Press Release
Spiteful Russia Launches Campaign of Arrests against Muslims and Members of Hizb ut Tahrir!
(Translated)

Approximately 150 Muslims were arrested in a large-scale raid in the Oxanov market in the city of Surjut-Siberia, where many of the residents of Central Asia and Northern Caucasus work. The raid began suddenly according to witnesses, when masked men armed with assault rifles broke into the building in broad daylight and surrounded it, and then under their threat of execution they ordered all those present in the building to exit the building and line up on the street.

After the raid and searches, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that they were searching for "weapons and banned books", then approximately 150 people were taken in private busses to an unknown location. In the end it was discovered that among the 150 Muslims were a group of members of Hizb ut Tahrir. The Federal Security Services also claim that a large number of articles of "outlawed Islamic thought" were found.

Russian news agency, Novosti, on Thursday, August 29, quoted the Russian Security Services as saying that some men described as "Islamic terrorists" had been arrested, who are suspected of being members of "the Islamic Hizb ut Tahrir", and are accused of "preparing to forcefully take over power" in Bashkortostan in an effort to establish a "global Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate"".

This campaign of arrests comes in light of the sweeping motion of the Ummah witnessed in the region that toppled despotic rulers. This motion still underway, despite the passing of over two years, in which the Ummah has been battling notorious tyrants and the western imperialist states that back them; the motion of whose flame the Russian regime is afraid will move towards its borders.

The Russian regime has not grown tired of its futile attempts to stick charges of carrying out physical actions and acquiring weapons and carrying out lethal activities to Hizb ut Tahrir. All this is due to the fact that the Russian regime was bitterly defeated in the intellectual war before Islamic thinking. Therefore it was and continues to be bitterly plot of against the members of Hizb ut Tahrir, in the hopes of catching them in their trap. Hizb ut Tahrir has committed itself to the clear method of Islam for building the Islamic society, and shifting it from Dar al Kufr to Dar al Islam by way of the Dawah to Islam and transmitting its ideas among the public to return the Islam way of life by establishing the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate", avoiding any physical activity other than teaching true Islam. Therefore everything that the Russian Federal Security Services claims is a fabricated lie, with the exception of the accusing of our members of possessing of articles of "outlawed Islamic thought"! What is this outlawed thought? Is the call to living according to the laws of Islam "outlawed thought"?! Or the Muslims' attempt to return the Islamic ideology to care for their affairs in the best way and solve their problems with the best solutions, and save Russia and the world from the immorality of brutal capitalism "outlawed thought"?!

The despotic rulers of Russia should know that Allah (swt) has entrusted Islam and its preservation to himself, and promised the Ummah victory and succession. So let them do whatever they want,

(وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ)

"But Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it." [Surah Al Tawba: Aya 32]

The spirit of life has come back to the Ummah, indeed it did not die as for it to come back to life, but it overlooked its Islam for a moment, and now it has blessedly returned to its Islam, to remove from its path every tyrant that stands between it and its honor and elevation, and ransomed it to their masters, the Imperialist West.

So be patient our brothers in the wounded Asia, for the tidings of your dignity are closer to you than the morning, by Allah's (swt) will. So make your efforts serious, and rise and revolt, and take on the greatest and most important obligation; which is seriously pursuing the rule by Allah's Shar' and the establishment of the Righteous Khilafah "Caliphate" State, with which you will crush every oppressor.

(وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ أَوْ يُخْرِجُوكَ وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ)

"And [remember, O Muhammad], when those who disbelieved plotted against you to restrain you or kill you or evict you [from Makkah]. But they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners." [Surah Al Anfal: Aya 30]

Osman Bakhach

Director of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir