An Australian organization dedicated to establishing a caliphate across the Muslim world is set to hold a conference in late November on encouraging Islam as an alternative global governance system, with Australian officials warning that the group presents a threat and should be banned.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is set to hold its 2025 national conference in Bankstown on November 23, proposing that the "moral decay of the global order" exposed by the war in Gaza demanded a new system under Islam.
"The world stands at a breaking point, demanding a new system rooted in truth and justice. At this critical juncture in human history and the unique times we face as a Ummah, where Muslims are being prepared to lead the world once again," read an Instagram advertisement last Monday. "Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia (HTA) warmly welcomes you to this year’s conference, where we will amplify the vision and mission of Islam, as a complete way of life and the only alternative to the falling and failing capitalist world order."
Promotional materials repeatedly referred to societal crises and problems around the world, such as war, slavery, poverty, and corruption, and revolution, and assured that Islamic rule would bring about peace, prosperity, and purpose.
"The Muslim ummah must be ready for the day when once again we are called to establish Islam in governing our affairs," said one HTA representative in a video.
Australia should list HTA as a terrorist organization, politician argues
Materials also often referenced the Israel-Hamas war, which would also be the subject of a special video message at the conference.
Liberal Party Senator Michaelia Cash said in response to the planned conference that the Australian government should list HTA as a terrorist organization, noting that its chapters had been banned in countries including Germany, the UK, and Indonesia.
“Enough is enough. Hizb ut-Tahrir spreads hate and excuses violence,” Cash said on Instagram. “The Albanese Government must stand up and take our social cohesion and our national security seriously.”
Former Australian Federal Police detective superintendent David Craig told Sky News on Monday that such events are used as a recruitment tool to bring people to the “radical side of Islamist thinking.”
HTA state on its website that it doesn’t support the use of Jihad or violence to establish its caliphate, but Craig said that what would go on at the event would be different to its publicly facing materials.
Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) director-general Mike Burgess warned about HTA at last Tuesday’s Lowy Institute event, comparing the Islamic organization’s strategy and rhetoric to that of the White Australia neo-Nazi group that protested in front of the New South Wales parliament on Saturday.
“The organization’s condemnation of Israel and Jews attracts media attention and aids recruitment, but it deliberately stops short of promoting onshore acts of politically motivated violence.
“Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to test and stretch the boundaries of legality without breaking them,” said Burgess. “I fear its anti-Israel rhetoric is fueling and normalizing wider antisemitic narratives.”
HTA responded to Burgess in a press statement last Wednesday, accusing the ASIO chief of providing cover for a “genocidal entity” at an event it said was created by a Zionist and attended by “supporters of child killers and prisoner rapists.”
“Anti-Israel sentiment is a universal phenomenon, expressed by all people, of all faiths and from all corners of the world. It is a response solely to the criminality of the occupation, which is why the world has learned to meet the inane charges of antisemitism with not much more than a yawn,” said HTA.“The claim [that] Hizb ut-Tahrir is seeking to exploit the Muslim community on the issue of Gaza is infantilizing in its contempt of Muslims.”
HTA said it supported military efforts to restore what it saw as “Islamic land” and that it was the responsibility of “the standing Muslim armies” to “intervene militarily in Palestine to not just restrain the hands of the Zionist occupation, but to liberate its lands entirely.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 and maintains chapters around the world working toward establishing a caliphate.
According to its website, its work “entails liberating the Muslim world, intellectually first, then politically, economically, and in all other respects, from the subjugation of kufr [disbelief] and its people.”
The group’s Canadian chapter had attempted to hold an international conference in Ontario in January, but moved it online when officials denied the use of venues owned by municipalities.
Mayors were concerned about the group’s extremist agenda.
Advertisements for the January conference highlighted the territory that HTA Canada wished to establish its caliphate in, including Spain, Greece, India, much of the Balkans, and the upper half of Africa.