At least one of the gunmen involved in Sunday’s terrorist attack at Bondi Beach had links to Australia’s pro-Islamic State (ISIS) network, including connections to a Sydney cleric who has known associations with Australian jihadists, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
Neither the gunman nor his father were on a terrorism watchlist before the attack, and the father was legally allowed to access firearms before the pair opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people, ABC mentioned.
The younger attacker, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, remains in hospital under police guard after being wounded in a shootout with police in which his father, Sajid Akram, was killed.
He was charged with 59 offenses on Monday, including terror charges, Reuters reported.
ASIO, Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, had investigated Naveed Akram in 2019 after uncovering links to a Sydney-based IS cell, ABC mentioned.
Counterterrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ABC that Naveed Akram had connections to Wisam Haddad, a cleric associated with multiple generations of Australian jihadists. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC’s 7.30 program that ASIO found “no evidence” during its six-month investigation that either father or son had been radicalized at the time.
Haddad has never been charged with a terrorism offense. ABC Four Corners previously reported that he served as a spiritual leader within Australia’s pro-IS network.
A former ASIO undercover agent, codenamed Marcus, told ABC that he repeatedly warned authorities that Haddad was indoctrinating young people at his Bankstown prayer center, Al Madina Dawah Centre.
The report noted that, through his lawyer, Haddad "vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach."
Hadad has previously delivered antisemitic lectures, and in July, the Federal Court found he breached the Racial Discrimination Act over sermons delivered at Al Madina Dawah Centre.
Radicalizing young Australians
Senior officials told ABC that Akram was a worshipper at Al Madina Dawah Centre and acted as a street preacher for Haddad’s Dawah Van organization. The charity lost its status in June after ABC Four Corners reported that it was radicalizing young Australians while receiving government tax concessions.
ABC uncovered videos from mid-2019 showing Naveed Akram, then 17, proselytizing with a related Street Dawah group. In one video, he told schoolboys that “the law of Allah … is more important than anything else you have to do — work, school … I can’t stress it enough.”
In another, he said God would reward actions taken “in his cause.” Muslim community leaders told ABC that these comments were not, in themselves, radical.
Weeks later, police raided an ISIS cell linked to members of the Street Dawah network. Isaac El Matari, an associate of Naveed Akram, was sentenced to seven years in prison for declaring himself the Australian commander of IS and plotting attacks. ASIO formally began investigating Naveed Akram in October 2019, ABC reported.
Counterterrorism officials also told ABC that Akram had ties to IS youth recruiter Youssef Uweinat, who was later jailed for nearly four years for encouraging minors to carry out attacks while acting as a youth leader at Haddad’s prayer center and a street preacher alongside Akram.
After his release, ABC reported that Uweinat appeared publicly in August, waving a black flag associated with jihadist groups at an anti-Gaza war protest on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The extent of Naveed Akram’s associations has raised questions about how his father was permitted to hold a firearms license. John Coyne, a former Australian Federal Police intelligence coordinator, told ABC, “That is a failure of the system.”
Coyne called for a broader inquiry into the events leading to the attack, saying, “We need a royal commission, not just into what occurred at Bondi and in the lead-up, but to look at the events of the last 18 months, the increased antisemitism, the hate speech, the ideologically-driven crimes that have been excused as freedom of expression,” ABC reported.
Additionally, in July, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry took Haddad – also known as Abu Ousayd – and the Sydney-based Al Madina Dawah Centre Incorporated to court over sermons made at the center, recordings of which have been uploaded online.
The ECAJ had won its landmark case, with the Australian Federal Court judge ruling that Haddad’s hate-filled sermons must be deleted from the Internet.
Judge Justice Stewart’s ruling stated that Haddad contravened Section 18C of Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act 1975, which states that it is illegal to “offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate another person or a group of people because of race, color, or national or ethnic origin” in public.
According to court filings, Haddad described Jews as “vile” and “treacherous,” with their “hands in businesses, in the media.”
Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.