ISIS links behind Bondi killers point everywhere but Gaza

While NSW police have yet to make any statement about surviving Bondi killer Naveed Akram, he has extensive links to ISIS. human rights analyst Get Author reports (Part 2).

In part 1 we discussed how the police and ASIO may have ignored the many links between the Bondi perpetrators and ISIS. Here we take a closer look at the links between known ISIS operatives Akram and other atrocities committed in Australia, including the Wakeley Church attack in 2024.

Inside videos From 2019, seventeen-year-old Naveed Akram was standing outside Bankstown railway station preaching about Islam. The Street Cause Movement confirmed that Akram appeared in its videos ‘several times’ in 2019. The group released a statement He said Naveed Akram was not a member and none of the members knew him personally. They also emphasize that they offer mental health referral services.

Dawah (or Dawah) is an Arabic term in Islam meaning “invitation” or “call”, referring to inviting people to understand, embrace, or reflect on the message of Islam.

Street Case

It is difficult to determine who led the Street Darwah Movement, but many of those affiliated with the Medina Da’wah Center (AMDC) have also been associated with Naveed Akram’s da’wah activities, including Al Matari and others.

Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, Van Street Preaching Service is officially registered as its own organization in 2022. Haddad’s Dawah Van Joint Stock Company It was registered as a charity to preach on the streets of Sydney, but after a while it was stripped of its charitable status. Four Corners episode.

It is unclear whether Naveed Akram’s Darwah activities were linked to Haddad, given the amorphous nature of the structures involved. Interestingly, however, Haddad suggests that Marcus, the undercover agent interviewed by Four Corners, was in the background of the Darwah YouTube video in which Naveed Akram is seen preaching.

The video was posted in 2022, but has since been removed. However, if true, this implies that ASIO agents were likely spying on Naveed Akram well before 2019, but that his father still held his gun license during this time.

It is important to note that while this story draws connections between the Bondi attackers and ISIS-affiliated extremists in Australia, it does not make any accusations that the groups or individuals mentioned here – other than Naveed Akram himself – played any role in the actual attacks. Naveed is in custody.

Youssef Uweinat

A known associate of Naveed Akram is Youssef Uweinat. Uweinet was associated with both the Street dawa movement El Matari and Haddad. He served as a youth leader at Haddad’s prayer center and served almost four years in prison for grooming minors to carry out attacks through Haddad’s AMDC in Bankstown.

After his release, he was photographed waving a black flag often associated with ISIS on the Sydney Harbor Bridge during a pro-Palestinian protest in August 2025, and is documented here. ambushing and harassing other Muslim protesters.

Both Haddad and Uweinat No interest in Palestinian stateDespite the groups’ significant opposing interests, ISIS was said to be exploiting the Palestinian movement as part of a broader recruitment strategy.

Isaac El Matari

Other people associated with Naveed Akram included: Isaac El MatariThe self-proclaimed ‘Australian commander’ of the Islamic State. El Matari sentenced in 2021 He was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for planning a terrorist attack, with eligibility for parole in January 2025.

NSW Supreme Court heard He said Al Matari was developing grandiose plans to start a rebellion in rural Australia. Mentioned specific goalsHe spoke of ‘conquering a small town or village’, including St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, the American embassy, ​​and specifically naming Orange. ‘I know which targets will scare people and get our message across,’ he said.

Al-Matari’s radicalization followed a familiar path. Prosecutor Sophie Callan told the court: He said Al Matari left Australia when he was eighteen but was arrested in 2017 and imprisoned in Lebanon for trying to join the Islamic State in Syria. He returned to Australia in June 2018 after spending nine months in Lebanon’s notorious Roumieh prison, where his defense claimed he was tortured.

Rather than being deterred, the court heard the depth and scope of his radicalization continued until his arrest in July 2019, when he appeared in Naveed Akram’s Street Cause Movement videos.

What makes El Matari particularly important is his documented connection to both. Street Darwah network and direct association with Naveed Akram during his radicalization. Prime Minister Albanese confirmed Two of the people Akram was in a relationship with were accused and imprisoned in 2019, but Akram was not considered a suspect at that time,

ASIO concluded there was no indication of any ongoing threat.

Radwan Dakkakhe is also believed to be an associate of Akram, who was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for membership in ISIS and distributing propaganda through the Al-Tayr media outlet. He was arrested along with El Matari in the same July 2019 operation that should have flagged Naveed Akram as a serious threat.

