London, UK, April 26 2007 – At mosques across the UK tomorrow [April 27th], Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, the Islamic political party, will distribute tens of thousands of copies of a new leaflet entitled "What does Ruth Kelly mean by a ‘British Version of Islam'". This follows Ruth Kelly's recent speech and New Statesman article about the government's plans to engineer change in Muslim community institutions.

This new leaflet details these plans and illustrates that their aims, far from helping to further community relations, are actually about fashioning a compliant Muslim community, which dares not question or protest as the government pursues its global war on terror.

The leaflet states, "‘Terrorism' and ‘extremism' are simply excuses to curb dissenting voices against this foreign policy and carry out these changes in the institutions of the Muslim community in Britain."

"This negative propaganda is simply government spin in response to a collapse of public support since its disastrous intervention in Iraq. It is a continuation of the deception of their own population from asking fundamental questions about the immoral colonial foreign policy."

Explaining the misguided details of the government's campaign, the leaflet states, "The government's aim is to put pressure on our madrassahs to teach liberal secular values about citizenship, stop educating our youth about the history and civilisation of Islam and to pressurise our Imams against making dua (supplications) for those under attack or resisting occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine!"

In the leaflet Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain urges the Muslim community to challenge the government's campaign: "The Muslim community must not be intimidated by government initiatives such as Kelly's; rather we should raise our voices even stronger against the government's imperialistic policies in the Muslim world. We have a duty to show to the wider non-Muslim society that Islam, Shariah and Caliphate are not ‘extremism, violence and terrorism'. "

Notes to Editors:

1) The full text of the leaflet can be obtained from www.hizb.org.uk

2) Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain will be addressing the government plans for Mosques and Madrassah's at a public meeting on Saturday 28th April 2007 at 7pm at Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LS.

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