Media Release
In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful Muslims in Australia Reject Obama's Policy Towards Muslim World

US President Barack Obama arrives in Canberra this afternoon for a 28-hr visit to Australia. In addressing the Federal Parliament and visiting Darwin tomorrow, he is expected to announce a renewed Asia-Pacific focus to US foreign policy, and to further military cooperation between Australia and the US. He will then travel to Indonesia to attend the East Asia Summit in Bali.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia highlights the following points at the occasion of President Obama's visit:

1. President Obama came to power in the United States on the rhetoric of hope and change, yet, since his inception, he has only presented despair and more of the same. Particularly with respect to American policy towards the Muslim World, Obama's presidency is indistinguishable from that of his predecessors.

2. Obama's sweet words have only been juxtaposed with his hostile and malicious actions. In his Cairo Speech of June 2009 he said, "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect."  In practice, this ‘new beginning' has been manifested in his silence on Israel's massacre of Gaza in January 2009, troop surges and further destruction in Afghanistan, intimate and exploitative interference in Muslim lands such as Turkey, Pakistan and Sudan, and continued propping up dictators such as King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

3. We remind Mr. Obama that Muslims, including those in Australia, are not blind to his actions, nor fooled by his words. They have seen the blood and anguish caused in Afghanistan for which he is responsible. They have seen his Administration's exploitation of Muslim lands through corrupt, agent regimes such as those of Karzai and Zardari. They have seen his support for the dictators that made life hell for Muslims over decades, such as Mubarak, only to see him make a hypocritical about-face once the people rose up for change. They have seen his uncritical support for the illegitimate state of ‘Israel' and it's oppression of the Muslims of Palestine. Muslims in Australia have seen all this and reject outright American foreign policy towards the Muslim World.

4. The Muslim rejection of Obama has already been expressed by tens of thousands coming out in protest in Indonesia against his impending visit. On arrival in Indonesia later this week, he can expect many more to ‘welcome' him with their frank thoughts about his policies towards the Muslim World.

5. We emphasise to the US President that he needs to take stock of his own nation. America is a power evidently in decline. Socially, she is a powder keg, bursting to ignite at the slightest trigger. Economically, she lies in tatters, burdened by gigantic levels of debt. Militarily, she has been brought to her knees in Afghanistan. Politically, she is increasingly farcical and impotent. Facing such a reality, a true statesman would consider very carefully the consequences of continuing an imperial foreign policy, particularly in the Muslim World, where the indicators of change are clear for all to see.

6. Australian policymakers should re-consider its relationship with the United States. Australia's commitment in Afghanistan may have touched the US President's heart, according to Kim Beazley, but it has disgusted the hearts of millions in Australia and around the world. Given the US's decline on the one hand and its loss of moral authority on the other - post Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Baghram, torture by rendition, and the numerous atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan that continue to be exposed to a globally connected audience - does Australia want to continue to stand by the US in the firing line of world public anger?

Ends.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Australia

Contact:

Uthman Badar, Media Representative,

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