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Fatah leaders meet to discuss Hamas
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST    Aug. 24, 2006

For the first time since the Hamas victory in the parliamentary elections earlier this year, the Fatah central committee, a key decision-making body in the Palestinian Authority, began a three-day meeting in Jordan on Wednesday to discuss internal reforms and relations with Hamas.

Meanwhile, a radical Islamic group called Hizb al-Tahrir (Liberation Party) is planning to declare the birth of an Islamic caliphate in the Gaza Strip on Friday. The relatively small party, which is seen as more extreme than Hamas, is said to have increased its popularity following what is perceived as a Hizbullah victory over Israel.

On Tuesday, thousands of the party's supporters staged a demonstration in Gaza City to mark the anniversary of the end of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was the first demonstration in the Gaza Strip in which demonstrators called for establishing an Islamic caliphate that would rule not only in the PA territories, but the entire world.

Buoyed by the large turnout, the party's leaders are now considering declaring an Islamic caliphate in the Gaza Strip during Friday prayers, sources close to the party said.

Jordanian security forces recently foiled a similar attempt by the party's followers in the kingdom and arrested most of their leaders. Ramzi Sawalhah, the leader of Hizb al-Tahrir in Jordan, was arrested shortly after he delivered a sermon in a mosque in which he called for replacing the monarchy with an Islamic caliphate.

The Fatah meeting is being held under the chairmanship of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the leader of Fatah.

Sixteen members of the committee, which is dominated by veteran officials representing the "old guard" in Fatah, are participating in the discussions. The meeting is being held in Amman so that Fatah leaders living abroad like Farouk Kaddoumi could attend, sources close to Abbas said.

Khaled Musmar, a member of the Fatah "revolutionary council," another one of the party's influential bodies, said Abbas was expected to brief the committee members on the results of his talks with Hamas over the formation of a national-unity government and demands for implementing major reforms in Fatah.

He said the Fatah leaders were also expected to set a date for holding a general conference to elect a new leadership. The last time such a conference was convened was in 1989 in Tunis.

"We will discuss the internal situation in Fatah and ways of reforming the party," Musmar said, referring to demands by representatives of the "young guard" to inject new and younger blood into the party and to get rid of corrupt officials.

Abbas and other veteran leaders of Fatah have been under immense pressure from grassroots activists to reform the party following its failure in the parliamentary elections. However, Abbas did not invite representatives of the "young guard" to participate in the discussions - a move that has raised eyebrows among many disgruntled Fatah activists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Many of the Fatah leaders who are attending are former cronies of Yasser Arafat whose names have been linked to financial corruption and mismanagement in the PA over the past decade.

"We're sick and tired of seeing the same old faces talk about the need for reforms in Fatah," a top Fatah activist in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post. "How can they talk about reforms in Fatah without consulting with the young leaders, especially those who are in Israeli prisons?"

Former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei said participants would discuss ways of repairing Fatah after its defeat in the election.

Abbas is also hoping to win the backing of the committee for his plan to form a "national-salvation government" once talks with Hamas over the establishment of national-unity government failed. PA officials in Ramallah said on Tuesday that Abbas was seriously considering the possibility of forming a government of technocrats after failing to persuade Hamas to establish a joint Fatah-Hamas government.

Fatah leaders claimed Hamas was not interested in such a government because its leaders had no intention of changing their political agenda. They said Abbas warned Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh that unless he recognized Israel's right to exist, the international community would not resume financial aid to the PA.

Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah central committee, said Hamas should copy the the model of Hizbullah, which, he added, was keen to attribute its victory over Israel to the entire Lebanese people. "Hizbullah cares very much about national unity in Lebanon," he said. "We are hoping that Hamas will learn from the experiences of Hizbullah, which enjoys the support of the overwhelming majority of Lebanese."

Fatah leaders meet to discuss Hamas (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525933042&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

I do believe that we will be seeing more of this in the near future and it will be getting more co-ordinated amongst the others, more systematic.

Yup I think so as well brother.  I take it you know the meaning of caliphate.

For those of you that don't know what a caliphate is............

An islamic caliphate in seven steps................

In the introduction, the Jordanian journalist writes, "I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future." What he then describes between pages 202 and 213 is a scenario, proof both of the terrorists' blindness as well as their brutal single-mindedness. In seven phases the terror network hopes to establish an Islamic caliphate which the West will then be too weak to fight.


The First Phase Known as "the awakening" -- this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003

The Second Phase "Opening Eyes" is, according to Hussein's definition, the period we are now in and should last until 2006.

The Third Phase This is described as "Arising and Standing Up" and should last from 2007 to 2010.

The Fourth Phase Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that al-Qaida will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments.

The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. (between 2013 and 2016)

The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of "total confrontation."

The Seventh Phase This final stage is described as "definitive victory." (should be completed by 2020)

Yep to make it more simple it is like the ruling government if the islamic world. The caliphate was done away with in the 1920's. The main objective in the islamic world is to reinstate the caliphate according to the prophecies in the koran. When it is fully implemented there will be one main ruler with 10 rulers (kings) under him. This objective is to have this caliphate implemented world wide as you just pointed out above.

