Islamic group calling for Shariah law cancels Canadian event after U.K. declares it a terrorist entity (msn.com)
The day after an Islamic organization was declared a terrorist group in Britain, the group’s Canadian branch cancelled a conference it was hosting this weekend that was calling for the resurrection of the Muslim caliphate and the imposition of Shariah law.
Hizb ut Tahrir Canada was convening its conference on Saturday in Mississauga, just outside Toronto, called the Khilafah Conference 2024. Khilafah is the Arabic word for caliphate, referring to a Muslim community governed under Islamic law.
The conference materials — posters, a website, and a polished promotional video — said the group urges the rejection of a Jewish state and the involvement of the United Nations, international law, or other “compromises” in the Middle East, instead encouraging military forces in the Muslim world to defeat “occupiers” in the region.
Hizb ut Tahrir Canada’s conference materials, along with its entire online presence — a website active since 2012, a YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts — has now been deleted or deactivated, apparently internally.
A recent screen shot of the Hezb ut Tahrir Canada website before the group removed it from the internet.© Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir
A former leader with the Hizb ut-Tahrir, who now works in extremist deradicalization, said the British declaration has spooked the group’s Canadian supporters.
“Until they can provide the right guidelines for the organization’s English-language speaking areas they will avoid, as much as possible, their membership and activists making statements in the public arena,” said Rashad Ali, a resident senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a counter-extremism think tank based in London, England.
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“Unless they can control what their membership is saying in English, then they can’t be sure that they aren’t going to say something they will regret.”
The members will also fear that Canada might follow Britain’s lead, Ali said.
“Australia and Canada tend to, in counter-terrorism matters, follow where Britain goes. It will be quite likely that if the ban and proscription in Britain is upheld by the British courts, they will apply the same thing in Australia and Canada.”
A poster advertising Khilafah Conference 2024.
Before it was cancelled, the conference was causing concern over the group’s statements, seen as starkly antisemitic, hawkish on eradicating Israel, and supporting elements of militant jihadi violence.
“As a listed terrorist entity in the United Kingdom, the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization should not be given an opportunity to promote and indoctrinate Canadians with their extreme and radical viewpoints through their Khilafah Conference,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a Canadian Jewish advocacy organization.
“If it had not been pre-emptively cancelled, we would have expected the authorities to step in to identify it as a potential security risk and prevent the conference from moving forward.”
A screengrab from a promotional video advertising the Hezb ut Tahrir Khilafah Conference 2024.© Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir
When introducing Britain’s proscription order against Hizb ut-Tahrir under the Terrorism Act, U.K.’s Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “Hizb ut-Tahrir is an antisemitic organization that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks.
“Proscribing this terrorist group will ensure that anyone who belongs to and invites support for them will face consequences. It will curb Hizb ut-Tahrir’s ability to operate as it currently does.”
The terrorist designation went into effect on Jan. 19.
Registered attendees for the Khilafah Conference in Canada were notified the event was cancelled on Jan. 20, with a note saying: “It is with a heavy heart that Hizb ut Tahrir Canada has decided to cancel the Khilafah Conference 2024 because of unforeseen circumstances.”
The notification apologized for the inconvenience but offered no explanation. Tickets for the event were formally cancelled Monday, with instructions on obtaining a refund. Ticket holders had not yet been told where in Mississauga the conference was being held.
Conference organizers did not respond to requests for information and comment by National Post prior to deadline.
The theme for the conference was “Khilafah: Eliminating the obstacles that are delaying its return.” Its materials refer to Israel only as “the Zionist Entity.”
A screengrab from a promotional video advertising the Hezb ut Tahrir Khilafah Conference 2024.© Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir
There were four keynote speakers advertised: Muhammad Malkawi, Mazin Abdul-Adhim, Bilal Khan, and Malik Abu Luqman.
Malkawi was considered the headliner.
