HIZB UT TAHRIR IN LEBANON: ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL ISLAM

Hizb ut Tahrir al Islami, the Islamic Liberation Party, is a social movement that is highly active in Europe, Central Asia and the Near East. In Lebanon, one of the few countries in the Arab world where it’s legal (together with Yemen and the United Arab Emirates), this party has refused to take part in elections, but continues to participate actively in the country’s political life through its social movement, which they call a “party”. The party’s vicissitudes in this country, going from illegality to operating freely (though recently it has been placed under suspicion), enables us to draw a series of useful conclusions for the evolution of political Islam in the public life of the Republic of Lebanon in the eastern Mediterranean.