Sydney Muslim Vote backer attends Hamas anniversary rally

“Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation, and associating with it is a serious crime,” Paterson said. “Police should investigate whether this conduct meets that threshold. Only serious consequences, including criminal charges, visa cancellations and citizenship cessation, will send the message that this is totally unacceptable.”

Prominent Lebanese Muslim leader Jamal Rifi said in January that fringe actors within Sydney’s Muslim community had “militarised” anger over the war to topple Labor MPs.

Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a convenor of The Muslim Vote, was counselled by the NSW Education Department this month after he claimed that Sydney nurses who talked about killing Jews “never meant to be literal or intended to be a threat”. Another top Muslim Vote leader is radical Islamist Ibrahim Dadoun, whom an investigation by this masthead showed was a regular at events hosted by the Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The Muslim Vote organisation was contacted for comment.

There is no suggestion that Sayara supports terrorist violence, only that she attended a rally for an organisation that does. Australia has designated Hamas, which has a political and a military wing, a terrorist outfit since 2022. Hamas was elected to govern Gaza in 2006, defeating the more moderate Fatah grouping, and has governed without elections since.

Sayara, who was contacted for comment, helped organise and defend the Opera House protest on October 9, 2023, which was held before Benjamin Netanyahu’s government began its war in Gaza that has fuelled allegations of genocide. NSW Premier Chris Minns labelled the demonstration, where some attendees chanted “f— the Jews”, “abhorrent and the opposite of what we want in our multicultural society”.

A leading academic on extremism, Deakin University’s Associate Professor Josh Roose, said there was a growing pattern of younger Australians travelling to events in the Middle East that could be perceived as supporting organisations regarded as terrorists by the Australian government.

Just like ISIS’ declaration of a caliphate last decade, the war in Gaza had generated radical attitudes on the fringes of the Australian Muslim community, Roose said.

“This is problematic for any number of reasons including that they are demonstrating not only support for these groups but connections with them. These are proscribed terror groups in Australia, and so any such activity could be unlawful,” Roose said.

“Furthermore, it’s demonstrative of a wider potential level of support among some elements of the Muslim community for these groups in what has become an incredibly polarised political climate in the leadup to the election and post October 7.”

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