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Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter. Many of us felt spoken down to and belittled,” the attendee said.
Police allegedly left the meeting without taking any questions or engaging in any conversation with the attendees, leaving many of the assembled leaders offended.
The source said the leaders had pushed back at the idea that they should monitor their own community, and that they were at fault for the situation.
“They just dropped their grenade and left.
“One hundred times better,” the leader said.
The leader says the Muslim community does not spy on itself, but rather works with police to protect its young people from harmful influences.
“It’s for our own safety, for our own kids’ protection,” the leader said. That’s how I’ve always seen it.”
At a press conference held on Friday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett, the government announced a national gun buyback scheme in response to the Bondi shooting.
Barrett commented on the prevalence of antisemitic incidents in Australia, describing the current rate as “unbelievable”.
“The AFP has 21 current investigations and 10 individuals already been charged.
“For police to do their job properly, and to understand what’s in the community, they need to maintain channels of dialogue. Now, some of the evidence which is being procured, including the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized, are a part of that,” he said.
“Radical perversion of Islam is absolutely a problem.
He never did anything unusual. ISIS was created by an evil ideology that has been called out not just by the Australian government, but globally as well,” he added in the press conference on Tuesday.
In an affidavit to the Federal Court in May, Haddad had claimed to “have never given a sermon or lecture directed at any person of another religion, including any person who identifies as or practises as a Jew.”
But the Australian Federal Court had found in July that the series of lectures, titled ‘The Jews of Al Madina’, conveyed insinuations about Jewish people and that the speeches were likely to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Jews in Australia.
“As a consequence of finding that Mr Haddad and AMDC contravened 18C of the RDA by delivering and publishing the lectures, the court has made declarations to that effect and ordered the respondents to remove the lectures from their social media,” an Australian Federal Court ruled on 1 July this year.
“The court has restrained Mr Haddad from causing words, sounds or images to be communicated otherwise than in private, which attribute characteristics to Jewish people on the basis of their group membership and which convey any of the disparaging imputations identified as being conveyed by the lectures,” the court further ruled.
Who is Haddad?
In his affidavit filed with the Australian Federal Court, Haddad stated that he was with the “wrong crowd” in his adolescent years, spent several nights away from home, partying and clubbing, but got a wake-up call when his friends became seriously ill due to their actions.
Born to parents from Lebanon, who emigrated to Australia in 1970, Haddad enrolled himself at the Sydney Islamic College and studied subjects such as Jurisprudence, Creed and the Fundamentals of Islam.
He studied for a year and a half before withdrawing from the four-year programme due to family commitments, including becoming a father.
By 2007, he said in the affidavit, he established an organisation named Revesby Muslim Association with other community members.
“For the next 3 to 4 years, when I was running the Revesby Muslims Association, I continued to deliver sermons on one Friday per month.
From recollection, there were usually about 100 to 150 people in attendance at these sermons,” he further said.
By 2012-13, he established an independent centre called the Al Risa/ah Bookstore, which sold Islamic books and gifts and also provided a prayer space in the back.
He said he had also delivered sermons to his audience and pupils when the Arab Spring movement began in West Asian countries, opposing governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, and others.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read:Bondi beach shooter moved to Australia from Hyderabad in 1998, son Australian citizen by birth
Later on Friday, seven men who had been arrested as part of a dramatic counterterror raid were released less than 24 hours after being apprehended, telling reporters they had been targeted because they were Muslim.
Heavily armed tactical forces swooped on the men and pulled them from two cars in Liverpool on Thursday afternoon, arresting them on the street and hauling them into custody.
But the men were free to go after Lanyon said the justification for their ongoing detention “no longer exists”.
The men hugged one another as they emerged from Liverpool police station.
They had no contrition for their own failures. All of the community have been affected.”
One attendee at Thursday’s meeting, speaking anonymously so they could freely describe the meeting, said leaders felt the police were “patronising” and “demonised the entire community”.
