What is the Tahreer (party)? What are its beliefs?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alyhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

The Tahreer party is a political party that calls for the return of the Islamic caliphate system. The party adopted the approach of changing the people’s culture and mentality as an essential means for achieving this aim. They adopted many approaches that many Islamic scholars criticized, such as their contradicting the texts and goals of Sharee‘ah. It was founded by Taqqiyy Ad-Deen  An-Nabhaani who was born in 1909 and died in 1979. He was originally a Palestinian who studied in Al-Azhar and worked as a judge. Then, he moved to Jordan where he worked as lecturer in the Islamic college. In 1952, he founded the party and devoted himself to being its chief. He moved between the countries of the Levant, and issued booklets and publications that contained the ideology of his party. He died in Beirut. After his death, the party had branches in Jordan, Lebanon and other countries.

Their methodology comprises of three stages: the first is  intellectual conflict through the culture introduced by the party; the second is the intellectual revolution that is achieved through cultural and political work; the third is to take control of the nation. Among their mistakes is that they specified a period of time for each stage. The first stage was to be thirteen years, then they extended it to thirty years due to the current circumstances;  both periods have passed and nothing has happened.

Among their drawbacks is that they have disregarded the educative and spiritual aspects in dealing with their party members and that they regard man as a mere intellect. Among their deviant beliefs is that they have denied the delight and torment of the grave and subjected the issues of creed to intellectual judgment. They have abandoned ordering what is good and forbidding what is evil because they consider that this  would hinder the progress of their phases; therefore, they have chosen to postpone it to the final phase, that of Islamic rule, when the Islamic nation  is to be established.

Furthermore, they have passed many ridiculous Fatwas, such as  permitting shaking hands with women and kissing non-Mahram women regardless of whether or not these actions are accompanied  by sexual desire. They permitted paying Jizyah by a Muslim country to a non-Muslim country,; they considered that it is not obligatory for a Muslim astronaut to pray, and many other Fatwas indicating that they do not adhere to the methodology of Ahl As-Sunnah wal Jamaa'ah (the mainstream Sunni majority). This party is widespread, especially in the countries of the Levant, some Arab countries as well as some European ones, especially Austria and Germany.

Allaah Knows best.