In a bloody and painful scene, security services loyal to the Gaza Authority, on Tuesday 13th July 2010, attacked crowds of activists and supporters of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. These crowds were calmly on their way to the location of the festival which Hizb-ut-Tahrir in the Gaza Strip had previously announced, and which had fulfilled all of the necessary legal requirements.

The location was transformed into something like a war zone as the security services attacked young and old with truncheons, without any mercy or consideration of deen or humanitarian or moral values, which led to injuries among a large number of the pure and pious activists of the Hizb. Since these actions did not intimidate the activitists of the Hizb, they began to fire shots into the air in an indiscriminate manner, which led to an innocent child being shot, who is now recovering in hospital. They also arrested a number of the Shabab in a barbaric manner, placing them in a bus which they brought specifically for the arrests.

It did not matter that the da’wa carriers of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Gaza are part of a party which bears the concern of the entire Islamic Ummah, which struggles in the path to return the Khilafah that implements the deen, and protects the Muslims, meeting in that path all manner of hardships from the regimes place their knees on the chest of the Ummah. None of that mattered to the security services of the Gaza Authority, which perpetrated an ugly crime against them and against the da’wa, which was witnessed by all present in the area. In addition to this the police and investigators arrived at the location of the festival, and dismantled the stage and other material prepared for the event, and cancelled the event without Shariah, legal** or intellectual justification.

So if the Hizb completed all the legal requirements, notwithstanding the fact that it carries a call to an immense obligation – if they only knew – so why then did the Gaza Authority contradict itself on Tuesday morning and interrupt the preparations for the event.

Has the call for the return of the Khilafah become a crime, O Gaza Authority! Have you lost your (moral) compass, so that you began to view the Ma’rouf (good) as Munkar (evil), and the Munkar as Ma’rouf? No, indeed worse than that, do you fight those who call to the Crown of Obligations (Taj-ul-Furoud)? Or have you begun to play the tunes according to the desires and policies of the Western regimes, whose love you are trying to win morning and evening? Are you now following the footsteps of the Ramallah (West Bank) Authority, which led you in fighting the call for the Khilafah, as you followed it completely in accepting a state based on the 1967 borders? Do these practices make sense from people who claim to work for Islam and use as their slogan? Are these practices of one who should be seeking refuge with his Lord, while people plot against him and place him under siege? Is that (refuge) sought by fighting the callers for implementation of His Sharee’ah, via the establishment of the state which will judge according to His Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger (sall Allahu alaihi wa sallam)?

Indeed we in Hizb-ut-Tahrir Palestine emphasise that what the Authority perpetrated against the callers for Khilafah and their supporters was an ugly crime and a great munkar. Likewise we hold the Authority fully responsible for the recovery of the injured, and call on them to turn away from such evil conduct of enmity towards the Islamic Ummah, and the mission of her Culture, the Khilafah.

The Gaza Authority must also know that it cannot weaken the determination of the Shabab of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Gaza and elsewhere, who have taken on their shoulders the obligation of all obligations, even if that cost them their souls and their wealth.

The Gaza Authority must also know that a party such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir has grown firm and stands in the most wholesome way, and is extremely close^ to the acheivement of its goal, no human force can divert it from its goal, and that their actions will never reach their objective, and they will not earn anything from their conduct but shame. So let them be aware and return to their senses and that will be better for them.

وَاللّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمْرِهِ وَلَـكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ

“And Allah is dominant in his Matter, but most of mankind know not” [Yusuf, 12:21]