Hizb Ut-Tahrir - Goals, Methods, and Organization

Goals, Methods, and Organization

Hizb ut-Tahrir states its aim as unification of all Muslim nations over time in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, headed by an elected caliph. This, it holds, is a religious duty, "an obligation that Allah has decreed for the Muslims and commanded them to fulfill. He warned of the punishment awaiting those who neglect this duty." One analyst, however, quotes the work of Hizb ut-Tahrir founder Taqiuddin al-Nabhani to suggest that once Hizb ut-Tahrir has succeeded in creating a unified, transnational Islamic state it should press on to expand the state into non-Muslim areas. According to al-Nabhani's work The Islamic State, Muslims abroad `should work towards turning their land where Islam is not implemented, and which considered as Dar al-Kufr, into Dar al-Islam". Hizb ut-Tahrir is opposed to individual liberty and freedom, rather it promotes the overthrow, both democratically or militarily, of democracy's and dictatorships alike arguing they are un-Islamic.

Although hizb means party in Arabic, in the countries where it is active Hizb ut-Tahrir has not registered as a political party nor attempted to elect candidates to political office, according to Zeyno Baran of the Washington, D.C.-based Nixon Center think tank. This is not true in all countries or throughout Hizb ut-Tahrir's history, however. For example, Hizb ut-Tahrir put forward candidates for office in Jordan in the 1950s when it was first formed, according to Suha Taji-Farouki, but was banned by the regime later. Kyrgyz Hizb ut-Tahrir members campaigned unsuccessfully for an affiliated candidate in Kyrgyzstan's national presidential election in July 2005, and have participated in municipal elections where their followers have won in a number of regions.

According to an analyst of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kazakhstan, where the group is outlawed, Hizb ut-Tahrir plans its political progress in three stages: "First they convert new members. Secondly, they establish a network of secret cells, and finally, they try to infiltrate the government to work to legalize their party and its aims." A more sympathetic description of this strategy is that Hizb ut-Tahrir works to:

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

According to a BBC program on the group's activities in Indonesia, "unlike many other Islamist movements here, Hizb ut-Tahrir seems less interested in a broad mass following than a smaller more committed core of members, many of them drawn from Indonesia's educated middle classes." Zeyno Baran describes the party as a "vanguard party" because he states it is interested in achieving power through "hundreds of supporters in critical positions" rather than "thousands of foot soldiers." However, at least one of its leaders in Indonesia, Jalaluddin Patel, states that that is an untrue characterization of the group.

In countries where the party is outlawed, Hizb ut-Tahrir's organisation is said to be strongly centralized, with its central leadership based in the Palestinian Territories. Underneath its center are "national organisations or wilayas, usually headed by a group of 12, control networks of local committees and cells." The basic unit of the party is a cell of five members, the leader of which is called a mushrif. Only the mushrif knows the names of members of other cells.