More nonsense from Mad Melanie Phillips. She writes: “Hizb ut Tahrir, which has been banned in the Middle East, the United Kingdom and Germany, was going to host a Sydney conference this month to promote the takeover of Australia as part of an Islamic caliphate.”

And she quotes a Herald Sun report describing the HT video advertising the event: “In what appears to be a call to arms, the video features slogans attacking the United States and capitalism, and features militant anti-Western Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shaking his fist, before the slogan ’embrace the revival’.”

Mel welcomes the news that Bankstown City Council whose town hall was to be used for this event has cancelled it. She concludes: “Let’s hear it for Bankstown, which understands the difference between a liberal principle and being played for suckers in the attempt to destroy it. But the incident also dramatises the extent to which Australia is squarely in the global Islamisation frame.”

Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 11 January 2007

It’s difficult to know where to begin. HT has not been banned in the UK, nor does it aim to take over Australia – its objective of restoring the caliphate is restricted to majority-Muslim countries. But perhaps the most bizarre claim is that the HT video included a clip of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Does Phillips really think that a video promoting the re-establishment of the caliphate would feature a prominent Shia politician? Or perhaps she should make the effort to view the HT video on YouTube. Does the individual concerned even look like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Read HT’s own response here.