‘Jews have corrupted the world’

ISLAMIST group Hizb ut-Tahrir could be referred to the Attorney-General for prosecution if the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB) decides anti-Semitic comments made by its spiritual leader constitute serious vilification.

In a new video posted to the group’s internet video channel on March 3 and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), spiritual leader Ismail al-Wahwah called Jews “the most evil creature of Allah”.

“Moral corruption is linked to the Jews. Prostitution in the world began with the Israelites. Usury and gambling began with the Israelites. Killing began with the Israelites,” he said.

“There is only one solution for this cancerous tumour: It must be uprooted and thrown back to where it came from. They have corrupted the world with their corrupt media. The Israelites have corrupted the world with so-called art, cinema and corrupt films, and with sex trade, drug trade and moral depravity. They have corrupted the world in every respect.

“They will pay with blood for blood, with tears for tears, and with destruction for destruction.”

Condemning the video, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) chief executive Vic Alhadeff said, “It is another wake-up call for the authorities to act before these hate-preachers inspire the next Man Monis.”

Monis was in fact a front row guest at a Hizb ut-Tahrir lecture in June last year, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

Last week JBOD president Jeremy Spinak urged the NSW ADB to take action on another Hizb ut-Tahrir video, from August 2014, in which al-Wahwah called Jews a “hidden evil”.

NSW Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello called the new video “deeply disturbing”.

“Hateful and derisive speech has no place in our harmonious multicultural society,” he said.

Welcoming JBOD’s referral of the earlier video to the ADB, he said he had written to the ADB asking that the new video “be considered concurrently and expeditiously”.

While he couldn’t comment specifically on the videos, ADB president Stepan Kerkyasharian told The AJN “Every complaint is dealt with in accordance with our legislation”.

“We do everything possible to ensure that the complaint is conciliated, resolved, or if it’s a case of serious vilification then I do refer it for the Attorney-General’s consent for prosecution,” he said.

“I’m acutely aware of the importance of this matter and the need for it to be resolved urgently.”

GARETH NARUNSKY

Hizb ut-Tahrir spiritual leader Ismail al-Wahwah.