Zanzibaris wake up to campaign for Islamic rule

ZANZIBAR, Oct 31 (Reuters) A group dedicated to uniting all Muslims in a pan-Islamic state, and banned in some countries, surfaced in politically volatile Zanzibar today after a slew of posters were tacked up in shops and markets.

The posters, put up overnight on the main island of the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago, read simply ''The Solution is Khilaffa'' -- a caliphate led by a single Islamic leader.

Hizb ut Tahrir is a worldwide party founded in 1953, and much of its membership is believed to be underground after being banned in several Arab countries including Egypt and Syria, and in Russia.

''We are part of the international alliance calling and believing that Muslims should be led by one caliphate,'' said group member Chande Khamis, speaking at his small mobile accessories shop in the heart of Zanzibar's business district.

Zanzibar is 95 per cent Muslim, and its ties with mainland Tanzania have been strained -- particularly during elections in 2000 and 2005, when violence broke out after allegations of vote-rigging by the ruling party.

''Democracy is the way of infidels, and we do not want it to be imposed on the Muslim society,'' Khamis said.

The archipelago's government is secular and does not endorse any religion. Under the deal that founded modern Tanzania in 1964 through a union of the islands and mainland Tanganyika, Zanzibar retains its own president and parliament.

Zanzibar Urban Regional Police Commander Juma Khatib Suleiman said this was the first time the group had come out in the open and its activities were under investigation.

''We knew the existence of the group but it is for the first time that we see them doing flyers,'' he said.

Khamis told Reuters the group -- whose size he refused to give -- does not advocate violence. ''We want to lead peaceful transition from a secular state to an Islamic state,'' he said.

The group has faced opposition throughout its history from governments wary of its plans to rejuvenate the caliphate, which after the early years of Islam was based successively in Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and finally Istanbul.

The leader of the caliphate was known as the caliph, a successor to the Prophet Mohammad. Secular Turkey abolished the caliphate in 1924.

Britain tried to ban Hizb Ut Tahrir in August 2005 after the July 7 London bombings in which four Muslims killed themselves and 52 others, but later backed off without giving a reason.

The West has kept a wary eye on Muslim political groups in Zanzibar, fearing their success may give militants a strategic toehold off the coast of east Africa -- already a victim of al Qaeda bombings in 1998 in Tanzania and Kenya.

Ismail Jussa, spokesman of the main opposition party Civic United Front (CUF), said the emergence of such groups is a result of failed democracy, and distanced his party from Hizb Ut Tahrir.

''Democracy has been failing in Zanzibar. What do you expect but groups wanting to vent their anger?'' he asked.

REUTERS PDM RK2300