A UNIVERSITY address by radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir saw women sent to the back of the lecture theatre while men took their place at the front.

“Brothers to the front and sisters to the back” was the message from the preachers who were invited to speak at the meeting in sydney’s west on Thursday night.

The Daily Telegraph reports men and women were segregated before the lecture to students at the University of Western Sydney’s Parramatta campus began.

Women were ushered through a door marked “sisters” at the rear of the hall, while the “brothers” entered through another door and were told to take their place in “the front five rows”, the Telegraph reports.

The lecture, featuring several speakers from the radical group, focused heavily on problems facing Muslims that were “the result of Western ideology.”

The organisation, which claims to be a peaceful “political party”, was highlighted by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as an “organisation blatantly spreading discord and division”.

Muslim community elder Keysar Trad said it was not unusual at Islamic gatherings for men and women to sit apart.

In a statement to the Telegraph, the University of Sydney did not address the gender segregation at the event, which they said “was not organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir” but said the venue had been booked by the university’s Muslim Students’ Association.