{"id":16630,"date":"2014-10-29T10:30:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T23:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=16630"},"modified":"2014-10-30T08:16:20","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T21:16:20","slug":"hizb-ut-tahrir-compete-not-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/hizb-ut-tahrir-compete-not-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Hizb ut-Tahrir: compete not ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n

Emma Alberici\u2019s\u00a0recent Lateline<\/em> interview<\/a> with Hizb ut-Tahrir\u2019s Australian spokesperson, Wassim Doureihi, prompted the Prime Minister to state he\u2019s reviewing the Islamist group after calls for it to be banned. The group\u2019s spokesperson repeatedly dodged questions\u00a0about whether Hizb ut-Tahrir supported the campaign waged by Islamic State extremists.<\/p>\n

The group isn\u2019t currently listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia. But\u00a0Abbott has made clear his recent views on the organisation, in particular in a radio interview with Neil Mitchell<\/a> in the wake of the Lateline<\/em> program. There he condemned the group as \u2018un-Australian\u2019 and said the interview confirmed his concerns about Hizb ut-Tahrir. He described the group as \u2018very careful to avoid advocating terrorism but [which] is always making excuses for terrorist organisations\u2019. Interestingly, he drew on the work of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair:<\/p>\n

He made the point that there is the fringe\u2014a small minority of people who engage in terrorism\u2014and then there is the spectrum\u2014a much larger group of people who support an ideology\u2014who have a set of beliefs which justify terrorism. Now, they are not practitioners of terrorism but they have an ideology which justifies and explains terrorism. The point that Tony Blair\u2026is making is that while we must resist fiercely terrorists themselves, do everything we can to defeat the terrorists, we also have to intellectually wrestle and grapple with the spectrum of thinking which supports terrorism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Asked about the laws currently before parliament, Abbott said that the government wanted \u2018to make it an offence not just to engage in terrorist activity, but to engage in terrorist advocacy\u2019. He accepted that it would be a question of law as to whether Hizb ut-Tahrir was doing that, but was especially critical of \u2018preachers of hate\u2019 coming to Australia to \u2018stir up trouble\u2019.<\/p>\n

The proposed<\/a> Counter\u2013Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014<\/em> is set to be passed this week. The bill would make it illegal, subject to a five-year prison term, to counsel, promote, encourage or urge<\/a> a terrorist act.<\/p>\n

Some of Hizb ut-Tahrir\u2019s statements and literature could well fall under the proposed offence of \u2018advocating terrorism\u2019: if incitement or propaganda influences an individual or group to perpetrate an act of terror, it\u2019s difficult to argue that one bears no responsibility, especially in a time of mass and rapid communication through social media.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister has said the current law doesn\u2019t allow the government to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, but he has now stated that he\u2019ll have another look at this question once the \u2018advocating terrorism\u2019 law passes, (ASIO would have the lead here). A court may also find a group to be a terrorist organisation<\/a> as part of the prosecution of a terrorist offence. Listing Hizb ut-Tahrir under the Criminal Code Regulations as a terrorism organisation would send a clear message that the group is associated with terrorism and make it illegal to donate to the group.<\/p>\n

Hizb ut-Tahrir would no doubt argue that individuals involved in terrorism have deviated from the group\u2019s path. But the organisation operates in that grey area between advocacy of terrorism and free speech. While it maintains a public commitment to non-violent change at this stage, its threat comes from the ideology that drives the group. Its literature and speeches often seem close<\/a> to praising terrorism.<\/p>\n

Still, a ban might make it harder to track the group\u2019s activities. Its legal status means it has a public platform, but that also makes it easier to observe<\/a>. The Australian\u2019s<\/em> Janet Albrechtsen recently argued<\/a> (paywalled)\u00a0that \u2019if we keep asking questions of the extremists in our midst, we will defeat them. Along the way we will bolster our commitment to free speech\u2019.<\/p>\n

I agree: we should be competing with the group for the support of its potential recruits. Banning the group isn\u2019t going to assist in the war of ideas. So it was disappointing to learn early last week that several ANU academics had declined the opportunity<\/a> to debate Hizb ut-Tahrir in a forum organised by the ANU\u2019s student newspaper. As Tony Blair and Tony Abbott have said, we should be willing to wrestle intellectually with arguments we oppose deeply.<\/p>\n

Anthony Bergin is deputy director, ASPI and co-author of <\/em>Responding to radical Islamist ideology: the case of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia. Image courtesy of Flickr user Mikael Altemark<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emma Alberici\u2019s\u00a0recent Lateline interview with Hizb ut-Tahrir\u2019s Australian spokesperson, Wassim Doureihi, prompted the Prime Minister to state he\u2019s reviewing the Islamist group after calls for it to be banned. The group\u2019s spokesperson repeatedly dodged questions\u00a0about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":16637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,930,273,1014,895,704,127],"class_list":["post-16630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-civil-liberty","tag-counterterrorism","tag-hizb-ut-tahrir","tag-islamic-state","tag-legislation","tag-terrorism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHizb ut-Tahrir: compete not ban | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/hizb-ut-tahrir-compete-not-ban\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hizb ut-Tahrir: compete not ban | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Emma Alberici\u2019s\u00a0recent Lateline interview with Hizb ut-Tahrir\u2019s Australian spokesperson, Wassim Doureihi, prompted the Prime Minister to state he\u2019s reviewing the Islamist group after calls for it to be banned. 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