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Radical preachers and extremist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir have attacked Australia’s democracy and The Muslim Vote campaign, calling it a “shirk” and an insult to Allah, at sermons in southwest Sydney, the geographical heart of a community-led Muslim political movement.

Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, and Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Australian branch took to pulpits in Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown area to call Muslims in parliament “apostates” and order their followers to boycott elections. They also criticised the Muslim Vote’s leadership for its historical deradicalisation efforts and current political participation, with Mr Ousayd signalling he wanted an alternative route to power where Muslims could make sharia the dominant form of law in Australia.

“The system is always going to fail if it is not Allah’s,” Mr Ousayd said. “We want to get to a position where Muslims have power so that we can implement more of the way in sharia.”

Prominent Hizb ut-Tahrir member Wassim Doureihi told his own audience that it was “not conspiratorial” to suggest that mainstream leaders who led counter-extremist efforts during the height of ISIS – an effort he criticised – were democracy’s biggest supporters.

At Hizb ut-Tahrir’s headquarters in the electorate of Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke, Mr Doureihi slammed politicians as “criminals in suits” and called Muslim senator Fatima Payman the “white man’s Orientalist fantasy”.

“The senator’s experience has shown us that engaging in the political process is not an option for the community,” he said, claiming Muslims would be at an “inevitable loss” if they took part.

Targets

Hizb ut-Tahrir is recognised as a terrorist organisation in Britain and Germany, although the Albanese government has resisted calls to do the same in Australia. It comes amid – and stands in contrast to – The Muslim Vote, a community campaign spearheaded by respected Sheik Wesam Charkawi to oust Labor ministers across southwest Sydney and elect pro-Palestine independent candidates.

Senator Payman is not associated with any group or political alliance, including The Muslim Vote, and has previously said she would be an independent voice for Western Australia as a crossbencher after abandoning Labor over Palestine. The Muslim Vote campaign has struggled to cement candidates it would endorse in target seats, but recently ran two volunteer workshops, telling supporters that after a year of preparation, it was “ready to launch”.

The Muslim Vote has electorally targeted Blaxland and Watson, held by Education Minister Jason Clare and Mr Burke respectively. It is within those two electorates where Mr Ousayd and Mr Doureihi urged their separate congregations to shun the Muslim Vote and ballot box, but whose anti-democratic calls have since been condemned.

Mr Burke said Mr Ousayd’s al-Madina Dawah and Hizb ut-Tahrir were “fringe”, and most of the electorate wouldn’t know of, hear or respond to their words. “Australia is a strong democracy and that’s a good thing… Attempts to undermine our democracy stand condemned,” he said.

Unacceptable

Mr Clare has previously criticised the “hateful” rhetoric of Mr Ousayd, who told his Blaxland electorate audience sharia was “perfect in every way” while tricksters peddled democracy.

“Every four years, they come to us with a new magic trick to convince you to take part in the shirk of democracy,” Mr Ousayd said. (Shirk is sin in the Islamic faith, broadly meaning polytheism.) “Sharia law is the greatest … there is no need for it to be changed or compromised.”

Although the al-Madina Dawah Centre and Hizb ut-Tahrir are not linked, one of the organisations’ regular speakers, preacher Mohammed Trad, joined the anti-democratic chorus, calling democracy “an illusion” and voting “delusional”. He is not the same person as a leader of the same name who works for the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.

Mr Ousayd – who has boasted of his friendship with men who fought for ISIS – said democracy “opposed Allah”. “If a Muslim enters parliament and is sworn in … they become apostates,” he said. “Prime ministers are false gods; we should not join and not vote.”

Mr Ousayd, who is the subject of a racial vilification complaint at the Australian Human Rights Commission, criticised The Muslim Vote’s leadership, claiming that “wicked scholars” were trying to “whisper doubts” to young Muslim voters.

At Hizb ut-Tahrir’s event, Mr Doureihi warned democracy could “not be an option” for the Muslim community. “Politicians look down on sharia, they want to secularise us,” he said, claiming that democracy could do “serious harm” and was “violently concocted” in Europe.

Mr Doureihi said Muslim representation in parliament was “tokenistic” and “hollow”, pointing to Senator Payman’s suspension and resignation. “Your job as a Muslim MP is to smile at the cameras, but don’t think that you have any contribution,” he said. “That’s not your job… it is so the government can lie that they accept people of all backgrounds.”

He criticised mainstream Islamic leaders who had been prominent in countering violent extremism; Sheik Charkawi, for example, played a key community deradicalisation role at the height of ISIS. Mr Doureihi said it was “no conspiracy” that those same people were supportive of democracy.

“Those people leading efforts then are now at the forefront of trying to get Muslims engaged in democracy,” he said. He alleged a “pillar” of counter-extremism efforts was “inclusion in the democratic process”, a method he claimed sought to usurp Islam with elected politicians.

Mr Ousayd and his centre, and Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Australia-based group, remain on the fringes, although both have large social-media followings and speak regularly to substantial crowds.

In 2022, Labor’s Ed Husic and Anne Aly became the first Muslim federal ministers in Australian history, while New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib was sworn in on the Koran upon appointment last year, also a historic first.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has re-emerged into the public sphere after the October 7 attacks in Israel, notably as part of pro-Palestine university camps.

Mr Doureihi’s rejection of democracy aligns with Hizb ut-Tahrir’s, which released a statement claiming Muslim participation in recent British and upcoming American elections would give those systems false legitimacy. But it stands in contrast to other Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters, including its regular speaker, Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun, who called October 7 a day of “victory” and has expressed his support for The Muslim Vote.

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Republished with thanks to the Australian Prayer Network. Image courtesy of The Australian.