Hizb Ut-Tahrir Australia
حزب التحرير أستراليا
Other names: Hizbul Tahir (HT) Australia/ The Party of Liberation
Type: Political party
Leadership: Ismail Al-Wahwah - Leader of HT Australia / Othman Badar - Spokesperson of HT Australia
Country: Australia
Organisation Ideology: Political Islamism/Islamic supremacism
Online Resources
Official website: HT Australia
37k followers
572 followers
None
4.6k followers
Overview
Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Australia is the Australian branch of the global radical Islamist movement, Hizb ut-Tahrir. It is considered a radical Islamic group by the Australian government but the organisation has successfully managed to fend off campaigns calling for its ban across the country. Despite having only 300 registered members, and having gained little to no traction outside of the state of New South Wales, HT Australia - like its parents organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir global - openly calls for the establishment of a global caliphate on its website, first through intellectual means, then through political, economic, and “other means necessary”. The content on HT Australia is mainly focused on promoting the overall agenda of Hizb ut-Tahrir global - the establishment of a global caliphate and the imposition of Shari’a (Islamic law) as the way of life for all people living under a global caliphate. The leadership of the HT Australia openly states that it does not seek the dismantlement of the Australian government, but that it does consider Britain and the U.S. as enemies of Islam.
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has stated that the organisation promotes an “ideology which justifies terrorism”, adding that it is an organisation that is “both un-Australian and un-Islamic, and is promoting extremism in our suburbs”. Hizb ut-Tahrir continues to maintain a presence in most western countries, due to the lack of evidence linking it to domestic terrorism. The Australian government, and Australian intelligence agencies have constantly pushed back to ban HT Australia out of fear of driving it underground, in addition to citing that there was insufficient evidence to tie HT Australia with violent militancy abroad, or with calls for terrorism.
Ties to Extremism
On its website, HT Australia maintains a comprehensive FAQ section with questions regarding the establishment of a global caliphate, how this will be achieved, the role of HT, the reason behind its presence in the Western world and what support can “Muslims” provide to achieve these goals. The rhetoric employed by the organisation on its website accusess rulers of Islamic countries of being apostates. It states “that the major obstacle in the Muslim lands to the establishment of Islam is the rulers of those lands who guard the systems of kufr (apostasy) which they implement”. Further adding to this point, Hizb ut-Tahrir stated that “the true masters of these agents rulers have their offices in Washington and London. Thus it is Western governments who seek to maintain the appalling status quo in the Muslim world because they benefit from it the most”.
In a separate question, HT states that “it is at the forefront of political activism in the Muslim world. It challenges and calls to account the tyrannical rulers of the Muslim world. The response of these regimes to our work has been to imprison, torture and murder our members – the same response received by all prophets and their followers when they sought to propagate and implement the Deen of Allah”. In this aforementioned quote, HT uses language to equate Muslim rulers of Islamic countries as being on par with the Prophet Muhammad’s enemies in Islamic history.