Calls from Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir for Muslims to boycott Anzac Day as British colonialist aggression against the Ottoman empire drew howls of outrage yesterday from political leaders, and were rejected by moderate Muslim groups.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants a worldwide caliphate to rule Muslims under sharia, issued a press release yesterday headlined: "Anzac Day is not for Muslims". It describes the allies' 1915 Gallipoli campaign as a "major failure".
"From this arises the concept of the 'Anzac spirit', celebrated on Anzac Day, which suggests that the Australian soldiers who fought at Gallipoli exhibited positive qualities of endurance, courage, humour, egalitarianism, ingenuity and mateship, and these are said to also constitute the 'national character' of Australia," the release says.
"In truth, one only need study the treatment of minorities in Australia, its indigenous people in particular, or the treatment of asylum seekers, to see the truth about claims of freedom and fair go for all."
Hizb ut-Tahrir said the Anzac legend "ignores indiscretions by the ANZAC soldiers such as burning the belongings of locals in Egypt, brawling, getting drunk and rioting, and contracting venereal diseases due to time spent in local brothels . . . Australian troops were merely used as fodder for British imperial designs."
The release says Australia failed to learn from this lesson, claiming "Australian soldiers are used for the exploitative agendas of foreign powers, as we saw most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan".
"From the Muslim perspective, the Gallipoli campaign represents an aggression by allied troops against the legitimate Islamic authority of the time, the Uthmani Khilafah (Ottoman caliphate).
"If we were to commemorate anything, it would be the successful defence of Muslim territories by the Muslim soldiers of the Khilafah."
Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad rejected Hizb ut-Tahrir's approach, saying that while he did not particularly like the idea of Australian troops dying in foreign wars, "Anzac has become part of the Australian tradition", including for Australian Muslims.
"If we become Australians ourselves, it becomes our tradition too," Mr Trad said.
"We have to stop treating ourselves as outsiders."
Opposition leader Tony Abbott told reporters "Hizb ut-Tahrir has some pretty dodgy views, to say the least".
"Every Australian should know about Anzac Day," he said.
NSW opposition leader John Robertson said "these are disgraceful and offensive comments that are in no way reflective of the views of the overwhelming majority of Muslim Australians".
A Turkish embassy spokesman declined to comment on the Hizb ut-Tahrir release, but said the ambassador, Reha Keskintepe, would attend an Anzac Day ceremony today.
