From Bankstown to Bondi

The Akrams were not globalising the Intifada.

We told you so.

That’s the universal message from the Australian Jewish community, which claims that the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach was the natural and inevitable culmination of the Government’s failure to address the post-October 7 surge in antisemitism and antizionist activity and rallies, blaming their appeasement of the Red-Black alliance for this atrocity.

We warned you. For two years. We begged you. If only you’d have listened. Are you ready to listen now?

The problem with this narrative, which is receiving wall-to-wall coverage in every print and broadcast media outlet, is that it is categorically false and frankly stultifying, in the antiquated sense of the word.

Words do not systematically lead to violence. Nothing does. The process of “radicalisation” is idiosyncratic and random; there is no way to predict who will cross the chasm from rhetoric to action, or whether violent ideology will be translated into violent action, much less where.

Relative to the populations of interest, regardless of the ideology in question, violence is so rare that, outside of sting operations or the occasional tip-off, it’s impossible to prevent, particularly in a multicultural democracy.

Least effective of all possible remedies, far less effective than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s federal crackdown and NSW Premier Chris Minns local crackdown on gun ownership, would be imposing yet further speech restrictions, as advocated by nearly all Jewish community leaders and organisations.¹

I am agnostic on the issue of the Royal Commission being demanded by the Jewish community and other prominent Australians. Notwithstanding the fact that all the answers are already known and no relevant recommendations would or could be implemented, it would be good to have all information in one place and to put the issue of jihadi jew-hate front and centre politically.

The righteous fury of the community is understandable. This attack hit too close to home. People I know, including distant relatives, were shot and killed, and but for unexpected Sliding Doors decisions, I would have had at least one younger sibling among the wounded or dead.

Nor am I absolving this suicidal melange of virtue-signalling eunuchs and retarded regressives currently running the country of their actual failures, including those unrelated to “social cohesion”.

The Government has absolutely failed, for instance, to make an example of those brandishing terrorist banners, screeching homicidal slogans, or harassing and intimidating Jews on and off campus,² online and in real life.

The resultant feverish atmosphere over the last two years made an eventual murder feel inevitable, especially after Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, his bride-to-be, were gunned down in Washington, D.C. by virulent anti-Israel activist Elias Rodriguez in May 2025.³

But using this latest attack, disingenuously, as a political cudgel to compel the Government to suppress the rabid anti-Israel miasma pervading society here, since it could in theory lead to violence, is not a productive or reasonable stance.⁴

The Bondi massacre is simply unrelated to the protests or other forms of aggressive anti-Israel activism, although general and nearly universal Islamic Judenhass,⁵ a core principle of identity for most Muslims, also leads them to hate Israel.⁶

As in the rest of the West, there is bipartisan culpability, spanning decades, for allowing Islam to establish itself as a significant electoral and social force in Australia, whence emerged a thankfully tiny but dangerous cohort of jihadist reavers.

To blame this particular Government for an Islamic State-inspired mass shooting and attempted bombing⁷ just because it happened to be in power at the time and took a line on Palestinian statehood and the conduct of the war with which the organised Jewish community vehemently disagreed is irresponsible and absurd.

Whatever bureaucratic and intelligence failures, if any, can be laid at the feet of the current Government, none had anything to do with recognising a Palestinian state or attacking Israel’s wartime conduct, fairly or not.

The context for this attack was not antizionist rallies, but annual Islamic State activity targeting Jewish and Christian holiday gatherings globally, about which more later.

There are three distinct local phenomena being conflated that need to be disaggregated, none of which can be directly linked to Bondi.

Anti-Israel Activism

The weekly mass protests that began almost immediately after October 7, 2023, have been shocking, irritating, intimidating, and disruptive. While there have been at least two cases of organic vandalism or unruliness targeting Jewish or Israeli sites⁸, there has not been a single incident of intentional violence targeting Jews qua Jews linked to these protests that I can find. Harassment? Yes. Intimidation and even death threats? Absolutely. Glorification of terrorism, terrorist groups, and violence against Israelis? 100%.

Antisemitic violence? No.⁹

That said, jihadis have joined the protests on occasion.

