UPDATES - Polititians will wait till all really explode
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pm-wont-ban-muslim-group/2007/01/29/1169919245735.html
January 29, 2007
PM won't ban Muslim group
The Government cannot and will not act against radical Muslim group Hizb u-Tahrirs until it's shown to have broken anti-terrorism laws, Prime Minister John Howard said today.
Labor is calling for a ban after Indonesian firebrand cleric Ismail Yusanto outlined his vision for an Islamic super state before a crowd of about 500 Muslims at Lakemba in Sydney yesterday.
Mr. Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting that people should be able to say ridiculous things without being accused of breaking the law.
"If they break the present anti-terrorist laws or indeed any other laws then they will be dealt with, but until there is sufficient evidence of that made available to the Attorney-General, we can't, or shouldn't, act," he said.
"There is often a thin line between stupid extravagant language and language which is deliberately designed to incite violence ... or to threaten the security of the country.
"People can say a lot of ridiculous things and they should be able to say ridiculous things in a democracy without that language constituting violence and extreme incitement to violence."
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff today said Hizb ut-Tahrir’ s language - particularly in relation to Jews - overstepped the legal mark.
But it was up to the authorities whether an outright ban should be slapped on the group.
"Any ban is a matter for the Government to make a decision," Mr. Alhadeff said.
"However, our concern is that any person or any organisation should not be permitted to make inflammatory remarks or engage in racial hatred in NSW and we believe the full force of the law should be brought down on [them].
"Sharia law requires that non-Muslims be regarded as second-class citizens and, furthermore, when one looks at the website of this Hizb ut-Tahrir, there is a lot of inflammatory hate speech ... it calls for death to Jews and things like that."
Mr. Alhadeff rejected the notion that Hizb ut-Tahrir was merely a lunatic fringe that was best ignored.
A small minority in the otherwise law-abiding Australian Muslim community was bound to be influenced by the rhetoric, he said.
"We have here in NSW a society which espouses racial harmony," Mr. Alhadeff said.
"We have a vast number of different faiths and ethnic groups who live together, side by side, and get on with each other and that's what makes NSW a great society.
"But when an organisation like this stands up and promotes racial hatred, to ignore it will not solve the problem
"Racial hatred will not go away just by looking the other way."
The NSW Government and Federal Opposition are outraged by the group, demanding the Commonwealth follow Britain, Germany and several Middle Eastern countries in banning the organisation.
But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday said there was not enough evidence to justify using anti-terrorism laws to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ruddock-no-ban-on-muslim-group/2007/01/28/1169919199975.html
January 29, 2007
Ruddock: no ban on Muslim group
The Federal Government refuses to ban a radical Muslim group that has sparked outrage by bringing to Australia its calls for an Islamic super state.
Indonesian firebrand cleric Ismail Yusanto outlined his vision for an Islamic utopia before a crowd of about 500 Muslims at Lakemba, in Sydney's south-west, today.
Dr Yusanto and fellow members of the extremist group Hizb-u-Tahrirs believe it can ease suffering around the world by creating an Islamic super state - ruled by Sharia law - through jihad, or holy war.
The NSW government and federal opposition are outraged, demanding the Commonwealth follow Britain, Germany and several Middle Eastern countries in banning the group.
But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today there was not enough evidence to justify using anti-terrorism laws to outlaw Hizb-u-Tahrirs.
To be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, a group has to urge the use of force or violence.
"Evidence to sustain that has to be available," he told reporters.
"Just because people have messages that I don't regard as broadly in keeping with Australian values doesn't mean they can be proscribed as terrorist organizations," Mr. Ruddock told reporters.
Hizb-u-Tahrirs spokesman Wassim Doureihi defended the group, saying it was only advocating change through peaceful means in the Muslim world, not in Australia.
"We do not engage in physical violence, we are not advocating terrorism," he told reporters.
"We are advocating peaceful political change within the Muslim world."
But his message appeared at odds with Dr Yusanto's comments advocating jihad during the Lakemba meeting.
Dr Yusanto said if the utopian super state fell, "all military-aged Muslims" and "Muslims living outside of the boundary" of the Sharia state should obtain military training and "join the jihad".
"Once successful, the new order would be just the beginning of the new era in the application of Islamic ideology," he said.
"There is no victory and glory without sacrifice and hard work. No pain no gain."
NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he believed the group should never have been allowed to meet in Australia.
"This is not a case of someone being different, someone advocating a different point of view," he told Sky News.
"This is an organisation that is basically saying that it wants to declare war on Australia, our values and our people. That's the big difference.
"And that's why I believe that they are just beyond the pale, enough is enough and it's time for the Commonwealth to review this organization’s status and take the lead from other countries and ban them."
Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke called on newly appointed Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews to consider canceling Dr Yusanto's visa.
"There are clear character provisions in the Immigration Act that mean that if the government didn't want Ismail Yusanto here it could have stopped him from coming," he told reporters.
"The only reason we have someone in western Sydney right now preaching Sharia law is because the federal government chose to allow him to be here.
"My question and my comment to anyone from around the world who hates Australia are simple - if you hate the place, don't come here."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/leaders-disagree-on-muslim-ban/2007/01/28/1169919213299.html
Leaders disagree on Muslim ban
January 29, 2007
AN UNLIKELY alliance of radical Muslims and the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, has rejected Morris Iemma's call to ban the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The call, which included a claim by the Premier that Hizb ut-Tahrir was declaring war on Australia, came as the group held a conference on how to establish a pan-national Islamic state under sharia law.
Speakers at the conference yesterday warned there would be a call to arms to establish and defend a caliphate but they made it clear they did not see Australia as part of their fundamentalist society.
The distinction was lost on Mr. Iemma, the MP for Lakemba where the conference was held and where he is facing a challenge by Muslim candidates in the state election.
"This is an organisation that is basically saying that it wants to declare war on Australia, our values and our people," the Premier said.
"That's the big difference and that's why I believe that they are just beyond the pale. Enough is enough, and it's time for the Commonwealth to review this organization’s status and take the lead from other countries and ban them."
A Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman, Wassim Doureihi, said calls for the group to be banned were misplaced: the group was opposed to terrorism
Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is non-violent but it has been proscribed in many Middle Eastern, European and central Asian countries after being deemed a threat to national security.
Mr. Ruddock said Hizb ut-Tahrir had been closely monitored by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation but had been found to have done nothing in Australia to warrant it being banned.
He said the NSW Government should stop playing politics and if it had any evidence helpful to the security agencies, it should give it to them.
Concerns about terrorism, violent crime and integration have prompted a bidding war between NSW Labor and the Opposition about who can sound tougher on Muslims, a theme that is expected to continue until poll day on March 24.
At yesterday's conference, there were harsh words for the West's policies in the Middle East and their role in propping up "corrupt dictatorships" in the Muslim world.
"Muslims are the most humiliated among the earth's peoples," Sheik Issam Amera said.
"The West treats them like slaves and their lands as their backyard gardens."
Indonesia's Ismail Yusanto said an Islamic state was coming and that "Western powers will likely attack the newly formed caliphate. We must mobilize for an impending conflict," he said.
WHAT IS HIZB UT TAHRIRS?
>An international movement founded in 1953 that wants the return of an Islamic caliphate based strictly on sharia law and the teachings of the Koran.
> Regards Middle Eastern governments as corrupt dictatorships and the West as inherently anti-Islam. Vehemently anti-capitalist
> Believes Islamic societies that followed the death of Muhammad were idyllic.
> Sees every Muslim's sacred duty to re-establish caliphate. Officially eschews violence.
