Arrahman College in Western Sydney linked to terrorist
A charity founded by a terrorist and led by a militant group supporter is behind a new 800-student Islamic school in Sydney.
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Exclusive: An Islamic organisation approved to build a $10 million school in Western Sydney has been linked to militant group Hezbollah through its terrorist founder and sympathiser director.
The New South Wales-based charity, the Al-Mabarrat Benevolent Society, which was founded by Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, received state and council approval in 2017 to build Arrahman College in Austral.
According to its Facebook page, the 800-student school will be opened in stages with the first anticipated to be completed next year.
Fadlallah, who died in 2010, is described by the US Government as a “leading ideological figure” of Hezbollah and is listed as a Specially Designated Terrorist by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Such was his influence that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement after his death: “Today we lost a merciful father, a wise teacher and a strong staff”.
“His good word and determined stance will stay within us and guide us in acting for jihad.”
Fadlallah is also credited as the founder of the Al-Mabarrat Charity Association in Lebanon and the Michigan-based Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization USA, which share their logos with the Australian arm.
Five weeks after Arrahman College’s foundation stone was laid in June this year, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) revoked Al-Mabarrat Benevolent Society’s charity status, but a spokeswoman was unable to say why due to strict secrecy provisions.
One of the charity’s five directors, Yacoub Hammoud, denied the organisation had links to Hezbollah when questioned by News Corp Australia.
“No way, no,” Mr Hammoud said.
“It’s just a charity.”
The other directors include Fadlallah’s sons Jaafar and Ahmad, who took on the role in the month after their father’s death, Mustapha Hassan and Sheikh Youssef Nabha, an Imam at the charity’s associated Sydney mosque, Masjid Arrahman.
Jaafar and Ahmad are listed as living in Lebanon on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents for the charity and are referred to as religious leaders in ACNC documents.
Mr Hassan is understood to be living in Sydney and working as an electrician.
Hezbollah’s military wing is not currently designated as a terrorist organisation by the Australia Government, but is in a number of countries including the UK and the US.
While Mr Hammoud claims his organisation is not linked to the militant group, he has posted messages of support for Hezbollah’s leader on Facebook.
In 2014, Mr Hammoud posted an image of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, with the caption, “Every year your victory is permanent”.
He posted another picture of Nasrallah two years later with the caption, “With heart, soul and conscience” and referred to him as “master”.
When asked about the posts, Mr Hammoud said they were “personal” and repeatedly dodged questions about whether he supported Hezbollah or Nasrallah.
“Is that support?” he questioned News Corp Australia.
“You can support anyone you like.
“I’m with Al-Mabarrat charity and I told you we only support orphans.”
He then reaffirmed both he and the charity “definitely” do not support Hezbollah.
In December 2015, Mr Hammoud shared a video of his brother, Hezbollah commander Abbas Hussein Hammoud.
The video shows Abbas Hammoud pledging his allegiance to Allah.
In the 11-minute video Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is heard saying in the background, “martyrs are what we value most”.
Abbas later says his main objective is to achieve the goal of martyrdom or he will be “in the party of Satan”.
“This party is represented today by the USA, Israel, the West and its followers, and the infidels,” he says.
“They have filled our earth with bad deeds and blood and our obligations are jihad and the perseverance and to follow Ayatollah Khomeini (a former Iranian leader) and Nasrallah as they are the beacons of our paths”.
Israeli Middle East expert, Abu Ali — not his real name and who was contacted via Dr Ran Porat from the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University — told News Corp Australia that Abbas Hammoud was a “relatively senior commander” and was killed while fighting in Syria in October 2015.
Mr Ali said Abbas was a marksman and helped transport Hezbollah fighters during the 2006 Lebanon war.
Yacoub Hammoud shared a picture of Abbas in the days following his death and commented, “have mercy on your death and may God reward you”.
Yacoub attended Abbas’ funeral and was pictured in front of a banner bearing the “martyr’s” face and a Hezbollah flag.