“They were absolving themselves. His father, Sajid Akram, 50, is the other terrorist, who was shot and killed by police, local media reported.
Officials have said Naveed Akram is in a critical condition in the hospital after being shot while carrying out the attack.
Motivated by Islamic State
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the terror attack was likely motivated by the ideology of Islamic State, but that the two men appeared to have acted alone.
Homemade ISIS flags were found in the suspects’ car after Sunday’s attack, and police said on Tuesday the pair had visited the Philippines last month, where offshoots of the terror group have a presence.
A spokesperson for the Philippines Bureau of Immigration said Naveed Akram, an Australian national, arrived in the country on November 1 with his father, who was traveling on an Indian passport.
Both reported Davao as their final destination, the main city on Mindanao island, which has a history of Islamist insurgency.
A months-long conflict on the island in 2017 between armed forces and two militant groups linked to IS left over a thousand dead and a million displaced, though the country’s military says these groups are now fragmented and weakened.
The pair left the Philippines on November 28, two weeks before Sunday’s attack.
‘Never did anything unusual’
Local media reported that Naveed Akram, an unemployed bricklayer, attended high school in Cabramatta, a suburb around 30 kilometers by road from Sydney’s central business district and close to the family’s current home in Bonnyrigg, which was raided by police after the attacks.
“I could have never imagined in 100 years that this could be his doing,” former classmate Steven Luong told The Daily Mail.
“He was a very nice person.
And what is being investigated… is that it would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organisation, by ISIS. The group confirmed he appeared in the videos.
“We at Street Dawah Movement are horrified by his actions and we are appalled by his criminal behaviour,” the group said in a statement, adding Akram had attended several events in 2019 but was not a member of the organization, describing him as a “visitor.”
Several other convicted terrorists with ties to Islamic State were also part of Street Dawah, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, naming Joseph Saadieh, Moudasser Taleb, and Youssef Uweinat.
Uweinat, who claimed to have renounced the terror group after serving four years in jail, was photographed waving a black Islamic State flag earlier this year at an anti-Israel rally in Sydney.
Months after the Street Dawah videos were posted, Akram approached tutor Adam Ismail seeking tuition in Arabic and the Quran, studying with him for a combined period of one year.
Ismail’s language institute posted a photo in 2022, since deleted, showing Akram smiling while holding a certificate in Quranic recitation.
“Not everyone who recites the Quran understands it or lives by its teachings, and sadly, this appears to be the case here,” Ismail said in a video statement late on Monday.
“I condemn this act of violence without hesitation.”
Earlier ties to Islamic State not proven
Two of the people he was associated with in 2019 were charged and went to jail, but Akram was not seen at that time to be a person of interest, Albanese said.
Akram’s journey from a teenager interested in Islam to alleged mass killer of Jews has taken not just the public but also law enforcement by surprise.
“We are very much working through the background of both persons,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters on Monday.
“At this stage, we know very little about them.”
The post Bondi Hanukkah terrorist was teen preacher for Islamic group, follower of radical cleric appeared first on The Times of Israel.
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Notorious Australian terrorist leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika organised funding for radical Sydney preacher Wisam Haddad's hate-speech legal battle against Australia's peak Jewish body.
The revelation is contained in a Victorian Supreme Court decision, published last week, handing a terrorism supervision order to Benbrika, in part because of his associations with Mr Haddad.
Benbrika, who spent 18 years in jail for leading a terrorism cell, met last December with Mr Haddad, who was revealed by Four Corners last month as the spiritual leader of Sydney's pro-Islamic State (IS) network.
The group is suing him for racial vilification in the Federal Court over a series of antisemitic lectures at his radical prayer centre, Al Madina Dawah Centre.
The Supreme Court heard the Australian Federal Police (AFP) was surveilling Benbrika, 65, a patriarch of Australian jihadism, when he travelled from Melbourne to meet with Mr Haddad, 45, in Sydney.
The court has not revealed what was said between the two jihadist clerics during the meeting, which took place just days after limits on Benbrika's freedom were removed.
