The Palestinian Authority security forces raided a meeting of Hizb Al-Tahrir (Liberation Party) inside the Jamal Abdul-Naser Mosque in Al-Bireh, a Palestinian city near Ramallah, Saturday evening.
According to Palestinian sources, PA security forces encircled the mosque (also known as the Grand Mosque of Al-Bireh) while plain-clothes officers stormed the mosque an arrested members of Hizb Al-Tahrir, the Alternative Information Center (AIC) reports.
According to Hizb Al-Tahrir, PA security forces arrested more than 100 people at the raid.
‘The security forces turned the vicinity of the Grand Mosque of Al-Bireh into what looked like a military post, and kept arresting supporters of the party at the gates of the Mosque and inside it after storming it and beating them in a brutal way reflecting the security mentality, which the security apparatuses were raised upon,’ said a spokesman for Hizb Al-Tahrir, Baher Saleh.
Saleh asserted that the security men were targeting the Jerusalemite Palestinians who have blue IDs issued by Israel, and were releasing those who showed Palestinian IDs. He said the PA security might turn them to the Israeli occupation authority.
The spokesman also said that the PA security forces assaulted the crew of Al-Watan TV channel as they were covering the events.
Hizb Al-Tahrir is an international, pan-Islamic political organization commonly associated with the goal of unifying all Muslim countries in an Islamic caliphate ruled by Islamic law (sharia).
It believes the re-establishment of the caliphate would provide stability and security to both Muslims and non-Muslims in the predominantly Muslim regions of the world.
The organization was founded in 1953 as a Sunni Muslim organization in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani. Since then the organization has spread to more than 40 countries, and by one estimate has roughly one million members globally.
Editor’s note: Sharia Law is typically understood as a kind of consensus determination, agreed upon by religious scholars and implemented by official legislation, of correct Islamic behavior (Sunna) based not specifically on the teachings of the Quran but also on those of a vast collection of sayings attributed (and often disputed, within the various sects) to the prophet Mohammed, called the Hadith.