Cretins, Criminals, and the IRGC

Following the complete failure of their October 2024 ballistic missile retaliation against Israel, the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution turned to their age-old ties to global organised crime “to intimidate [Jewish] communities and create conditions that could lead to more serious attacks,” according to the Mossad announcement about a network run by Qods Force officer Sardar Ammar, which was behind at least two antisemitic arsons targeting Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in October and December 2024, respectively.¹⁰

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess described the approach on August 26 as:

A layer cake of cut-outs between IRGC and the person or the alleged perpetrators conducting crimes. In between them, they tap into a number of people, agents of IRGC, and people that they know in the criminal world, and work through there, so it’s a series of chains. There’s… an organised crime element offshore in this. But that’s not to suggest organised crime are doing it. They’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminal and members of organised crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding… ‘are there crime gangs in Australia doing this?’ Not in my view. These are cut-outs all the way through. That was offshore. But they have connections to Australia, obviously.

For the Lewis’ attack, the IRGC reportedly acted through Nomad bikie chapter President Sayed Moosawi, who in turn hired low-level thugs for the job, what ASIO reffered to as a “layer-cake of cut-outs”. The texts between Moosawi, who called himself “James Bond”, and his cretins-for-hire are hilarious:¹¹

But court documents show the targeting of the kosher deli in Bondi only came after two botched attempts on the wrong business.

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The court documents state that two weeks later Ogden drove a white Honda Accord with stolen licence plates along the M5 through Arncliffe, with the car’s owner, Juon Amuoi, in the passenger seat.

It was just past 2am when the pair parked in Bondi Beach, pulled on rubber gloves and balaclavas and walked toward the Curly Lewis Brewery, according to the documents. Police describe the venue as “a popular licensed premises on the beachfront promenade” with no links to the Jewish faith or community.

Amuoi allegedly carried a sledgehammer, but the pair were “spooked” after being spotted by a member of the public, and fled.

“Use both fail the test cant do one small thing, f---ing 16 years kid could of got it done,” Moosawi allegedly lambasted Ogden.

Ogden pledged to “fix that f--- up” and, the following evening, went with Amuoi and Moosawi for a meeting at the Villawood Hotel.

Inside the pokies room, the trio met with two more men, Guy Finnegan and Craig Bantoft, the court documents state.

Moosawi allegedly told the group he was paid $12,000 to organise a fire in Bondi and offered Finnegan and Bantoft $4000 to carry out the job.

Ogden gave them instructions which suggested Lewis’ Continental Kitchen on Curlewis Street was the target, the documents state.

However, at 1am on October 17, Finnegan and Bantoft allegedly drove back to Curly Lewis Brewery.

The pair allegedly sat on a bench out the front of the closed brewery before pouring bottles of accelerant under the door and setting it on fire. It was extinguished by the sprinklers.

Moosawi, the documents allege, was furious.

“Use [sic] f---ed the whole thing now If use [sic] f---ing couldn’t do it from the start then why did use [sic] even went there for f--- me It’s not even done 2% burned f--- me dead,” Moosawi allegedly messaged Finnegan the following morning.

Finnegan messaged Bantoft, venting about Moosawi’s alleged blow-up.

“I’m starting to think he has sent us to the wrong place LoL,” Finnegan said.

Police arrested Finnegan within 24 hours before Ogden allegedly returned to finish the job at Lewis’ Continental Kitchen at 2:30am on October 20.

For the Adass Israel Synagogue arson, the IRGC tapped the network of notorious kingpin Kazem Hamad, who has been in IRGC-controlled Iraq for several years after being deported from Australia, where he still runs things.¹² A source told Sky News that “Hamad’s family also have connections to senior military officials in Iraq.”

Separately, in New South Wales, police established Strike Force Pearl to investigate a spate of antisemitic vandalism, which quickly merged with the broader Operation Kissinger investigation being conducted by the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team into a caravan full of explosives discovered in Dural in January.¹³

Within 2 months, police announced that the caravan was a hoax and had been organised by the same criminals behind the antisemitic graffiti and arsons. NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said everything had been:

orchestrated by an organised crime element and conducted to further their own causes. All of the Pearl matters — I’m suggesting the 14 incidents, and also the caravan job being investigated under Operation Kissinger, are all being orchestrated by the same individuals.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Krissy Barrett announced on March 10:

Almost immediately, experienced investigators within the JCTT believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job.