But their interaction, along with Benbrika's contact with two other extremists, convinced a Supreme Court judge that he posed an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence.
Justice James Elliott last month agreed to a federal government bid to extend a community supervision order against Benbrika, curtailing his freedoms and forcing him to continue to participate in a deradicalisation program.
His meeting with Mr Haddad was a clear warning sign for authorities, according to John Coyne, a former AFP officer who was involved in the 2005 investigation that led to Benbrika's conviction, Operation Pendennis.
"For him, as one of his first acts [after his restrictions were eased], to make contact with someone who is a renowned firebrand speaker in terms of extremist Islam is extraordinary," said Dr Coyne, who is now the director of national security programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
"It is not the behaviour of someone who has been deradicalised."
Benbrika a father figure to jihadists, court heard
Authorities have for years expressed concerns about Benbrika's ability to influence others who have taken up his cause for violent jihad, even from jail.
The Algerian-born man was released from jail in December 2023 after serving a 15-year sentence for being the spiritual leader to a terrorism cell that plotted attacks on high-profile targets in Melbourne and Sydney.
A court had extended that jail term by three years, under a continuing detention order, after hearing he remained a father figure to Australian jihadists from behind bars.
When Benbrika was freed, he was placed on a one-year supervision order in the community.
The order was extended on an interim basis in December 2024, but a judge removed many of his conditions — including a curfew, electronic monitoring and restrictions on travel and financial transactions.
Within days, he travelled to Sydney to meet with Mr Haddad, according to the Victorian Supreme Court judgement published last week.
A forensic psychiatrist found that Benbrika's associations with Mr Haddad and two other extremists increased the risk of the convicted terrorist being encouraged, or encouraging others, to violent extremism, the court heard.
According to the psychologist's expert report, the "evidence [of the associations] was a clear risk factor for the commission of a serious [terrorism] offence", Justice Elliot said.
Mr Haddad has long been a follower of Benbrika, describing him as a sheikh teaching true Islam.
The latest Supreme Court ruling provides further evidence of Mr Haddad's work with jihadist leaders to re-energise Australia's pro-IS network, and indicates just how dangerous authorities consider him to be.
A Four Corners investigation last month revealed Mr Haddad's close ties to global terrorist leaders and links to teenage followers accused of terrorism and hate crimes.
A former ASIO spy, codenamed Marcus, told Four Corners he infiltrated Mr Haddad's network of prayer centres and covert groups, witnessing how young people were indoctrinated into supporting IS.
Mr Haddad has never been charged with a terrorism-related offence, despite his longstanding influence and notoriety.
He has for more than two decades been at the centre of a network of terrorists, including slain Australian IS fighter Khaled Sharrouf, who was previously jailed for being a member of Benbrika's cell.
Sharrouf, a close friend of Mr Haddad, shocked the world during the Syrian war by posting a photo of his young son holding a severed head.
Authorities have long struggled to contain Mr Haddad's influence, securing court orders banning several convicted terrorists from associating with him, and forbidding him from owning weapons.
Benbrika is not banned from associating with Mr Haddad.
Benbrika considering opening his own prayer centre
The Supreme Court judgement also reveals Benbrika is considering opening his own Islamic centre in Melbourne.
Members of Benbrika's community encouraged him to open the centre, after he was excluded late last year from a mosque he was attending, the court heard.
In handing down the extended supervision order (ESO), Justice Elliot found there was a "real possibility" that Benbrika would re-assume a religious leadership role and encourage others to acts of terrorism .
"Benbrika is seen as a figure of religious authority and is routinely sought out for religious advice by other members of his community," the judge said.
"There remains a risk of Benbrika radicalising or encouraging others to religious-inspired violence, and in doing so committing a serious [terrorism] offence," he said.
But the judge significantly relaxed the conditions of the supervision order.
He found Benbrika had recently embraced a non-violent ideology, but it "remains fragile" and he still "struggled" to denounce IS and violent jihad.
