Concerning

Wassim Doureihi

To almost universal derision, Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesperson Wassim Doureihi appeared on ABC TV's Lateline. He didn't do himself or his organisation any favours with his aggressively delivered answers.

Program host Emma Alberici repeatedly invited Doureihi to denounce the atrocities of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but he refused to do so. He was asked to comment on whether the actions of Islamic State (IS) fighters beheading people and taking their severed heads as trophies could be justified, but deflected that question too.

Nor would he say anything to dissuade young Australian Muslim men in Australia from joining IS. Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to see Australia become incorporated into a global Islamic caliphate governed by Sharia law. Again he would not be drawn on how he thought this would be enacted.

Rather than engage with Alberici on an equal footing, he wanted to present his own agenda. Did he have a problem with being interviewed by a woman who he presumably believes is inferior to a man? Read the interview transcript and you will see that he rejects the narrative of the war on terror given by Western governments. In his worldview, militant Muslims are simply the aggrieved victims of unjust and criminal Western militarism.

He also claims that Muslims are forbidden from killing innocent civilians. This raises the question of what exactly makes a person an innocent civilian, on what basis is their innocence or guilt determined, and infers that there is another category of person that it is justified to kill.

Islamic theology divides the world into two spheres; Dar al-Harb (House of War) and Dar al-Islam (House of Peace). Any part of the world not belonging to the Dar al-Islam is in rebellion against Allah and is therefore deemed to be at war against the Dar al-Islam, and must be subjugated. It is the duty of every Muslim to bring all of the world into the Dar al-Harb. Some Muslims are doing this peacefully, while others have a militaristic understanding of this obligation. Furthermore, there is plenty of Islamic scholarship arguing that is it permissible to kill civilians who are not a part of the Dar al-Islam and who will not submit to Islam.

This group has been banned in several countries. I think it's time to give serious consideration into banning it in Australia as well. While it doesn't speak for all Australian Muslims, should we tolerate a group that has no loyalty to the Australian nation, wants to overturn our existing form of government, and replace it with one befitting its nightmare vision of a global caliphate? No thanks. This is serious.

http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/index.html

http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/islams_wrinkled_face.htm

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/let-their-warped-words-be-heard/story-e6frg7bo-1227090525248

http://barnabasfund.org/AU/Islamic-theology-and-Iraqi-Christians-Part-II.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/radical-muslim-cleric-ismail-alwahwah-tells-supporters-a-new-world-order-is-coming/story-fni0cx12-1227086878686?nk=b7125899d89f17af8783e39f35bddf7b

http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/courses01/rrtw/Hashmi.htm

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/10/09/explainer-what-hizb-ut-tahrir