ABSTRACT
Since its inception, Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) members have always seen themselves as the chosen Muslim élites who will save the Muslim world and restore it to the glorious days. It is this belief that has drawn thousands of its activists around the world to work towards its final goal of re-establishing the caliphate. HT is arguably the only Islamic movement in the Muslim world, which spreads across five continents and yet remains effectively under the control of a central leadership based in the Middle East. As such, HT has been described as a global, cohesive movement with a common goal. Global here is not used to simply indicate the fact that the party has chapters in different countries but also to specify that members subscribe to the same ideology, have a common political objective and share a common identity. While certain aspects of these assertions are true, a proper comprehension of HT’s history will challenge certain understandings of how truly global HT is. This chapter argues that HT was established with the primary aim of freeing Palestine through the formation of a caliphate in an Arab country but expanded to become a transnational Islamic party due to political persecution that the party faced in the Arab world. Nevertheless, this did not change the objective of HT’s central leadership to establish an Arab caliphate. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the religio-political thinking of its founder An-Nabhani as well as the political context that impacted this thinking. It will be asserted that despite his religious background and education, An-Nabhani subscribed to the Arab nationalist ideology. It was only later with the failure of the coup attempt to overthrow the Jordanian government and the Arab loss in the 1948 War that he started subscribing to a more Islamist ideology. It was at this point that he began advocating the need for the establishment of a caliphate in an Arab country to liberate Palestine. This section will also document the expansion of HT to neighbouring countries. The second section will analyse HT under the leadership of Abdul Qadeem Zalloum. 15This section discusses how HT spread beyond the Arab world due to persecutions that members faced in the region. This section will also discuss the change in the party’s focus from emancipating Palestine to simply re-establishing the caliphate in Arab lands. It will be argued that despite this change, the party’s leadership remained focused on reviving the caliphate in an Arab country. The final section will examine HT under the leadership of Ata Abu Rashta, the third Amir of HT. It will analyse the changes in strategies of the party as a result of its further expansion. This chapter is divided according to the leadership of the three Amir due to the key role the leaders of the party play in shaping its strategies and directions.
