Foreign
PLAIN SIGHT The Party of Islamic
Liberation attracts thousands to
rallies, but has been little noticed.
Underground Radical Group’s Goal:
Islamic Superstate
The little-known Party of Islamic Liberation
spread its radical ideology through-
out the Middle East, Asia, Western
has grown increasingly bold and cutting edge.
Europe, and now the United States.
What it seeks is “freedom from democracy,”
Despite its growth and longevity, HT
doesn’t appear on Western lists of
a Hudson Institute scholar says.
terrorist organizations, nor have any
of its current known leaders been
By Tim Collie the handful of other Muslim funda- directly linked to violence.
mentalist groups that have become Instead, HT serves as an incuba-
T
HE GROUP’S GOAL IS AN ISLAMIC SUPER- household names since 9/11. tor, a “de facto conveyer belt for ter-
state ruled by a restored Muslim This group is the Hizb ut-Tah- rorists,” Zeyno Baran, a scholar at the
caliphate based on fi ercely anti-dem- rir al-Islami (the Party of Islamic Hudson Institute and one of the few
ocratic religious laws written in the Liberation). Despite its ability to U.S.-based experts on HT, says.
seventh century. muster tens of thousands of fol- “HT members claim to want free-
Followers call for the death of lowers at rallies in Indonesia, the dom and justice,” Baran testifi ed
Americans, Jews, and all nonbelievers West Bank, and even Great Britain, last summer before the U.S. Senate
in the West. Arrayed in small groups it remains mostly unnoticed by the Committee on Homeland Security
found in 40 countries, they commu- mainstream media and is off the and Governmental Affairs. “But
nicate in code through the Internet radar of most policy experts in the the freedom they want is ‘freedom
and recruit followers in mosques, United States and Europe. from democracy,’ and the justice
universities, and coffeehouses. Hizb ut-Tahrir, or HT, is an they want can only be found under
No, this is not al-Qaida. Nor is it underground political group that is Islamic rule. When HT alumni, a list
AP IMAGES Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, or more than 50 years old. It slowly has that includes 9/11 mastermind Khalid
JANUARY 2009 / NEWSMAX 45
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