Warnings of ISIS links ignored. The anatomy of the Bondi attacks
Amid calls for a Royal Commission, a narrative is emerging about the perpetrators, their links to ISIS and warnings ignored by the police and ASIO. human rights activist Get Author reports (Part 1).
Much of what happened at Bondi and the events leading up to it remain unclear. The facts will continue to be revealed in the coming weeks and months, especially when we hear from the surviving murderer, Naveed Akram. This is police business and does not require a Royal Commission
However, in the opportunistic rush to politicize the tragedy, blame has been aggressively placed on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as relentless pressure mounts on the Israel lobby and legacy media for a Royal Commission and attempts to stop legitimate Gaza protests.
But chronology and what we know resist the comfort of easy answers.
It reveals warnings made long before the current Labor government took office and well before Palestinian protests emerged following the 7 October Hamas attacks in 2023. These were accumulated failures, many of which were under the watchful eye of the Coalition government that preceded Labor.
Yes, the Bondi Royal Commission but… | West Report
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Debunking Palestinian protest theory
In the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack, a narrative emerged in the mainstream media that pro-Palestinian protests had somehow radicalized the murderers Sajid and Naveed Akram.
Naveed’s possible radicalization dates back to his teenage years, when he first came here. ASIO’s attention in 2019, During former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government. The investigation was particularly concerned with his dealings with members of the Sydney-based ISIS cell, including Isaac Al Matari. During this investigation, which lasted six months, one of the Bondi killers, Sajid Akram, was also interrogated by the authorities.
This was four years before the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023 and the subsequent wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations that emerged in Australia as Israel’s brutal retaliation in Gaza unfolded. After a six-month investigation, it was assessed that he was posing at that time. There is no ongoing threat He allegedly resorted to violence and no charges resulted.
Blaming pro-Palestinian protests for this attack is to fundamentally misunderstand the ideology, but, like any Royal Commission, it is also to minimize future risks.
this does not examine the rise of extremism in Australia in all its forms.
Who is ISIS?
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) operates according to an extremist interpretation of Salafi jihadism that mainstream Islamic scholars have universally rejected.
ISIS is to Islam what the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity
It represents a small, violent segment of people who distort religious teachings to justify atrocities. Despite this, Australian Muslims as a group are generally denounced by the media who support the Israel lobby narrative.
After losing territorial control (Raqqa fell in October 2017), ISIS handed over its operations to individual attackers around the world.
Global attacks inspired by ISIS include: 2015 Paris Bataclan attacks (130 killed), 2016 Nice truck attack (86 killed), 2017 Westminster Bridge attack (5 killed), 2017 Manchester Arena bombing (22 killed) and 2017 London Bridge attack (8 killed). Localized Australian attacks included: 2014 Melbourne police stabbing, April 2024 stabbing of Sydney bishopand what seems to be related to the final situation Shooting at Bondi Beach, December 2025 (15 killed).
Netanyahu, Hamas and ISIS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strategically combined Hamas has been on the side of ISIS since 2014, saying “Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas” and repeated this comparison after the October 7, 2023 attacks. This rhetorical strategy serves to: squelch criticism Gaining the support of US leaders and the public by portraying Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and Hamas as a threat not only to Israel but to the Western population in general.
He argues that tolerating Hamas is tantamount to tolerating ISIS attacks globally.
The comparison obscures important ideological differences. Hamas has a nationalist and regional focus on Palestine. ISIS, on the contrary, transnational pan-Islamist movement It aims to unite Muslims worldwide under a caliphate governed by sharia law and explicitly rejects the nation-state system as un-Islamic. Where is Hamas wants ISIS, which owns a state and joins international organizations, aims to take over states and completely destroy the international system.
Shiite Muslims are among the primary targets of ISIS (their apostates), moderate Sunni Muslims who reject their ideology, as well as Jews, Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities. But,
Most of ISIS’s victims were Muslims.
inside Camp Speicher massacre in June 2014ISIS was executed approximately 1,700 air cadets, mostly Shia In Iraq, they force them to lie in mass graves before shooting them.
Yazidi genocide in August 2014 was killed approximately 5,000-10,000 peopleHe enslaved 6,000-7,000 women and girls as sex slaves. 2,800 people still missing. US State Department in 2016 Declared ISIS responsible for genocide Against Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims.
