Press Statement
Australian Intelligence Head Rolls Out Unintelligent Cover for Genocidal Entity

ASIO Director General Mike Burgess used his Lowy Institute address yesterday to extend the Australian government’s continued cover for the genocidal entity.

Burgess offered a sweeping collection of worn out cliches, lifted from both the government and genocidal advocates, warning about threats to social cohesion, a rise in antisemitism and the normalisation of politicised violence. Burgess even went so far as to warn about the likelihood of foreign based political assassinations in this country.

In his poor attempt to distort the victim/aggressor paradigm, Burgess made reference to Hizb ut Tahrir as an example of a party seeking to exploit grievances around Gaza. He said:

“While an entity such as Hizb ut-Tahrir is religiously motivated, its provocative behaviour, offensive rhetoric and insidious strategy, are very similar to the tactics of the Nationalist Socialist Network. The organisation’s condemnation of [Israel] and Jews attracts media attention and aids recruitment. But it deliberately stops short of promoting onshore acts of violence or acts of politically motivated violence. Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to test and stretch the boundaries of legality without breaking them. As with neo-Nazis, this does not make their behaviour acceptable. I fear its anti-[Israel] rhetoric is fuelling and normalising wider antisemitic narratives.”

Hizb ut Tahrir / Australia would like to state the following in this regard:

1. This lecture being delivered at the Lowy Institute, founded by ardent Zionist and genocidal advocate Frank Lowy, is a poignant reminder of what the government means when it talks about social cohesion. Burgess was surrounded by supporters of child killers and prisoner rapists, who deem it acceptable to level entire cities over the heads of its inhabitants, and if any were to survive, have no qualms starving them to death instead. Social cohesion means criminals are allowed to persist in their criminality whilst their victims are expected to suffer dutifully.

2. Australia has always been an advocate of genocide. It was acceptable when Britain occupied this country in 1788. It was acceptable when Australia legitimised the first genocide in Palestine in 1947 and again with the ongoing genocide since 2023. The fact all these crimes were deemed ‘legal’ makes Burgess’ concerns about breaking current laws contemptible.

3.  Twenty years of the ‘war on terror’ taught us the lengths to which Western states will go to insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions. Rather than taking responsibility for their past crimes, they added to their crimes by destroying entire countries, killing millions indiscriminately and criminalising any opposition to these horrors, even if it was the mere raising of voices. The same playbook is being offered to rinse the genocidal entity of its criminality, except, this time, the world already caught on a long time ago.

4. Anti-[Israel] sentiment is a universal phenomenon, expressed by all people, of all faiths and from all corners of the world. It is a response solely to the criminality of the occupation, which is why the world has learnt to meet the inane charges of antisemitism with not much more than a yawn.

5.  The claim Hizb ut Tahrir is seeking to exploit the Muslim community on the issue of Gaza is infantilising in its contempt of Muslims. As if to suggest Muslims are incapable of independent political thought, or are blind to what the entire world sees, and are therefore susceptible to the insidious plots of nefarious actors. This infantilising, of course, is a cornerstone of successive government’s engagement with the Muslim community invoked to justify their collective disciplining.

6. Burgess’ attack on Hizb ut Tahrir is a strawman campaign designed to reach the Muslim community. Hizb ut Tahrir is one of the principled and uncompromising voices in the community that have been unwavering in its opposition to the occupation of Palestine. The government and genocidal advocates hope to silence the community through constant threats of state repression, even if it means introducing arbitrary laws exclusively for this purpose.

7. The call of Hizb ut Tahrir is not limited to lifting oppression from the blessed land of Palestine and liberating it from the Zionist occupiers. It also carries a call to lift oppression from all the oppressed people around the world — both Muslims and non-Muslims — who suffer under secular regimes that have exhausted, impoverished, and subjugated their peoples, turning them into mere tools of production for greedy capitalist elites. Hizb ut Tahrir’s project is a civilizational alternative to the exploitative capitalist system — not a system that serves the one percent, as is the case in the capitalist world led by the West. Through this project, Hizb ut Tahrir calls for the establishment of the Islamic Caliphate upon the method of Prophethood, which rules by what Allah has revealed — not only to bring security, peace, and justice to the Muslim lands, but also to spread justice, safety, and stability throughout the entire world. This is what the Creator has commanded us to do, what pleases Him, and what will admit us into Paradise.

8. Burgess’s attack on Hizb ut Tahrir is part of the broader Islamophobia campaign waged by Western media against Islam and Muslims. The aim is to mislead humanity and the sound minds in the Western world about the true nature of Islam — so that they do not turn away from the bankrupt Western civilization and choose Islam as a civilizational alternative, a balanced way of life, and the true religion from Allah. Burgess, in this regard, is like the ignorant polytheists of Quraysh who slandered the Messenger of Allah (saw) to distort the image of the Prophet and his message — but did they succeed?! The matter is only one of time before people discern the vile from the pure.

9. To counter Burgess’ deliberate ambiguity, and at times, outright misinformation, we would like to reiterate Islam’s view on the issue of Palestine, held by Muslims the world over:

    i. Palestine is Islamic land, and Muslims alone will decide its future.

ii. Under Islam, Palestine was always inhabited by Muslims, Jews and Christians, and this period of Islamic rule still stands as the gold standard in coexistence.

iii. Palestine was occupied by Britain and handed over to Zionists to serve British colonial interests (later adopted by the U.S.). The occupation of the British, and later the Zionists, will never be recognised by Islam, and Muslims will always reject any attempt to normalise the occupation’s existence.

iv. Palestine was captured through military occupation, and the only acceptable response to military aggression is military repulsion.

v. It is the responsibility of the standing Muslim armies, who are the sons of these lands, to intervene militarily in Palestine to not just restrain the hands of the Zionist occupation, but to liberate its lands entirely.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Australia