Contemporarily, the Hizbut Tahrir, which is the party of liberation, is one of the biggest Islamic groups across the world. Due to political failures of Islamic parties as well as failure of secularism, there have been quite a huge number of recruits in Hizbut Tahrir of late.
The Hizbut Tahrir party functions in numerous parts of the world, but it is more active in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Despite the criticisms that arise regarding the Hizbut Tahrir’s intentions, the party has become very popular amongst different societies across the world (Razak Para. 3). In fact, it has been termed as a very imperative movement especially in Central Asia.
The person who started the party is an Islamic scholar, popularly known by the name, Sheikh Taqi al Din al Nabkhan in Jerusalem, around the year 1953. Hizbut Tahrir’s ideologies clearly indicate that it renounces democracy, nationalism, socialism, as well as capitalism.
The party wants to bring back the system that governed Muslims particularly at the time of Prophet Muhammad, viz. the righteous Caliphs. Sheikh Taqi attained early education in the year 1928 at the Al-Azhar University after which he went to work in the Ministry of Education (Fealy and White 138).
He later became the head cleric and a judge, but after the Arab-Israel conflict started, he stopped working in the aforementioned capacities. However, he had gathered enough knowhow in the field of politics and this aspect boosted his morale to revive the Islamic Caliphate so that Palestine would be free. However, he never, in his wildest dreams, thought that the Hizbut Tahrir party would go international.
The party is in charge of the army, religion, foreign policy, the economy, as well the Caliphates internal political system. Hizbut Tahrir follows the sharia (Islamic law), which is so much against democracy.
Sheikh Taqi had initially targeted Arab countries with the inclusion of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon for he had the notion that all Muslims were of the idea of reviving the Islamic Caliphate and thus he went ahead to open the party to Muslims despite their gender or race (Nawab Para. 2).
The fact that the targeted countries did not exercise democracy meant that the Caliph, together with those working with him, would handle the issues that the pertinent issues within the Muslim community be it economic, social, ethic, or otherwise.
The main state language was Arabic while women were restricted mainly to their homes, but whoever wanted to go ahead with her education was allowed. For the Muslim men above the ages of 15 years, they had to enter into the military without any hesitation while the Caliph was the one to appoint the defense minister particularly when the party wanted to go to war (Karaginnis 32).
The division of the main course of strategy took place in three main parts. The first was tatsqif (culturing) whereby the main objective was to look for people who had strong beliefs in how the party ran things. The second part was tafa’ul (interaction) whereby those who joined the party would be introduced to the party’s ideas so that the objective of reviving the Caliphate would become a reality.
The third part was istilamu al hukmi (power and ruling acceptance), which underscored the founding of governments that would govern the Muslims. Sheikh Taqi wanted to hasten the third part of power and ruling and so he tried to implement nusrah (assistance to gain power) from the prominent people in the country with examples of judges, leaders in the military, politicians, and many others.
There was the establishment of branches by the year 1960 by sheikh Taqi in the majority of the North African and Middle East countries. Given the fact that of the members attempted coups in Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, the Hizbut Tahrir party had gained quite a significant popularity.
The failed coups were due to the association with members of the HT party as aforementioned. Sheikh Taqi died in the year 1977 and thereafter Sheikh Abdul Qaleem Zalloum became the party’s leader (American Foreign Policy Council Para. 1).
Even today, it is easy to see the high numbers of the Hizbut Tahrir followers in various Islamic centers as they wave black flags as they take to the streets shouting slogans and giving people leaflets to fellow Muslims about the party. From reading the Hizbut Tahrir party’s books, it is evident that they do not mention about the future or salvation.
Despite the fact that Hizbut Tahrir started out as a political party, today it gives theological press releases. The Hizbut Tahrir party is very famous amongst young Muslims who are living in Western Europe. London is the movement’s main center and thus the publishing of HT materials takes place here coupled with training of members in different aspects.
After Sheik Adbul Qaleem took over, the party went ahead to grow in many other different parts of the world and particularly in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia (Karaginnis 132).
The majority of the Hizbut Tahrir affiliates had moved to the West as their native countries were persecuting them while others left in search of a better life with better jobs elsewhere. On the other hand, Hizbut Tahrir went ahead to bring in new members especially students from different Muslim countries as a way of ensuring that the party had many members and thus remain strong as ever.
Hizbut Tahrir has a very hierarchical organizational makeup whereby the topmost post of the amir (leader) had sheikh Taqi holding it. The party then goes to classify the Muslim world into wilayahs whereby there is line demarcation of the future Caliphate. At the topmost provincial leadership of the wilayahs is a committee and the leader is a Mu’ tamad.
Then there is the local committee that governs the local urban centers and has a naqib as a leader. A leaders self is kept a secret by the Hizbut Tahrir party reason being there was persecution of leaders in history and more so in the Middle Eastern countries. One of the most outstanding leaders is Mu’ tamad and the only people allowed to know who he is are the wilayah committee members.
The halaqah (study circles) on the other hand take lowest party levels and the group has almost eight members. The duty of selecting members, who will come into the future, lies under the jurisdiction of the halaqahs. In the Hizbut Tahrir party based in Indonesia, there is recognition of women as important people in the movement.
