stage: seeking assistance ("nusrah") from powerful sources to take political power. This would, in all likelyhood, be a military coup.[27
Hizb ut-Tahrir members are often college or university students or graduates (academics). The movement has a powerful presence at several universities up and down the country. "Our numbers were steadily increasing as we attacked the West," says Ed Husain. With its anti-capitalist, anti-American and anti-imperialist agenda, the group particularly appeals to leftist students and academics. (The extreme right also has its own anti-American and anti-capitalist agenda, though.) Ed Husain's main mentor was a former Trotskyite.
Denying the truth, lying and deceiving the infidels is part of the strategy:
"We knew how to deny, lie, and deflect... We believed that the Muslim ummah was in a state of war with the West, particularly Britain, France, Russia, and the United States so lying and deception were simply strategies of war. Besides, our enemies were kafir (=infidels), not deserving our honesty or integrity. We employed the scriptural justification for deceiving the enemy that was used in the seventh century."[28
This is why spokesmen for Hizb ut-Tahrir invariably emphasize that their movement is non-violent. The truth, however, is that it is a terrorist group having a secret cell structure[29 and committed to overthrowing the state and to the "complete destruction of the existing political order" (Nabhani).[30]
There was a major Hizb ut-Tahrir conference in Birmingham in August 2003 which was attended by 7000 people. It was on the eve of this conference that Dr. Imran Wahid, a psychiatrist and a second-generation Pakistani immigrant, gave two interesting interviews. In the first interview (with a local British newspaper) he stressed that it is not so important for Muslims to adopt British identity. It is better for them if "they engage in a debate with the wider society on the fundamental failures of capitalism and in our view the only viable alternative ideology – Islam."[31] In the other interview (with the Arab newspaper "Al-Sharq Al-Awsat") he said: "We support jihad to achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinians."[32 He clarified this viewpoint in his address to the conference, saying that suicide bombings are legitimate and the Palestinian struggle can be compared to the struggle of the French during the Second World War.[33
Earlier that year, two Pakistani immigrants from Britain, Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Mohammed Hanif, planned a suicide operation in Israel. Hanif killed himself and three Israelis when he detonated an explosive belt at a bar in Tel Aviv. Sharif's explosives failed to detonate, and he was later found washed up on a beach. Both were believed to have links with Hizb ut-Tahrir.[34
Another interesting speaker at the Birmingham conference, Shaban Ul-Haq, lashed out against participation in Western politics, adding:
"The future belongs to us. The birthrate of Muslims in Western Europe is three times higher than the birthrate of non-Muslims. The Muslim community in Europe will have doubled in 2015."[35
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark and Germany: Anti-Semitism, links to neo-Nazis and the 9/11 plotters
Hizb ut-Tahrir has been active in Germany since the mid 1980s. After reports in the media that the group was alligning itself with neo-Nazis and advocated anti-Semitism, Hizb ut-Tahrir was officially banned by Interior Minister Otto Schily in January 2003. The German branch now operates underground. It is a small but well organized group. They are particularly active among Germany's large Turkish community. The group was very active in university towns and published the periodical "Explizit. Das politische Magazin für ein islamitisches Bewusstsein" ("Explicit. Political Magazine for Islamic Awareness").
On 31 March 2002, Hizb ut-Tahrir published a leaflet on its German homepage containing anti-Semitic statements about Jews:
"The Jews are a people of slander. They are a treacherous people who violate oaths and covenants. Allah has forbidden us from allying ourselves with them. Indeed, that you should destroy the monstrous Jewish entity. Kill all Jews wherever you find them."[36
A similar text had previously been shown on the website of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain and Denmark. In March 2002, Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Fadi Abdelatif translated and published the same text text in Danish in a leaflet which was then handed out in a square in Copenhagen and at a mosque. In court, Abdelatif claimed he had just quoted a text from the Koran and that it "exclusively referred to the Jewish state's forces of occupation in Palestine." (London spokesman Imran Wahid used the same excuse.) Prosecutor Karen Bast said the text was a call to kill Jews around the world. In October 2002, the court gave Abdelatif a sixty day suspended sentence for distributing racist propaganda.[37Bast, who had demanded an unsuspended sentence, regretted this court decision.
