London, January 28 2007 – At a meeting with British journalists this morning, Pakistan’s dictator Musharraf once again repeated his calls for the British government to follow his lead and ban the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir which for over fifty years has been at the forefront of the political work in the Muslim world to end tyranny and dictatorship. In August 2005, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, acceded to Musharraf’s requests for Hizb ut-Tahrir to be silenced and announced that he intended to proscribe the organisation.
Commenting on this, Dr Imran Waheed, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "Over the weekend, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain held demonstrations in London that drew hundreds of protestors and exposed Musharraf’s failure in lifting Pakistan out of poverty and insecurity and ending its subservience to foreign powers. These demonstrations and the letter that was delivered to Musharraf via the Pakistan High Commission have obviously incensed the dictator of Pakistan. Musharraf’s intolerance of dissent was clearly seen when answering entirely reasonable questions from journalists following his speech at RUSI."
"It is very telling that foreign dictators feel comfortable in asking the British government to ban organisations that cause them considerable political discomfort. After all, Western governments have a shared mutual interest in propping up compliant dictators and preventing the aspirations of the masses for the Caliphate in the Muslim world from being expressed."
"Despite the pressure from dictators in the Muslim world to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, no evidence whatsoever has been presented to link Hizb ut-Tahrir to violence. In countries like Pakistan and Uzbekistan our members are detained without charge, held incommunicado, kidnapped, tortured and killed for their political work. Hizb ut-Tahrir will continue to speak out against the injustice, tyranny and oppression of Musharraf and the other tinpot dictators in the Muslim world despite the consequences."
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