An Islamist extremist group campaigning for sharia law has questioned whether Muslims have a future in Australia, and claims they are being treated as scapegoats for the county’s problems.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has a released a video accusing people in the West of blaming Muslims for a range of problems, including homelessness.
The group’s controversial spokesman Wassim Doureihi makes an appearance asking if Muslims could continue to live in Australia.
‘Do we have a future here in Australia?,’ he says.
This is the same man who repeatedly refused to condemn ISIS despite being asked more than a dozen times in a 2014 ABC Lateline interview with Emma Alberici.
The slickly-produced video has been made to promote an upcoming conference in Sydney titled, ‘Hatred rising: Living Islam in a hostile West.’
The conference, at an unannounced location in suburban Canterbury, will be hosted by another spokesman Uthman Badar, who Daily Mail Australia recorded in March saying Hizb ut-Tahrir supported capital punishment for ex-Muslims.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Germany, the Netherlands and a range of Muslim-majority nations including Bangladesh and Pakistan, is holding a Sunday conference.
The Australian branch of this group has posted a Facebook video alleging that about 50 per cent of Australians would support a ban on Muslim migration, as proposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The video features women in hijabs and Hizb ut-Tahrir’s male leaders, including spokesman Hamzah Qureshi who asks: ‘Do Muslims have a future in the West?’
In one scene, there’s an image of homeless people accompanying a voice over suggesting Australians are blaming Muslims for economic problems.
‘Muslims have become the primary scapegoat for major problems in the West, from economic woes to a stratified and disintegrating society,’ it says.
The video said the rise of far-right parties was a result of anti-Muslim hatred.
The conference promises to explore how Muslim political activists can ‘navigate the challenges we face’.
Women of Hizb ut-Tahrir last month released a video saying it was permissible for husbands to hit their wives with a stick.