In August 2002, a Muslim organization in Denmark announced that a 30,000 dollar bounty would be paid for the murder of fifteen prominent Danish Jews.[38
Another controversial text was published on the German website of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the summer of 2002. It criticized Arab heads of state ("Regents") who instead of waging jihad, proposed a peace initiative. The Jews are "cowards," while the mujahideen in Palestine are competing for the martyrdom's death. The armies of the Islamic countries must destroy "the nasty Jewish structures ("Ihr sollt das hässliche Judengebilde vernichten") and rekindle the fame of Islam and of the history of the great leaders."[39
In October 2002, Hizb ut-Tahrir organized a conference on "Irak – a new war and the consequences" at Berlin's prestigious Humboldt University. "Explizit" publisher Shaker Assem, an Austrian whose father is from Egypt, was the main speaker. Those who were present called for the destruction of Israel, a "foreign body" ("Fremdkörper") in the heart of the Muslim world. The only solution is jihad. "Allah commands us: ‘And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have been turned you out.'"[40
Two prominent neo-Nazis also attended this conference: Udo Voigt, president of the "Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands" (NPD) and his assistant Horst Mahler, a former member of the "Marxist Red Army Faction" (RAF), a notorious terrorist group operating in 1960s and 1970s. Udo Voigt told the radical Muslims from Hizb ut-Tahrir assembled in Berlin: "Germany will only be free after the last American bases have been removed."[41
Nazis and fundamentalist Muslims share common ground on issues like Israel, the Jews, the "imperialistic" United States, etc. Shaker Assem told the German weekly "Der Spiegel": "When we are in the majority, we will topple the government."[42
Interior Minister Otto Schily issued a ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir in January 2003.
Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the key planners of the 9/11 attacks, advised some of his friends to read "Explizit," the official Hizb ut-Tahrir organ in Germany.[43 In the summer of 2001, Shaker Assem was invited as speaker at a meeting of members of "Islam AG," a Muslim study group inside Hamburg's Technical University.[44 "Islam AG" was founded in 1999 by an Egyptian student named Mohammed Atta. The same Atta would later be the leader of the 9/11 suicide commando. Probably present at this meeting were Ramzi Binalshibh and Said Bahaj, another prominent member of the Hamburg terror cell.
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Holland and the anti-Wilders campaign
Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the most fanatical Islamist groups in the Netherlands. They have been active there for more than 10 years. The Dutch Security and Intelligence Service (AIVD) reported in 1998 that Hizb ut-Tahrir followers are actively distributing anti-American and anti-Israeli leaflets in mosques.[45 Most members of Hizb ut-Tahrir belong to the Dutch-Turkish community but there are also some former asylum-seekers from Muslim countries. The Dutch branch publishes the periodical "Expliciet" (almost the same name as the German periodical "Explizit").
Just like in Germany and Britain, they claim to advocate non-violence but their publications show a clear preference for the "freedom fighters" in Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan.[46 "Expliciet" also published following text:
"There is no difference between prayer (salah) and jihad, between Dua (=kind of prayer or recitation, V.) and frightening the enemy. There is no difference between Zakah (=giving money to the poor, V.) and cutting the hand of the thief, nor is there a difference between helping the grieved and killing those who commit aggression against the sanctities of Muslims. All of them are Sharia rules which the Muslim or the State will implement in practice when its time comes."[47
Women must be dressed in accordance with the strict Islamic dress code, they are completely subordinate to men.[48 Western freedoms (democracy, etc.) and "capitalism" are wrong and participation in politics and elections are equally wrong. Those who do so will later face Allah's judgment.[49
Today, the Dutch branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir is represented by the Turkish immigrant Okay Pala. The Dutch followers are very vocal in their opposition to Geert Wilders, the Dutch member of Paliament who once said that the Koran must be banned because it is a "fascist" book comparable to Hitler's "Mein Kampf." After Wilders had published the Danish cartoons on Mohammed on his website in February 2006, Pala wrote him an open letter, saying:
"Unfortunately, Muslims do not yet have a powerful state, the correctly ruled Khalifa State which will confront you with the seriousness of your actions. But the will and the passions in the hearts of Muslims to defend the prophet remain.
