 Radical Islamic group Hizb ul-Tahrir will be banned in Australia if intelligence authorities judge it a terrorist threat, the prime minister said Monday.
| It's a threat. Ban it and lock 'em up. |
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization - the countryâs top spy agency - is investigating Hizb ul-Tahrir, which was banned in Britain last week. The group operates in Sydney. Prime Minister John Howard told Macquarie Radio that, âif ASIO tells us that an organization like this ... does represent a threat, then weâll take action to ban it.â
| It doesn't take much. Read some of their literature. |
Hizb ul-Tahrir Australian spokesman Wassim Doureihi said the group will cooperate fully with investigators. âIf there are facts established and ASIO wish to talk to us, then they know where we are and they can obviously take it from there,â he told Nine Network television. ASIO had been in contact with the group for several years, Doureihi said. âWe talk to ASIO when they request access and what we say in private is what we say in public,â he said. âWhat is disturbing is that the party is being portrayed as a secretive cell when in reality we have been very open,â he added. Doureihi confirmed the groupâs support for the insurgency against coalition troops in Iraq and said he did not condemn suicide bombings. âItâs unfair to condemn the reaction when we do not condemn unreservedly the conditions which gave rise to those reactions,â he said. âIf we talk about occupied land, then we have to expect the people to resist the occupation,â he added. |