Labor’s candidate for Farrer has resigned over comments defending Uthman Badar, the spokesman for extreme Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
In a 2014 piece for the ABC’s religion and ethics website, Christian Kunde lamented ad hominem attacks against Badar. Badar has said that there is a “place for violence” and war in Islam “with conditions and qualifications”.
Kunde noted Badar has been variously branded a “supporter of terrorism” as well as an extremist and a fundamentalist.
“Disappointingly, there have been few calls – if any, aside from this one – to support Uthman against this barrage of modern ad hominem.”
Kunde, who befriended Badar before he joined Hizb ut-Tahrir, praised him as “a husband, father, [and] trusted friend” who he would trust with the guardianship of his own child. “He is also a deeply religious Muslim,” Kunde said.
Kunde also delivered a lecture at Sydney University in 2013 in which he said gay marriage was not permitted under Islam.
Kunde resigned on Sunday as candidate for Farrer after reports in News Corp papers that leader Bill Shorten was furious about Kunde’s links to the Hizb ut-Tahrir figure.
Kunde told Guardian Australia he had merely argued for consideration of “the actual humanity of the person in the way they’re presented” and called for media to attack people’s views rather than “hound them”.
“The struggle [Badar] was going through was distressing. I had some insight into that then, and I now have profound insight,” he said, noting it was “the same media outlets that were attacking Uthman” who had reported their friendship.
Kunde said he supported marriage equality, and claimed his comments about the Islamic view on same-sex marriage were in the context of discussing religious views, including Roman Catholic opposition in the United Kingdom and Christian Democrat opposition in Australia.
“I presented a religious view which is not my own personal view. Anyone who bothered to ask me ‘do I support same-sex marriage’ – yes, of course I do, otherwise I would not have stood for a party that has as one of its platforms.”
However, in the lecture Kunde repeatedly referred to the Islamic view as “our morality”.
“We should not be ashamed of our morality – the bottom line is, the world view we have with regards to this issue, marriage, the Islamic view of these things has been an element of the human experience since homo sapiens emerged on the planet.”
“For the bulk of the last 200,000 years the Islamic view of marriage has more or less been the human experience ... It’s irrational to say that accepting these socio-political whims in a particular time should somehow trump our morality which is millennia old.”
Kunde told Guardian Australia “it is important that candidates for office have the highest moral fibre”.
“I am more than happy to be scrutinised for inappropriate views or actions that I have said or done,” he said.
“What I am absolutely distressed and devastated about is a smear campaign with no basis in fact.”
Kunde said it was “completely idiotic” to suggest he could be a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and said he resigned because he did not want to distract from bigger issues.
Speaking on ABC Radio National, the shadow health minister, Catherine King, said Kunde was right to resign.
“He’s obviously not been honest during preselection process and he’s right to resign,” she said. “You are supposed to disclose all matters.”
The deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, told ABC she accepted Kunde’s resignation “because he wasn’t honest about his background”.
Kunde responded: “My view is if the allegations were true, I’d agree with disappointment being expressed ... but the allegations are not true.”
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, told 2GB Radio “there’s no grey area ... when it comes to Hizb ut-Tahrir, it’s an absolutely disgraceful organisation that should be absolutely and totally denounced ... Any association with that organisation is absolutely appalling”.
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