Hizb ut-Tahrir Turned Away

Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group calling for the establishment of a Muslim caliphate, had to protest along nearby South Audley St, after Egyptians refused to allow them to join their solidarity protest at the Egyptian embassy. London, UK on 29/01/2011.

Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain arrived to take part in an emergency picket at the Egyptian Embassy, but there they met a group of Egyptians "from different political & ideological backgrounds" had already planned to hold a peaceful protest to "show solidarity & support of our fellow Egyptians in our beloved country" who have been protesting in Egypt since Tuesday. Hizb Ut-Tahrir were apparently told very firmly that the embassy protest - like the Egyptian revolution - was to be entirely non-sectarian and that they were not welcome there.

So Hizb ut-Tahrir were forced instead to hold their own separate demonstration around a hundred yards away around the corner along South Audley St, where they were spread out along the pavement between South Street and Hill Street. As always at their events, everyone was dressed in black and the men and women were segregated. The men filled most of the pavement along South Audley St, with just a few women at one end, with most of them around the corner eastwards on South Street, away from the loudspeakers and the embassy. It seemed a clear demonstration of the lack of equality they would like to impose.

While I was there none of the speeches were in English, though I could pick out the occasional word. But as always they were calling for the establishment of a Muslim Khilafah (caliphate), the "real change" which they see as the answer to everything.Most Egyptians want to get rid of what they feel is an oppressive regime and want a free and democratic nation, a secular state where there is no discrimination based on gender, religion or political views. They find the idea of a caliphate as oppressive as the present corrupt regime.

Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain were also planning to demonstrate later in the day a short distance away outside the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane against the "two years Fascist Rule" by the Hasina Government in Bangladesh. Although many might agree with their complaints about the arrests, detention without trial and attacks on the opposition there, there are probably few who would find living under the kind of Islamic Khalifah they propose a welcome alternative.

By Peter Marshall, Demotix News