A global Islamic movement that wants bring Muslims back to the roots of their religion drew a crowd of more than 10,000 at a rally Saturday and denounced the moderate Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank as infidels. However, the Liberation Party [Hizb ut-Tahrir] espouses non-violent change, and PA security officials said they would not restrict the movement's activities as long as it does not resort to violence. | We've been through all this before. If the Fatah can't hunt the Hizbies down and kill them, who can? |
Saturday's rally was held on the sports field of the Quaker-run Friends School, a private English-speaking school. "The caliphate is coming," read a large poster on the wall of the field.
Several tents were set up, and speakers explained in detail what an Islamic state would look like. They said 13 ministries would be established, including for media and foreign affairs. In a statement distributed in the crowd, the movement said the Palestinian Authority, a result of interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals a decade ago, was set up by infidels and is fighting against the caliphate. "It's known that no one fights the caliphate, except for infidels or representatives of the infidels," the statement said. "The employees in the Palestinian Authority are supposed to be Muslims. How can they stand with the infidels fighting their religion and their nation."
Several speakers addressed the crowd, interspersed by shouts of "Allahu Akbar," or
Yousef Assaf, 67, said he came from the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem for the rally. "I want it (an Islamic state) to return because it's fairness, the base of religion."
A few Palestinian policemen stood outside the field, and organizers said one of the group's cars had been confiscated. On its Web site, the party said it planned rallies Sunday in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Pakistan and Malaysia.