Islamic State: Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman says allied mission in Iraq and Syria 'infinitely greater in barbarity'

Updated

An Islamic political organisation, which has been heavily criticised by the Prime Minister, has described the actions of Australia and the United States in Iraq as more barbaric than those of Islamic State militants.

A spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir - which advocates for a global caliphate or Islamic state which follows sharia law - said US-led missions in Iraq had killed more than 1 million Iraqis.

"What I'm opposed to is a level of oppression, of barbarity that far exceeds anything ISIS would even imagine doing, and that's represented in the actions of governments like Australia and its allies like America," Wassim Doureihi told Sky TV.

"I'm condemning something which is infinitely greater in barbarity than anything ISIS has ever done or could even imagine doing.

"I'm condemning a set of policies that have cost the lives of over a million Iraqis."

Later Mr Doureihi told the ABC's Lateline program that groups like IS did not exist in a vacuum.

"They exist as a reaction to Western interference in the Islamic lands and they view themselves, rightfully or wrongfully, irrespective of my opinion or otherwise, as a resistance effort to what they regard as an unjust occupation," he said.

"I come from a very clear point of view that, as Muslims, we have a fixed moral compass that says it's unequivocally, under any conditions, an aberration to kill innocent civilians.

"Tony Abbott cannot say that. John Howard dismissed the slaughter of half a million civilians as an embarrassment. Let's talk about morality here. Let's talk about who is the greatest threat to civilian life."

Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in Germany, Russia and several Middle Eastern countries, but operates freely in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Tony Abbott said he was frustrated that current laws did not allow the Government to proscribe the group, but he said it might be banned under laws before Federal Parliament which would make it illegal to promote terrorism.

"We are changing the law that will make it easier to ban organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir," Mr Abbott said.

"There is no doubt they are an organisation that campaigns against Australian values, that campaigns against Australian interests. They are a thoroughly objectionable organisation."

Fight against IS waged for 'political expediency'

Hizb ut-Tahrir is holding a public lecture in Sydney on Friday, entitled The War To End The Blessed Revolution, which will focus on the West's role in attacking the "noble Syrian revolution".

Mr Doureihi said the lecture would explain why the organisation opposed military action in Iraq and Syria.

"The purpose of this lecture is to demonstrate that what Australia will be doing in Iraq and Syria, like its allies America and others - like they did 10 years ago in Iraq - will be absolutely disastrous," he said.

"And they are not there for humanitarian purposes, they are there for purposes of political expediency."

He said the current mission and the 2003 Iraq War were "state-sponsored terrorism".

"All of you should be outraged at the killing of innocent lives, but we should apply this argument consistently," he said.

Australia should focus on de-radicalisation, not bans: expert

The lecture prompted Mr Abbott to reveal he was pushing for a "red card" system to stop "hate preachers" coming into the country.

But Hizb ut-Tahrir said the speakers at Friday's event were all "local".

London-based counterterrorism and de-radicalisation expert Haras Rafiq said Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia has for decades been preaching that Muslims should support a totalitarian, fascist Islamic state.

He told ABC's 7.30 program that banning such organisations had proved ineffective in the past and urged the Australian community and Government to do more to challenge their ideologies.

"Groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir have decades of - because they've been banned virtually everywhere in the Middle East - have decades of experience in working covertly, so all they will do is set up other organisations, other fronts and organisations," Mr Rafiq said.

"What Australia should be doing is looking at the laws and, yes, extending the laws to prosecute people who are glorifying terrorism, prosecute people who are justifying fighting abroad and fighting against the Australian Air Force or Australian armed forces.

"Secondly, they should be more counter narrative, there should be more challenges, more de-radicalisation."

Mr Rafiq said Australia has a bigger problem with those willing to fight with Islamist groups than other Western countries like the United Kingdom.

"There are probably around 400 people from Australia that are fighting out in Iraq and Syria, but you have less Muslims than certainly we do in the UK," he said.

"Groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir very clearly are preaching in Australia that the revolution, as they call it, is the right revolution in Iraq and Syria and that the Islamist state is something that Muslims in Australia should support.

"I think there are four key areas when looking at mentoring somebody ... out of Islamism and jihadism and the four factors are to look at the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and social dimensions of the narrative that drives them them in the first place."

Earlier this year, the group was the focus of public outcry over a speech by spokesman Uthman Badar titled Honour Killings Are Morally Justified.

The speech was to have been given at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas held at the Sydney Opera House but was cancelled.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, islam, religion-and-beliefs, multiculturalism, community-and-society, australia

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