Media Release
Tony Abbott, Intellectually Bankrupt, Pulls out Ban Card

It was revealed last week that the Coalition, under the leadership of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, if elected, would seek to ban Hizb ut Tahrir and prevent its members abroad from visiting Australia, one from among a range of proposed policies related to Islam and Muslims.

In this regard, Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, emphasises the following:

1. This is classic populist politics from the Coalition and the Opposition Leader. By portraying a tough stance against "extremism", finding the burqa "confronting", being a strong (read: blind) ally of "Israel" and generally being against Islam and Muslims, Tony Abbott seeks to court the vote of the Islamophobic elements of the electorate.

This is the same Tony Abbott who in an interview with Alan Jones on 2GB in July 2010 said in response to the proposition that Hizb ut Tahrir should be proscribed that, "The general principle in this country is that you don't punish bad thoughts. We don't even punish bad words, as long as those bad words don't amount to an incitement to break the law." Evidently this "general principle" is expendable for the facilitation of cheap populist politics.

2. What Hizb ut Tahrir carries of thoughts and ideas - the superiority of Islam over other ideologies, the establishment of Islam in the Muslim world in the form of the Caliphate, the political unity of the Muslim world, the sovereignty of God, and the like - are shared by millions of Muslims globally. Criminalising them is to criminalise the ideas of millions of Muslims. Indeed, it is to criminalise Islam itself, as these are fundamental ideals of Islam.

3. The reality is that Mr. Abbott, and the political establishment more broadly, has a problem, not with Hizb ut Tahrir, but with Islam itself. Lacking the courage to admit this they adopt covers in the form of Islamic symbols, attire, values, rules, and organisations. It is what Hizb ut Tahrir stands for they have a problem with: the removal of Western interference in the Muslim World and the rejection of integrationist policies locally.

4. Criminalising ideas instead of debating them only reveals the intellectual bankruptcy of those who take such a path. Suppression of ideas through force of law is the way of autocratic regimes in the Muslim world, regimes propped up and supported as allies by western governments. The west lost the battle of ideas in the Muslim world a long time ago, resorting to dictators to suppress the political and societal expression of Islam. Will they now take the same path here in west?

5. On our part, we are ready to substantiate our positions intellectually and to show that secular liberalism, not Islam, is the problem. Tony Abbott made similar claims against Hizb ut Tahrir in the election campaign of 2010. At the time we challenged him to debate us publically, if he has the courage befitting a statesman, instead of hiding behind cheap election politics and fear mongering. We challenge him again now to the same. We are ready to debate Mr. Abbott at the place and time of his choosing.

 Media Office Hizb ut Tahrir Australia

Contact: Uthman Badar, Media Representative, on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." style="color: #000000;">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0438 000 465.