And we demand on behalf of the Muslims in this country that you remove those blasphemous cartoons and openly and publicly apologize for what you have done."[50
After Wilders announced that he would make a highly critical film on
the Koran, "Shabab (=the youngsters from) Hizb ut-Tahrir Holland" launched the campaign "Stop! Against the slandering of Islam" in December 2007. They issued a call saying "O Muslims in Holland! Defending the Koran is an Islamic obligation," threatening those who participate in this "organized campaign" with damnation in hell:
"Surely, Allah will collect the hypocrits and disbelievers in Hell... We should not keep silent regarding the mockery of our religion and the mockery of the holy Quran, it is a duty upon us to support our religion and to defend the Quran."[51
Pala was quoted in January 2008 by the Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf":
"Anything can happen after this. People just don't accept it anymore... All those people who offend us hide behind the mask of freedom of expression. That's exactly the problem. We don't agree with freedom of expression. We reject democracy. Our alternative is Islam."[52
Pala and his friends started a campaign to collect signatures against the "Slander of Islam" in a film which he could not possibly have seen because it was not ready yet. (Wilders announced a few weeks ago that his anti-Koran film might by ready in March.)
Pala claimed in December 2007 that "our campaign is absolutely peaceful and legal, there is no underlying message which could possibly lead to violence."[53 There is reason to doubt this very much.
Those who signed often added a personal message, and some of these personal messages were rather aggressive and violent. "All Hell will break loose. Be warned," Mehmet wrote. Nassira wrote: "May Allah break the necks of Geert Wilders and those who help him." Hayat wrote: "Didn't they learn from what happened to Theo van Gogh?"[54
Among those who signed the petition was Bouchra Ismaili, a Dutch-Moroccan member of the Rotterdam-Charlois City Council (Labor Party). She added the following text: "It is time to get rid of a culture which damages our Islam and to proclaim the true beauty of Islam. This is how we will grow in our Islam." The same Charlois citycouncilmember had previously sent an threatening e-mail to a native born Dutchman, saying: "Listen well, you dirty mouth. We stay here hahahaha. Drop dead. Convert to Islam." Initially, Ismaili denied she had signed the Hizb ut-Tahrir petition, but when she had to admit she had lied about this, the Rotterdam-Charlois branch of the Labor Party asked her to resign. She refused to comply with the request.[55
The Hizb ut-Tahrir petition was signed by about 25,000 people. Pala and his friends wanted to present the petition with all these signatures to Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst, but the minister refused to see them. She had been informed by the security service AIVD that Hizb ut-Tahrir was a suspect organization.
"It operates in great secrecy and is organized into cells with an almost military hierarchy. Doctrinally, the movement is dominated by virulent anti-Zionism, an intense hatred of secular governments and ideologies, the complete avoidance of those holding different opinions and the advocacy of a confrontational and polarizing message...
One of its active strategies to that end it is clandestine entryism: Hizb ut-Tahrir is endeavouring to secretly place as many members as possible in strategic positions in society. When time comes for Islam to seize power, these activists will reveal themselves and help the movement to achieve its objectives from within. It is partly for this reason that the movement's main target is the well-educated. In the United Kingdom it is active in Universities and similar institutions; students whose level of education has somewhat alienated them from their own communities, and so feel culturally uprooted, can be easily susceptible to its approaches...
Several terrorist organizations with their origins in Hizb ut-Tahrir are active in the United Kingdom. They include The Saved Sect and Al-Muhajiroun. It also operates in the former Soviet republics of central Asia; for example it has been linked directly to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a terrorist group affiliated to Al-Qaeda...
Whenever it is active in Europe, Hizb ut-Tahrir tends to target the largest Muslim ethnic group. In the Netherlands, that is the Turkish community. But while it does have some support there, which is even growing, membership remains small in numerical terms. The movement does take to the public stage here on oaccasions, as it did during the Danish cartoon crisis at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006. It also organizes conferences in the Netherlands."[56
Concluding comments
Hizb ut-Tahrir should be banned in all European countries as a terrorist organization or group. If that is not feasible on legal grounds yet, Hizb ut-Tahrir should be banned as an anti-Semitic or racist organization. (There is plenty of hard evidence that they are inherently anti-Semitic, there was a conviction in Denmark and Germany already banned the organization on these grounds.)
