Feminist activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied sought advice from Hizb ut-Tahrir

The activist who said Islam was “the most feminist religion’’ reached out to anti-gay, anti-women group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied on the ABC’s Q&A last Monday night.

The activist who proclaimed Islam was “the most feminist religion” reached out to the spokesman for anti-gay and anti-women group Hizb ut-Tahrir in the wake of her fight on ABC TV’s program Q&A for advice on how she could have framed her argu­ment better.

Hizb ut-Tahrir spokes­man Wassim Doureihi posted on his personal Facebook page that Muslims were more angry with independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who wants to ban the burka, instead of two other government MPs who “belong to parties that have bombed Muslims abroad, criminalised Muslims at home, and jailed Muslims seeking refuge from both”.

Mr Doureihi and others criti­cised Yassmin Abdel-Magied for argu­ing through a “secular lens” and not having the required deep knowledge of Islam to prosecute her case.

“Salams! Well, I am always happy to take feedback,” Ms Abdel-Magied wrote in response.

“What specifically was problematic and how can I do better in the future inshallah? I am young, and willing to learn, inshallah. Trying to do the best with the platform I can, Allah willing.”

Mr Doureihi famously refused to condemn Islamic State for indiscrimin­ate acts of violence, includ­ing against Muslims, and declined to use his platform to implor­e young Muslim men in particular from joining the terrorist group.

Wassim Doureihi.

He said the West only wanted to use Islamic State as a “bogeyman” to condemn an entire religion.

After Mr Doureihi told Ms Abdel-Magied she “ended up framing Islam through a secular lens, aimed at a secular people and conscious of the presence of a secular government”, the author and activist said: “Ah indeed. Sigh. This is always a tricky one. Will DM (private message) you.”

Another spokesman for the group, Uthman Badar, had a talk at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas cancelled in 2014 after a backlash against the topic “Honour killings are morally justified”.

Mr Badar did not choose the topic, although he did consent to it, and later argued he was not going to defend the practice.

In February 2014, he defend­ed the forced marriage of a girl, age 12, to a Muslim man aged 26.

“Something being illegal ­according to Western law does not make it immoral,” he said in a press release.

Hizb ut-Tahrir was taken to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal after a 2014 lecture in which women were told to sit at the back while men had seats reserved in the front. The tribunal found Alison Bevage, a reporter, had been discriminated against based on her sex.

After Malcolm Turnbull hosted an Iftar dinner with anti-gay cleric Sheik Shady Alsuleiman last year, the Prime Minister condemned the preacher’s views on homosexuality, which in turn prompted a response from Mr Badar.

Is it time to define new rules so that migration doesn't disturb the peace? @JacquiLambie & @yassmin_a disagree vehemently #QandA pic.twitter.com/nRXyj3p2hG

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) February 13, 2017

He said on Facebook that Mr Turnbull was condemning the “normative Islam­­­ic position on homosex­uality”.

Ms Abdel-Magied said yesterday that she had “not seen anything­ by HT (Hizb ut-Tahrir)” but did not respond when asked about her communications with Mr Doureihi. Mr Doureihi saw questions put to him by The Australian but did not respond.