Hizb ut-Tahrir rally in Simferopol demands revival of Caliphate
The rally marked the 89th anniversary of the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate following the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1924, an Interfax correspondent reported.
The demonstrators were holding black and white flags carrying slogans “There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah”, “89 years without the Caliphate is a great tragedy”, “Islam is our guidance for life”, “Only the Caliphate protects our religion”, and “We are Muslims, our ideology is Islam, our constitution is Quran”. Up to 400 women dressed in accordance with Islamic traditions attended the rally. They stood separately from the men.
“The rally is dedicated to the 89th anniversary of the dissolution of the Caliphate. It is part of the campaign being held by our organization across the world. We gathered Muslims in Ukraine in order to speak about the Caliphate’s place in Islam and how it was destroyed. We want to convey the idea that rebuilding the Caliphate is our duty and responsibility before Allah,” Hizb ut-Tahrir Ukraine office spokesman Fazyl Amzayev told journalists.
“We are governed by the laws of Islam in our work. These laws of Islam carry peace and harmony. They will not carry any destruction of the public system as long as we obey these laws. We continue our movement,” he said.
The rally continued for an hour and a half and involved speeches in Russian and Arabic.
The demonstrators called the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in Turkey on March 3, 1924 a tragedy, blaming Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who separated government and religious affairs, for it.
Source : interfax-religion.com