Wakeley Church attack

It is not just the Akrams who are said to be linked to AMDC, but also the Wakeley Church attacker who stabbed Bishop Emmanuel. This was stated by the agent who spoke to the ABC and recognized the Wakeley attacker from afar. Al Madina Darwah Center.

On April 15, 2024A sixteen-year-old boy stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel during a livestreamed sermon at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley. during the attackThe young man was heard shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and saying that he would not have come if he had not insulted the bishop’s prophet. Police determined that the attack was religiously motivated and classified the attack as terrorism.

Police seized the attacker’s phone He discovered he was part of a WhatsApp group called ‘Brotherhood’ with other young people who expressed sympathy for violent extremism and Bishop Mar Mari highlights Emmanuel as target. According to the ABC interview, AMDC employees were also part of this group.

The attack triggered Operation MinaryMore than four hundred officers were seen executing thirteen search warrants in the suburbs of Sydney, including Bankstown, where AMDC is located. 7 young people were arrestedCounts ranging from 14 to 17, five of whom are charged with conspiracy to plan terrorist attacks.

Due to their status as minors, we are unable to further investigate allegations about their affiliation with AMDC; But the geographic focus on Bankstown and the arrest of seven young ISIS sympathizers suggests that authorities are likely examining whether the same radicalization networks that produced Naveed Akram are also influencing this new generation of young extremists.

Al-Risalah Islamic Bookstore and Center

AMDC was not Haddad’s first breakthrough. In 2012, Haddad Al-Risalah (‘The Message’) The Islamic Center and bookshop in Bankstown, in Sydney’s west, has quickly ‘acquired a reputation as a center of Islamic extremism’, according to a report. ABC 7.30 investigation.

By 2013 it had become a hub for extremist preachers who recruited young Australian Muslims to travel illegally to Syria to fight on behalf of Islamist groups there or join humanitarian missions linked to them.

Among the preachers who taught at Risalah were: Abu Suleiman (Mostafa Mahamed Farag), one of the Australians top al-Qaeda terrorists Who happened in Syria Jabhat Al Nusra spokesmanAnd Khalid SharrufA famous ISIS terrorist shared the following post: photos of children holding severed heads.

Khalid Sharruf was visited frequently Al-Risalah Before going to Syria. Other lecturers at the center are Muhammad ElomarSharrouf’s best friend and fellow ISIS fighter He married Sharruf’s 13-year-old daughter and also published photos of severed heads), Bilal HazalHe was sentenced to 14 years in prison for producing terrorist handbook in crashed planes and Junaid ThorneA pro-ISIS preacher who founded the Brotherhood Behind Bars organization with Haddad.

Muhammad Elomar

Al-Risalah was raided in September 2013 and closed in October 2013.

in January 2015Police raid Haddad’s Leppington home Guns, a machete hidden under his bed, ISIS DVDs (including sermons by former al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) and an ISIS flag were unearthed in Western Sydney, as well as dozens of newspaper clippings relating to counter-terrorism operations and arrests in Australia.

He escaped prison sentence despite being caught illegally possessing three weapons (two stun guns and a can of capsicum spray) hidden in his home.

Wassim Fayad

Another important name connected to Wassim Haddad’s network was Wassim Fayad, also known as Fadi Alameddine or Abu Zakariyah. Fayad was filmed in December 2023 With Haddad’s Dawah Van.

Fayad’s criminal history reveals a pattern of violence legitimized through religion. In 2013, Al Jazeera reported It was stated that Fayad was sentenced to at least sixteen months in prison for whipping a Muslim convert forty times with an electric cable as religious punishment. Sydney Central Local Court Judge Brian Maloney While handing down the sentence, he said to Fayad: ‘You have brought great shame to the Islamic faith.

Most importantly, ABC Investigations revealed He said in 2015 police claimed Fayad was part of an Islamic State cell whose teenage members visited him in prison while he was serving a sentence for a flogging attack. Many of these young men went on to commit acts of terrorism, including aiding the fifteen-year-old boy who killed the police accountant. Curtis Cheng in October 2015.

Rising Extremism

While there continue to be persistent calls for a Royal Commission into antisemitism, it is important that any inquiry examines the full spectrum of violent extremism, its roots, and avoids the politicization we have seen in areas such as the role of the Antisemitism Ambassador.

In the third part, we will talk about the methods and goals of radicalization.

Warnings about ISIS connections were ignored. Anatomy of the Bondi attacks

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.