Accused terrorist Naveed Akram linked to Bankstown Islamic centre in Sydney that preached anti-Semitism

An anti-Semitic Muslim preacher has denied being associated with accused terror gunman Naveed Akram, just months after a judge warned his sermons would terrify Jews worried about the prospect of a mass murder.

Akram, 24, facing 59 charges from the worst terror attack on Australian soil, appeared in a video with the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown preaching Islam on the streets from 2019, when he was 17, saying he was “continuing the work of the Prophet”.

“Whether it be raining, hailing or clear sky, Allah will reward you for whatever action you do in his cause,” he said.

“Inshallah, this will save you on the day of judgment.”

The centre was associated with anti-Semitic preacher Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd in the Islamic community, who described Jews as “treacherous, vile people” in a series of sermons delivered after the October 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel. Mr Haddad today denied reports Naveed Akram was a follower of his: “The claim is undefined and misleading.

“No evidence has been produced showing any personal, organisational, or instructional link between Naveed Akram and Wissam Haddad,” he said.

The Nightly is not suggesting Mr Haddad was associated with the Bondi massacre.

The Al Madina Dawah Centre has also denied any association with the gunman.

“There is no organisational, temporal or operational link between Naveed Akram and the Dawah Van project,” it said on Facebook.

Mr Haddad’s speeches described “the terrorist state of Israel” as a “mass murdering machine” following its retaliation against Hamas for the worst atrocity committed against Jews since the Holocaust.

Despite the weekend shooting at Bondi and a Federal Court judgment against him for spreading hate speech, Mr Haddad was defiant on social media yesterday.

“Australia brands itself as a liberal democracy where controversial or unpopular speech is lawful unless it breaches specific legal thresholds, finding other people’s beliefs or opinions distasteful does not automatically make it criminal,” he said on Instagram.

Liberal frontbencher James Paterson called for the centre to be shut down, describing it as a “factory of hate”.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry earlier this year sued Mr Haddad and the Al Madina Dawah Centre over his anti-Semitic sermons, arguing they breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act because his remarks were likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate members of the Jewish community.

Federal Court judge Angus Stewart in July ordered those videos to be removed from social media after finding those videos had made “disparaging imputations” about Jewish people based on their race.

“The imputations include age-old tropes against Jewish people that are fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic; they make perverse generalisations against Jewish people as a group,” he said.

Chillingly, Justice Stewart warned such comments could lead a follower to commit an awful atrocity.

“Many members of the Jewish community grow up and live with a consciousness of their community’s vulnerability to vilification, discrimination, persecution and mass murder,” he said.

Naveed Akram, charged in relation to the killing of 15 innocent people on Sunday at a Jewish Chanukah festival at Bondi Beach, had been transported to Sydney’s east in a Hyundai with an Islamic State flag on the day of the massacre.

The Australian-born son of an Indian migrant who came to Australia on a student visa was hospitalised after his father Sajid Akram, 50, was killed by police during the mass shooting late on Sunday afternoon.

They had also been to the Philippines last month allegedly to train with Islamist militants.

Mr Haddad, also known as William Haddad, at the time of his speeches was a 43-year-old married carpet layer whose parents migrated to Australia from Lebanon in 1971.

He was a part-time teacher and Islamic preacher at the centre, although he lacked accreditation as a teacher and preacher, Justice Stewart’s judgment said.

The Al Madina Dawah Centre released a statement this week arguing they were under new management.

“We wish to clearly state that Ustadh Abu Ousayd has no role in the management, committee, or board of the Al Madina Group,” it said on Facebook.