This was because of the information they already had, how easily the caravan was found and how visible the explosives were in the caravan. Also, there was no detonator.

Today (10 March, 2025), I can reveal that the caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.

The JCTT discussed providing this information earlier to the public, however, during our investigations, we continued to receive tip-offs about other terror plots related to this matter.

Out of an abundance of caution, it was agreed by all agencies that the operation would remain a JCTT investigation. While we were confident all these tip-offs were fake, we could not risk ignoring the information provided, and we kept investigating at the highest level.

We are now confident that all these tip-offs were fabricated, and the caravan plot was an elaborate scheme contrived by organised criminals, domestically and from offshore.

There were several people who had different levels of involvement in this fake terrorism plot but put simply, the plan was the following:

• Organise for someone to buy a caravan;

• place it with explosives and written material of antisemitic nature;

• leave it in a specific location;

• and then, once that had happened, inform law enforcement about an impending terror attack against Jewish Australians.

We believe the person pulling the strings wanted changes to their criminal status but maintained a distance from their scheme and hired alleged local criminals to carry out parts of their plan.

However, the plan was foiled. An AFP operational strategy is in place to take action against this individual and I won’t make any further comment on that.

A number of people have been identified as part of this fake terrorism plot and the AFP is working with local and overseas law enforcement officials in our bid to have all of those responsible brought to justice.

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Those creating fake terror threats, including using antisemitism to elicit a desired response from law enforcement or the courts, face being charged for creating fake plots – and unfortunately for them, they will face the full experience, capability and dogged determination of terrorism investigators.

This is a rare time I will provide advice to criminals – serve your time quietly in prison and stop diverting the resources of terrorism investigators – otherwise your charges could be significantly upgraded.

Too many criminals are accused of paying others to carry out antisemitic or terrorism incidents to get our attention or divert our resources. And too many offenders working in the criminal gig economy are accepting these tasks for money.

In one example, the AFP will allege a prisoner last year tried to secure high-powered weapons for a fake terror plot so he could provide information to authorities in exchange for a reduction to his drug trafficking sentence.

The key figures identified in the NSW network organising antisemitic attacks to barter insider knowledge for reduced sentences and divert resources and distract police¹⁴ were drug kingpin Sayet Erhan Akca, hiding from Australian security services in Turkey since 2023,¹⁵ and Nicholas Alexander.

It’s still unclear whether these acts were also linked to the IRGC¹⁶ or just organised crime sensing opportunities. Reporting on Nicholas Alexander’s case suggests he was acting on behalf of “a shadowy overseas group”, though the method aligns more with Russian intelligence than the IRGC, and is probably just referring to Akca et al:

A man who orchestrated anti-Semitic attacks on a Sydney synagogue, a childcare centre, and several cars and homes at the behest of a shadowy overseas group ordered his lackeys to cause maximum unrest between Jews and Arabs.

The Newtown synagogue was sprayed with 10 swastikas, the Only About Children childcare in Maroubra was firebombed, and multiple cars and homes – including the former address of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin – were torched and covered in vile anti-Semitic graffiti as part of a co-ordinated campaign across Sydney in January this year.

Nicholas Alexander, 32, has now pleaded guilty to seven offences as an accessory before the fact, after directing others to carry out the repulsive attacks.

…

“We are gangsters setting terrorists up for our freedom and liberties to be restored,” Alexander wrote in messages to Leon Sofilas and Adam Moule, who were directly involved in the Newtown synagogue attack.

“It’s gonna hit the news … we’re gonna vandalise some sinagogs (sic) … then we gonna start the opposite f – Arabs hahahaha in the areas.”

In a statement of facts tendered to Downing Centre Local Court, Alexander was said to have acted on the instructions of unknown people overseas.

In preparation for some of the anti-Semitic acts, Alexander texted Sofilas “you’ll become a terrorist hahahaha”.

“These messages demonstrated that Alexander and Sofilas knew that the preparations directed were part of organised criminal activity that targeted the Sydney Jewish community with arson attacks and the potential use of explosives,” the facts stated.

