Hizb 57

[Christian Swindler]

Hizbut-Tahrir was founded in 1953 as a political organization in then-Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem by Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani, a Palestinian Islamic scholar from Haifa who was educated in Egypt and served as a qadi (religious court judge) in Mandatory Palestine.[31][32] He formulated a program and a "draft constitution" for the establishment of a Caliphate.[4][10][11][12] The organization sees world history as an eternal conflict between Islam and non-believers, with the state system considered a historical assault on Islam. The group views Jihad as an essential aspect of its vision and considers it an imperative duty aimed at combating disbelief until all submit to Islamic rule, making no distinction between the violent and spiritual dimensions of Jihad. As an initial step, HT directs attention to the 'near enemy', advocating the removal of rulers "pretending to be Muslims", a step they consider a prerequisite for the global spread of Islam.[32]

Since 1953, Hizb ut-Tahrir has spread to more than 50 countries, and has a membership estimated to be between "tens of thousands"[1] to "about one million".[2] Hizb ut-Tahrir is active in Western countries, including the UK, and also in several Arab and Central Asian countries despite being banned by some governments. Members typically meet in small private study circles, but in countries where the group is not illegal, it also engages with the media and organizes rallies and conferences.[33] The organization's leadership is centered in Jordan, with additional headquarters in London. This dual presence leverages the relative freedom in Europe to oversee activities in Muslim nations where HT faces more stringent restrictions.[32]

Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in Bangladesh,[34] China,[35] Russia,[36] Pakistan,[37] Germany,[38][39] Turkey,[40] the United Kingdom,[41] Kazakhstan[42] and "across Central Asia",[43][44] Indonesia,[45][46] and all Arab countries except Lebanon, Yemen and the UAE.[47][48] In July 2017, the Indonesian government revoked Hizb ut-Tahrir's legal status, citing incompatibility with government regulations on extremism and national ideology.[45]

Hizb ut-Tahrir states its aim as unification of all Muslim countries (or as it calls them "Islamic lands") [c] over time in a unitary[9] Islamic state or caliphate, headed by a caliph elected by Muslims.[10][11][12] This, it holds, is an obligation decreed by God, warning that Allah will punish those Muslims "who neglect this duty".[71] Once established, the caliphate will expand into non-Muslim areas, through "invitation" and through military jihad,[15][16][17][18][14] so as to expand the land of Islam and diminish the land of unbelief.[12] To "achieve its objective" HT seeks "to gain the leadership of the Islamic community" so that the community will "accept it as her [the community's] leader, to implement Islam upon her and proceed with it in her struggle against the Kuffar (unbelievers) and in the work towards the return of the Islamic State".[72]

Although hizb means party in Arabic, in the countries where Hizb ut-Tahrir is active it has usually not registered as a political party or attempted to elect candidates to political office,[80] although it did early in its history.[e] Hizb ut-Tahrir put forward candidates for office in Jordan in the 1950s when it was first formed and before it was banned, according to Suha Taji-Farouki.[82] Kyrgyz Hizb ut-Tahrir members campaigned unsuccessfully for an affiliated candidate in Kyrgyzstan's national presidential election in July 2005,[83] and have participated in municipal elections where their followers have won in a number of regions.[84]

Olivier Roy describes the strategy as a "global, grassroots revolution, culminating in a sudden, millenarian victory", as opposed to a slog through a political process "that risks debasing the Koran and perpetuating the ummah's subjugation to the West".[85]

The party plans its political progress in three stages, taking after the process "by which the Prophet Muhammad established the Caliphate in thirteen years".[86] According to an analyst of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kazakhstan,[87][better source needed] where the group is outlawed: "First they convert new members. Secondly, they establish a network of secret cells, and finally, they try to infiltrate the government to work to legalize their party and its aims."[83] A more sympathetic description of this strategy is that Hizb ut-Tahrir works to:

HT has for many years made use of the Internet to propagate its message. It changes messages frequently, and uses a number of languages. As of 2004, there were at least seven websites "related directly" to HT.[91]

