London UK, April 13th 2015 – On Saturday 11 April 2015, The Times, falsely claimed that Hizb ut-Tahrir was linked to Jabhat an-Nusra and had been involved in “launching attacks on civil activists in the northern city of Aleppo, aided by fighters from the Nusra Front”.

These allegations were not substantiated by any credible evidence whatsoever and are entirely baseless.

Prior to publication, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain and Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Central Media Office in Beirut were contacted by a journalist from The Times who put forward the allegations. The allegations were robustly rebutted.

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Central Media Office responded to the journalist by stating that the allegation that 100 members of Hizb ut-Tahrir had attacked activists had “not [a] grain of truth in it”. The statement further clarified that “Hizb ut-Tahrir works on its own, never had never will have any associations with any other group/state/regime, under no circumstances. The above applies to Jabhat al Nusra as well as any other group”.

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s media representative in Britain, Taji Mustafa, also responded to the journalist, writing, “It is well known that Hizb ut-Tahrir is an independent organisation and is not linked to Jabhat Al-Nusra or any other movement. Hizb ut-Tahrir does not involve itself in any form of violence or militancy; rather it adopts the Prophetic method of intellectual and political struggle. Hizb ut-Tahrir’s political struggle for over 50 years to re-establish the Caliphate is well known and despite the harsh oppression of Western backed tyrants and dictators, the party has never taken up arms to achieve its objective. Our political prisoners continue to languish in the prisons of Uzbekistan, Syria and Pakistan. We reject the insinuation that we are involved in attacks or destruction in Syria. The party calls on the people of Syria to stand against the Assad regime.”

Despite the lack of any credible evidence and the clear statements from Hizb ut-Tahrir’s media representative and Central Media Office, The Times nevertheless chose to publish the allegations.

Commenting on the publication of this article, the media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Taji Mustafa, said, “These desperate and baseless lies, masquerading as journalism, will not fool anyone who is familiar with the work of Hizb ut-Tahrir. For over fifty years, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been at the forefront of the political struggle in the Muslim world to end tyranny and dictatorship. Throughout that time, our members have not engaged in violence or militancy; they have remained patient and have not resorted to wreaking violence on the world as the neoconservatives have.”

“Western governments, who have propped up autocratic regimes across the Muslim world, and their cheerleaders in the Murdoch press, are all too eager to conflate the popular Muslim demand for the Caliphate with violence or militancy. Rather than running scurrilous attacks, the Murdoch press ought to throw some light on the deaths of 4 million Muslims in Western wars since the 1990s.”

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