Islamist group Hizb Ut-Tahrir using Australian safe haven to run digital influence campaigns overseas
An Islamist group which has been banned in other countries is using its ability to operate in Australia to run digital campaigns here and abroad. It has led to a push for the Albanese government to take the matter “seriously”.
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The Islamist group Hizb Ut-Tahrir, is using its Australian branch to run digital influence campaigns in the UK, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, where it is banned as a terrorist organisation.
Hizb Ut-Tahrir is a global Islamist organisation, headquartered in Lebanon, which advocates for the re-establishment of a Muslim caliphate.
Despite Jewish leaders calls for it to be banned as an anti-Semitic organisation which supports terrorism, it is legal in Australia and operates as a not-for-profit organisation under NSW law.
Figures linked to Hizb Ut-Tahrir also run registered charities which can accept tax-deductible donations.
Until January it had also operated for many years in the United Kingdom despite calls for it to be banned there.
But after a press release emerged in which it praised Hamas for the October 7 attacks in Israel UK Home Secretary James Cleverly banned it as a terrorist organisation, saying it was an “antisemitic organisation that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks.”
He warned, “anyone who belongs to and invites support for them will face consequences”.
The UK ban followed earlier bans in Pakistan (2004) and Bangladesh (2009).
It has recently been reported Hizb Ut-Tahrir in Australia has covertly operated a front group named ‘Stand4Palestine’, which has infiltrated pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university campuses, glorifying terrorism and calling for boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses.
Now The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the Stand4Palestine front group has been used by Hizb Ut-Tahrir to evade the bans in the UK, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and push pro-Hamas propaganda.
One piece of propaganda included a video in Bangladesh entitled “freedom fighters”, that celebrated Israelis being stabbed, blown up on buses, shot in their homes, and taken hostage.
The group’s vehicle for dissemination into countries where it is banned has been Whatsapp groups with more than 11 thousand members.
A breakdown of these groups has found that nearly one-in-four members are located in the United Kingdom, as is one of the group’s administrators.
The majority of the Whatsapp groups’ messages distributed around the world have their origin in Australia.
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said the threat posed by Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia must be taken seriously.
“While our social cohesion is under unprecedented pressure, it is advocating and promoting terrorism across the world, even in our democratic allies that have rightly banned it,” he said.
“Our authorities gave Hizb ut Tahrir an inch, and it’s taken a mile.”
Similarly, Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said the Government needed to act.
“It would be deeply disturbing if the failure to list Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist organisation in Australia allows the banned UK group to simply relocate here,” he said.
“We don’t want extremists outlawed by our closest partners to operate with impunity on our turf due to an unwillingness to act. The Albanese government must urgently shut down this terror loophole before it is too late.”
A spokesman for Hizb Ut-Tahrir in Australia declined to comment.
“I’ll let you do whatever you want to do,” he said.
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