Hizb ut-Tahrir

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Hizb ut-Tahrīr
Self-labeling Arabic حِزْبُ التَحْرِير, DMG Ḥizb at-taḥrīr  'Party of Liberation'
Chairman Ata Abu Rashta
founder Taqiuddin al-Nabhani
Founded 1953
Headquarters unknown
ideology Pan-Islamism
website http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/
Demonstration of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Copenhagen

The Hizb ut-Tahrir ( Arabic حِزْبُ التَحْرِير, DMG Ḥizb at-taḥrīr  'Party of Liberation', HuT ) is a transnational Islamist movement that was founded in the early 1950s by the Palestinian Islamic religious scholar Taqī ad-Dīn an-Nabhānī and is fighting for the establishment of a caliphate . Since 1999 she has been one of the main protagonists of Islamic radicalism in the Ferghana Valley . In the Arab countries, in Indonesia and Malaysia, in Turkey and also in Germany it is banned from working.

history

The HuT was founded in 1953 by Taqī ad-Dīn an-Nabhānī in the Jordanian- controlled East Jerusalem . An-Nabhani previously had close contacts with members of the Egyptian and Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, but then founded his own organization with a few friends. In 1953 he published the book "The Order of Life of Islam" (Nizam al-Islam), which serves as the ideological basis of the organization to this day.

An-Nabhānī attempted to reinterpret Islam in terms of a new coherent system that would enable his party to become the vanguard in an intellectual revolution that accepted the “flawed ideas” that had spread among Muslims through colonialism remove. Following the example of the Syrian Baath Party and its dream of a united nation in Arab socialism , the HuT took over the structures of a Marxist-Leninist avant-garde movement and used secret communication channels to achieve its goals.

Attempts by the HuT to gain legal recognition by merging with the Muslim Brotherhood failed. The HuT remained an underground movement and as such established cells in Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq. In 1956 the party was banned in Jordan. Nabhani then went into exile in Beirut , where he lived until his death.

On April 18, 1974, members of the HuT broke into the military academy in Cairo to overthrow the Egyptian government and proclaim an Islamic fundamentalist state.

In the early 1980s, some HuT members emigrated to the UK. Under the leadership of the exiled Syrian Omar Bakri Muhammad , the group carried out a series of sensational provocative actions against Jews, Hindus and homosexuals. With this strategy, the group was able to retain many young Muslims who were disappointed with the Islam that was preached in the traditionally oriented mosques. The central management of HuT in the Middle East did not agree with the constant media presence of Omar Bakri Muhammad, so that they removed him in February 1996. Omar Bakri Muhammad then founded his own group Muhajiroun , while HuT took a back seat until 2002. After 2002 the HuT resumed its activities and began again with clandestine recruiting. In 2003 HuT organized a conference in London entitled "Are You British or Are You Muslim?", Which was attended by an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 Muslims.

In Uzbekistan , the first HuT cells were established in Namangan in the 1990s after other local Islamist organizations (Adolat, Islam Lashkarlari and Tawba) went under. In Tajikistan , where HuT has been active since the late 1990s, she criticized the US military presence in Central Asia after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . HuT gained a foothold in Kyrgyzstan in 1999, especially in the Jalalabat area around the city of Osh in the Ferghana Valley, where it used the increasing tensions within Kyrgyz society for its own purposes. The Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Tajik authorities cracked down on HuT and its sympathizers during this period.

aims

HT protester in London in March 2011

The primary goal of the HuT is the unification of the Ummah in a worldwide modern caliphate under the leadership of a caliph . Other goals are the introduction of Sharia law and the liberation of the Muslim world from Western influences. From the perspective of the HuT, all secular forms of government are to be rejected. The HuT denies Israel's right to exist and calls for its destruction. However, she herself refuses to use force.

As a pan-Islamic movement, it addresses the totality of Muslims ( Umma ) and rejects the concept of the MB aimed at preserving Islamic nation-states. Democracy and secular forms of government are also rejected. The association strives for a worldwide caliphate based on Sharia law .

