VZCZCXRO3204
RR RUEHAST RUEHBC RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHGI
RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHKA #0361/01 0990431
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090431Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY DHAKA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8613
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 2046
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 2815
RHHMUNS/COMSOCPAC HONOLULU HI
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHHJJPI/PACOM IDHS HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DHAKA 000361 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/PB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PTER KDEM ASEC KISL BG
SUBJECT: HIZB UT TAHRIR IN BANGLADESH: STILL NEW, STILL 
SMALL 
 
REF: DHAKA 207 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Hizb-ut-Tahrir Bangladesh (HTB) was established in 
Dhaka in 2001 and has an estimated membership of about 3,000 
young, well-educated, middle-class Bangladeshis, mostly from 
Dhaka. In common with the global HT movement, HTB claims to 
aspire to the establishment of a Muslim caliphate through 
non-violent means. HTB refuses to meet with American officers 
and rejects Bangladesh's democratic process. End summary. 
 
HTB CHIEF: A UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Although the Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement in Bangladesh 
(HTB) has consistently refused to meet with American 
officers, its leader, Mohiuddin Ahmed, agreed to meet with a 
Bangladeshi Locally Engaged Staff (LES) Embassy 
representative in Dhaka on April 6. According to the LES 
representative, Ahmed appeared to be between 35-40 years old, 
was well-dressed, personable, polite and seemed very 
well-educated. A professor at Dhaka University's Institute of 
Business Administration - the most prestigious business 
school in Bangladesh - Ahmed's official HTB title is "Chief 
Coordinator and Official Spokesman." 
 
GOALS AND MEMBERSHIP 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) The stated HTB goal, in common with that of the global 
Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hizb ut-tahrir), is the 
establishment, through non-violent means, of a Muslim 
caliphate, under which all Muslim countries could be united, 
Ahmed said. He said HTB (website: www.khilafat.org), an 
autonomous offshoot of the global movement, was established 
in Dhaka in 2001 and since then it has been conducting 
outreach among young middle-class Bangladeshis and has grown 
considerably. Ahmed claimed current membership was 'about' 
10,000. (Note: A local newspaper reporter who follows issues 
related to radical Islam estimated that its membership was 
currently closer to 3,000. The majority of the membership was 
in Dhaka, said the reporter, although it has some 50 to 60 
members in the major cities of Sylhet and Chittagong. End 
note.) 
 
¶4. (U) HTB's membership -- young, wealthy and well-educated 
-- is apparently drawn largely from Dhaka's private 
universites (such as the prestigious North-South University 
and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology), 
and a large percentage are graduates of Bangladesh's elite 
English-medium primary and secondary school system. Their 
outreach, educational and discussion seminars are reportedly 
well-presented and all held in English. 
 
NO PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) Ahmed said the organization began to call itself a 
political party in 2003. HTB did not officially register as a 
political party with the Elections Commission, however (Note: 
a legal prerequisite for participation in elections. End 
note). He asserted that such registration was irrelevant for 
HTB since it did not participate in elections. He added that 
elections in Bangladesh were a mockery, as no party could 
come to power without colluding with the US and other 
imperialist forces. 
 
NO DIALOGUE WITH THE US AND OTHER IMPERIALISTS 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
6.(SBU) The LES representative extended an invitation to 
dialogue with an American Embassy officer but Ahmed explicity 
refused it, saying there was no point in dialogue with the US 
(and other imperialist forces), as they had "their own 
agenda" and the discussion would not be held on equal terms. 
Only after the establishment of the caliphate would dialogue 
- on equal terms - be welcome, he said. In addition, he said, 
the US was engaged in wars with Muslim countries and 
responsible for the deaths of millions of Muslims. No 
 
DHAKA 00000361  002 OF 003 
 
 
dialogue was possible until such activity ceased, he said. 
(Note: The HTB prohibition on talking to imperialistic 
foreigners seems to include India, with HTB leaflets commonly 
noting that 'Islamic rule is the only thing that can save 
Muslim society and Bangladesh from enemies such as India, the 
UK and the US.' In common with many Islamic groups in 
Bangladesh, HTB appears to view India as a greedy and 
single-minded hegemon determined to annex and exploit 
Bangladesh. End note.) 
 
FUTURE PLANS 
------------ 
 
¶7. (U) The strength of the movement would grow incrementally, 
one recruit at a time, until sufficient numbers of people 
were available to bring about a popular uprising that would 
result in the overthrow of the compromised and colluding 
elected government, said Ahmed. He recalled the 1990 popular 
uprising against then-President Ershad, who was forced to 
resign following massive popular demonstrations protesting 
his rule. Although elections, uncompromised by imperialist 
influence, would be held after the establishment of the 
caliphate, Ahmed said, HTB did not employ the Western 
terminology "democracy" since the tenets of Islam already 
provided for meaningful popular participation in and control 
of government. 
 
FUNDING AND RELATIONS WITH OTHER ISLAMIST GROUPS 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶8. (U) HTB is independent of any other Hizb-ut-Tahrir group 
internationally, and takes no orders or advice from anyone 
outside Bangladesh, said Ahmed, adding that HTB operations 
were privately financed by donations solely from its members 
and received no funding from external sources. HTB had good 
relations with Bangladesh's other Islamic parties, with the 
exception of Jamaat-e-Islami, which had, Ahmed said, 
compromised with Western imperialists by participating in 
elections and the democratic process. He added that HTB had 
no links to any illegal terrorist organizations such 
Jamaat-al-Mujahideen Bangladesh and 
Harakat-al-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh. 
 
HTB IN THE NEWS: SOME RECENT HEADLINES 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) HTB has been embroiled in a controversy with the 
authorities since 27 HTB activists were arrested March 1 on 
charges of sedition. According to media, authorities detained 
the group in Dhaka while they were distributing leaflets 
implying the Awami League government had colluded with India 
to bring about the bloody February 25-26 border guard mutiny 
(reftel). On April 7, media reported that police used batons 
to break up a Dhaka street demonstration by about 300 HTB 
activists protesting the detentions. 
 
¶9. (U) In January 2009, media reported that the women's wing 
of Hizb-ut-Tahrir held a seminar and a small street protest 
condemning Israeli military action in Gaza. The HTB women's 
wing is reportedly active and well-organized but run 
separately from the men's wing. In September 2008, media 
reported that about 10 HTB activists were arrested by police 
in the northern city of Rajshahi, just prior to holding a 
press conference there. They were later released without 
being charged. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) According to the Heritage Foundation 
(www.heritage.org), the HT movement has chapters in 40 
countries around the world, including in Europe, Africa, the 
Middle East and South Asia, with a 'hard-core' membership of 
5,000 to 10,000, and hundreds of thousands more 'supporters.' 
It has been banned or outlawed in several countries. In 
Bangladesh, HTB is still relatively new on the scene and 
still a small organization. The secular Awami League's 
landslide election victory in the recent elections and the 
February 25-26 border guard mutiny upset dynamics and 
alliances within and between Bangladesh's Islamist parties 
and also unsettled Islamist relationships with the 
government. We will continue to observe with interest the 
 
DHAKA 00000361  003 OF 003 
 
 
trajectory and choices of Islamist groups such as HTB as 
those dynamics re-settle in the coming months. 
PASI