As a global Islamic political group, Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) has experienced many kinds of state coercive responses due its ideas that considered radical and threatening the existing modern political systems. In many places, this group has been rejected and criminalized by regimes either in Muslim majority states or in the Western states.  The same experience has also been faced by HT in Indonesia that went through the change of state policy from accommodating to repressive approach. This study will focus to elaborate the response of the Indonesian government toward HTI from the lens of social movement studies by using state repression concept. This article uses the explanatory method analysis and collects data mainly from literature. This article argues that the state has used several methods to repress HT such as issuing an extraordinary law in dissolving HTI; intimidating HTI`s supporters and activists and stigmatizing or discrediting HTI image. As the result, in 2017 Indonesian government dissolved HTI, then HTI became one of forbidden organizations in Indonesia.

In a social movement study, countermovement emerges when certain movement is considered to bring threat to the status quo or the current political and social condition. Social movement seeks for changing the existing situation while the countermovement pursues to keep it. As a result, the conflict between two becomes inevitable, where both will compete to win over the other. The existence of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Indonesia (HTI) for years is responded by some Islamic groups especially Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and its allies, as threat to the Indonesian life due to the idea brought by HTI. It becomes the root of conflict between HTI and other Islamic groups in Indonesia. This article aims to explain the conflict between HTI and other Islamic groups by elaborating the effort of the Islamic groups to counter the HTI narratives and mobilization by using countermovement approach in social movement studies. This article is a case study research and using mainly secondary data to analyze the issue. This article found that Nahdlatul Ulama as the main countermovement played significant role to counter Hizb ut-Tahrir`s religious and political narratives as well as its political mobilization.

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