Geert Wilders is in Australia for a speaking tour to allegedly warn people against Islam’. He claims that Islam and Muslims are a threat to Western societies who should ban their immigration. He has rightly been dismissed by most people as a hate-mongering Islamaphobe. ‘Mainstream’ politicians in Australia have also sought to distance themselves from Mr Wilders and his views.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia emphasises the following realities with respect to this matter:
1. Geert Wilders perpetuates old and long-discredited orientalist fantasies against Islam, the fallacious nature of which is apparent to all those with even a basic knowledge of Islam. Thus he has refused to debate Muslims in Holland. If he truly believes that his critique of Islam carries any water we offer him a chance to debate us here in Australia.
2. Geert Wilders and his right-wing colleagues are in fact the sideshow in the conflict between Islam and the West. The main act is dominated by ‘mainstream’ political establishments and media in Western states. The right-wing only exploits the damage inflicted by the mainstream. The negative image of Islam established in the Western psyche is a result of the persistent demonisataion of Islam by mainstream media, not the right-wing. Attempts to Westernise Islam and dominate the Muslim World are led by the mainstream political establishments, not the right-wing.
3. The right-wing offers rhetoric and incites hatred that in the worst case leads to some level of communal violence. The mainstream inflicts wholesale political, economic and military invasion of entire nations. There is simply no comparison between what a Cory Bernardi does against Islam and Muslims and what a Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott does. Only the superficial of thought would be fooled to think otherwise.
4. We advise Muslims to remain focused on the real criminals and not to be fooled by the pretence of mainstream politicians whose actions against Islam and Muslims speak louder than their claims about not being anti-Islam or being against those who are openly anti-Islam.
5. The antidote for Muslims to the insistent propaganda against Islam is to persist in the work to establish the sublime and practical model of Islam in the Muslim world, and to carry the lofty ideals of Islam to those in the West, all of which are in dire need of an alternative to the failed secular liberal model.
Media Office
Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia
19 February 2013
Contact: Wassim Doureihi on media@hizb-australia.org or 0438 000 465.
