Werriwa federal election candidate Jamal Daoud says he has received death threats

A prominent Muslim leader running as a candidate in a marginal southwest Sydney seat says he has received multiple death threats from Islamic extremists days ahead of the federal poll.

Prominent Sunni community member Jamal Daoud. Picture: James Croucher

Days ahead of the federal poll, a candidate for Werriwa who is a Sunni Muslim says he has received death threats from extremists of his religion.

Jamal Daoud said he had received several verbal threats from men speaking in Arabic and calling his office from private phone numbers.

The Australian Migrants candidate said he was receiving a call “every two minutes” and had reported the “disgraceful” threats to Green Valley police.

“From yesterday, I started to receive strange phone calls from a private number,’’ he said.

“It was around 10 calls every minute until midnight. I needed to switch off my mobile phone. The strange phone calls started to be received on my office numbers.’’

Jamal Daoud has reported the threats to police.

He said on Thursday he started to receive similar phone calls and decided to answer one of the calls about 12.10pm.

“On the other side someone answered me in clear Arabic and made several threats and disgraceful swearing including death threats,’’ he said.

“We are waiting for police to investigate and offer protection for me, my family and my staff who help in the campaign.’’

A NSW Police spokeswoman confirmed Liverpool City Police Area Command officer were investigating reports of alleged threatening phone calls made to an office in Liverpool.

“As inquiries are ongoing, anyone with information is urged to contact Green Valley Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000,’’ she said.

Mr Daoud said he advocated for the Liberals to be put last in the 2011 and 2012 council election and for Labor to be put last in the 2022 federal and 2023 state ballots.

This year, he said he would continue “advocating voters to vote against the Liberals’ evil and destructive policies in this election”.

There is no suggestion the Liberals are behind the death threats.

Mr Daoud is of Palestinian heritage and said he ran for the seat of Werriwa to highlight the issue of very low representation of migrants born in non-English speaking countries in the federal parliament.

“I am a strong campaigner for family values, civil liberties and equal rights for migrants,’’ he said.

He has recently been outspoken against Sunni extremism and in 2017 favoured a proposal to ban the burqa.

He was also a supporter of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and said he had received death threats in previous campaigns.

In 2023 he ran for the state seat of Auburn for the United Australia Party.

Last year he reportedly criticised the public education system after he found out his child was attending a prayer group without his consent, and questioned if high schools were doing enough to guard against extremism among students.