Claims by Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesmen that their movement or so-called party is non-violent are not credible. With its secret cell structure and access to the academic community this well organized and commited group seeks to penetrate governments with a view to overthrowing them. There are indications that Hizb ut-Tahrir members or affiliates recruited Muslim immigrants in Germany and native Germans for the jihad. These recruits were sent to Pakistan to receive training in a terrorist training camp.[57
The European Council Framework Decision on Terrorism (2002) defines a "terrorist group" as follows: "A terrorist group shall mean a structured group of more than two persons, established over a period of time and acting in concert to commit terrorist offences."
Hizb ut-Tahrir founder Taqi Al-Din Al-Nabhani advocated the complete destruction of the existing political order, in any country of the globe. He and his movement were involved in several coup attempts in the Middle East and in bomb attacks in the Uzbeki capital of Tashkent in 1999.
It is time to follow Germany's example and ban Hizb ut-Tahrir before they become too dangerous.
Emerson Vermaat is an investigative reporter in the Netherlands specialized in crime and terrorism. His website is: emersonvermaat.com.
[1J.J.G. Jansen, The Neglected Duty. The Creed of Sadat's Assassins and Islamic Resurgence in the Middle East (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986), p. xviii, xix (Preface), 79.
[2Suha Taji-Farouki, A Fundamental Quest. Hizb Al-Tahrir and the Search for the Islamic Caliphate (London: Grey Seal, 1996), p. x, xi (Introduction).
[3Ibid., p. x (political party), 1, 2, 6 (Muslim Brotherhood) 17 , 131.
[4 The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Record of the Proceedings in the District Court of Jerusalem (Jerusalem: Ministry of Justice, State of Israel, 1992), Vol. I, p. 243, 244. For a detailed study on the origins of the Final Solution, see: Christopher Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution (Lincoln: University of Nabraska Press, 2004), p. 36-43.
[5 Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem. The Trial of Adolf Eichmann (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1967), p. 345.
[6 The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Record of the Proceedings in the District Court of Jerusalem, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 1790.
[7 Ibid., Vol. III, p. 1141, 1354, 1355 ("The Arabic above the word ‘Eichmann' is in the Mufti's handwriting.")
[8 Ibid., Vol IV, p. 1790.
[9 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 2028.
[10 Israel Nieuwsbrief (The Hague: CIDI), May 21, 2006 (21/7), p. 1 (interview with Dutch Auschwitz survivor Ernst Verduin).
[11 Suha Taji-Farouki, op. cit., p. 27, 28.
[12 Ibid., p. 158.
[13 Ibid., p. 98.
[14 Ibid., p. 30, 31.
[15 Ibid., p. 134.
[16Ibid., p. 162.
[17 Ibid., p. 171; The Observer, 13 August 1955.
[18Ibid., p. 171, 172.
[19Ibid., p. 172-187.
[20 Ibid.. p. 181; see also: Daily Star, 1 March 1991 and 26 February 1991.
[21The Jamestown Foundation, Global Terrorism Analysis, Al-Muhajiroun in the UK An Interview with Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, March 23, 2004.
[22 Twee Vandaag (Dutch TV report from Emerson Vermaat, London), 29 November 2002. The interview on tape was about one hour (two Betacam SP tapes). Because it was a newsprogram Twee Vandaag's deputy editor in chief allowed me to use only three and a half minutes. There were two more minutes for the British terrorism expert M.J. Gohel. The part of the Omar Bakri interview about the London underground was on the unedited tape.
[23 Emerson Vermaat, Nederlandse Jihad. Het Proces tegen de Hofstadgroep (Soesterberg: Aspekt Publishers, 2006), p. 65, 66 (Hofstad Group and Akoudad), 125 (Samir Azzouz).
[24Ed Husain, The Islamist. Why I joined radical Islam in Britain, what I saw inside and why I left (London: Penguin Books, 2007), p. 129.
[25 Ibid., p. 78, 79.
[26Ibid., p. 98, 102.
[27 Ibid., p. 93.
[28 Ibid., p. 99 ("... our emphatic denials..." "Training to deny the truth in public...") 101.
