Australia bans Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir under new hate group laws

The Albanese government has listed radical Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir as a prohibited hate group, the first use of the new powers since Labor enacted tougher hate crime laws in response to the December 14 Bondi massacre.

The organisation’s listing late on Thursday means it is now a criminal offence to be a member of, recruit for, provide training or funds to, or materially support the organisation.

“For a long time, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been able to spread hate and create a pathway for others to engage in violence,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said of the change.

“The Australian government’s new hate group listing framework has been designed to stop organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir from spreading hate and sowing the seeds of division in the community, that risks not only our social cohesion but the safety of Australians.”

The controversial fringe group has been regarded warily by many within the Muslim and broader community for its teachings, and was listed as a terrorist organisation in Britain in January 2024. The group has been banned in Germany, India, Indonesia and other jurisdictions. Its most extreme Australian supporters have been exposed praising the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel as a step towards its caliphate goal.

The group’s Australian website was taken down in late January. Social media pages linked to the group have also been either locked or deleted in recent months, including for an Islamic national conference scheduled to be held in November.

Website archives show a profile page for Mohammad Alwahwah, a relative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia founder Ismail Alwahwah, at Beyond Tutoring was also taken down about March last year.

An investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in June 2024 connected Alwahwah to a front group backed by Hizb ut-Tahrir. Financial records show Alwahwah was a director and shareholder of Beyond Tutoring until July 1, 2024.

The Bankstown-based education company ended a call with this masthead after questions were raised about Alwahwah and why his profile had been removed.

Josh Roose, an associate professor of politics at Deakin University, said Hizb ut-Tahrir had a sophisticated infrastructure and a funding model that raised questions about connections to foreign actors.

The decision to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir would force its adherents to start from scratch under a completely different guise, Roose said. Global evidence suggested that decisions to ban groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir ultimately resulted in followers leaving and not returning.

“By banning them, you are not only disrupting their momentum but preventing them from undertaking the activities that have allowed them to be successful over the years.”

The government was empowered to designate prohibited groups following the passage of a raft of hate speech reforms in January designed to tackle antisemitism after the Bondi attack. These reforms also tightened gun laws in the country.

Speaking to media on Friday morning, Burke anticipated a legal challenge to the move but said the government was “very confident of our legal position”.

Former secretary of the Department of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo thought there was “a high likelihood” of a High Court challenge to the designation.

“I’m assuming [the government is] sitting on very solid advice which would have been signed off ... in almost all probability, by the solicitor general, to shore up the constitutionality in terms of whether there’s a risk around the implied political freedom that’s said to be in the Constitution,” he said.

“That’ll be the basis of the challenge, that this is infringing that right, and I suspect we’re all going to know, perhaps not any time soon because these cases take a long time to go through the High Court, but we’ll know one day what the High Court thinks about this law.”

The opposition welcomed the move, noting that the organisation had “given inspiration to people that seek to destroy our way of life”.

The opposition’s home affairs spokesman, Jonno Duniam, said: “Hizb ut-Tahrir have advocated some of the most appalling and disgusting approaches to how society should work, and have done this in our suburbs with impunity. They should have been shut down a long time ago.

“There has been far too much inaction under this government around drivers of antisemitism and Islamist extremism in this country, especially since the atrocities of October 7. This includes inaction against this insidious hate group.”

The move was welcomed by the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which both supported the passing of tougher legislation to tackle antisemitism after the Bondi massacre in which 15 people were killed on the first night of Hanukkah.

At the announcement of the new legislation, Labor stated its direct intention to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir and the National Socialist Network. The latter quickly disbanded to escape the consequences of the reform.

Hizb ut-Tahrir was defended by the nation’s peak Muslim body, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, who claimed the organisation’s listing was “part of a wider effort to hold the Muslim community collectively responsible for the Bondi attack”. The council has been contacted for comment.

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