Muslim group active at Australian universities

The Daily Telegraph

UNIVERSITIES are being targeted in a recruitment drive by a radical Islamic group that urges Muslims to reject democracy and target Australian troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Members of the Sydney Muslim community yesterday warned that Hizb ut-Tahrir - which is banned in parts of Europe and the Middle East - had infiltrated Muslim students' associations at several campuses, with a focus on converting well-educated, middle-class men to their cause.

Terrorism experts also warned the group's activities were "cause for concern", but said that moves to outlaw them could force their activities underground and make them more appealing to marginalised Muslim youth. Attorney-General Robert McClelland yesterday put the group on notice, saying "any group or individual that promotes violence against Australians should be condemned".

"The government takes a hard line against groups that advocate terrorism and will act upon advice from its security agencies as to whether they should be proscribed," he said.

Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Uthman Badar yesterday defended the group's draft constitution for their proposed Islamic state, despite it demanding that Muslims who leave the religion "are to be executed" while all males aged 15 or over were "obliged to undergo military training in readiness for jihad".

"Our view is that we adopt the Islamic positions on all these issues," Mr Badar said.

He refused to comment on membership numbers, recruitment, or where the group's money came from. He said: "We are completely self funded, completely independent from all forms of government."

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Many members of the Islamic community refuse to speak publicly about Hizb ut-Tahrir, fearing a backlash from supporters of the group and that controversy will just help the organisation grow.

"This group is rubbing their hands in glee at all this publicity because this is their perfect recruitment tool," said an anonymous community leader.

"They see them as people who are standing up and speaking out and it only makes them attractive to the marginalised."

Others are critical of the government's failure to crack down on the group, with one Muslim mother saying: "The fact that Hizb ut-Tahrir is legal sends a signal to our young people that it's OK to belong to this organisation."

Australian Strategic Policy Institute director of research programs Anthony Bergin said the group was seen as a "conveyor belt" for terrorism.

"It is virulently anti-West in its rhetoric and it provides an ideological infrastructure of support for those people who might want to go on and carry out extreme actions in Australia," he said. "But they're very careful, they're not likely to be caught actually organising a terrorist attack."

Clive Williams, adjunct professor at Macquarie University's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, agreed, saying: "It's better to have these organisations operating openly, where you can monitor their activities, than banning them and driving them underground."