Poster distributed by Hamas-linked CAIR’s Northern California chapter
The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has given Muslims in the U.S. the same advice, as per the poster above. “Muslims told to turn their backs on ASIO,” by Ean Higgins for The Australian, November 18 (thanks to Kenneth):
HUNDREDS of Muslims attending a community meeting in western Sydney were warned yesterday that they should refuse to co-operate with Australian governments and their agencies, including ASIO and the federal police.
The annual conference of Hizb ut-Tahrir heard speakers say the federal government had a covert plan to marginalise and suppress activist and traditionalist Islam under the guise of engagement and fostering harmony with moderates in the community.
Several men and one woman described what they claimed were either oppressive or “Keystone Kops”-style operations by ASIO agents, such as offering $500 bribes for information, including on Australian Muslims who may have gone to fight in Syria.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, which operates internationally, calls for the creation of a world caliphate to rule all Muslims according to traditional principles and sharia.
In an address entitled Forging an Independent Path for the Community, speaker Wassim Doureihi told the 600-strong audience gathered in a hall in Sydney’s western suburbs that many Muslims had been cowed by the federal government and its agencies into abandoning traditional and activist Islam. “Out of defeatism, they crawl to the doors of the government,” he said.
He added that those imams and other Muslim community leaders who co-operated with the government lent legitimacy to what Mr Doureihi claimed was Canberra’s campaign against Muslims at home and abroad. “They sit at the table with those who are waging war against Muslims,” he said.
Mr Doureihi said Islamic organisations should also be cautious of accepting government grants for programs such as youth leadership, sport or education.
For those who did, “punishment will come and seize you at a time you never expected”.
The speakers invited several in the audience to come forward to “share their experiences of harassment from authorities”.
One woman in full burka said she and her family had been repeatedly harassed by police and ASIO, claiming authorities had raided her house under the pretext of looking for weapons.
She said ASIO had had her passport cancelled, and while she “told them I didn’t want to talk to them”, if she did give them information, it “might just lead to my passport being reinstated”.
Other speakers mocked what they said were attempts by ASIO agents to extract information, with one describing a meeting with an operative at a cafe. “They said they had a magazine to give me, and I had a look in it, and there was $500 in $50 notes.”
“I took it and burnt it,” he said, saying ASIO did not approach him again after that….