Controversial Islamic activist Uthman Badar has been banned from speaking at the University of WA after outrage over his links to extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The Sydney academic was barred from speaking at the Opera House in June amid community outrage at a proposed speech at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on how honour killings were “morally justified”.
Mr Badar (pictured right), the Australian spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, said his speech was cancelled because he wouldn’t “toe the secular liberal line”.
Hizb ut-Tahrir promotes a hardline Islamic position on sharia law, backs jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq and supports terror attacks on Israel.
“What the government and media are targeting is not just violence. That’s the cover. Even if you’re not violent, you’re attacked with the same ferocity,” Mr Badar told his followers on Facebook.
“In this sense, the target is Islam directly — those parts of it that don’t accord with secular liberal values.”
The UWA Muslim Students Association told vice-chancellor Paul Johnson yesterday morning it would cancel Mr Badar’s planned lecture, titled “Gaza Crisis”.