Our research paper charts the rise of Hizb ut Tahrir as an Islamist group which, after failing to galvanize Muslims in the Middle East, began to operate in Europe. It explains how the group achieved a degree of success with many second-generation British Muslims from the early 1990s onwards and the impact this success had on the European Muslim landscape.

It also explores how Islamist ideas, such as the need to establish a caliphate and topple governments around the world, became mainstream through Islamist activism and how the authorities and the wider Muslim community were unable to prevent this.

Our paper explains how the group splintered and
gave birth to more violent factions who committed acts of terrorism leading to a much worse security situation in Europe. It concludes with some suggestions around what needs to change in Europe in order for such groups to not have the success they had in the past.

We further investigate the tactics Hizb ut Tahrir used to embed itself in European cities, particularly in the UK, where it targeted young Muslims feeling caught between cultures. By setting up local groups with names like “One Ummah” and campus societies, it masked its global agenda, making its activism seem homegrown.