New Sect Joins Volatile Palestinian Political Brew

MEL FRYKBERG

Published: August 04, 2008 

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- On Saturday as Palestinians tried to digest the latest violence and political upheaval between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, which has left nearly a dozen Palestinians dead in Gaza and over 100 injured including women and children, a shadowy Islamic organization has crept into the political equation, creating the possibility of a new reality on the ground both in Gaza and the West Bank.

As this reporter was traveling from Birzeit to Ramallah, in the central West Bank, we were held up behind a long line of taxis and motorcars at a Palestinian checkpoint at the outskirts of Ramallah.

Similar checkpoints were erected throughout the territory as Palestinian police and security personnel checked identity cards, searched passengers and arrested dozens of Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Liberation Party, supporters.

According to a Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesperson, 77 party members were in detention as of Saturday including 41 in Tulkarm, 17 in Jenin, 9 in Ramallah and 10 in Bethlehem.

The supporters were trying to reach rallies, commemorating the anniversary of the downfall of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, which they regard as the successor of the Abbasid dynasty, one of the dynasties of the Islamic Caliphacy.

The Islamic Caliphacy followed the death of Prophet Muhammad and lasted from the early 600s AD to the early 20th century. The Caliphacy stretched from northern Africa and western Europe through to Asia and was a golden era during the spread of Islam when the arts, culture, science, medicine, trade and religious tolerance flourished.

The Ottoman Turks claimed the Caliphacy after the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1284, but secularist and founding father of modern-day Turkey, Kemal Attaturk abolished this in 1924.

Hizb ut-Tahrir members say they applied to the respective Palestinian Authority (PA) governorate offices for permission to hold their events, and report receiving no response within the specified time period. They took this lack of refusal as an indication to go ahead and organize the commemorative rallies and conferences.

The rallies were to be held in Ramallah, and in Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank. As the Middle East Times approached Ramallah center, security forces were clearing up the remnants of demonstrators who had managed to slip through the security cordons encircling the city. The tension in the air was palpable.

Several demonstrators who had managed to unfurl black flags were quickly dragged away by Palestinian police.

Earlier in the week PA security forces had similarly prevented Hizb ut-Tahrir from holding rallies in Jenin and Bethlehem. The security forces also prevented a women's event called by Hizb ut-Tahrir in Hebron on Wednesday.

Conversely, despite the group being ideologically opposed to Hamas and more in line with Islamic Jihad, the group managed to successfully hold its first rally in Gaza on Thursday, with over 3,000 people taking to the streets and marching.

Hizb ut-Tahrir was established in 1952, in then Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem, by Sharia court judge Taqi al-Din al Nabhani, from the village of Ijzim, near Haifa.

The organization's goal is to reestablish an Islamic Caliphate to govern the whole Muslim world under Islamic law and to eventually bring the rest of the world under Islamic rule through peaceful means.

The group specifically advocates against violence, does not have an armed wing and neither does it stand in elections. Rather, Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to agitate and educate, gaining supporters for the idea of restoring the Caliphate.

Since its establishment, Hizb ut-Tahrir has grown internationally and is now active in 45 countries. It is particularly active in Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Uzbekistan, while having made significant inroads into Pakistani community in the United Kingdom.

The organization is banned in several countries, including Russia, Germany and some Arab states. While the group's activities are outlawed in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip it is tolerated and allowed to hold demonstrations.

It is premature to ascertain exactly how Hizb ut-Tahrir will impact on the Palestinian political scene in the long run, and how popular it will become.

But as the chasm between Hamas and Fatah appears to widen, the fact that the politically intolerant de-facto rulers in Gaza tolerate the movement, while the equally undemocratic Fatah leadership in the West Bank violently opposes the organization, can only mean it will further rub salt into the wound of the debacle that currently fronts for the divided leadership in the Palestinian territories.

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