Federal Member for Dawson, George Christensen, called on Australians to stay alert to the threat posed by Islamic extremists in Australia today.
In today’s statement in Federal Parliament regarding the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Mr Christensen pointed to the underlying hatred for Western ideals and way of life as the cause of the tragedy.
“It was not an attack on buildings or on a city,” he said. “It was an attack on ideals and a way of life – the same ideals and way of life we share in Australia,” he said.
Mr Christensen said it was important to draw a distinction between moderate Islamic communities who were good, decent Australians and the radical Islamic extremists whose mission is to destroy our culture.
He singled out an organisation called Hizb Ut-Tahrir, which managed to avoid a proposed ban in Australia, despite being banned in many countries around the world, including the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia and Russia.
The group recently came under fire for their belief that Australian Diggers fighting in Afghanistan were “fair game” and that Muslims “have an obligation” to attack them.
“They are a group that condones the killing of Australian soldiers,” Mr Christensen said. “Their main mission is the establishment of an Islamic caliphate or a supranational Islamic government where Sharia reigns supreme and non-Muslims are treated as second-class citizens.”
Hizb Ut-Tahrir has organised seminars in Sydney and Melbourne next month on the war in Afghanistan. The seminar is titled “Afghanistan – 10 years of Injustice, Oppression and Failure”.
“No doubt we will have Uthman Badar, the spokesman of the group, telling us once again that Australian Diggers should be killed,” Mr Christensen said. “Maybe what he will not tell us – he and his comrades in this group – is about the oppression and injustice that reigned in Afghanistan for many years prior to the current conflict – oppression and injustice that was mandated by the extremist Taliban regime against the Afghani people, against Muslims themselves.”