Attorney-General George Brandis has hit back at extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir for claiming western leaders should be held responsible for extremist violence.
The group also said the deadly Melbourne hostage attack was treated as a terrorist incident because the gunman was Muslim but would have been considered the criminal act of a mentally disturbed person if it had been committed by “some Anglo person”.
Senator Brandis dismissed the group’s claims last night. “The advice from law enforcement and security agencies was that this was an act of terror,” he said.
“We should not take seriously the comments from a group that has a long history of espousing views completely inconsistent with Australian values.”
Uthman Badar, a spokesman for the Muslim group, last night aired his grievances about the way authorities, and all “Western powers”, have dealt with recent terrorism events, especially the attack in Brighton on Monday that left two people dead and three police officers badly injured.
“Authorities have been quick to judge it ‘terrorism’ within hours of the incident, much before any proper clarity of facts or details was even possible,” Mr Badar said in a Facebook post.
Read the full article by Emily Ritchie at The Australian (subscription only).