“Messages (on another day) illustrate the deliberate intention to divide the Arab and Jewish communities to further the aims of the larger criminal group overseas that instructed Alexander.”

…

“Tell em to recruit all kids and if they get hit up why they did it they say they got forced to by their meth dealers or pressured into it by Arabs that don’t talk much English,” Alexander instructed Sofilas.

“If you get grabbed say the Muslim boys made you do it to pay off a drug debt you had no choice they were going to kill me lmao.”

At least with regard to the attacks associated with the IRGC, the Government has more than merited the opprobrium, having pussyfooted around the issue for years and refusing to amend legislation to list it as a terrorist organisation, or in this case a “state sponsor of terrorism”, until a month ago.

The IRGC has been doing this all over the world, for years, and the Government knew it was happening here, too. Law enforcement sources told the Sydney Morning Herald that “Iran has been working with outlaw bikie gangs for years,” while government sources told Sky News that “The Albanese government was aware for several months that Iran may have been involved in antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.”

But none of these attacks, IRGC-linked or otherwise,¹⁷ were related to local antisemitism or anti-Israel protests and activity.

Islamic State of Mind

On December 14, five Arab men were arrested in Germany for plotting an Islamic State attack on a Christmas market. Simultaneously, a student at the Catholic University of Lublin was arrested by Polish security services, also for plotting an Islamic State attack on a Christmas market. The same day, an IS agent opened fire on US soldiers in Syria, killing two soldiers and a US interpreter and wounding several other US and Syrian soldiers.¹⁸ About 10 days later, Turkey rounded up more than 100 Islamic State supporters “following intelligence indicating that the IS terrorist organisation was planning attacks during Christmas and New Year celebrations.”¹⁹ In the Netherlands, a 29-year-old Syrian Islamic State member was arrested for planning an attack in Europe around Christmas, while an 18-year-old planning an NYE Islamic State attack in North Carolina was arrested.

This seems to be the primary context for the Bondi Beach attack. It is Islamic State supporters “showing presence” and targeting Jews and Christians across the world, as they always try to do, and particularly during major holiday gatherings. All are responding to the January 4, 2024, call of Islamic State spokesman Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari.²⁰

But before we get to the Akrams heeding al-Ansari, consciously or not, let me take you on a journey back to where all the fuckery began.

The Lebanon Concession

In 1975, with the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon, influential Christian Lebanese leaders in Australia began lobbying then-Prime Minister Malcom Fraser to grant visas to some Maronites with relatives in Australia theoretically fleeing the fighting. These weren’t, strictly speaking, refugees, hence the “concession”.

This turned out about as successfully as all well-meaning Western policies. Here’s Gerard Henderson writing in the Sydney Morning Herald in October 2006:

However, it was not long before the process got out of hand. As it turned out, very few Christians wanted to, or were able to, come to Australia at the time. Department officials sent to Lebanon to administer the program began granting visas mainly to Muslims - often on the flimsiest evidence they had close relatives or, indeed, any relative in Australia.

…

The unintended consequence of the Fraser government’s decision was to allow, for the first time, numerous Lebanese Muslims to enter Australia. They were from rural areas, had little education and minimal English language skills.

As Kabir documents, the numbers grew. There were about 3500 Lebanese Muslims in Australia in 1971. Just two decades later, the number had increased to more than 25,000. The number grew quickly, due primarily to Australia’s then family reunion policy. Most Muslim Lebanese migrants settled in south-western Sydney. The Shia gathered around the Arncliffe mosque and the Sunnis at the Lakemba mosque.

At the time some Maronite leaders warned the Fraser government, at the highest levels, that the decision to allow large numbers of poorly educated Lebanese Muslims into Australia would have unexpected and unwanted policy outcomes.

…

The problem with Lebanese Muslims was that they were ill equipped to enter the workforce. Also, a number were fundamentalist Islamists. In time, some Shias became supporters of Hezbollah while some Sunnis became admirers of Osama bin Laden.

