Media Release
Parra Shooting, Media Lies and Criminalisation of Islam & Muslims

Mainstream media reports have attempted to link Hizb ut Tahrir to the Parramatta shooting on the most specious of grounds. The cheap allegations emanated from a reporter at Channel Seven known for his duplicitous and sensationalist reporting and were subsequently spread by many other media outlets with the flagrant irresponsibility all too common from mainstream media.

In this regard, we emphasise the following:

1) Hizb ut Tahrir's position and condemnation of unjust violence is as clear as day. This is why it yesterday stood firmly in a rally against the brutal and callous murder being carried out by the US and Russia in Syria. In contrast, the mainstream media and the Australian Government either support this state-terrorism or adopt a shameless position of silence with regards to it.

2) Hizb ut Tahrir's position on the use of violence as a means for political change or expressing political grievance is also extremely well-known. Actions like the Parramatta shooting are plainly wrong. In contrast, the Australian Government's foreign policy routinely employs the most callous of violence to further its economic and political interests in other parts of the world and the mainstream media chirps its supports like a well-trained parrot.

3) Hizb ut Tahrir's position on the attribution of any wrong action undertaken by a Muslim to the Muslim community generally and the demand that Muslims condemn it is also well-established. We are not interested in, nor fooled by, the superficial politics of condemnation. We reject the flawed government 'war on terror' narrative whereby blame is shifted to Islam and Muslims. The real cause of violence is western foreign and domestic policy and it is about time the Australian establishment assumed responsibility for all the violence and hate it has created.

4) No doubt government authorities will milk this shooting to justify further insidious intervention in the Muslim community and further policing of Muslim youth, the very oppressive intervention and policing that pushes some to react in the wrong way. Hence, political and security officials have rushed to label the shooting 'terrorism', to 'reach out' to the Muslim community leaders and families, enlisting them from the 'frontline' of the 'fight against radicalisation'. This is the same old 'war on terror' approach that blames and criminalises an entire community for the actions of individuals.

5) The alleged links of Farhad Jabar to Hizb ut Tahrir are so groundless and absurd, they deserve naught but derision. Suffice to say that Hizb ut Tahrir did not conduct any lecture on Friday Oct 2 and Farhad has no affiliation with it whatsoever. Further, we reject the deceptive but fallacious logic whereby listening to one or two lectures in the Muslim community leads the otherwise simpleton Muslim teenager to commit murder. Indeed, why, it must be asked, is the religion of the perpetrator the first, and in reality the only, real point of inquiry?

6) Incidentally, Hizb ut Tahrir tonight launches a month-long campaign, culminating in a conference, on this very issue of government intervention in the Muslim community. Recent events again highlight the importance of this discussion for the Muslim community and community at large. All details of the campaign and conference will be available from this evening at gimc.org.au.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Australia