At least one of the gunmen responsible for Sunday’s terrorist attack at Bondi Beach had longstanding links to Australia’s pro-Islamic State (IS) network, including to a notorious Sydney cleric, the ABC has found.
But in the lead-up to the attack, Naveed Akram, 24, was not on a terrorism watchlist, nor was his father Sajid Akram prevented from legally accessing firearms before they opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people.
Naveed Akram remains in hospital under police guard after being wounded in a shootout with police in which his father was killed.
Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, examined Naveed Akram in 2019 after uncovering his associations with a Sydney-based IS cell, the ABC reported on Monday.
Counterterrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have revealed the investigation also identified his links to Wisam Haddad, a cleric whose influence has loomed over multiple generations of Australian jihadists.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the 7.30 program on Monday night that ASIO found “no evidence” during its six-month investigation that either the father or son had been radicalised.
Wisam Haddad has been closely watched by ASIO for most of his adult life, but he has never been charged with a terrorism offence. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)
Mr Haddad has never been charged with a terrorism offence, despite longstanding ties to Australian terrorists and foreign jihadist leaders.
A Four Corners investigation earlier this year identified him as a spiritual leader of Australia’s pro-IS network.
A former ASIO undercover agent, codenamed Marcus, told the program he repeatedly warned the agency that the preacher was indoctrinating young people at his Bankstown prayer centre, Al Madina Dawah Centre.
The former ASIO spy, codenamed Marcus, told Four Corners how he posed as a radical imam to infiltrate Wisam Haddad’s network. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)
Through a lawyer, Mr Haddad said he “vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach”.
Mr Haddad has become notorious for violent antisemitic lectures, including lectures quoting religious texts about the killing of Jews.
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In July, the Federal Court found he had breached the Racial Discrimination Act over antisemitic lectures delivered at his prayer centre, Al Madina Dawah Centre.
Senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Naveed Akram was a worshipper at Al Madina Dawah Centre and acted as a street preacher for Mr Haddad’s Dawah Van organisation.
Naveed Akram during the attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday. (X)
The Dawah Van lost its charity status in June after Four Corners revealed it was radicalising young Australians on Sydney’s streets while receiving government tax concessions.
The ABC has uncovered videos showing Naveed Akram proselytising with a related Street Dawah group in mid-2019, when he was 17.
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In one, he tells 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 says God will reward actions taken “in his cause”.
Weeks later, police raided an IS cell involving members of that same Street Dawah network.
Among those arrested was Isaac El Matari, an associate of Naveed Akram, who was later jailed for seven years for declaring himself the Australian commander of IS and plotting terrorist attacks.
Isaac El Matari was jailed in 2021 after pleading guilty to preparing a terrorist attack. (Supplied)
ASIO began its investigation into Naveed Akram months later, in October 2019, according to Mr Albanese.
Counterterrorism officials have told the ABC the agency was also concerned about Naveed Akram’s association with an IS youth recruiter, Youssef Uweinat.
Uweinat was later jailed for nearly four years for encouraging Australian minors to launch attacks while acting as a youth leader at Mr Haddad’s prayer centre and a street preacher alongside Naveed Akram.
Youssef Uweinat served nearly four years in prison for grooming and encouraging boys to launch attacks. (Facebook)
After his release, he re-emerged publicly in August, when he was photographed waving a black flag associated with jihadist groups at an anti-Gaza war protest on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
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The extent of Naveed Akram’s extremist associations has raised questions about how his father was permitted to keep his firearms licence.
“That is a failure of the system,” said John Coyne, a former Australian Federal Police intelligence coordinator and now director of national security programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“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.”
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