Press Release
London Conference: Somalia needs home grown solutions, not more colonial intervention from the West

London, UK, February 23rd 2012 - The London Somalia conference is yet another attempt to impose foreign colonial solutions on Somalia, after their failure over the past twenty years. Somalia can only hope to chart a new and stable future through Islam - if it is to liberate itself from subjugation.

Commenting on today's Conference, Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain said: "It was only two years ago, in Lancaster House, that the UK government hosted a conference that was supposedly to bring ‘stability' to a war torn and impoverished Muslim country, which they justified on the grounds of a 'terrorist' threat to the UK'. That was the London Afghanistan conference. Yet, till today, Western intervention continues to bring death and instability to Afghanistan. Today, again in Lancaster House, the UK promises to help bring ‘stability' to Somalia as it hosts the London Somalia conference".

"Little will be said about how continued external interventions have sabotaged stability in Somalia. There have been up to twenty US attacks in Somalia since 2007, there was the disastrous ‘operation restore hope' and the US and UK supported Ethiopia's attack in 2006 on the Islamic Courts Union, shattering Somalia's first period of peace and stability in decades."

"The US and UK governments helped destabilise Somalia by supporting a foreign invasion, leading to the death and killings of Muslims, because they could not accept that a strategically located land - overlooking vital maritime routes, possessing untapped resources and the second longest coastline in Africa - could be outside their control."

"As capitalist states, the common interest the British and American governments have in the developing world is in subjugating the people of the region in the name of economic and political gain- including through direct military interventions like in the days of the British empire."

"For the past twenty years, all attempts to impose solutions on Somalia - from Western capitals - have failed. Liberating the region from Western colonialism can only come about by the people implementing an Islamic State that will put people before profits. Historically it is the Islamic system that brought peace and stability to all races in the region and liberated the people from poverty and oppression. Today, the Muslim world is going through a truly historic revolution against despots and dictators who have been the Guardians of Western colonialism that epitomised the 20th century. Today's conference is another desperate example of Britain trying to retain her grip on the Muslim world. We call on all our brothers and sisters in Somalia to reject these attempts and work towards establishing the Islamic Caliphate that will bring a truly accountable government and a system that will return the resources of the region to the people and put the horn of Africa on a path of development and prosperity."

Hizb ut Tahrir Britain