Press Release
Statement regarding the Centre for Social Cohesion's report: ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir Ideology and Strategy'

It is our opinion that this report is intended as a smear aimed at distracting our organisation from its work. However we would like to make the following points for the record: 

1. The report is little more than a rehash of the same old and tired allegations that have been disproved on many previous occasions. It is a mix of untruths, material from extreme weblogs, neocon US think tanks and selective quotes from our material to support the anti-Islamic agenda of the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC). 

2. This report comes from the CSC, an organisation that purports to be a think tank but which has a track record of anti-Muslim papers and articles. Douglas Murray, its director and self confessed neoconservative famously said "Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board." Neoconservatives who openly support violence and the ideology which was the conveyor belt to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars which have led to the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

The CSC is a subsidiary of  Civitas which, in its report the ‘West Islam and Islamism' advocated the assimilation of Muslims and ‘forced conversion' to accept western values saying "It is not enough for the vast majority of decent, peaceful, law-abiding Muslims to renounce terror in principle, including September 11 and similar events...If they choose to live in Western liberal democratic societies, they must accept the values of liberal democracy-as Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and others have done for many years." 

3. Hizb ut-Tahrir works openly and has never hidden its work or objectives. After 7/7 we held open meetings and debates with non-Muslims - including leading intellectuals, politicians and journalists in the UK such as Tim Sebastian, Adam Boulton, David Goodhart, AC Grayling, Roger Mosey, Norman Lamont and many others - where our views were challenged and scrutinised.

We have challenged Ministers and front bench Tory politicians to debate their threats to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, but none have engaged in debate. 

4. We believe the reason for this smear campaign is that Hizb ut-Tahrir offers an agenda for Muslims in the west to engage confidently in society whilst preserving their Islamic identity and values. This message is gaining clear support amongst Muslims and this directly contradicts the agenda of aggressive assimilationists like the CSC. 
     
5. The neocon philosophy - for which there has been no stronger advocate in the UK than Douglas Murray (the director of the CSC) was that which argued to ‘convert' the Muslim world to liberal democracy by military force. This strand of thinking in western societies has been extreme, divisive, and destructive, but is clearly alive and kicking in the CSC - and indeed on the front benches of the Conservative party.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's support for the Caliphate in the Muslim world as a way to liberate the Muslim world from occupation and colonialism also flies in the face of imperialist neoconservative thinking. 

6. The report's characterisation of the Khilafah "Caliphate" (Caliphate) as a state out to destroy the world is laughable when we see in truth that it is western governments that have had an aggressive policy in the Muslim world. 

Its claim that Hizb ut-Tahrir is committed to "mass murder" is a joke. Such an untruth only serves to illustrate their ignorance of our group which has never and will never resort to violent actions as this is firmly against our Islamic beliefs and method of work. Indeed, the CSC report contradicts itself saying "HT is not a terrorist organisation". 

The characterisation that Hizb ut-Tahrir supports "violent jihad" is hysterical. The well known Islamic stance is that those who are under occupation have the right to resist occupation, and this is Hizb ut-Tahrir's stance as well. As for 7/7 and 9/11 we have made our position clear that these acts are forbidden in our Islamic opinion. 

In summary, this is not a sincere or objective attempt to analyse Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Despite such smears and attacks we remain committed to our efforts to work to establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" (Caliphate) in the Muslim world, and encourage the Muslim community in Britain to preserve our Islamic values.

 Hizb ut Tahrir Britain