The Commentator

"As Western Governments including the Australian Government work hard to frustrate the uprising and maintain their stranglehold over the Muslim world, we must work even harder for the liberation and return to Islam".

If you think the above words read like the raving of a religious fanatic in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan, think again. Those words are from The Official Launch - Khilafah "Caliphate" Conference 2011 - "Uprisings in the Muslim Word... on the road to Khilafah "Caliphate"" being hosted in the first week of July this year.

Sitting thousands of miles away in Canada I, as a Canadian Muslim on the front lines of the battle against radical jihad in the West, am not only appalled but shocked. Hizb ut-Tahrir- one of the most reviled and feared Islamist group in central Asia, which advocates the creation of a worldwide Islamic state, is allowed to hold a huge conference in Australia where the entire mandate is anti-Western propaganda and dialogue about establishing a Muslim Caliphate?

Since I gave up being politically correct a long time ago and since I know Australia is struggling with many issues of assimilation and accommodation (or lack thereof) by immigrant communities, would it be amiss of me to ask "exactly what's wrong with you for allowing a rabidly radical organization like Hizb ut-Tahrir to even operate in your country?"

I don't think Australians could be so naïve that they don't know the agenda and intentions of groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir but if they are, let me give you a quick refresher of what we are up against.

Today, one the of biggest threats to moderate Muslims and non-Muslims is Islamism, an ideology that is derived from the Salafi/Wahhabi teachings of the Saudis - supported and exported throughout the world on the backs of billions of petro-dollars.

We refer to this ideology as Islamism or political Islam primarily because faith is not politics, and politics is not faith. Once faith is coerced into politics and politics masquerades as faith, then what we have is an inquisition.

Islamism is a political ideology - an armed political ideology. Today, it is engaged in a worldwide effort to subvert democracies, establish a Caliphate and expand the space for the implementation of Islamic law called sharia. Radical Islam has been described by Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum as ‘deriving from Islam but as an anti-modern, misanthropic, misogynistic, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, terroristic, suicidal version of it'.

By contrast, the spiritual message of Islam, the faith, is practiced by a majority of 1.3 billion Muslims, whose voices have unfortunately been drowned out by the din of militants shouting slogans and sidelining the compassionate and spiritual message of the Qur'an.

As one scholar said recently "the biggest problem in the Muslim world today is not the Islamists but the deafening silence of the majority of moderate Muslims who are not speaking out against the blatant hijacking of their faith".

Last year Hizb ut Tahrir held a covert meeting in Canada which I attended incognito, mostly because the media were too scared to do anything unless there was proof of violence. But organizations like HT are careful how they operate and their speakers have a track record of saying one thing in English and another in their mother tongue.

So they manage to instill hardcore ideas without using hate speech. At this meeting the message was clear - it's incumbent on every Muslim living in a non-Muslim land to impose the Sharia and to work towards an Islamic state. This by the way is totally contrary to the teaching of the Quran that advises Muslims to follow the laws of the lands in which they live.

In Canada we've fought hard for equality, democracy and freedoms - all of which are an anathema to Islamists (and I'm sure Australia is no different). Yet Islamists have no qualms about using the same freedoms they slam to promote their message as they are planning to do at the conference next month.

No. We don't want Sharia law or a Caliphate in North America - do you?