One of Australia’s largest Islamic schools is being investigated after its director, Faraz Nomani, posted a video of armed Hamas terrorists overlaid with an Arabic prayer for victory.
On Monday, Sky News reported that Nomani, a prominent pro-Palestine activist with links to the Islamist fundamentalist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, had resigned from the board of Sydney’s Malek Fahd Islamic School after the outlet uncovered the disturbing video.
The New South Wales (NSW) Education Standards Authority initiated an investigation, and there have been calls for Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare to step in, given that the school is predominantly funded by the federal government.
The prayer in the video asks Allah to give victory to the fighters, “make them catch the neck of their enemies... make their shots hit the targets...” and considers those who died as “martyrs.”
Nomani shared the video of Hamas on his public Instagram account on February 15, with the caption “Ameen. Ameen. Ameen.”
Nomani was previously linked with Hizb ut-Tahrir
Sky News also raised the fact that Nomani has previously been linked with Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, having spoken at the group’s events a decade ago.
After Sky News sent questions to the school about the Hamas video and Nomani’s past associations with Hizb ut-Tahrir, crisis communications specialist Peter Wilkinson said: “The director has resigned.”
A spokesperson for the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) told Sky News that it will assess the information provided and “pursue all available lines of inquiry.”
“NESA takes such reported misconduct very seriously and will investigate these matters thoroughly to ensure students and other staff are not at risk,” the spokesperson stated.
A lawyer for Nomani, Omar Satar, told Sky News that the social media post “was not intended to glorify, endorse, or support Hamas or any other prohibited organisation in any way” and that Nomani “ceased any involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir nine years ago and has had no association with the organisation since”.
Malek Fahd Islamic School is a registered charity that receives 60 percent of its funding from the federal government and 18 percent from the state government.
On Sunday, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed that he has started the process of listing Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terror organization under the country’s new hate laws.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has now advised that it meets the threshold for a ban.
The Jerusalem Post reached out to the federal and state education ministries for comment but had no response by press time.