ISIS propaganda also calls for systematic attacks on Jewish communities around the world: synagogues, kosher markets, jewish schoolsAnd jewish neighborhoods.
This escalated into deadly attacks: 2014 Brussels Jewish Museum attack (4 killed), 2015 Paris Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket attack (4 killed), 2015 Copenhagen synagogue attack (1 killed) and more than one Plans in the USA were disrupted.
Medina Call Center
like that reported Naveed Akram was stated to be a follower of Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, of the Medina Call Center (AMDC) in Bankstown.
Wissam Haddad’s real name William Haddad. He is an Australian citizen born in Sydney to Lebanese parents who ran their own carpet-laying business but also preached part-time. Haddad was founded AMDC Inc., In which was it founded? April 2021 taking over the previous Centre’s lease.
A. Four Corners Inquest in April 2024 He described Haddad as the spiritual leader of Australia’s pro-Islamic State network. Four Corners episode focused A disgruntled former ASIO undercover agent codenamed ‘Marcus’ told the program he had repeatedly warned the organization that the preacher was brainwashing teenagers at the Bankstown prayer centre.
Marcus claimed ASIO considered William Haddad the most important jihadist.
he said Four Corners He said Haddad referred to ISIS in coded language as ‘brothers’, instructed his young followers to remain silent against any violent plans, and told them, “If you want to do something, don’t come to me, don’t tell anyone, keep your secret.” This codified language allowed AMDC to operate publicly while avoiding violations of the law.
ABC reported that Haddad was mentored via WhatsApp by notorious British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary between 2021 and 2023. Choudary became Serving life sentence since July 2024 After becoming the first person in the UK to be found guilty of leading an organization involved in terrorist activities.
Choudary founded and manages Al-MuhajirounA Salafi-jihadist network operating under multiple names after being banned. Individuals associated with Al-Muhajiroun have either been involved in terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom or joined militant organizations such as ISIS, including the perpetrators of the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013.
In July 2025, Federal Court Judge Angus Stewart found: Haddad was found to have violated the Racial Discrimination Act through a series of lectures he gave at AMDC in November 2023. the court heard In a lecture series titled ‘Jews of Medina’, Haddad referred to the Jewish people as ‘despicable’, ‘traitors’, ‘naughty’, ‘murderers’, ‘descendants of monkeys and pigs’ and ‘hiding like mice’.
Judge Stewart concluded He said the lectures contained “devastatingly offensive” accusations against Jewish people based on age-old tropes that are fundamentally racist and antisemitic. The judge warned Such comments can lead a follower to commit a terrible atrocity; He notes that many members of the Jewish community grew up with the awareness that their community was vulnerable to slander, discrimination, persecution, and mass murder.
Five months after this judicial warning, many claimed that one of Haddad’s followers had carried out Australia’s worst antisemitic attack.
Haddad denies knowledge of Bondi attack
Haddad’s lawyer in question He said his client “vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings at Bondi Beach.”
In the statement made by Al Madina Group, Registered as a business in July 2025He said he now runs the center and does so independently of Haddad.
“It rejects any attempt to conflate administrative or planning grumblings with allegations of extremism, national security or criminal conduct.” “Wisam Haddad has no management role, has no operational authority and is not involved in the governance or decision-making processes of the current organization.”
Shortly afterwards, Canterbury-Bankstown City Council closed AMDC’s place of worship, finding it was operating without the necessary development consent. Building on Kitchener Parade, Bankstown It was approved to operate only as a medical center and not as a place of worship.
It is important to note that many extremist groups in Australia, well beyond this, maintain multiple front groups or legally constituted organizations that function to recruit and provide resources to a primary organisation. When these organizations come under scrutiny from regulatory agencies or the public, they are often dissolved and reconstituted under a different legal structure or name.
This process allows the organization to maintain its core membership and operations while operating under new oversight.
Inside second partWe will take a closer look at many of these operators.
via Port Arthur to Bondi via Oslo. History repeats itself, lessons are ignored and we take risks
Al has over twenty years of international experience in international organisations, including UN agencies, and holds a postgraduate qualification in international relations from Oxbridge. They have contributed to numerous publications, including Al Jazeera and The Guardian.
Al is known by Michael West Media.
