1st October 2004

Anton Nossik

Editor-in-Chief

MosNews.com

Dear Mr. Nossik,

This is a letter of complaint about an article that appeared earlier today on your website. The article is entitled “Members of International Islamic Terror Group Detained in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Russia”.

We take exception with the following incorrect assertions:

(1)   The description of our organisation as an “international Islamic terror group”.

(2)   The suggestion that our organisation was influenced by what you describe as the “Wahhabi ideology”.

Firstly, Hizb-ut-Tahrir is convinced that the change we seek must start in the minds of people and we do not accept for people or societies to be forced to change by violence and terror. Consequently, Hizb ut-Tahrir does not advocate or engage in violence or terror. The party strictly adheres to Islamic law in all aspects of its work. It is an Islamic intellectual and political entity that seeks to change people’s thoughts through intelligent discussion and debate. We consider violence or armed struggle against the regime, as a method to re-establish the Islamic State, to be forbidden by Islamic law.

Numerous articles produced in the recent past by a variety of media outlets including Reuters, Itar-Tass, Pravda, AFP, Al-Hayat, AP and RFERL to name just a few, have clearly pointed out that Hizb ut-Tahrir is a non-violent organisation that has ruled out armed struggle or violence as part of its methodology.

Although Russian authorities have banned our organisation, they have not produced any credible evidence to support the allegations they have made about our organisation. Dozens of party members arrested in the past by the FSB were later released through lack of credible evidence. FSB officers have a track record of fabricating such cases to build their careers, and human rights groups have widely documented this phenomena.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is at the forefront of political activism in the Muslim world. The party has challenged and called to account the tyrannical rulers of the Muslim world. The response of these regimes to our work has been to imprison, torture and murder our members. While our challenge to these regimes has been at an intellectual and political level, by encouraging debate and discussion, these regimes have resorted to banning and silencing the party, as they have no intellectual thought of their own. As these regimes tolerate no opposition whatsoever, other opposition parties are also banned. Despite the banning of the party and the intimidation of its members, the thoughts of the party have nevertheless successfully permeated throughout society.

Secondly, we strongly deny any links whatsoever, past or present, with what you describe as the “Wahhabi ideology”. Hizb ut-Tahrir has never mentioned in any of its literature or in interviews by official spokesmen that it originated from the Wahhabi movement of Saudi Arabia. The followers of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab who are termed Wahhabi believe that it is prohibited for Muslims to follow the classical schools of thought such as the Hanafi, Shafi’, Hanbali and Maliki schools. Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects this view and its members are from various Islamic schools of thought. The official Hizb ut-Tahrir website states, “The Party accepts Muslim men and women as its members regardless of whether they are Arab or non-Arab, white or coloured, since it is a party for all Muslims. It invites all Muslims to carry Islam and adopt its systems regardless of their nationalities, colours and madhahib (Schools of Thought), as it looks to all of them according to the viewpoint of Islam.”

We are well aware that it is the style of many tyrant rulers, such as the ruler of Russia, to engineer such events and apportion blame to Islamic groups in order to repress advocates of political Islam and in order to blur the margins between political Islam and violence. However, we expected that MosNews.com would at least report our complete disavowal of violence in the interests of journalistic objectivity.

We feel that MosNews.com has a responsibility to its readers and the public at large to ensure that the level of journalism is maintained to a high standard and that the reporter states the facts and not mere hearsay.

In the light of these incorrect allegations, we kindly ask that you remedy this situation by immediately carrying a prominent correction at the earliest opportunity that points out that the allegations made were in fact incorrect and unfounded.

Thanking you in advance of your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Imran Waheed MBChB MRCPsych

Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain

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