alan jones pulling abbotts strings and abbott speaks without knowing what he is talking about - what a surprise - abbott reminds me of that saying - all fur coat and no knickers.
Is Prime Minister's anger at 'hate preachers' justified?
Hizb ut Tahrir has condemned the terrorist group Islamic State and is overtly non-violent - so why is Tony Abbott "angry and frustrated" he hasn't been able to ban the group, and hopeful new laws will allow him to do so?
But wild conspiracies do not amount to promoting terrorism and Hizb ut Tahrir has loudly denounced the caliphate claimed by Islamic State as an aberration and condemned its killings of innocents and non-believers.
Underpinning its philosophy is the belief that "offensive jihad" - launching pre-emptive attacks to achieve the aims of the caliphate - is forbidden, as is violence that targets innocents, no matter what their faith.
"Defensive jihad" - or Muslims defending themselves against direct oppression - is, however, considered legitimate.
The group supports the rights of Muslims to resist the Western interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, including with violence against those they believe have taken up arms against them.
This principle extends to Syria, and has led to the group giving tacit support to Australians travelling there to join the resistance against the regime, with the recent exception of taking up arms with the Islamic State group.
For the past decade, security agencies in the West have repeatedly considered whether the group should be banned. Invariably, they have declined.
The main concern has been that the group is a "conveyer belt" for jihadists, a weigh station where they are inculcated with radical ideology before they leave for a group with more violent tendencies.
Nawab Osman, an academic at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who did his doctorate in Australia on the group, says the "conveyer belt" theory doesn't stack up. Hizb, overall, acted as a bulwark against Islamic radicals taking the next step and turning to terrorism, he said.
A ban, he added, would be counter-productive.
"All you will do is create martyrs out of Hizb ut Tahrir. It will grow and it will grow underground. That makes it much more difficult for security agencies to monitor."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/is-prime-ministers-anger-at-hate-preachers-justified-20141008-10rwqy....
