CEP Resource Details History, Leadership, Ideology of Global Islamist Movement Hizb ut-Tahrir

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) today released a new resource documenting the history, growth and beliefs of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), an Islamist organization with chapters in 40 countries that advocates for the establishment of a global caliphate.

Founded by Palestinian Taqiuddin al-Nabhani al-Filastyni in 1953, HT bills itself as a non-violent political party, although its literature explicitly calls for violence against Jews. Though HT says it seeks to reestablish the caliphate only in the Muslim world, it frequently uses anti-Western propaganda to advance its Islamist objectives. For example, HT blames violence against Muslims in Muslim-majority countries on Western domestic and foreign policies.

CEP has found that at least 13 countries worldwide have banned HT, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Russia, and China. British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron called for HT to be banned in the U.K., but were unsuccessful, as was former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

HT, which operates and recruits openly in the U.S., has been called a “conveyor belt for terrorists.” A number of active HT members have gone on to join ISIS and commit acts of terror domestically and abroad, including ISIS executioner “Jihadi John,” Australian hostage taker and killer Man Haron Monis, and 2003 Tel Aviv bomber Omar Sharif.