EXTREMIST Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir is actively recruiting members in Australia, despite being banned across much of the rest of the world.

Telling the story of Jaafar, one of the first converts to Islam, Mr [Sumaiya]/Doureihi concluded that Muslims, forced to live “in another land”, were part of the international Muslim nation, the Ummah, “to establish Islam as a complete way of life, in total, without shortage or compromise”.

Hizb ut-Tahrir condemned yesterday what it regards as misrepresentation in the Australian media, saying in an open letter published on the Islamic Sydney email network: “Rest assured we will not be diverted from our work of the truth path … let the media run their circus and God willing our message of the pure Islam will filter through to the Muslims.”

A fanatical Islamic group, banned in much of the rest of the world, is active in Sydney’s west, write John Stapleton and Patricia Karvelas

EXTREMIST Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir is actively recruiting members in Australia, despite being banned across much of the rest of the world.

The party, which attracted 400 people to a meeting in Sydney this week, is dividing the local Islamic community with its hardline views advocating the overthrow of Western governments and the creation of an international Islamic state.

Also known as the Party of Islamic Liberation, the organisation condemns Jews, Christians, Hindus, homosexuals, communists and capitalists as non-believers.

Supporters were warned at a meeting on Sunday night in Sydney’s western suburbs of the dangers of integration and multiculturalism, forces that drew Muslims away from the purity of their faith.

They also heard the Australian Government slammed for its support of the American war on terror, which is seen as an attack on the worldwide Muslim nation and an attempt to eradicate Islam.

Local Muslim leaders are concerned the existence of Hizb ut- Tahrir in Australia will inflame already heightened tensions.

They claim it does not have a large following, but The Australian has learned the group is experiencing a groundswell of popularity amongst disaffected and poverty-stricken Muslims from Britain to central Asia.

It is labelled as extremist and banned in most of the Muslim world, including Egypt, Turkey, the Central Asian Republics and the Middle East. In Egypt, for instance, where the party actively campaigns for the overthrow of the Government, it has been banned since 1974.

There are calls to ban the party in Denmark for inciting attacks on Jews after its website quoted the Koran, saying: “And slay them wherever you find them …”

No such restrictions apply in Australia or in Britain, where its growing support is also causing alarm among mainstream Muslims.

One of the group’s international leaders, Britain’s Imran Waheed, has just reminded followers the religious holy month of Ramadan, which began this week, was not a month of peace but a time of victory for Muslims, the time when the Prophet Mohammed won his first battle and Mecca was conquered.

Followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir describe Western capitalism as a “shameful and licentious civilisation”. They regard the US as an imperialist power and the leader of the unbelievers, condemn Indonesia as being a lapdog of the Americans and its leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, as being in breach of the dictates of the Koran that women should not be rulers.

The party also condemns many Islamic countries for co-operating with the American enemy and allowing foreign military bases on to holy Muslim lands.

Israel is described as a “dagger in the heart of the Muslim lands”.

The website describes the organisation as “a political party whose ideology is Islam”. Its establishment is seen as a direct response to the dictum of Allah: “Let there be from amongst you a group that calls for goodness, commands what is right and forbids what is wrong. And those are the successful.”

The Islamic Liberation Party, or Hizb ut-Tahrin, was founded by Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, a Palestinian, in 1953. It advocates the “peaceful” overthrow of secular governments and the implementation of a worldwide Muslim state — the so-called caliphate.

The caliphate was a union of Muslim states that operated for a brief period after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 632, and is seen as the purest expression of Islamic society ever to have existed.

The main speaker at last Sunday night’s meeting, who gave his name as Abu Sumaiya, turned out in fact to be Ashraf Doureihi, a design and contracts engineer with North Sydney Council.

His speech, entitled The Role of Muslims in the West, warned against the false promises of integration.

As controversy enveloped the group, North Sydney Council issued a statement disagreeing with the words of its employee but defending his right to say it.

Mr Sumaiya/Doureihi said that many Muslims living in a capitalist secular society were increasingly vulnerable following September 11.

He said that since George W.Bush’s proclamations, that either “you are with us or with the terrorists”, many Muslims living in the West felt compelled to choose between being labelled as the enemy or accepting the “phony foundations of Bush’s war”.

Questioned over what a good Muslim’s response to the Bali bombings should be, he criticised the Australian Government for throwing resources at the incident while ignoring the hundreds, indeed thousands, of deaths of Muslims in places such as Afghanistan and Palestine.

Telling the story of Jaafar, one of the first converts to Islam, Mr Sumaiya/Doureihi concluded that Muslims, forced to live “in another land”, were part of the international Muslim nation, the Ummah, “to establish Islam as a complete way of life, in total, without shortage or compromise”.

He suggested that while many in the audience might be wondering why Allah had made them suffer by casting them into a land of non- believers, they should remember that even Mohammed himself had been forced to live among non-believers.

They must use the opportunity, as instructed by Allah, to spread the merciful truth of Islam.

Hizb ut-Tahrir condemned yesterday what it regards as misrepresentation in the Australian media, saying in an open letter published on the Islamic Sydney email network: “Rest assured we will not be diverted from our work of the truth path … let the media run their circus and God willing our message of the pure Islam will filter through to the Muslims.”

The letter quoted a scripture: “Their intention is to extinguish Allah’s Light with their mouths: but Allah will complete His Light, even though the unbelievers may detest … May Allah protect the Muslims.”