 

It is sad to see such hate, isn't it brother.  Little do they know Jesus's plan, and how many will fall because of refusing to see the Word.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic threat no one knows about
alex kogan, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jun. 27, 2007

While Israelis are preoccupied with threats from Hamas, Iran, Hizbullah, Syria and even al-Qaida, they pay almost no attention to a large, widespread Islamist movement whose goal is to establish a caliphate on the lands "occupied by Zionists."

Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, is totally unknown to most Israelis. This Sunni pan-Islamic Party, which has more than a million members in at least 40 countries, is becoming increasingly popular in the Arab world.

The party, founded in Jerusalem 54 years ago, is now returning to its birthplace, presenting a revived caliphate as a viable solution to the problems of the Muslim world.

Hizb ut-Tahrir members are reserved about activities within their country of residence, occasionally condemning their own foreign offshoots. Thus, Britain has turned into a perfect base for Hizb ut-Tahrir operations abroad, whose goal is radicalization of Muslims all over the world, especially in the Palestinian Authority and in Central Asia.

Although Hizb ut-Tahrir does not admit to employing violent means of "persuasion" such as those used by Hamas and Osama Bin Laden, it does use terrorism as a tool, assisting other "holy warriors."

The British suicide bombers who killed three people and wounded more than 15 at Mike's Place in Tel Aviv in April 2003 were recruited by Hizb ut-Tahrir for Hamas, according to The New York Sun.

Despite being banned in Russia, Hizb ut-Tahrir is rapidly growing in the country's eastern areas. More than least 50 cells that were distributing radical literature, converting locals and preaching for jihad, were arrested by the Russian secret services in the past two years, the head of the Russia's Internal Affairs Department said last week. Hizb ut-Tahrir also planned to assassinate St. Petersburg's governor early last month.

Its activists are now spreading their influence to the north of the country, where relatively few Muslims live.

Central Asia is another important areas for Hizb ut-Tahrir. Its activities took off in this region in the mid-1990s, trying to replace then weak governments and frail national ideologies with Islamic fundamentalism. Its first cells were in Uzbekistan, later spreading to neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and southern Kazakhstan.

Initially, most of Hizb ut-Tahrir's members in these countries were ethnic Uzbeks, but they later recruited Tajiks, Kazakhis and Kyrgyzis. Hizb ut-Tahrir's missionaries targeted teachers, businessmen, and even police, attempting to spread their ideas at all levels of society.

Kazakhstan was the only state in the region that managed to neutralize this threat, thanks to the activities of the secret services and the low susceptibility of the Kazakh people to Islamic extremism. Most Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders in Kazakhstan are ethnic Russians who converted to Islam or ethnic Uzbeks. Kazakhstan also assisted Kyrgyz in preventing the Party from gaining power through elections.

Uzbekistan, in contrast, did not manage to stifle Hizb ut-Tahrir, albeit through no fault of the Uzbek government. According to the state security services, local Hizb ut-Tahrir members received support from Iran.

Teheran sheltered fugitive members of the party, according to these sources, and assisted "human rights associations" that protested "unlawful arrests" of "Islamic activist" Hizb ut-Tahrir members. In 2004, the Uzbek General Prosecutor's office said that over the previous four years, Iran had created training camps for the party's "activists."

Hizb ut-Tahrir has recently started boosting its activities in Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and the PA. The organization's global leader, Sheikh Abu Yasin Ata ibn Khalil Abu Rashta, a Jordanian Palestinian, secretly resides in Lebanon, according to the Jamestown Foundation in Washington.

The party is becoming increasingly visible within the PA, mostly in Judea and Samaria. According to Israeli security services, there are close to 1,000 Hizb ut-Tahrir activists living in east Jerusalem. A few years ago, the security services raided Hizb ut-Tahrir's office in Ramallah and seized vast stores of radical literature in Arabic, Uzbek and other languages.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's activists organize demonstrations and meetings, competing with Hamas. The party called to boycott PA elections in which Hamas took part, distributing more than 10,000 leaflets at Al-Aksa alone. Today, as Hamas fights Fatah, Hizb ut-Tahrir's standing in the West Bank is on the rise.

Unlike many Islamist movements, whose funding from abroad can be cut off at any time, Hizb ut-Tahrir's support comes from Western countries, where their activities are monitored, but not banned. The Party of Liberation is waiting for the right opportunity to come out from the shadows and replace the current dominant Palestinian factions.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic threat no one knows about (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1182951029622&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

Outside of PR, myself and a few others, some of y'all may not know what a Caliphate is......... These are two of the best (simplest) pages explaining what a Caliphate is I've run across........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliph

http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/khaliphate/khaliphate.html

Islamists urge caliphate revival

Some 100,000 Islamists have met in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to press for the re-establishment of a caliphate across the Muslim world.

The Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir - which organised the conference - said it had been the largest gathering of Muslim activists from around the world.

However, the group is illegal in many countries and key speakers have been stopped from entering Indonesia.

