London, UK, May 19th 2011 – UK Prime Minister David Cameron today warmly received the Crown Prince of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa at Number 10 Downing Street for talks.

Commenting on the visit Taji Mustafa, media spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain said: “The hypocrisy and duplicity of the British government is breathtaking. With one face Cameron and Hague preach pious platitudes about how they are on the side of the people who are calling for change, and give themselves a pat on the back for intervening against their former ally Gaddafi [whom they plan to indict for crimes against humanity]. With the other they still warmly engage with butchers in Bahrain, appease them by saying they are making reforms, and justify the double standards with vague words like ‘ … the situation in different countries is different.’ They continue to sell arms to these regimes, with the UK government approving exports of tear gas and crowd control ammunition to its ally over the past year alone.”

“The Bahraini government had murdered unarmed protesters in cold blood; raided a girls’ secondary school arresting several female teachers as part of their crackdown, arrested medical staff for treating the injured protesters, arrested and tortured political opponents. Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is deeply implicated in this, As the deputy commander of the defense forces, he is reputed either to have directly ordered the army taking over a hospital, destroying the symbolic Pearl Roundabout, and implementing a violent crackdown on non-violent protesters – or at least failing to control his troops from doing so, and holding no visible sanctions against them for these action. The regime have tried to misrepresent a struggle between the people and the regime as a sectarian struggle – a claim the Western media frequently love to repeat.”

“The governments of Britain and America talk strongly about democracy and human rights in regions where it suits them, but maintain the status quo when it suits them.”

“In a speech in Manama in February this year, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague stated, “Britain and Bahrain have many common interests and indeed many common opinions and approaches.” The common interest Mr Hague talked about is presumably what the British government is so expert in – that is subjugating the people of the region in the name of economic and political gain.”

“Western governments are trying hard to maintain their hegemony in the Middle East – either through propping up the old despots – or intervening to manipulate the peoples’ call for change.”

“But real change will only come when there is a new way of thinking in the region and by replacing these corrupt tyrannical regimes with a new system – the Caliphate, which will stand up to western imperialism in all its forms, and look out for the interests of the people. We believe that increasingly this is what the protestors of the Middle East are marching towards.”