Press Release
Hizb ut-Tahrir Netherlands - In Response to the Telegraph and Bosma

The following is an English translation of a statement issued in Dutch by the Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the Netherlands:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

In response to the Telegraph and Bosma

Today a lecture was planned which was organized by the Islamic student association Al-Furqan, concerning the situation in Gaza and the ongoing criminal acts of the Jewish state against the children and women there. This lecture would be given by me. However some particular parties were not pleased with it and put all their efforts to stop this lecture. Indeed, they were successful in preventing the planned lecture, and in taking my word away. However they failed in the prevention of the distribution of the message. My message has reached the peoples, and they witnessed that even the word Khilafah "Caliphate" strikes deep fear in the hearts of the assassins of women and children and those who support them.

On the 15^th of January 2009 the Telegraph wrote, hurrying as they always do when the activities of Hizb ut Tahrir are related to the Jewish state, and excelling in deceiving and distorting of the truth, that Hizb ut-Tahrir called to a lecture about Gaza and that the speaker would advocate as the sole solution for what is going on in Gaza, the reestablishment of the Caliphate. Then this newspaper continued its argument and spouts its poison by putting the emphasis on two matters: the first is the separation of men and women in the room, and the second, that I'm linked to the "terrorist Hizb ut Tahrir".

The proposition that Hizb ut Tahrir is a terrorist organization is a lie, and a perversion of truth. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a political party which does not use any material action. For this reason we challenge the Telegraph to bring forward prove to proof its claim. Also we wonder ourselves which criteria the newspaper uses in determining who is a terrorist or not? Is the Jewish state according to them, a state which determinedly assassinates children and women, a terrorist state or not?

Concerning the separation of men and women in the room, the newspaper obtains the words of Martin Bosma, the official spokesman on behalf of "the party of freedom", which considers this as discriminatory and apartheid. And some newspapers have reported that Bosma posed chamber questions (questions from the House of Commons to the government) about this. Our response to this is the following:

Firstly: apartheid, as you well-know, is a Dutch word which does not occur in Islamic culture, and means the discrimination which is based on the tendency of superiority, such as the superiority of the white to the black. This meaning does not exists for us and also we don't say that the man is superior to the woman.

Secondly: separating the men and the women is not only a divine rule for the Muslims. This is also a rule in Judaism. Bosma can enquire about this from his friend Wilders. His friend Wilders can ask this on behalf of him to a Rabbi which can provide him clarity in this question. He can ask his friend Wilders as well about the separation between men and women in the Jewish synagogues and about the separation between men and women in the buses of Tel Aviv, where his friend has visited on several occasions.

Thirdly: we know what the real reason is behind all this commotion which has been set up by certain media outlets. It does not at all concern the separation of men and women, as this takes place in several places in the Netherlands, by both the Muslims and the non-Muslims, and there is absolutely no law which prescribes to strike woman associations its activities, or a law which forces her do distance of the separation between the seating of men and women. This is an organisational measure which the state does not intervene in. The real reason of this commotion is the fear of the message of the lecture, and that is; the solution which will end the crime of the Zionist entity is the Khilafah "Caliphate" State.

This message has reached thousands of Muslims now. For this reason we can state that the lecture, in spite of that this lecture did not proceed, has been particularly successful.

Okay Pala 
Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands