Hizb Ut-Tahrir - Position On Violence

Position On Violence

Hizb ut-Tahrir states on its British website that it adopts the methods "employed by the Prophet Muhammad limited his struggle for the establishment of the Islamic State to intellectual and political work. He established this Islamic state without resorting to violence." In addition, seven days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York Hizb ut-Tahrir issued a statement that "The rules of this Message forbids any aggression against civilian non-combatants. They forbid killing of children, the elderly and non-combatant women even in the battlefield. They forbid the hijacking of civilian aeroplanes carrying innocent civilians and forbid the destruction of homes and offices that contain innocent civilians. All of these actions are types of aggression that Islam forbids and Muslims should not undertake such actions." The U.S. government, according to the Global Security thinktank, "has found no clear ties between Hizb ut-Tahrir and terrorist activity. Hizb ut-Tahrir has not been proven to have involvement in or direct links to any recent acts of violence or terrorism. Nor has it been proven to give financial support to other groups engaged in terrorism."

The British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir immediately condemned the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Imran Waheed, the group's spokesperson in Great Britain, however, stated just after the bombings that "When Westerners get killed, the world cries. But if Muslims get killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's the smallest of news. I will condemn what happened in London only after there is the promise from Western leaders to condemn what they have done in Falluja and other parts of Iraq and in Afghanistan." Waheed later stated that "The entire Muslim community has made its position on the London bombings clear — these actions have no justification as far as Islam is concerned." The spokesperson of the Danish branch of Hizb-ut-Tahrir echoed Waheed's comments, calling the attacks un-Islamic but refraining from directly condemning them as long as the occupation of Iraq continued.

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s opposition to violence has been questioned. For example, the think tank Globalsecurity.org states that Hizb ut-Tahrir "is not against violence as such. It is just against the use of violence now." Similarly, in 2007 "senior members" of Hizb ut-Tahrir are quoted condemning Hamas on the grounds that sending poorly-armed Palestinians now against the Israeli army is "fruitless," and that military operations against Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands should await a united Caliphate and the combined armies of Islam. Writer and broadcaster Ziauddin Sardar wrote in 2005 that Hizb ut-Tahrir's intolerance of any compromise with its goals was "a natural precursor of, and invitation to, violence." He added that, in the long run, “violence is central” to the goal of an Islamic Caliphate.

Zeyno Baran of the Nixon Center and Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation have argued that although Hizb ut-Tahrir does not promote or engage in violence, it acts as a "conveyor belt" for young Muslims, using its legal status to indoctrinate them before they leave the group to join more extreme groups that may engage in violence. An investigative journalist specialising in British terrorism, Shiv Malik sympathizes with the position, stating that it "is not without foundation."." In support of this perspective, Malik quotes unnamed intelligence sources stating that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are both former members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Omar Sharif, who attempted a suicide bombing in Israel in 2003, is also alleged to have been affililated with Hizb ut-Tahrir, but the group denies this, stating that "despite extensive investigations by the police and security services, including legal proceedings against members of the Sharif family, no link to Hizb ut-Tahrir has ever been proven." The British government, in a classified report, discounted the conveyor belt theory, stating "We do not believe that it is accurate to regard radicalisation in this country as a linear 'conveyor belt’ moving from grievance, through radicalisation, to violence … This thesis seems to both misread the radicalisation process and to give undue weight to ideological factors."

Britain’s National Union of Students has asked universities to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir from campuses, accusing the group of “supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred."

The Panorama programme on the BBC showed an August 2006 speech by Ata Abu-Rishta, the global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, in which he called for the "destruction" of Hindus living in Kashmir, Russians in Chechnya and Jews in Israel.