Banner of the Hizb ut-Tahrir in Egypt, which calls for the return of the caliphate

According to the Islamic scholar Guido Steinberg, Hizb ut-Tahrir is the first example of a Palestinian-dominated but transnational organization.

“Nabahani and his followers criticized the lack of support of the non-Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood for the struggle of their fellow believers against Israel and originally aimed primarily at a“ liberation ”of Palestine, hence their name. Since the 1970s, however, the movement - especially after the death of Nabahani - has lost its strong Palestinian reference in favor of the demand for a caliphate that should encompass the entire community of believers. Their particularly strong anti-Semitism, however, still points to their roots today. "

Organizational structure and activities

Today, HuT is active worldwide and internationally networked. Their structure is hierarchical and centralized. The headquarters of the HuT are presumably in Lebanon. In addition, HuT uses Great Britain as an international base of operations. Further bases of the organization (so-called wilayat ) are among others. A. in Egypt, Australia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and in the USA. The European area also has its own “wilaya”. In Central Asia , especially in Uzbekistan , the organization is very popular, where it fights against the government diplomatically, but not militarily. Abdurahim Tukhtasinov ( Andijon ) has been the regional leader of the organization since 2001 .

In their propaganda, HuT tries to prove that freedom, democracy and capitalism are flawed and that Muslims are better than unbelievers . The HuT also disseminates its propaganda through its Khilafah magazine, books and websites on the Internet , which provide downloadable versions of leaflets, news releases and opinion pieces on current developments. Members are mostly recognizable by their clothes: The young men and women are mostly dressed elegantly, with women special hijab - and jilbab investment styles have and wear the men casual jackets and stubble beards.

The US political scientist Zeyno Baran came to the conclusion that Hizb-ut-Tahrir itself does not use violence, but is consciously working towards a radicalization of its members in order to lead them to violent Islamist organizations.

Recruiting followers

When recruiting new followers, HuT relies on personal addresses, brochures and pamphlets about the ideological struggle between Islam and Kufr , the self-sufficiency of Islam and the condemnation of Western governments. The most important place for the recruitment of followers are the universities up to now. In Germany, until the ban on activities on January 10, 2003, the HuT appeared mainly in university towns by distributing its publications and leaflets. These regularly contained anti-Jewish, anti-Israel or anti-Western positions. The 2010 report on the Protection of the Constitution shows that the HuT is specifically trying to recruit students at Hamburg schools for their association.

Reasons for young Muslims to join the HuT include the search for protection against racism and Islamophobia as well as the negative consequences of social uprooting. In the United Kingdom, there is also a common belief that other Muslim groups such as The Young Muslims UK , Young Muslim Organization and Tablighi Jamaat are not clearly advocating the Islamic position. Many young people are also drawn to the elegant appearance, eloquence, and in-depth religious knowledge of HuT members.

Activity bans and prosecution

Islamic countries

HuT is currently banned in almost all Middle Eastern countries with the exception of Lebanon, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. It is also banned in Uzbekistan , Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan . The ban in the Arab countries is justified by the fact that they question the existing systems of rule in the region and do not recognize them as Islamic rulers.

Western countries

In Germany, the HuT was banned on January 15, 2003 by an order of the Federal Ministry of the Interior because of its activity against the idea of ​​international understanding and the advocacy of the use of force to achieve political goals. A lawsuit against this ban was dismissed by the Federal Administrative Court and the ban was confirmed in a judgment of January 23, 2006. HuT is not banned in the UK, but it was banned from university campuses by the National Union of Students in the 1990s.

The German ethnologist and journalist Werner Schiffauer is campaigning for organizations like the HuT not to be banned because they promote the “democratization” of the Muslims living here through internal discussions.