HT talks about a "bloodless" coup, or nussrah, for the facilitation of "a change of the government". In one document ('Our Method'), it states, "we consider that Islamic law forbids violence or armed struggle against the regime as a method to reestablish the Islamic State."[92][93] A 2004 report by the Nixon Center states that "credible reports" indicate that HT members have been "involved in coup attempts in Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Iraq".[94] According to HT, once one or more Muslim countries come under the organization's control (such as Pakistan, Indonesia or a country in Central Asia) this will create a base; subsequently, other Muslim countries will be convinced to join and a "domino effect" will be created to establish a new caliphate.[95][96]

Researchers and scholars have often described HT as a vanguard party (David Commins[g] and Zeyno Baran[h]) or as seeming to be "less interested in a broad mass following than a smaller more committed core of members" (BBC[i]). The "About Us" section of the Hizb ut-Tahrir official website states "Hizb ut-Tahrir is determined to work within the Ummah in order to implement Islam and achieve its objective by endeavouring to gain the leadership of the Islamic Ummah so that she could accept it as her leader, to implement Islam upon her and proceed with it in her struggle against the Kuffar".[j] But according to a former leader in the UK, Jalaluddin Patel, once the caliphate has been established, HT "will never assume the role of a vanguard party".[96]

In countries where the party is outlawed, Hizb ut-Tahrir's organization is said to be strongly centralized, with its central leadership based in the Palestinian Territories.[100] To avoid infiltration by security agents and maintain ideological coherence in a pyramid-like group, the party enforces internal discipline and obedience to the central leadership.[101] The party "tolerates no internal dissent".[102][103] A range of disciplinary measures are applied to members who break the rules, with expulsion being the most severe.[101] The network of underground cells resembles that of the successful Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia.[101] At the top is the central committee (lajnat al-qiyada) of the international party, and the supreme leader (Amir).[101] The main committee or agency is tasked with taking power to re-establish the caliphate by establishing contacts with "the centers of power such as the army and the political leaders". This agency is "the most secretive", and "reports directly" to the "Amir".[k]

Organizationally below its center are national organizations or wilayas (which actually means "province" since HT believes that nation states are un-Islamic; the only "nation" is the Islamic community[101]), "usually headed by a group of 12, control networks of local committees and cells".[2] Wilayas have an executive committee charged with managing administrative affairs which is elected every two years by the membership of the party in the wilaya.[96] At the provincial level, there is a committee headed by a provincial representative (Mu'tamad) who oversees group activities. The Mu'tamad is appointed by the central committee.[101]

The basic unit of the party is a cell of five members, the leader of which is called a mushrif. The mushrif leads a study-circle and supervises its members' study of the HT ideology,[101] listening to readings from books by the party's founder, Nabhani, particularly Nidham al-Islam, or the System of Islam, which "lays out Nabhani's vision of an 'Islamic' state" and "refutes" other Arab political ideologies.[105] Where the party is not legal, only the mushrif knows the names of members of other cells.[100] A candidate for membership swears an oath of loyalty (qasam)[96]

In the name of Allah, I swear to protect Islam and to maintain fidelity to it; I swear to accept and follow goals, ideas and principles of HT in words and deeds; I swear to recognize the rightness of the party leadership's actions; I swear to carry out even those decisions of the party leaders that I find objectionable; I swear to direct all my energies for the realization of the party program. Allah is the Witness of my words.[106]

According to one study, "little is known" of how HT "funds its activities", thanks to the party's "clandestine modus operandi". In Western countries, members who have jobs contribute part of their income, "possibly as much as 10 percent". In Muslim countries funding may or may not come "from Iran, the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia".[107]

Because of its status of being banned in most Muslim-majority countries but legal throughout Western countries, the group differs from most Salafi organizations in being "more self-conscious, adaptive and sensitive to Western culture" despite its resolute opposition to that culture.[13]

The party has been described as being "centralised"[n] in leadership and strategy,[o] with its ideology based on the writings of its deceased founder al-Nabhani. Because these principles have been in place since the party's founding, they are therefore considered unlikely to change.[p] The party itself claims its "ideology and its method of work" has been "meticulously thought out and published in many detailed books".[q] Prospective HT members study the "core books" of HT in preparation for being accepted as members.[96] Hizb ut-Tahrir websites, speeches, etc. also detail party positions.

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