A Muslim preacher from Melbourne, known as Abu Ahmad and associated with the Al Bayyinah Islamic Center in Springvale, urged his followers to take up arms against Christians and Jews, according to local reports.
Speaking during a sermon in July, Ahmad instructed adherents not to take Jews and Christians for friends and declared that devotion to Allah carries an obligation to oppose and fight enemies.
"For the sake of Allah, it includes the obligation to declare enmity for his sake, opposition for the sake of Allah," Ahmad said in a clip posted to the center's social media feed. "It is to declare opposition: indeed, to take up arms against his enemies, to shun them and to stay far from them both in word and deed."
According to local reports, Ahmad's extremist rhetoric has drawn national attention due to documented ties linking his Melbourne institution to controversial Sydney networks. The Al Bayyinah Islamic Center, established in Springvale in 2024, has received ongoing support from Sydney-based preacher Wissam Haddad, who was previously linked to the Al Madina Dawah Center in Bankstown, a prayer hall also reportedly attended by alleged Bondi gunman Naveed Akram.
Local reports noted that Ahmad visited Haddad's Sydney center in early 2025 to deliver a sermon criticizing "infidel" Western powers, and an ABC Four Corners investigation previously uncovered institutional links between Haddad and the Melbourne prayer center.
One Nation leader calls for government to act against Islamic extremism
One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson issued a media release on Monday criticizing federal authorities and calling for immediate, targeted federal powers to confront fundamentalist Islamic extremism.
"Fifteen people were murdered in a terrorist act at Bondi," Senator Hanson said. "Now Australians are reading reports of an Islamic preacher urging followers to take up arms against Australian Christians and Jews. How much more do Albanese and Burke need to hear?"
Hanson argued that broad laws covering the entire community are insufficient and urged the government to directly target preachers encouraging terrorist violence, recruiters, and support networks. "We need stronger federal powers to shut down the extremist and fundamentalist mosques and Islamic prayer centers," Hanson stated. "Give ASIO and the AFP the resources and targeted powers to dismantle these networks. If current laws are inadequate, change them."
Robert Gregory, President of the Australian Jewish Association, told The Jerusalem Post that the episode demonstrates deep-seated failures in national security and social cohesion.
"It is hard to believe that this long after the Bondi terrorist attack, Australia has still not seen a major crackdown on radical Islamic preachers and extremist religious centers," Gregory said.
"Australians are rightly alarmed by reports of a preacher speaking about an obligation to ‘take up arms’ against enemies and telling followers not to take Jews and Christians as friends. If this sort of hatred is being preached in Australian religious centers, Australia has serious problems with extremism and social cohesion."
Gregory added that the incident raises broader questions about unmonitored extremist messaging. "The obvious question is - how many other Islamic preachers are spreading similar messages that have simply not attracted media attention? Australian Jews have been warning for years about rising antisemitism, radicalization and failures in Australia’s immigration and national security settings. Antisemitism has surged in Australia, and after the Bondi attack, these warnings can no longer be dismissed."
Australia security expert not surprised by increased antisemitism
Australian security expert Daniel Lewkovitz told the Post that the latest developments reflect decades of political inaction. "This is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention for the last 20 years," Lewkovitz stated.
"In 2005, at a Government-funded Islamic school in Melbourne, a visiting imam was overheard telling students that Jews were putting poison in bananas. Newspapers covered it, and there was outrage. The school should have been closed down with deportations to follow. Instead, the Headmaster is still there, and the school is now Victoria's largest Islamic college whose main source of income is government grants."
Lewkovitz pointed to a continuing trajectory of unaddressed extremist indicators over the past decade. "In 2015, the same headmaster told students ISIS was a plot by Western countries (claiming Israel and America were behind it). Ten years later, ISIS inspired the murder of 15 Jews at Bondi Beach. Again, nothing much happened. So with the latest incident in Victoria being quite similar in terms of hatred, I'd be surprised if anything happens this time either. Politicians just need to wait until the news cycle moves on and can then return to funding these institutions and trying to secure their vote."
Lewkovitz cautioned that short-term political calculations continue to compromise national safety. "Regrettably, there is a consistent pattern, particularly in Western Sydney, of politicians willing to sacrifice national security in exchange for votes in marginal seats. Europe has shown exactly where this ends and what's taken 30 years in Europe has taken 10 in Australia."