Cooperation with NPD

The NPD chairman Udo Voigt and the neo-Nazi Horst Mahler took part in a meeting of the group at the Technical University of Berlin in 2002 in order to promote an alliance between Islamism and neo-Nazism. The spokesman Shaker Assem said in the NPD newspaper German Voice : "The more religious the Muslims are, the stronger are their efforts to return to their home countries", which meets the NPD demand for "foreigners' return" and their concept of ethnopluralism .

literature

  • Khaled Ahmad: The Rise of the Hizb al-Tahreer. In: Friday Times , Lahore, October 14, 2002.
  • Rashid Ahmed: Holy War in the Hindu Kush. The struggle for power and belief in Central Asia. Droemer, Munich, 2002, ISBN 3-426-27278-4 (on militant Islamism in Central Asia and the role of Hizb-ut-Tahrir).
  • Ariela Groß: Reaching waʿy: mobilization and recruitment in Ḥizb al-Taḥrīr al-Islāmī; a case study conducted in Beirut. Schwarz, Berlin, 2012.
  • Sadek Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. In: Tahir Abbas (Ed.): Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2007. pp. 145-158.
  • Suha Taji-Farouki: A fundamental quest: Hizb al-Tahrir and the search for the Islamic caliphate. Gray Seal, London, 1996.
  • M. Whine: Hizbut Tahrir in Open Societies. In: Nixon Center (ed.): Hizbut Tahrir: Deciphering and Countering Radical Islamist Ideology. Nixon Center, Washington, DC, 2004.
  • Galina M. Yemelianova: The Growth of Islamic Radicalism in Eurasia. In: Tahir Abbas (Ed.): Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2007. pp. 83-99, here pp. 93f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yemelianova: The Growth of Islamic Radicalism in Eurasia. 2007, p. 93.
  2. ↑ Thomas Schmidinger, Dunja Larise Between God's State and Islam - Handbook of Political Islam, Vienna 2008, pp. 91–93
  3. ↑ The Order of Life of Islam ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.islam-projekte.com
  4. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 146f.
  5. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 147.
  6. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 147.
  7. ↑ Kamal Salibi: The Modern History of Jordan. 2nd edition, London, 1998, p. 175.
  8. ↑ Thomas Schmidinger, Dunja Larise: Between God's State and Islam - Handbook of political Islam. Vienna 2008, pp. 91–93.
  9. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 148.
  10. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 150.
  11. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 148.
  12. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 156.
  13. ↑ Yemelianova: The Growth of Islamic Radicalism in Eurasia. 2007, p. 94.
  14. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 146.
  15. ↑ Yemelianova: The Growth of Islamic Radicalism in Eurasia. 2007, p. 93.
  16. ↑ Guido Steinberg: The enemy near and far. The networks of Islamist Islamism. CH Beck, Munich, 2005, p. 39f.
  17. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 156.
  18. ↑ Yemelianova: The Growth of Islamic Radicalism in Eurasia. 2007, p. 93.
  19. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, pp. 149f.
  20. ↑ Zeyno Baran: Fight the War of Ideas. In: Foreign Affairs , November / December 2005. Abstract available as html ; Retrieved January 22, 2012.
  21. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 148.
  22. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 149.
  23. ↑ Young Islamists advertise at Hamburg schools. In: Abendblatt. May 24, 2011, accessed January 22, 2012 .
  24. ↑ Hamid: Islamic Political Radicalism in Britain: The Case of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. 2007, p. 150.
  25. ↑ Yemelianova: The Growth of Islamic Radicalism in Eurasia. 2007, p. 93.
  26. ^ Judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of January 25, 2006
  27. ↑ Tahir Abbas (Ed.): Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2007. p. 5.
  28. ↑ Tagesspiegel October 29, 2002 Berlin outrage over Islamist meetings in the TU
  29. ↑ Der Spiegel November 18, 2002 ISLAMISTS dagger in the heart
  30. ^ Protection of the Constitution Brandenburg Islamist association "Hizb ut-Tahrir" prohibited