[29 Ibid., p. 99.
[30Ibid., p. 91.
[31 Birmingham Post, 23 August 2003, p. 45 ("The Saturday Interview: Imran Waheed – Intellectual Pursuit of the Muslim").
[32 Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Internet), 24 August 2003.
[33 Birmingham Post, 25 August 2003, p. 1 ("Muslim Leader's Mission of Peace").
[34 Ibid.
[35 De Volkskrant (Amsterdam), 27 August 2003 ("Het Islamitisch Licht").
[36 Werner Bergmann and Juliane Wetzel, Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the European Union. Synthesis Report on behalf of the EUMC (Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Technische Universität Berlin, March 2003), p. 50, 51. The EUMC did not want to publish this report because they feared the contents of the report could be offensive to Muslims.
[37 BBC Newsnight, 27 August 2003; BBC Monitoring Europe – Political (Denmark's Radio website, Copenhagen), 23 October 2002.
[38 The Jerusalem Post, 27 August 2002, p. 9 ("Something rotten in the state of Denmark?"); see also: Jyllands Posten, 11 August 2002.
[39www.hizb.ut-tahrir.org/deutsch/schriftstucke.html. (No longer available on the Internet.) The words "Ihr sollt dass hässliche Judengebilde vernichten" could have been said by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
[40Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Verfassungsschutzbericht 2002 (Cologne: BfV, 2003), p. 185.
[41Twee Vandaag (report from Emerson Vermaat, Dutch TV), 17 November 2003. The author has four CD-roms containing all the speeches at the conference.
[42Der Spiegel, 18 November 2002, p. 86 ("Dolch im Herzen").
[43 Ibid.
[44 Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 June 2002, p. 10 ("Der Traum von Kalifat").
[45 Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (BVD, now AIVD), De politieke Islam in Nederland en Tilburg (Leidschendam: BVD, 1998), p. 3 (author's file on HuT).
[46See for example Expliciet, October/November 2002, p. 1 (Editorial article on the Chechen rebels, headed "Terroristen of Vrijheidsstrijders" ("Terrorists or Freedom Fighters").
[47Terrorisme (Al-Irhab), in: Expliciet, www.expliciet.nl/exp9/terrorisme.html (2003). This is a literal quote from the HuT publication "Dangerous Concepts to Attack Islam and Consolidate the Western Culture" (London: Al-Khilafa Publications, 2001), p. 12.
[48 De kledingvoorschriften van een moslimvrouw, in: Expliciet, www.expliciet.nl/exp12_13/kledingvoorschriften.htm (2003).
[49 De verdorvenheid van het idee van vrijheid, in: Expliciet, www.expliciet.nl/exp14/De%20verdorvenheid%20van%20het%20idee%20van%20vrijheid.htm; Expliciet, October-December 2002, p. 18, 19 ("Goddelijk oordeel over: De deelname aan politieke partijen").
[50Open Brief van Okay Pala aan de Groep Wilders, February 5, 2006 (www.expliciet.nl/content/view/3081/82).
[51Halt! Tegen het Lasteren van Islam. Defending the Holy Quran is an Islamic Obligation, 11 December 2007, www.haltlasterenvanislam.nl/content/view./49/29/ (also avalaible in Dutch, Turkish and Arab).
[52 De Telegraaf, 12 January 2008, p. 5 ("De HEL zal losbarsten").
[53 Expliciet, 28 December 2007, Persbericht: Voortgang campagne Halt! Tegen het lasteren van Islam" (www.expliciet.nl/content/view/9245/82/)
[54 De Telegraaf, 12 January 2008, p. 5 ("De HEL zal losbarsten").
[55 AD/Rotterdams Dagblad, 23 January 2008, p. 1, 2 ("PvdA'ster dubbel in de fout. Haatmail is normaal, al went het nooit"); NRC Handelsblad, 24 January 2008, p. 2 ("PvdA-fractie Charlois laat Ismaili toch vallen").
[56General Intelligence and Security Service, The radical dawa in transition. The rise of Islamic neoradicalism in the Netherlands (The Hague/Zoetermeer: AIVD, 2007), p. 55, 56.
[57The author is currently investigating this matter.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3364