Sydney shooting: Protesters ignore murder to stay on message
- THE AUSTRALIAN
- SAVE
A speaker addresses the Lakemba crowd of about 100 who demanded an end to all military intervention in Syria.
Leaders of Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia at a rally today calling for the end of US and Russian action in Syria have refused to condemn the action of 15-year-old gunman Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammad, who shot NSW Police Force worker Curtis Cheng.
Meeting at Lakemba Station in Sydney’s west, about 100 protesters called for an end to all intervention in Syria but repeatedly ignored questions about the murder in Parramatta on Friday.
“All questions about Friday will be disregarded,” Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Wassim Doureih said.
When pressed by The Australian about the actions of the teenager and the timing of the rally, Mr Doureih said: “Is that a serious question? There’s obviously nothing more to be said.”
Also speaking to the crowd was Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia spiritual leader Sheik Ismail al-Wahwah, also known as Abu Anas.
When asked about what happened on Friday he replied: “Why Friday — what about Saturday, Sunday?”
Asked if he and his organisation condemned violence, he replied: “That’s why we are here — we see everything, we have two eyes not one eye ... you want us to see with just one eye, Allah created us with two eyes — we can see the big crimes and the small crimes.”
Mr Doureih said the protest was to “expose the duplicity of the actions of Western states including the Australian government”.
“After four years and countless hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, they’ve only now decided to politically intervene,” Mr Doureihi said
“This will not serve the interests of the people of Syria, this will in fact increase the calamities put on them and will introduce more civilian casualties.
“This will only support the brutal butcher of Syria, (Bashar al-) Assad, by providing him political cover that he does not deserve.”
He said there should be no intervention by any forces.
“Leave it to the will of the people — the people will undertake the actions necessary to rescue their own affairs,” he said.
Speaker and Hizb ut-Tahrir media officer Hamzah Qureshi said the organisation would “stand with the Muslims of Syria” and keep fighting towards an inevitable victory.
“We have been promised victory, as have our brothers in Syria and all around the Muslim world,” he said.
“You will absolutely not be disappointed when the Lord of the Heaven and the Earth, the absolute creator of Syria (and) of the people who defended it promises you victory.
“And we will work day and night without end for a change in this world which will see justice beyond the level of injustice that we see ... The day is not far, brothers, sisters, the day is not far where we will witness a world where our children and our grandchildren we will once again see the light of Islam as the world saw for centuries before.”