Press Release
A Reply to What was Published in Het Parool Newspaper: "Moroccan Boys Do Not Need Protection"
(Translated)

On the Het Parool web page, one of the columns featured an article entitled: "Moroccan Boys Do Not Need protection". It is well known that the title has nothing to do with the statements of the mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, in October last year regarding the debate that was organized between Yassin Al-Furqani and me in the center called Arjan. Excerpts of the mayor's statements included,

"We believe that this man will not miss a chance in order to lure the Moroccan youth to convert them to jihadists, but we are working to educate some important figures, and they in turn will work to keep young people away from radicalization".

The man who is accused by the Mayor of recruiting young Moroccans, when he said "this guy" is me, and to prevent our voices from reaching the people the mayor exercised enormous pressure on Arjan Center to cancel the debate, and of course the centre followed the orders of the mayor and they cancelled the debate. We then responded to the accusations against us through a press release, and we have explained the motives behind the debate's cancelation, however writers of Dutch newspapers especially those who work in Het Parool Newspaper are still commenting on the incident, the most recent of their latest comments was last Wednesday, and here's an example of these comments:

"Pala believes that the world should be an Islamic state, while Al-Furqani is against any form of extremism."

"If the debate between Pala and Al Furqani was not cancelled, the youth of Amsterdam would have come to know that there are many interpretations of Islam, and that a true Muslim should not join ISIS, this is what Al-Furqani wanted to tell the people."

Hizb ut Tahrir is wrongfully accused of harbouring terrorism, and that its ideas are similar to the ideas of ISIS, meanwhile everyone is aware that Hizb ut Tahrir is a political party since it was founded in 1953, and its entire work is intellectual and political. On the one hand, and on the other hand, the party through its statements have expressed its views about the so-called Khilafah "Caliphate" of the alleged ISIS. The Hizb does not claim not even once that it struggles to reach to power in or to change the society whether in the Netherlands or any other western country. Since the Western countries are not part of the areas of the Hizb's work nor the areas for working towards the Khilafah "Caliphate" whereas its work is confined to Muslim countries.

The work carried out by Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands and other Western countries can be summarized as follows:
• Carrying of the pure Islamic thoughts for Muslims here and culturing them with the Islamic culture.

• Encouraging Muslims to preserve their Islamic identity.

• Defending the interests of the Muslim community.

• Defending Islam and the concern for Muslim affairs.

• Delivering the message of Islam to non-Muslims.

The writers of the newspaper expressed their rejection of the debate's cancellation. The debate for them may be a good way that enables intellectuals to control the Muslim youth, silence them, and protect them from extremism, and make them understand that true freedom exist in democracy and not in an Islamic state dictatorship, and here lies the problem - Protecting the children of Muslims is used by Westerners as a Trojan horse to justify the criminalization of Islamic ideas. The Islamic State (the Khilafah "Caliphate") has been regarded as a dictatorship because of the fact that some organization has kidnapped this idea when their "Khilafah "Caliphate"" is not legitimate; Shariah explained the structure of the state and how and when the state is an Islamic state. There is a consensus in Islamic culture about the obligation of its establishment and the work for it. The presence of Muslims who hold different thoughts to the Western thought that dominates Western society does not indicate extremism or the intention of working to undermine the Western democratic system, but naturally there are differences in thoughts between people.

In the past few years the Islamic symbols and ideas were fought through the introduction of unjust policies against Muslims, this has led to an increase in tension between Muslims and non-Muslims in this country and generated a negative atmosphere, and all this because of the capitalist system and the capitalists dominating the people, and the article in the Het Parool Newspaper is an example of this. A just system is the one that tolerates the ones who carry a different thought and considers them part of the society; they can maintain their privacy and are not forced to leave their identity.

We in Hizb ut Tahrir believe that it is natural to have differences in opinion, and it is possible for the intellectually different to discuss in a civilized manner to know what is right from wrong, and therefore we are ready to discuss with anyone objectively.

Okay Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir
in The Netherlands