Islamic Council of Victoria president Adel Salman labels Oct 7 attack ‘legitimate’ act of resistance

The Allan government is being urged to defund a peak Islamic body after its president labelled Hamas’ music festival massacre “a legitimate act of resistance” by the Palestinian people.

Islamic Council of Victoria president Adel Salman has refused to condemn Hamas’ brutal onslaught on October 7 in which 1200 people were murdered and another 253 were taken hostage. Picture: Mark Wilson

The Allan government is under pressure from Jewish leaders to cut funding from Victoria’s peak Islamic body after its president labelled the October 7 massacre by Hamas a “legitimate act of resistance” by the Palestinian people.

Islamic Council of Victoria president Adel Salman on Wednesday refused to denounce Hamas’s brutal onslaught nearly five months ago in which 1200 people were murdered, including children, babies and 360 festival-goers.

Multiple eyewitnesses have also described horrific sexual assaults, including gang rapes.

The prominent Muslim leader, however, called the actions of Palestinians who carried out the attack “absolutely legitimate”.

“I’m not going to condemn the Palestinians for resisting,” Mr Salman told ABC Radio National’s breakfast show.

Mr Salman claimed the ICV “denounce any violence and killing of civilians” but continued to say: “What we don’t denounce very clearly is legitimate acts of resistance”.

“And for the Palestinians to rise up on October 7, and say, we’re no longer going to tolerate this siege, this occupation, that’s legitimate,” he said.

Adel Salman has described the October 7 massacre as a legitimate act of resistance. Picture: Mark Wilson

The comments quickly sparked fierce backlash from Jewish leaders, many of whom noted the ICV’s main source of funding comes from state government grants.

Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldfarb called on the Allan government to strip the Muslim peak body of “any existing funding” and to disable future funding “until they start working for tolerance and peace”.

“That even one cent of taxpayer funds is given to an ­organisation that justifies murder, rape and wholesale slaughter is unfathomable,” he said.

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria urged the government to “reconsider funding to the ICV if the organisation does not distance itself from Mr Salman’s views”.

“Australians do not condone terrorism,” she said.

The latest grant to the peak body was announced in November, with the Allan government dividing $3m between four Islamic groups, including the ICV, for “critical outreach work”.

Mr Salman (second from right) with Multicultural Affairs Minister Ingrid Stitt (right) at government funded event 'Open Mosque Day' on Sunday February 25, 2024. Picture: ICV Facebook

A 2018 state government investigation found the organisation, which also provides social welfare services, had received $2.4m in state government funding between 2010 and 2018.

As revealed by the Herald Sun at the time, the organisation had controversially called for taxpayer-funded “safe spaces” where Muslim youth could vent extreme speech.

ICV vice president Mohamed Mohideen, who is also employed by the Victorian government as a multicultural commissioner, was investigated last year over a series of ­social media posts accusing Israel of “genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder”.

The commission allowed Mr Mohideen to retain his role.

Burnt cars were left behind at the site of the attack on the Supernova desert music festival. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

The ICV on Wednesday afternoon sought to walk back Mr Salman’s comments, claiming his views about legitimate resistance were “in reference to the right of Palestinians, like all peoples, to resist their occupation, and must not be read as legitimising the killing of innocent civilians”.

It comes after Mr Salman said he had written to Premier Jacinta Allan urging her to cancel an annual Iftar dinner, citing the Muslim community’s opposition to the Labor Party’s position “regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

The leaders urged the government to increase pressure on Israel to commit to a ceasefire as the death toll continues to rise in Gaza.

Senior Minister Steve Dimopoulos said a “scaled down version” of the event would go ahead.