Terror Group Seeks To Challenge Jordan's Control Of Temple Mount

JERUSALEM: GROWING TERROR CELL SEEKS TO CHALLENGE JORDAN’S CONTROL OF TEMPLE MOUNT

BY JNS 

The 15,000 Muslims who crowded into the courtyards of the Temple Mount mosques on Oct. 30 became another news story about COVID-19. But the real story was much bigger: the enormous anti-France protest near the Al-Aqsa Mosque was organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Islamic Liberation Party), about which the Israeli public has heard little if anything.

There is a direct line connecting the ideology of this movement—which has already been outlawed by a number of European and Arab states—and the ideology of the throat-slashing Islamic terrorists who recently resumed activity in France. At least in terms of its goals, if not its tactics, Hizb ut-Tahrir is the twin of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, whose people were behind the terrorist shooting in Vienna on Nov. 2.

In eastern Jerusalem, Hizb ut-Tahrir has tens of thousands of supporters. The movement holds weekly lessons on the Temple Mount, generally on Thursdays, and has branches in Abu Dis, al-Azariya, Ramallah, al-Bira, the Old City of Jerusalem, Beit Hanina, Beit Safafa and Sur Baher, as well as one in Hebron. According to security officials, the movement has been gaining popularity in recent years. Now it turns out that its global threat has been growing as well.

Members of the movement, which also operates in Britain, Australia, Indonesia, the United States and several Arab countries, aspire to replace every national government with a global Muslim rule. In their view, the governments in Egypt, Turkey and Jordan, as well as Fatah and even Hamas, are all national in nature, and therefore obstacles in the way of the dream of a worldwide caliphate.

“The real question that the organization’s activity has raised for years is whether and when it will trade its dawa-based activity—strengthening religion through persuasion and preaching—with violent jihad like the recent events in France,” said Koren.

“In the Palestinian context, Hizb ut-Tahrir promotes two main issues: laying the groundwork to make al-Aqsa Mosque a future platform on which the world caliphate will eventually be declared, and challenging Jordan’s position as guardian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem,” he said.

More...