Henderson later wrote in November 2016, after contemporaneous cabinet papers were released:

It turned out that 90 per cent of Lebanese who entered Australia under the Lebanon concession were Muslim. During 1976-77, there was a net migration of 12,000 Lebanese to Australia. Historian James Jupp pointed out in The Australian People that between 1971 and 1981 the proportion of Muslims among the Lebanese population doubled from 14 per cent to 31 per cent.

…

The cabinet papers in the National Archives of Australia reveal that the Lebanon concession was an unmitigated ­disaster. In September 1976 cabinet considered a report that concluded that Immigration ­Department officials were “completely overstretched” and had lost control of the program.

The report expressed concern about “the possibility that the conflicts, tensions and divisions within Lebanon will be transferred to Australia”.

By November 1976 the situation had deteriorated further. ­Immigration minister Michael MacKellar told cabinet that a high percentage of applicants under the Lebanon concession were illiterate and were being admitted to Australia without “any regard to their economic viability, personal qualities or capacity for successful settlement”.

On November 30, 1976, the Fraser government abandoned the Lebanon concession.

This cohort is overrepresented in organised crime and gang violence²¹ as well as jihadism.²²

Then Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, attacking Fraser’s policy, stated in November 2016 that “The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background.”²³

A leaked cabinet document from that year says the Lebanese are the “most prominent ethnic group amongst Australian Sunni extremists,” though fails to note that the Shia, and Sunni, are almost universally Hezbollahis.

In May 2003, the ABC broadcast the following segment:

Kahlil Haragli is a member of the Shi'ite Lebanese community near St George in Sydney - a community made up of many Lebanese who fled their country when the Israeli forces invaded and occupied southern Lebanon.

He says while there are those who sympathise with the political wing of Hezbollah, there is certainly no threat to Australian interests.

KAHLIL HARAGLI: You see, the Hezbollah was responsible for the liberation of south Lebanon, and of course, you see, members of the south Lebanese community, who liberated their land, they sympathise with Hezbollah in relation to what happened there, but I don't know they are involved in any activities with Hezbollah on political scene or otherwise.

TANYA NOLAN: Is it possible that they could be supplying financial support to Hezbollah?

KAHLIL HARAGLI: Not to my knowledge.

TANYA NOLAN: There are those who spoke to The World Today who say there is financial support for Hezbollah within the Lebanese community, but reiterate the view that none actively support or sympathise with any terrorist organisation.²⁴

Spokesman for the Lebanese Muslim Association, Keysar Trad, says the Government's comments are alarmist and unhelpful.

KEYSAR TRAD: Well we know that there are pockets within the community who are under surveillance, under very regular surveillance, and this is a job of ASIO. But this should not, this should not be alarming for us as an Australian society because the fact that they are surveilling different people means that they are doing their job and that they are just being cautious. But I'm concerned that the comments coming out today about Hezbollah are far too alarmist and they are creating a fear where one should not exist.

Sheikh Kamal Mousselmani, head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, said in 2007:

If Australia supports Israel, they are defending terrorism. Because we believe terrorists come from Israel - not from our people. I support Hezbollah… We are against the suicide bombings going on around the world. And Hezbollah is against it. Our opinion is that Hezbollah is not a terrorist group.²⁵

In a beautiful show of ecumenical Ummahood, Keysar Trad, also the founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia and former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said in 2007 that Sunnis supported Mousselmani’s remarks:

Sunni Muslim leader and community spokesman Keysar Trad said his sect largely championed Sheik Mousselmani’s support for Hezbollah (Party of God), which was revealed by The Weekend Australian.

“Sunnis outside of Lebanon, yes, they still have a great deal of respect for Hezbollah,” he said.

But Mr Trad, who does not believe the Lebanese-based Hezbollah is a terrorist group, said Sunni Muslims in Lebanon were less inclined to back the terrorist organisation because of political differences with the Shi’ites.

“I don’t believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation,” he said.

“I agree with (Mousselmani) that the state of Israel has ... consistently engaged in acts of terror which have brought a great deal of pain to the poor Palestinian population and the Lebanese population.”

The new mufti of Australia, Sunni spiritual leader Fehmi Naji el-Imam, last year called Hezbollah militants “freedom fighters” during an anti-war rally in Melbourne.²⁶

Sheik Fehmi’s spokesman said on Sunday that the cleric could not be reached.

