GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY A report from Hizb ut-Tahrir NOVEMBER 2013 Australia GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia First produced for Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia 2013 www.hizb-australia.org [email protected] Title: Government Intervention in the Muslim Community November 2013, Sydney, Australia This publication was released in conjunction with Hizb ut-Tahrir’s annual conference held in Sydney on the 17th November 2013 tilted “Government Intervention in the Muslim Community”. This publication is not subject to copyright. Any part may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or recording), without prior permission. It is requested however that reproduction be accurate to the text and the source be acknowledged. Design by ExposurePDP 2 Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Islamic political party established in 1953 under the leadership of its founder - the honourable scholar, thinker, author, and judge in the Court of Appeals in Jerusalem - Taqiuddin an- Nabhani. The current leader of the party is the erudite scholar ‘Ata ibn Khaleel Abu Rashta. The objective of Hizb ut-Tahrir is the resumption of the Islamic way of life, manifested through the return to Islam by Muslims individually, and the re-establishment of the Islamic Caliphate (Khilafah) in the Muslim world collectively. The Caliphate will an independent state having an elected and accountable ruler, an independent judiciary, political parties, the rule of law and equitable rights for all citizens regardless of race, religion, gender or ethnicity. The current situation in the Muslim world is a lamentable one, with deeply embedded corruption, open oppression, injustice, no accountability, disregard for the rule of law and widespread discrimination. These are real problems which affect hundreds of millions of people every day, and these are problems which Hizb ut-Tahrir is working to change. Hizb ut-Tahrir’s roots in Australia stretch back to the early 1990s. It has ever since been highly active within the Muslim community on the grassroots level, with great success in the spreading of its ideas of Islamic political activism and Islamic revivalism. Our work in Australia is aimed at supporting the global effort to re-establish the Caliphate in the Muslim world, whilst also projecting a positive image of Islam in the West. The reason we operate in the West, despite our primary goal being relevant to the Muslim World, is two- fold. One, in a globalised world any serious political work cannot be bound by geography. Two, the reality of the intimate role western governments play in the politics of the Muslim world means they form a central part of the struggle for Islam there. Indeed, it is western governments, in their capacity as the patrons of the regimes that rule in the Muslim world, that are the major obstacle to positive change there. Further, with growing numbers of Muslims living in the West, western governments have brought the struggle home by adopting similar agendas locally. This includes the attempt to re-construct Islam on the model of the Christian reformation by promoting a secular, apolitical, so called ‘moderate’ version of Islam. They have sought to force the Muslims to ‘integrate’ by abandoning Islamic values and ideals, and accepting Western secular liberal values instead. Thus, in Australia, as in other Western nations, our work with the Muslim community is focused on directing Muslims to resist the dilution of their Islam and, conversely, to make a positive contribution to society based upon the preservation of their Islamic identity. We reject both integration and isolation, and advocate positive interaction for Muslims in society based solely upon Islam. We believe the Muslim community, with its transcendent Islamic values and culture, can present itself as a sublime model of tranquillity, prosperity and positivity. Government Intervention in the Muslim Community 3 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1 - Setting the global context: the post-9/11 war on Islam ...........................................13 Chapter 2 - Australia’s role in the post-9/11 war on Islam...........................................................17 Chapter 3 - Australia’s local campaign against Islam and Muslims .......................................... 23 I. Australia follows leading nations ....................................................................................... 25 II. Absolving foreign policy & holding Muslims responsible for terrorism ........................... 29 III. Demonising Islam and Muslims ..........................................................................................36 IV. Anti-terror laws, spying and underhanded intelligence tactics ........................................39 V. Integration, citizenship and values: the creation of ‘Australian Muslims’ ....................... 47 VI. Changing Islam: the quest for a moderate, Australian Islam ............................................ 57 VII. Polarising the community: ‘moderates’ vs. ‘extremists’ ...................................................69 VIII. Targeting Imams and the quest for a compliant leadership ............................................. 75 IX. Targeting Muslim youth and Islamic schools ..................................................................... 93 X. Government funding ..........................................................................................................99 XI. Community Liaison.............................................................................................................105 Chapter 4 - Recommendations & the battle ahead ..................................................................109 Appendix 1: Timeline of policy development and evolution ....................................................117 Appendix 2: Outline of policy development and evolution ..................................................... 119 Government Intervention in the Muslim Community 5 6 Foreword Amongst the requisite tasks of any Islamic political party are the exposition of plans and agendas against the Muslim ummah, the raising of awareness amongst her about these, and the advocacy of appropriate responses and adoption of her interests with respect to these. It is well-known that the Australian Government’s counter-terrorism policy post-9/11 primarily targets Muslims. Following the London bombings of 2005 a greater focus on the ‘home-grown’ terrorism phenomenon brought Muslims living in Australia into the firing line more sharply. Since then, the Australian Government has developed and implemented a broad range of counter-terrorism policies that target the Muslim community. It is also well-known that much of the counter-terrorism agenda of the Australian Government, as with that of its allies in the US and UK, is politicised. It is as more a political agenda than a security one. Notwithstanding these well-known realities, there has to date been no comprehensive assessment of the Government’s counter-terrorism policy by Muslims in their capacity as Muslims, on the Islamic basis and with the interests of the Muslim community in mind. Rather, Muslim response has ranged from ad hoc or partial critique at best to wholesale uncritical acceptance at worst. This report, issued by Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, seeks to fill this gap by presenting for the Muslim community, first and foremost, an assessment of the Australian Government’s counter-terrorism policy and how it targets the Muslim community in particular. We seek thereby to alert the community – its leaders, imams, activists, youth and all those in positions of responsibility in particular – to what has become the Government’s key pillar in its agenda against Islam and Muslims, and to impress on them the need to respond to this in the manner demanded by Islam. We welcome feedback on the contents of this report and hope that it will spur a debate amongst the Muslim community regarding one of the biggest challenges that faces us today. All praise for what is good in this report is for Allah, whom we ask to bless this effort, make it purely for his sake, and to make it of abundant benefit to the community. ُ}ي ِر ُيد َون لِ ُي ْط ِف ُئوا نُ َور اللَّ ِه بِاَأ ْف َو ِاه ِه ْم َواللَّ ُه ُم ِت ُّم نُ ِور ِه َو َل ْو َك ِر َه ْال َك ِاف ُر َون{ “They wish to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths but Allah will complete his light, even if the disbelievers detest it.” [al-Saff: 8] Uthman Badar Head of the Media Office Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia 14 November 2013 CE 11 Muharram 1435 AH Government Intervention in the Muslim Community 7 Executive Summary Executive Summary Context When the Berlin Wall fell, western policymakers raised their heads to peer beyond the Cold War paradigm whose chapter had closed. What they saw was a new ‘threat’, beyond the Mediterranean as Margaret Thatcher referred to it, in a form of Islamic revivalism. In the following two decades, the struggle crystallised. At present, it is as clear as ever, taking place first and foremost in the Muslim World, but also having a clear frontier here in the West.