In a speech last month, he was quoted as saying that if Muslims came together “you don’t even need to fight for Palestine because there will not be a Jewish state there.” His online accounts say he is based in Jordan, where Hizb ut-Tahrir’s central headquarters are located.
“He is very well known, very public, a popular speaker within the party and has been active for decades,” Ali said.
Malkawi did not respond to a request for comment prior to deadline.
Mazin Abdul-Adhim is based in Canada, in London, Ont., and is active on social media. He describes himself as a Hizb ut Tahrir member on X, where his avatar is the logo for the cancelled conference.
He did not respond to a request for comment. On social media he reacted to Britain’s ban of the group, saying: “by banning HT, they make us a much stronger force, impenetrable and absolutely bulletproof from their false allegations and lies.”
A conference with a similar title is scheduled to be held in Chicago in March, organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir America.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, Arabic for “Party of Liberation,” was founded in 1953 by a cleric as a revolutionary party, meant as a springboard to power in countries with large Muslim populations to spur their unification to restore the medieval Muslim empire, said Ali. (The Canadian branch does not use the more common hyphenated version of the party’s name.)
Although it calls itself a political party, it is not a democratic institution.
“The Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy, it rejects participating in governance with other parties, it rejects the electoral process as a method of gaining power — the only way is by the overthrow of government by revolution,” said Ali.
He said Hizb ut-Tahrir is perhaps unique in the Islamist extremist space, and quite different from groups like ISIS or Al-Qaeda.
“The Hizb ut-Tahrir don’t engage in material action, does not undertake violent acts,” he said. They can, however, be accused of “sanitizing terror ideology and calling for revolutionary change.
“They express quite extreme forms of antisemitism.”
A screengrab from a promotional video advertising the Hezb ut Tahrir Khilafah Conference 2024.© Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir
For example, they have the view that Israel is an occupied country and therefore violent action is acceptable there, he said.
“They don’t do it as a group, so their members don’t engage in it,” Ali said of terror attacks. “Neither do they call for their members to do so. However, they do believe that military action to liberate these countries is acceptable. There is an ambiguity there.”
The organization has been banned in several countries, including Russia, China, Germany, Indonesia, and in most Arab countries.
Hizb ut-Tahri’s message of overthrowing Muslim governments standing in the way of unification makes it an enemy in many Muslim states. It is not banned in Israel, Ali said.
“It is not a particularly popular movement.”
In Britain, Hizb ut-Tahrir is the 36th international organization to be declared a terrorist group. The list includes Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, best known as ISIL or ISIS, which also pushes for an Islamic caliphate.
Prior to Hizb ut-Tahrir, the most recently proscribed terror organization by Britain was the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, added last year. In 2021, Hamas’s political wing was added, as were The Base, Atomwaffen Division, and National Socialist Order, U.S. white supremacist militant groups.
A screengrab from a promotional video advertising the Hezb ut Tahrir Khilafah Conference 2024.© Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir
The British government said Hizb ut-Tahrir “has a footprint in at least 32 countries,” with its headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
“The U.K. government assess that Hizb ut-Tahrir, including its national branches, is currently concerned in terrorism, and meets the ‘promotes and encourages’ limb of the statutory test.
“A number of articles were posted online on Hizb ut-Tahrir’s central media website (and third-party websites), attributed to several of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s branches, which celebrated and praised the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas and associated events. The content of these articles, many of which refer to Hamas as ‘heroes’ and encourage further terrorist activity, constitute the promotion and encouragement of terrorism.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir’s central media office in Beirut did not respond to requests by the Post for comment prior to deadline.
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan issued a statement Monday about Britain’s declaration.
“This decision came as a shock to Western intellectuals and political observers. Hizb ut-Tahrir has been known for its non-militant, intellectual and political struggle for over seventy years,” it said.
It added: “Hizb ut-Tahrir has been working day and night to mobilize Muslim armed forces, including those of Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt, in support of the Gaza and Palestine.”