Even the “moderate” Muslim advisers to the Howard Government were pro-Hezbollah. Here’s the Australian in August 2007:

The most common bond between Australia's Sunnis and Shi'ites is proving to be their shared dislike of Israel.

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When Israel’s offensive in Lebanon was at its peak last July, several moderate Australian Muslim leaders who had backed John Howard on the war against al-Qa’ida called on the Prime Minister to rethink Australia’s branding of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Ameer Ali, the then head of the Government’s Muslim advisory body, said Hezbollah was wrongly classified as a terrorist group because, unlike al-Qa’ida, it was “not creating violence at random” but merely protecting the state of Lebanon.

…

Another bond between Sunnis and Shi’ites in Australia is their widely held belief that the Australian Government is persecuting Muslims in general and that the tough new terror laws are aimed at people of Islamic faith.

This perception of a common enemy so close to home is further helping to unite these traditional Muslim rivals.

The Australian reported regarding Hezbollah and its support base in Australia in April 2010:

[Hezbollah’s “External Security Organisation” (ESO)] was first detected in Australia in the 90s, when ASIO investigated a Sydney man associated with Sydney’s Arncliffe mosque, the largest Shia centre of worship in Australia. The man was in contact with ESO headquarters and hosted a visit by a number of ESO officials to Australia. It was believed its purpose was to recruit local supporters who could assist with logistics such as the procurement of so-called dual-use technology: civilian hardware that can be converted to military use.

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Efforts by Australian authorities to curtail the ESO in Australia are complicated by the fact that its parent body, Hezbollah, enjoys substantial support among local Muslim communities, especially those of Lebanese origin, where it is based.

“There’s no question about [there being] fairly large support from a large part of the Australian community who support and sympathise with Hezbollah in Australia,” says Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council.

In 2007 The Australian reported that police were investigating a possible Hezbollah cell in Melbourne, after videotaping rallies attended by dozens of men waving Hezbollah flags and banners during a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon.

Jabbour says he is not aware that Hezbollah is active in Australia. “If they mean are there people who sympathise with Hezbollah in Australia, that’s a fact. But on a community level I’m not aware of any activities related to Hezbollah as such.”

In March 2013, Shaoquett Moselmane, the first Muslim in the New South Wales Parliament, gave a cute speech:

I resent members here accusing the resistance of being terrorist groups. I salute the resistance. If the resistance in Lebanon had not forced the Israelis out of Lebanon I would not have been able to go to my grandparents’ home in southern Lebanon and visit the land I was born in. I salute them for their resistance. It is the right of people to do so. Imagine what the response would have been in 1941 or 1942 if we had condemned resistance against Nazi Germany. Guns would have been blazing at us for not resisting Nazi Germany.

Nothing has really changed. Vigils were held in multiple packed-out mosques when at least six Hezbollah operatives were killed in October 2023:

On Saturday, about 400 people filed into Masjid Arrahman²⁷ – also known as Al Rahman Mosque – in Kingsgrove, southwest Sydney, to commemorate three Hezbollah fighters who died this week in Lebanon: Taha Abbas Abbas, Ali Marmar and Hussam Ibrahim.

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The Australian can also reveal that, simultaneously, another commemoration service was being held at Al Zahra Mosque a few suburbs away, in Arncliffe, for another three “martyrs”: Mahdi Muhammad Atwi, Ibrahim Habib Aldebek and Hussain Abbas Fasaee. Hezbollah said last week that Atwi had died, and a pamphlet for the commemoration service referred to the three as “Shaheed”, the Arabic term for martyr.

Even larger vigils were held when former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in September 2024.²⁸

But it isn’t just Hezbollah, of course. Dr. Michael Mohammed Ahmad wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks about the response in Punchbowl Boys’ High School, where nearly the entire student body is Arab and Muslim, in 2001:

But on September 11, 2001, the Lebs of Punchbowl Prison finally had their eyes open, marching through the front office with their heads cocked and their teeth bared.

