People carry balloons as they arrive for the funeral of 10-year-old Matilda, who was killed in the December 14 Bondi Beach shooting attack, in Sydney on December 18, 2025. AFP
Islam’s holy scripture, the Quran, in chapter 5 verse 32, stresses that whoever takes a life—except as punishment for murder or corruption in the land—it is as if they have killed all of humanity; and whoever saves a life, it is as if they have saved all of humanity. By killing 15 Jews while they were celebrating the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, the two Australian terrorists of Indian origin, believed to be members or affiliates of the Islamic State (ISIS), committed crimes against humanity in violation of the very commands of the scripture they claimed to uphold.
In contrast, Ahmed el-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Syrian fruit seller who overpowered and disarmed terrorist Sajid Akram—the father of the other attacker, Naveed Akram—has, according to the Quran, saved all of humanity. Hailed as a hero, he is receiving treatment for gunshot injuries after being shot by Naveed. His condition is reported to be stable.
Acts of terrorism are not spontaneous acts of violence; they grow from hatred’s seed planted in radicalised hearts. Nowhere does the Quran state that terrorism guarantees entry to paradise, where 72 virgins await the terrorist’s arrival. Yet fabricated narrations, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad at the behest of power-hungry rulers, appear in certain Hadith literature. These questionable narrations fail the test of rigorous scrutiny—such as the historical-critical method applied by modern scholarship—and are being debunked by contemporary Islamic scholars, despite opposition from traditionalists who defend these forged accounts tooth and nail.
Terrorism has no religion. A religion that promotes terrorism ceases to be a religion. The essence of religion is the promotion of truth, peace, justice, kindness, and forgiveness, among other values. The two terrorists with Muslim names certainly misunderstood the essence of Islam. Their terrorism should be squarely condemned. And it is encouraging to see that all Muslim countries have denounced the attack in the strongest language.
The Bondi Beach terror attacks in Sydney—widely recognised as one of the most multicultural cities in Australia and the world—once again highlight the inadequacy of the legal and security measures states have taken to combat terrorism. Acknowledging this yesterday, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to stamp out extremism and carry out a sweeping crackdown to banish the “evil of antisemitism from our society”.
If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, liberal democratic states like Australia need to remain proactive and alert without compromising citizens’ fundamental rights. Taking advantage of the freedoms guaranteed in liberal democratic Australia, Naveed spent his free time preaching Islam on the busy streets of Sydney. This was after he came under the scrutiny of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency (ASIO) in 2019 for his associations with a Sydney-based ISIS cell but was later cleared.
The clearance, together with details ASIO released after Sunday’s attack, raises questions about Australia’s counter-terrorism efficacy.
Australian authorities say that in the lead-up to the attack, Naveed—now 24 and receiving treatment under police guard in a hospital for gunshot injuries—was not on a terrorism watch list. His father, Sajid, who was killed in the police counterattack, was also not listed. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted intelligence sources as saying that Naveed has links to a controversial cleric, Wisam Haddad, whose influence has loomed over multiple generations of Australian jihadists. ABC reports that the imam has never been charged with a terrorism offence, despite longstanding ties to Australian terrorists and foreign jihadist leaders. He is also accused of anti-Semitism.
The question arises as to why such vital intelligence information was not acted upon to prevent Sunday’s terror attack. Such failures give credence to claims that intelligence lapses are sometimes deliberate and linked to political or geopolitical motives. For instance, the administration of then US President George W. Bush ignored intelligence warnings about an Al-Qaeda plan to attack US targets. The 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda terrorists enabled the U.S. to upend the emerging post–Cold War rules-based world order and reassert its global military dominance under the pretext of waging a war on terror. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, mystery still surrounds the questions over the state’s failure to act on intelligence warnings and prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
Without underestimating ASIO’s capabilities, we say the claim that terror attacks carry geopolitical ramifications and possible hidden influences requires serious investigation. A probe into who benefits from a terror attack may be one angle. False flag operations are part of the work of professional intelligence agencies. The greater the sophistication and secrecy of the operation, the higher the professionalism of the agency behind it.
The most significant geopolitical ramification of Sunday’s Bondi Beach attack was the serious setback it inflicted on the growing global support for ‘Palestinianism’. The choice of Sydney for the attack was also significant. For, on August 3 this year, the city hosted a massive pro-Palestinian rally, with some 200,000 people taking part, prompting the seemingly pro-Israeli Albanese government to take note and announce its recognition of Palestine as a state.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, together with other Islamophobes such as Bernard Lewis, coined and promoted the term “Islamic terrorism” in the 1980s through a series of conferences in the US, rushed to link Sunday’s terror attack with the Albanese government’s recognition of a Palestinian state. No sooner had the attack occurred than Netanyahu said he had written to the Australian prime minister, blaming him for fuelling antisemitism in his country by recognising Palestinian statehood.
Palestinianism is not anti-Semitism. Similarly, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. History records that Jews and Muslims lived in harmony. Jews even held the post of prime minister, and Jewish generals led Muslim armies during the Islamic rule of Spain.
Where monotheism is concerned, Judaism and Islam are on the same board. Kosher is halal. Moreover, Muslims are commanded to believe in and respect all Israelite prophets. Jews and Judaism are part of Islamic inclusivism. Reports of Muslims giving shelter to Jews fleeing Nazi terror during World War II and Palestinians welcoming early European Jewish migrants to Palestinian territory during the British mandate after World War I speak volumes about the camaraderie.
Even after the state of Israel was established in 1948, Muslims’ anger was directed not at Jews but at the Zionist state, as has been seen in Palestinian resistance. Therefore, accusing Muslims of anti-Semitism distorts the truth.
Given the geopolitical ramification of the Sydney attack, the two terrorists’ ISIS links only add credence to the claim that ISIS functions as the terrorism arm of one or many major intelligence outfits. If one needs proof, the events in Syria confirm it.
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