(Series of Answers by the Scholar Ata Bin Khalil Abu al-Rashtah, Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir, to Questions from his Facebook Page Followers)
To Mamoun Shehadeh
Question:
The Scholar Ata bin Khalil Abu al-Rashtah,
Greetings,
From Mamoun Shehadeh / Journalist and Political Analyst.
I would like to ask you, what are the motives that drove Hizb ut-Tahrir to involve itself in the Syrian revolution, and why not elsewhere?
Answer:
Wa Alaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
Our work, my brother, is the same; it has not changed in every place where we have the capability to work. Our work is carrying the dawah to resume the Islamic way of life by establishing the Rightly Guided Khilafah (Caliphate) according to the method that the Messenger of Allah (saw) drew for us from the time of the Mission in Makkah al-Mukarramah until he established the State in Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah. Thus, we contact people to invite them to the truth and to show that the Khilafah is a great obligation for which they must work. We interact with the Ummah in this regard, working with it and through it to achieve this matter. Likewise, we contact the people of power (ahl al-quwwah) to seek their nusrah (material support) to establish the Khilafah, and we advise them not to waste their efforts in vain by sufficing with changing individuals without changing the entire secular man-made system.
Rather, they should exert their efforts, power, and sacrifices in changing the man-made system from its roots, including its rulers and laws, and establishing the Khilafah...
We clarify this matter to them completely as it came in Islam; whoever responds to us, we direct them to the correct path, and whoever does not respond, we cannot force them to respond, but we pray for their guidance.
This is what we do before, during, and after revolutions. However, the circumstances of the revolutions created a wider scope for making people listen to the word of truth without fear of the security apparatus as was the case in the past—when they used to distance themselves from us for fear of the security services. For this reason, it is observed today that people are rallying around us and approaching us, and there is a lively and strong interaction between us and them. Thus, it was noticed that the scope for the dawah we carry expanded more than before because the barrier of fear has been removed from before the people.
From here came your observation about the strength of our movement and its increase within the Ummah more than before. This is not because we were not working before, but because before the revolutions, people were afraid to turn toward us for fear of the security services that were pursuing us and pursuing everyone who contacted us. This used to cause an obstruction to our work and place a barrier before the people if they wanted to approach us.
For your information, our work is not only strongly noticeable in the areas of revolutions; it is also so in other areas, and sometimes it is even more vigorous than in the areas of revolutions. You might see and hear that our activity in Pakistan, for example, is strongly evident just as you notice it in Syria or the like, even though there is currently no revolution in Pakistan.
In conclusion, our work existed before the revolutions, but it expanded remarkably during the revolutions, especially in Syria, because the barrier of fear collapsed in the face of the people's uprising against injustice and tyranny.
This is what is new in the matter, but we were working before the revolutions, during them, and after them.
As for if you mean by the word "involvement in the revolution" that we have come to have a military wing, this is incorrect and out of the question. We do not have a military wing, neither in the past nor in the future. We are a political party whose ideology is Islam; it does not perform material actions in the stage of dawah, but rather seeks the nusrah of the people of power to enable it to establish the State, as happened with the Messenger of Allah (saw) in the Second Pledge of 'Aqabah. May it be soon.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ بَالِغُ أَمْرِهِ قَدْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدْرًا
"Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a [decreed] extent." (Surah At-Talaq [65]: 3)
Your brother, Ata Bin Khalil Abu al-Rashtah
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