London, UK, November 14 2007 – In Parliament earlier today the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, once again called for the banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir and accused it of "fomenting violence". As on previous occasions, he has been unable to cite any evidence for the banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir or his allegation that the organisation foments violence. Following these comments, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Dr Abdul Wahid, has written an open letter to Mr Cameron challenging him to a public debate on the substantive issues.

In the letter, Dr Abdul Wahid, writes that "we have become accustomed to matters of security being cynically played by you for political point scoring" and accuses Mr Cameron of simply seeking "to divert any responsibility for creating today’s security environment away from western government policies in the Muslim world."

Accusing Cameron of preferring "to ban ideas rather than debate them", the letter states that Cameron’s "argument can be traced to various right wing neoconservative think tanks in Washington, via their sister organisations in the UK" which "also call for the bombing of Iran (as they called for the war in Iraq), the withdrawal of Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights and the termination of your relationship with the Conservative Muslim Forum which they recently described as a flirtation with Islamic extremism".

The letter concludes with a challenge to Cameron "to debate any of these matters in a public forum" noting that "the cowardice of making your accusations in Parliament – where you enjoy the cover of legal protection – is telling. Your persistent call for a ban and the censoring of debate and discussion on important issues, suggests to me that you would not accept this offer, because you have no arguments and no proofs to bring to the table."

 
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Notes to Editors:

The full text of the letter can be found on our website