A caliphate - or single state for Muslims - last existed in 1924.

Hizb ut-Tahrir regards this as the ideal form of government, because it follows what it believes are the laws of God as set out in the Koran, rather than laws designed by man.

The group says it seeks to set up a caliphate by non-violent means - but many experts see it as ideologically close to jihadist groups.

It is banned in most of the Middle East and parts of Europe.

 The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta says that of the estimated 100,000 people packing the stadium hired for the event, the overwhelming majority were women, who have travelled from across Indonesia to attend.

If the audience turnout was impressive, not so the speakers lined up to address the crowd, our correspondent adds.

One by one, over the past few days, seven of the delegates invited to speak have dropped out.

Barred

Controversial Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was asked to stay away on security grounds, while three national leaders cancelled at the last minute.

The Palestinian delegate was unable to leave the Palestinian Territories, and representatives from Britain and Australia landed in Jakarta on Friday but were refused permission to enter the country.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's spokesman in Indonesia said he was disappointed about these problems and said that the Indonesian authorities had not told the group why its speakers had been barred.

Hizb ut-Tahrir - or Liberation Party - was founded in Jerusalem in the 1950s by Palestinian religious scholar Taqiuddin an-Nabhani.

Today it has a mainly clandestine following in the Middle East, a large presence in Central Asia - where hundreds of its members have been jailed - and active supporters in the West, including London, which is believed to be one of its main bases.

Many experts see it as ideologically close to jihadist groups, and suspect its commitment to peaceful means is purely tactical.

Islamists urge caliphate revival (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6942688.stm)

 Thousands of Islamists have called for a Caliphate, a world-wide Islamic kingdom

Some eighty thousand Islamist recently came together from around the world, meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia to press for the re-establishment of a caliphate. a world-wide kingdom across the Moslem world.

The event was organized by the liberation party which was founded in Jerusalem in the 1950's by a Palestinian religious scholar and experts believe the group ideologically is in concert with the Jihadist, Islamic holy war groups, and they are using peaceful means that are purely tactical.

The call by thousands of Islamists for a world-wide Islamic kingdom today is a precursor for confrontation with the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in a soon-coming tomorrow, that is according to Bible prophecy.

In the last two years Iranian President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said that we are now living in the apocalyptic age, a time near to the coming of the Islamic Mahdi, the Islamic Messiah.

Now, the Moslem in the street is joining with this Islamic leader to call for revival of the caliphate, a world-wide Islamic kingdom that would be under Sharia Law, the Islamic Law and answer to Allah, the Islamic deity.

In a recent conference held in Jakarta, Indonesia, the largest Moslem gathering in the world of this type, some eighty thousand Moslems and their leaders, called for the caliphate to be re-established.

This scenario that I have just described will bring about a universal confrontation in the future as we draw close to the time when Jesus Christ will come to earth to establish His kingdom, a physical kingdom in our world that will be headquartered in the Middle East from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The ancient Jewish prophets, especially Daniel and Ezekiel, speak about the Lord's kingdom that will be established and will be in existence forever, that's Daniel 7:13-14. Ezekiel wrote of the temple that will be located in Jerusalem that Jesus will build and as Messiah it will be His seat of authority and He will establish His earthly kingdom, His universal kingdom, from that spot, that's Ezekiel 40-46 with special attention on Ezekiel 43:1-7.

The call by thousands of Moslems for a caliphate, a world-wide Islamic kingdom is indeed a precursor to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Brothers and Sisters,

I believe that these events combined with many other facts around the world are of great significance in terms of Bible Prophecy yet to be fulfilled. I don't think these events or the timing are a coincidence. It appears that a huge puzzle of Bible Prophecy is just about ready as a completed picture. When the picture is completed, the unveiling will be horrible. Maybe I should have used a different analogy and simply said that it appears the Tribulation Period may be near. The Tribulation Period will be a horribly ugly PICTURE that will be shown for 7 long and horrible years. The terror, horrible suffering, bloodshed, and death will make this 7 year period of time appear to be much longer.

GOD has been warning mankind of this coming time for thousands of years. Countless Bible Scholars have studied the portions of Scripture in the Holy Bible that clearly tell us what WILL MOST DEFINITELY HAPPEN! NOTHING will be a mere coincidence. GOD threw mankind a LIFE ROPE about 2,000 years ago and wants to rescue all who will cling to the ROPE. That "life rope" was also a GREAT LIGHT in a dark world. The GREAT AND HOLY LIGHT IS JESUS CHRIST, and HE is the only way to be rescued from the curse of sin and death. There is much more than just 7 YEARS at stake, RATHER ETERNITY! The time is coming when JESUS CHRIST will prove beyond any doubt WHO HE IS, but it will be too late for those who have denied and defied HIM. A time will come when NONE will defy HIM because HE is and always has been THE CREATOR, THE GREAT I AM, THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE KING OF KINGS - ALMIGHTY GOD! I, for one, anxiously await HIS COMING to take HIS CHURCH WHICH IS HIS BODY HOME TO GLORY!

Love In Christ,
Tom