Press Release
WAR ON TERROR: THE TARGET IS MUSLIMS!

Hizb ut Tahrir / East Africa is very saddened by the murder of Sheikh Abubakar Sharif alias 'Makaburi' and his colleague Hafidh Bahero. We strongly condemn this brutal murder which exposed the brutality of the killers. We pray to Allah (swt) to grant patience to the families of the late and reside Abubakr and Hafidh in paradise. Furthermore, we would like to mention the following:

The murder of our brothers and other scholars before them indicate not only cowardice of the killers but their evil intention to eliminate Muslims and silence Muslim preachers from propagating Islam in its true and complete ideological context.

These killings have caused the Muslim society to lose confidence in the security apparatus and view them as turning a blind eye to the killers of Muslims. We say these because whenever Muslim preachers are killed, police claim they have no knowledge of the killers and request the public to volunteer information! Our question is why is it after the killings at Likoni, the government immediately launched an operation to hunt for the ‘unknown assailants' and moments later, it was announced the assailants had been killed by police?? Why is it we are not hearing calls for the public to volunteer information about the Likoni church assailants?

Since Sheikh Makaburi was listed by America as a ‘terrorist', it directly implies the killing has a correlation with the ‘war on terror'. More often, we state that this war is intended to eliminate Muslims and Islam. It is no secret that public opinion has been created that Muslims are extremists, terrorists and fundamentalists. These are terms only translated by America and given a meaning that suits its narrative. The question is who deserves to be branded extremist, terrorist and fundamentalist if not America? This Capitalist government uses force to spread its evil ideology like what it is doing in the Muslim world by using assassinations to impose its thoughts while claiming to be the liberator! In Africa, how many times has the West rebuked African leaders and threaten them with sanctions for opposing corrupt western thoughts like same-sex marriages? Is this not extremism and fundamentalism if these terms have any shade of truths in them? How do you judge then?

Shabani Mwalimu
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir
in East Africa