Hizb ut-Tahrir praise of Hamas ‘heroes’ triggers UK ban call

A figurehead of an extremist Islamist group behind pro-Palestinian protests has hailed Hamas terrorists as “heroes”, it can be revealed, as minsters were urged to ban the organisation from Britain.

Luqman Muqeem, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s UK branch, said the Hamas attack on Israel “made us all very, very happy” and has also shared a quote on social media about “kill[ing]... the Jews”.

Despite the statements, the group was allowed to hold a protest outside the embassies of Egypt and Turkey in central London on Saturday, which called for them to mobilise their armies against Israel and featured chants of “jihad”.

Suella Braverman, Home Secretary, is now under pressure to ban the group, as the Minister for London joined an outcry at it using Britain as a centre for its operations.

The group is already banned in Germany and a host of other countries.

In a video on his Instagram account on Oct 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, Muqeem, who features prominently on Hizb ut-Tahrir’s website, declared: “Hamdulillah This morning the heroes of Raza [Gaza] broke through the enemy lines of the yahood [Jews].”

He added: “The people of Philistine [Palestine], as well as the rest of the entire ummah woke up to news which made us all very, very happy.”

‘The last hour’

In other videos on his TikTok account, he mocked the Jewish concept of a promised land by saying: “They do have a promised land, they do have a promised place – Jahanam [the eternal abode of hell in Islam].”

In another, he appeared to endorse a quote from Imam Abu Huraira that said: “The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree.”

Muqeem is a prominent face of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, having represented it at six events on university campuses and on speaking panels. The central goal of the group is to establish a global Muslim caliphate governed by sharia law through armed resistance.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the group has not condemned the proscribed terror group Hamas once, rather hailing the attack by saying “if this can be done by a resistance group, imagine what a unified response from the Muslim world could achieve” and repeatedly calling on Muslim countries to “get your armies and go and remove the Zionist occupiers”.

At its demonstration in London on Saturday, attended by hundreds of people, chants of both “Allahu Akbar” and “jihad, jihad, jihad” were heard, with placards decrying “Zionist murder”. The Met is being questioned over its insistence that no crimes were committed.

The Government and Scotland Yard are now under pressure to go further and ban Hizb ut-Tahrir from Britain’s streets.

‘Met needs to be robust’

Paul Scully, the Minister for London, said: “In our bid to prevent extremism and avoid fanning the flames of religious tensions we need to keep under review people and groups who call for jihad on the streets of London.

“Jihad is certainly a word that can have different meanings but the Met needs to be robust and look at context. They’re not examining a theological dissertation but a call to arms in the middle of a massive protest on the back of glorifying the acts of terrorists just a couple of weeks before.”

Danny Stone, the chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, said: “Officers of the Union of Jewish Students, of which I was one, have been warning about the dangers of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir for decades.

“It was kicked off campuses, and it is about time this group, that inspires hate against Jews and others, is proscribed. It adds no value to British society and stands in stark contrast to our democratic values.”

Previously, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which Tony Blair and David Cameron tried to ban when they were in Downing Street, has called to “wipe out that Zionist entity” and referred to “the monstrous Jews”.

A spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir’s UK said: “Our chants were very specific, and did not include the word Jihad, which was said by a lone member of the public.

“We do not support the Hamas group, but support the people of Palestine... Though we believe there are theological differences with Judaism, we believe the Islamic system we are looking to implement will treat Jews justly as they did in the past. We make a clear distinction between Judaism and the Zionist entity.”