Ali fight for free speech

Dark Mofo vows show will go on despite speaker’s visa strife

DARK Mofo organisers are scrambling to set up a video link to London to ensure Muhammad Manwar Ali can be part of this year’s festival.

The visa application of Mr Ali — a former jihadist — has not been approved in time for him to travel to Australia, prompting Dark Mofo and the Australian Lawyers Alliance to raise concerns the visa process is being used to curtail free speech.

Mr Ali — who does not have any criminal convictions — is scheduled to be a keynote speaker for the Dark+Dangerous Thoughts symposium in Hobart. He did not have his visa approved by the Department of Home Affairs in time to board his flight from London yesterday.

Entertainment visas usually take 21 days to process, but Mr Ali has waited more than 38 days.

Dark+Dangerous Thoughts director Laura Kroetsch said the issue confronting Mr Ali had been a “huge disappointment” for organisers, and she believed the visa delay was due to Mr Ali’s past as a jihadist and recruiter, and because he is a devout Muslim.

“I personally do believe he’s being denied a right to free speech,” she said.

Dark Mofo executive director Kate Gould said Mr Ali was “absolutely devastated,” but festival organisers had already invited him to attend the 2019 event.

“We’re not going to stop here. We are going to continue to fight to get Manwar Ali into the country,” Ms Gould said.

She said it had been “a big scramble” to ensure Mr Ali could be part of a high quality live video cross from a London studio for the two discussions on Sunday.

Australian Lawyers Alliance Tasmanian state presi- dent Fabiano Cangelosi said using immigration law to restrict freedom of speech was “simply not acceptable”.

“Protecting the basic right to free speech is essential to maintaining the kind of country we all want to live in,” he said.

“Strong and robust human rights protections mean we can say what is on our mind without fear, and we can be confident that we can go about our lives without being unjustly detained or restricted from movement.

“Expecting freedoms such as these in Australia should not be much to ask.”

Mr Ali spent more than a decade radicalising, recruiting and fundraising in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Myanmar before turning his life around. He founded the UK Muslim educational charity JIMAS to address extremism and Islamic radicalisation, and now works with the UK Home Office, the College of Policing and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Department of Home Affairs said it does not comment on individual cases.