Greetings to the Scholar Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah from Mamoun Shehadeh, journalist and political analyst

I would like to ask you, what were the motivating factors that made Hizb ut Tahrir involve itself in the Syrian revolution and why did it not do so in other places?

From Mamoun Shehadeh

Answer:

Wa Alaikum us Salaam Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuhu

Our work my dear brother is the same and it does not change in every place that we are able to work. Our work is carrying the Dawah for the resumption of the Islamic way of life via the establishment of the Rightly Guided Khilafah in accordance to the methodology that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم demonstrated to us from the time that he was tasked with the mission in Makkah Al-Mukarramah until he established the State in Al-Madeenah Al-Munawarah. So we make contact with the Ummah to call them to the Haqq (truth) and that the Khilafah is a great Fard that it is obligatory for them to work towards. We interact with the Ummah upon this, working with it and through it to accomplish this matter. In addition we make contact with the people of power and request their support to establish the Khilafah and we advise them not to waste their efforts in vain by finding it sufficient to change people without changing the entire man-made secular system.

Rather they need to exert their efforts, strengths and sacrifices to change the man-made system from its roots with its rulers and laws, and establish the Khilafah.

We make this matter clear to them comprehensively just as it has come in Islam, so the one who responds positively to us we direct him with the correct direction whilst the one who does not respond cannot be coerced into it but rather we make Duaa for him to be guided.

This is what we did before the revolutions, what we do during them and what we will do afterwards. However the revolutions provided a wider range for the people to listen to the word of truth without them fearing the security agencies like the situation had been before when the people would keep their distance from us fearing the security agencies. For this reason it is noticeable today to see the people surrounding themselves around us and turning towards us and the presence of a strong active movement of interaction between us and them. And as such it is noticeable that the scope of the Dawah that we carry has widened and increased from before because the fear barrier has been removed from the people.

And it is because of this that you have noticed the strength of our movement and its increase in the Ummah more than it had been previously noticeable. This is not because we were not working before but rather because the people before the revolutions had been fearful to move in our direction out of fear from the security apparatus which would pursue us and all those whom we made contact with. So this created a hindrance to our work and placed a barrier in front of the people if they wanted to approach us.

And it is important to make known that the strength of our work is not noticeable in the areas of revolutions alone but rather it can be noticed in other regions and occasionally it can have greater momentum there than in the regions of revolutions. Perhaps you have seen or heard of our activities in Pakistan for example where the strength is clear and on par or similar to what is noticed in Syria. This is despite the absence of a revolution in Pakistan ate the present time.

In conclusion, our work was present before the revolution but it widened in a way that caught the attention during the revolution and specifically in Syria. This is because the barrier of fear had collapsed in the face of the people uprising against oppression and tyranny.

This is what is new in this matter but we had been working before the revolutions, through them and after them.

However if you meant by the wording ‘involvement in the revolution’ that we now have a military wing, then this is an error and this does not exist. We do not have a military wing attached to us either in the past or anytime after. This is because we are a political party whose ideology is Islam that does not perform any material actions in the stage of Dawah. Rather it only requests the support from the people of power so they can establish the state just as that which happened with the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم in the second Bayah (pledge) of Al-Aqabah. And it is hoped that this will be realised soon.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ بَالِغُ أَمْرِهِ ۚ قَدْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدْرًا

“Allah always achieves His aim. Allah has appointed a measure for all things.”

(al-Talaaq, 65:3)

Your brother,

Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah

30 Shaban 1434 AH

09 July 2013 CE