When it comes to the Caliphates recruitment, the Hizbut Tahrir uses very advanced channels to allow as many recruits as possible to develop a keen interest of joining the group (American Foreign Policy Council Para. 4).
The channels include Media Ummat, which is a weekly newspaper, Al-wa’ie, which is a monthly journal, together with conferences and seminars. In the year 2009, a radio that broadcasts online also became another channel geared towards bringing in new members.
The Hizbut Tahrir located in Indonesia incorporates women in the movement and gives them special roles similar to those of men in comparison to other Hizbut Tahrir groups across the world. When bringing together prominent people within the society, nusrah is a very imperative stage where prominent people have influence with examples of politicians, journalists, civil servants, and many other people considered powerful.
The Hizbut Tahrir party also targets government officials at different kinds of levels. There are arguments stating that the manner in which Hizbut Tahrir wants to start the Caliphate is similar to a coup d’état.
However, Hizbut Tahrir refrains from using any form of violence especially given the fact that they follow the ways of Prophet Mohammed who also did not condone violence.
Using violence would mean that the Hizbut Tahrir party is not following the correct principles it has set for itself and the members. The only worry is that despite the fact that the party does not use violence to achieve its goals, there are those new members who will want to use violence and spoil HT’s reputation.
Hizbut Tahrir, in the year 2009, had an eventful year for it had public debates as well as conferences in different parts of the country like Canada and the US. Nevertheless, the Palestine authorities canceled the conferences, which the party holds every year in Palestine.
The Hizbut Tahrir members were frequently in collision with the authorities where, for instance in the year 2009, quite a huge number of the members in Central Asia were arrested. The HT party started at a time when there was a struggle among the Arabs naturalists and so its purpose was to bring together Arabs as well as re-establishing the caliphate (Ward 153).
However, the group did not succeed in achieving this goal especially in the Middle East and so it resulted to looking for western religious freedom as well as starting up in Britain. The Hizbut Tahrir party has changed some of the ideas it originally had so that it can associate well with today’s world.
This move has gone to the extent of opening up a website that features its modern caliphate, which incorporates everyone whether Muslim or not. Even though the British government has been inspecting the Hizbut Tahrir party particularly after the 2003 bombing, the group continues to run with the government’s permission.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has gone as far as starting movements in Central Asia and Africa for the founders targeted the seemingly unstable countries; therefore, the caliphate seeks to establish unity and peace. A good example is that of the country of Zanzibar whereby the party has been experiencing frequent unrests due to the divergences between Christians and Muslims (Ward 165).
Hizbut Tahrir saw this opportunity and established the caliphate as a solution to the conflicts, and with this agenda in mind, they formed an Islamic state that is void of democracy. In addition to this achievement, Hizbut Tahrir wants to use the same strategy in Central Asia particularly in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
There is no recognition of the right of freedom by the Hizbut Tahrir in economics as well as religion. This provision is so strict to the extent that Muslims who renounce their Islamic faith are obligated to go under execution according to Article 7 of the constitution.
On the other hand, Muslims following the Hizbut Tahrir party still have the freedom to engage in some issues; for instance, perform ijtihad, which means having personal opinions in regards to the Islamic law. Suspects who are locked in prison are innocent until there is enough evidence to show that they are guilty of the charges they are facing.
In addition to this, people are not charged without undergoing a court hearing whereby their case is heard to prove whether they are guilty or innocent. Many prisons in different parts of the world have a tendency of torturing suspects in the process of extracting information; however, according to the Hizbut Tahrir, this should not happen in any case and if it happens, the perpetrators should be punished.
In conclusion, Hizbut Tahrir as a movement that does not allow violence, which is a plus in comparison to many other known groups that want to achieve their goals using violence and torture (Akbarzadeh and Mansouri 64).
For example, when the September 11 attacks happened, the Hizbut Tahrir was quick to state that it does not condone such violent acts, as the point of their movement is not to kill anyone. Up to today, links between terrorists and Hizbut Tahrir are unheard of amid all sorts of speculations.
Hizbut Tahrir goes on with its mission of establishing a caliphate although not without challenges. The most outstanding aspect of this group is that it has managed to dissociate with terrorism, which haunts many such groups across the world.
Works Cited
Akbarzadeh, Shahram, and Fethi Mansouri. Islam and political violence: Muslim Diaspora and radicalism in the West, London: I. B. Tauris Co Ltd., 2010. Print.
American Foreign Policy Council. Hizb ut Tahrir, 2011. Web.
Fealy, Greg, and Sally White. Expressing Islam: Religious life and politics in Indonesia, Cornell: Southeast Asia Program Pub., 2008. Print.
Karaginnis, Emmanuel. Political Islam in Central Asia: The challenge of Hizb ut Tahrir, New York: Taylor & Francis, 2009. Print.
Nawab, Mohamed. The transitional network of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, 2013. Web.
Razak, Rowena. Hizb ut Tahrir & the 21st century caliphate, 2012. Web.
Ward, Ken. Non-violent extremists? Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia. Australian Journal of International Affairs 63.2 (2009): 149-164. Print.