…

Out on the quadrangle, 50 boys were drumming on garbage bins and dancing in circles, their feet springing from the floor like popcorn, their hips tussling and hands waving. Even the school dux, Riad, was in the circle. Most days I saw him with his head down inside the library, but today Riad was swinging his bloated arms like it was his wedding day, while the boys around him sang “eye for eye, tooth for tooth!”

…

In one corner was Rajab Masri… Rajab was thrusting his open hand into another Leb’s face, re-enacting the image he saw on the news that morning: an airliner slamming into a tower.

In another corner were the Year 12 boys standing around Usuf Osman, an Egyptian from Lakemba who had spent the past year instructing us to read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Usuf was pounding his chest, shouting: “I prah-dick-ted it!”

…

As soon as Shaky spotted me, he wrapped his freckled arms around my head. “We got them, brother.”

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Then the Indonesian who also called himself a Leb, Osama, tumbled towards us. He and Shaky hugged and shook hands and laughed for the next 10 minutes as though I wasn’t there.

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I was with the 40 other students in Year 10, all of whom were sitting in groups of five around each table, vociferously sharing bullcrap stories like “I heard there were no Jews in the World Trade Centre today”.

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Once again ignoring Isa, the principal signalled for a student we called Cabbage – because his body was shaped like a cabbage – to speak. “Sir, is there even any proof that it was us? How do you know it wasn’t the Jews?”

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Then up onto his table was Abdul Solomon, Punchbowl Boys’ self-proclaimed mufti, howling “takbeer!” which means “shout out loud!” and all the Muslims replied “Allahu akbar”!, which means “God is great!” Once again, “takbeer!” and “Allahu akbar!”

…

Whitechurch tried to raise his voice over the boys. “There were Australians that died in there today,” he blubbered, “Australians.” But it was too late – the Lebs of Punchbowl Prison had found themselves among the souls of the suicide bomber: “Shout out loud: God is Great!”

It was and remains the same in every Arab and Muslim school.

Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly

Hilaly, the first Mufti of Australia, is patient zero. Having arrived in 1982 on a tourist visa from Lebanon, the sheikh overstayed it and somehow avoided deportation, despite then Immigration Minister Chris Hurford’s attempts in 1986. Instead, to help appease the Muslim community, which reportedly strongly supported him, Labor figures granted him permanent residence in 1990.

Hilaly is perhaps most famous for his 1988 doozy of a sermon about Jews, entitled “The Disposition of Jews in the light of the Quran”, with such memorable quotes as “the Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding.”

Hilaly went to Lebanon in early 2004 to deliver another lovely sermon glorifying jihad and reminiscing about the times when Islam reigned supreme and declaring it would again, among other things:

We felt proud of you and we thought there are still some men and some dignity left in this nation capable of achieving what you have achieved in the initiative between Hizbollah and the Israeli enemy (ie. The recent prisoner swap). This was an initiative that demonstrated the strength of Islam, and the tolerance, justice and openness of Islam.

Dear brothers, we need real men to answer the call of Jerusalem and the call of Palestine. Oh half men, you who look for a place to meet, if ever you meet you will stab your nation in the back. Jerusalem is calling you, but there is no answer. Al Aqsa is calling you and telling you “I’m torn apart”.

Children and mothers are crying. Sons of Islam, there is a war of infidels taking place everywhere. The true man is the boy who opposes Israeli tanks with strength and faith. The boy who, despite his mother’s objections, goes out to war to become a martyr like his elder brother.

The boy who tells his mother: “Oh mother don’t cry for me if a die. Oh mother, Jihad has been imposed on me and I want to become a martyr. Oh mother, Al Aqsa is imprisoned and I won’t hesitate to help. Oh mother, come and say good bye for I’m going to fight and sacrifice myself. Oh mother, free men defend their honour and consider martyrdom as an honour. Oh mother, I’m going with a stone in my hand to become a martyr.

…

And perhaps we will find one day an Islamic revolution, and Islamic ideology in western countries.

Don’t be surprised if one day you hear the Muezzin calling for prayer and saying “Allah Akbar (Allah is Great)” from the top of the white house. September 11 is God’s work against oppressors. Some of the things that happen in the world cannot be explained; a civilian airplane whose secrets cannot be explained if we ask its pilot who reached his objective without error, who led your steps? (An allusion to 9/11) Or if we ask the giant that fell, who humiliated you? Or if we ask the President, who made you cry? God is the answer.

