Press Release
The Daily Mail Prints Barefaced Lies about Hizb ut Tahrir Again

One expects very little of fact in a Daily Mail article, but the shocking dishonesty in its latest offering about Hizb ut Tahrir stoops to new lows of journalistic integrity.

Sadly, its writer Glen Keogh chose to ignore the advice that we gave him prior to publication “I hope that you will not follow the tradition of some of your colleagues, who have given the Daily Mail the gutter press reputation that it has, when they knowingly present quotations out of context to sensationalise their cherry-picked narrative, in complete disregard for the truth.”

We refer him to our previous response to the lies of the Evening Standard, although this time the Daily Mail misleads their readers through insinuation, vaguely alleging that two suicide bombers “had contact with the group”.

Hizb ut Tahrir / Britain stated in a press release on 19th July 2005, "Asif Hanif and Omar Sharif, who were responsible for a Tel Aviv suicide bombing in April 2003, were not members of Hizb ut Tahrir and had no affiliation whatsoever Hizb ut Tahrir ". We issued another press release in 2010: “In addition, in undertaking these actions they were not influenced at all by any member of Hizb ut Tahrir, including Reza Pankhurst. Despite extensive investigations by the police and security services, including legal proceedings against members of the Sharif family, no link to Hizb ut Tahrir has ever been proven.”

What is truly astounding is that the article quotes an entire passage then interprets it with its opposite meaning that no speaker of English could ever be forgiven for. Even when Muslims categorically reject suicide bombing as a means to an end, so determined are some to claim that we do, they have no shame in twisting our words to suit their narrative. We had previously written to Mr Keogh about his suggestion that the book “Stand for Islam” contained justification for suicide bombing: “To suggest this either reveals an inability to understand plain English or a desire to deliberately distort the intended meaning, when the very quote you put forward starts by stating that ‘Islam is categorical in the prohibition of committing suicide and taking innocent life.’” Even after this the Daily Mail has the audacity to tell this barefaced lie in bold type in the title. We seek refuge in Allah from such depravity.

So desperate are the British establishment to avoid scrutiny of their colonial policies overseas, and to avoid any real debate about their secular liberal values that they impose upon ordinary people in the UK, that they try by any means, no matter how dishonest, to falsely link Hizb ut Tahrir to violence in the hope that they will one day be able to silence our voices which expose them for their crimes against humanity.

We urge the British people generally to demand a higher standard of journalism, such that deliberate distortion of the truth, misleading partial information, insinuations and bare faced lies are no longer tolerated.

Yahya Nisbet
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain