JAKARTA (Agencies)
About 80,000 people gathered in the Indonesian capital on Sunday, calling for the peaceful establishment of the Caliphate -- a single Muslim government across the Islamic world – while another 10,000 Palestinians rallied in support in the West Bank town of El-Bireh.
"After the destruction of the Caliphate, tragedy after tragedy has descended on the Muslim world," said Ismail Yusanto, the spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia, a radical international Muslim group.
"Our nation has been divided into 50 and the infidel colonialists picked rulers in each of these countries," Yusanto said at the International Caliphate Conference in Jakarta hosted by Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Hizb ut-Tahrir -- The Liberation Party -- was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 and insists that it seeks to achieve its goals by peaceful means, but its members are regularly arrested in Arab and Muslim countries such as Jordan, Syria and Turkey.
Several mainstream Indonesian Muslim leaders were invited to speak at the conference, including popular and moderate preacher Abdullah Gymnastiar.
But Hizb ut-Tahrir said two of its foreign speakers from the U.K. and Australia had been barred from entering the country by the Indonesian government.
"Hizb ut-Tahrir has spearheaded a crucial debate on the future for the Muslim world -- an alternative to corruption and dictatorship," Abdul Wahid, Hizb ut-Tahrir chairman in Britain, said in a statement.
"We hear endless rhetoric about a battle of ideas but the only actions we see are bans, smears and an attempt to silence debate," he said.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia regularly holds peaceful street protests in several main cities on Islam-related issues.
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians joined rallied in the West Bank town of El-Bireh on Saturday, also calling for the establishment of the Caliphate.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, said some 10,000 people attended the rally at which the party's emir (chief) Ata Abu Rashteh called on Muslims to unite in order to restore the caliphate. |
