Islamist rally in London calls for 'Muslim armies' to invade Israel

The Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir held a rally in London Saturday calling for 'Muslim armies' to join the war in Israel. 

Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron both tried to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, according to the Telegraph, which advocates for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate governed by religious law. 

The group, which is banned in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, officially opposes Hamas but described the October 7 attack as "a day of good news." 

One video of the rally on Saturday, which was gender-segregated, shows hundreds of men, and many women, chanting the Muslim declaration of faith ('There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger'), in front of a large banner that reads 'Muslim Armies! Rescue the People of Palestine.'

Another video of the rally, posted on X, shows a man referring to Israel as 'the Zionist entity' and asking 'What is the solution to liberate people from the concentration camp of Palestine?' to which the crowd responds, 'Jihad!' 

Rally raises thorny free speech questions

The United Kingdom has several limits on free speech, and the Metropolitan Police responded to several videos and photos of this rally clarifying what they did and did not consider illegal.

Regarding the 'jihad' chant, the police issued a statement that "the word has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism." The police say they "assessed the video and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip," and noted that lawyers for the national prosecutor's office came to the same conclusion. 

Responding to a different video, the police determined that "the actions in the video amount to a hate crime offense." That video shows a demonstrator waving a black flag, mistakenly identified by some as an ISIS flag, but in fact bearing the Islamic statement of faith, and chanting in Arabic about infidels and Jews. It is unclear whether that video was recorded at the Hizb ut-Tahrir rally or elsewhere.

London: At a sex-segregated pro-Palestine rally today outside the Turkish embassy, the Islamist protesters chanted for Muslim societies to mobilize their “Muslim armies” for jihad against Israel. The rally was organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical group banned by many countries… pic.twitter.com/gi5V38XOuK

— Andy Ngô ️‍ (@MrAndyNgo) October 21, 2023

Maajid Nawaz, a liberal, Muslim intellectual who was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir for a time, addressed the controversy on X. Nawaz, who condemns the group and has come into conflict with them and other Islamists since his change of heart many years ago, drew the distinction between terrorism and war. "HT uses 'jihad' to mean war," Nawaz wrote, "not terrorism." He clarified that while incitement to terrorism is illegal, calling for countries to enter a war is not. 

Separate from the main rally, but questions there, too

The Hizb ut-Tahrir rally, which took place first in front of the Egyptian embassy and then later continued in front of the Turkish embassy, was distinct from the much larger 'March for Palestine' demonstration, which drew an estimated 100,000 people, according to Reuters. 

Some also charged that demonstration, which began at London's Marble Arch on the same day, with extremism. An investigation by the Jewish Chronicle found that leaders from four out of the six groups that organized the rally "have had apparent ties with Hamas or have expressed sympathy for its views."