I’m telling you that there are no English Korans left in Australia or America or Europe. Everyone is converting to Islam: soldiers, pilots, engineers… those who are spending money to stop the ways of God will spend their money but will be defeated eventually. Trust me my dear friends.

Sometimes good lies in evil. Perhaps there will be an Islamic awakening that starts in the heart of America and restores the Islamic regime and the dignity of human beings. Islam is trying to find its way to people’s hearts but it’s being hidden by our attitudes, our mistakes, our behaviour and our divisions.

Islam is doing well in America, in Europe and in Australia. People are converting to the religion of God, and we feel proud when the banners of Islam are high and when our nation is united by Islam and we see that the nation follows God. In western countries, Islam is gaining ground every day.

We look forward to the day when religious texts are no longer misinterpreted and when there are no interpretations of Islam. It is not acceptable to limit Islam to one group or one sect. We shouldn’t imprison Islam in one idea. And if someone asks “what’s your nationality”, answer him my nationality is ‘there’s no God but God’. If someone asks you to which party you belong, answer him “My party is ‘there’s no God but God’ and tell him “Islam is my father”.

The Australian Federal Police decided that this rhetoric, in Lebanon, including saying September 11 was God’s work, did not concern them, and they would not investigate overseas activity.²⁹ Hilaly was also fond of Holocaust denial.³⁰ “What’s that six million all about? Are there six million? ... Journalism stops and shuts up when it discusses the burning of the Jews – the Holocaust – the Zionist lie and the industry that the West deals in,” he’d tell his followers. Hilaly was also dubiously acquitted of diverting funds to Hezbollah, after which he was questioned again for going to Iran and lobbying Sunnis on the regime’s behalf.³¹

Hilaly has nothing to do with the Akrams, of course, but he is emblematic of Australia’s failure to deal with this nonsense for decades.³²

There are other infamous Australian sheikhs and Islamic organisations that also serve as examples of this failure, from Hizb ut-Tahrir to Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association of Australia (ASWJA). For instance, there’s Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Center. Here’s a report from January 2007:³³

Sheik Feiz… left Australia for Lebanon in late 2004, just days before federal and state police and ASIO conducted raids in Sydney and Melbourne, arresting 23 people on terror-related charges.

The cleric calls two of the accused terrorists close friends and knew all of the Sydney men arrested. He has links to almost every notable member of Australia’s Islamic community and continues to direct his Global Islamic Youth Centre - the nerve centre of Islamic youth in Sydney, setting the tone for 4000 youths, their families and fraternities.

Along with Sheik Mohammed Omran in Melbourne³⁴ and Sydney’s Sheik Abdul Salem Mohammed Zoud,³⁵ he is considered one of Australia’s leading radical clerics. Unlike Sheik Omran and Sheik Zoud, Sheik Feiz preaches in English with a strong Australian accent rather than Arabic.

In the video running on YouTube, which could not be dated, he criticises Muslims in Australia for not sacrificing their blood as martyrs and for putting lifestyle ahead of action in response to massacres of Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.

“In our times it is the fear of death, the fear of sacrificing your finger, your toe, a drop of blood that is more honourable than anything else,” he says.

“Why? Because martyrdom to us is, is not as appealing to us, as it was to those ancestors, the great warriors ... who lived around the best creature that walked the earth, Mohammed.”

The YouTube video follows revelations in a British documentary that Sheik Feiz’s collection of DVDs - called the Death Series - were being sold by children in the car park of a mosque in the British city of Birmingham.

In that and another series called Signs of the Hour, made about four years ago, Sheik Feiz labelled Jews “pigs” and exhorted children to jihad.

“We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam,” he says. “Teach them this: there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid. Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom.”

Then there are the countless places like the Al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne, finally closed in 2015 after it was linked to multiple terrorism suspects.

None of these preachers or organisations had anything to do with Bondi.³⁶

There is, however, one link between a radical preacher and his organisations and associates and the Akrams. Let’s move on to Wissam Haddad (Abu Ousayd).