A memorial was held for Abbas at Al-Mabarrat Benevolent Society’s Sydney mosque, Masjid Arrahman in December 2015.
When Mr Hammoud was asked by News Corp Australia to confirm if his brother was a commander for Hezbollah, he said “I don’t know, I have no idea what he is”, but later said Abbas had fought for the militant group.
The mosque’s Imam and Al-Mabarrat director, Sheikh Nabha met with the secretary-general of political group, the Lebanese Future Movement in early 2015.
According to a post on Al-Mabarrat’s Facebook page, Mr Nabha discussed the need to “reactivate dialogue between all the sects, doctrines and political parties in the region especially between Hezbollah and the Future Movement”.
The groups have previously come to blows with former Future Movement official Dr Moustafa Allouch saying Hezbollah had “all the characteristics of a terrorist party” in 2011.
Dr Porat, who serves as research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Israel, said offering a “wide range of education, health and welfare services” was a common tactic for organisations like Hezbollah to gain followers.
He added there was “no real legal barrier” to stop this occurring.
“So that’s why you can collect money let’s say in America or Europe and send to your local school in Lebanon and it’s actually a Hezbollah school,” he said.
He added there was documented “grassroots” support for Hezbollah “especially in Sydney” and the first step to making a change was changing the legal definition of Hezbollah.
“It’s not something you can just ignore.”
In a 2006 article by the now defunct Sydney magazine The Bulletin, one of Al-Mabarrat Benevolent Society’s directors Mustapha Hassan said the charity regularly sent cheques of $20,000 plus to Lebanon.
At the time, Mr Hassan said he did not have any family members involved in Hezbollah but said he supported the resistance in Lebanon.
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The charity is not currently sending money to Lebanon according to Mr Hammoud, and when asked how much they’d sent in the past he said it “depends”.
“For a long time we didn’t send that’s the thing, we were doing projects here (Australia),” he said.
Mr Hammoud said the only project the charity was currently working on was Arrahman College.
The ACNC’s decision to revoke Al-Mabarrat Benevolent Society’s charity status was backdated to July 2016, meaning it received a total of $2,493,738 in income during a period it was not entitled to tax concessions.
As of June 30, 2018, its assets totalled more than $11m.
An Australian Taxation Office spokeswoman was unable to say whether there would be tax implications for the organisation as a result of it losing its charitable status.
When asked why the charity’s status had been revoked, Mr Hammoud told News Corp Australia: “I don’t know, whatever you know”.
“We’re not complying with, I don’t know, a few things.”
He added they had employed a solicitor to help them review the case and lodge an appeal.
Mr Hammoud said he did not know if the revocation would impact the future of Arrahman College.
The ceremony to place Arrahman College’s foundation stone was attended by members of the Liverpool City Council (LCC) as well as Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah’s brother, Dr Sayyed Muhammad Baqir Fadlullah, who is the general manager of the Al-Mabarrat Charity Association in Lebanon.
When council was asked if it was aware of the charity’s links to a terrorist organisation and if its charity status revocation would impact the school, LCC CEO Kiersten Fishburn said: “Council assessed the development application submitted by Al-Mabarrat Benevolent Society for a school in Austral in accordance with NSW Government Planning Regulations”.
The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment were posed the same questions and a spokeswoman said the school was approved on its planning merits.
Dr Fadlullah and the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Society are mentioned in a civil lawsuit filed in the New York District Court on behalf of American nationals who were injured, and the estates of those who were killed in Iraq between 2004 and 2011 by Hezbollah.
A number of Lebanese banks are also named as defendants as they allegedly supported Hezbollah “in the form of financial and banking services”.
Neither the charity nor Dr Fadlallah are listed as defendants, but the document alleges he is connected to Hezbollah through a number of companies he co-owns with Ali Hassan Berro who is alleged to be “an attorney for many of the companies associated with Hezbollah’s money laundering network”.
Originally published as Arrahman College in Western Sydney linked to terrorist
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