The court heard a March 2025 psychological report concluded Benbrika was not "dangerous or still heavily radicalised", but was "still not convinced … that [the Islamic State terrorist group] should receive no defence".
The judge also highlighted Benbrika's contact with other extremists, including in phone calls in which he urged them to avoid unnamed topics because of surveillance.
The AFP monitored Benbrika acting as a religious mentor in multiple meetings with Joshua Clavell, a radical convert who was jailed over a violent stand-off with counterterrorism police in 2019.
The pair discussed topics including monitoring, infidels and bullets, but the judge said a psychologist believed Benbrika was "acting as a moderating influence" on Clavell.
Benbrika also spoke at least three times with one of his co-offenders in the Pendennis terrorism plot, Aimen Joud, after a prohibition on their association lapsed late last year.
Under the new ESO, which expires in November, Benbrika is banned from associating with people convicted or accused of terrorism offences, as well as a number of named extremists.
Benbrika is also required to continue to participate in a deradicalisation program and psychological treatment, and faces restrictions on his use of the internet, phones and devices.
The federal government has fought a series of protracted and controversial legal battles against Benbrika for several years.
Benbrika won a High Court bid to have his Australian citizenship restored in 2023.
And in 2022, the national security watchdog was scathing of the Home Affairs department for deliberately withholding from Benbrika's legal team a report that cast doubt on the reliability of a tool used to predict his future risk.
Mr Haddad did not respond to questions from the ABC.
He previously said he denied any suggestion he was involved in or associated with terrorism, and he reserved his rights against the ABC.
New Delhi: The father-son duo of Indian origin, who carried out the worst-ever terror attack in Australia targeting Jews and killing 15 people, are believed to be followers of a Lebanese preacher known for his anti-Jew rhetoric.
These were the concluding remarks made by a Sydney-based preacher, Wissam Haddad, in one of the five speeches delivered to a Muslim congregation, which were broadcast on social media in November 2023, weeks after Israel and Hamas were locked in a war in Gaza.
You develop a friendship at a time of peace because you need it at a time of crisis.”
The stronger relationship was now with the Australian Federal Police. “Even before then. Additionally, the shooter was pictured preaching with another outreach group, Dawah Van, which is linked to Haddad, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Earlier this year, a judge ruled Haddad’s lectures must be pulled from the internet due to their content vilifying Jews.
Haddad’s lawyer denied his client had any involvement in the terror attack.
Akram, who remains under heavy guard in hospital after being shot by police, was briefly investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency in 2019 for links to individuals connected to the Islamic State terror group, but authorities found he did not have extremist tendencies at the time.
“In the years that followed, that changed,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Tuesday.
Police have not formally identified Naveed Akram, 24, as one of the alleged terrorists who wreaked death and destruction at the Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondo Beach on Sunday.
It is just unbelievable. It is something that has been identified globally as a problem as well. They are deeply offended by what we saw on Sunday. He said the force was “unable to substantiate the claims”.
Another senior member of the Muslim community, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely without damaging relationships, said NSW Police had a strong relationship with Sydney’s Islamic community while Andrew Scipione was commissioner until 2017, but that it had declined since.
“The Lindt Cafe siege, the community played a good role,” the person said.
It is an abhorrent act,” Lanyon said.
“All of the community are hurting. And they implied that if we don’t comply, we’ll be at fault for not helping curb extremism.”
A police spokesman said he was “unable to confirm the information”.
Muslim leaders said they raised concerns about radical cleric Haddad – also known as Abu Ousayd – who has over many years cultivated a network of followers, some of whom have been convicted of terrorist offences.
“The community has been saying for over 10 years, ‘Why haven’t you arrested this individual?’ He is destroying lots of these young men,” he said.
When asked about the meeting, a NSW Police spokesman said the officer who reportedly made the comment had since retired.
They said they were in Sydney on holiday, adding they believed the entire ordeal was a “misunderstanding”.
“We were going for a swim,” one of them said.
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