Firebrand Muslim speaker toured Australia despite warning to federal minister

Mohammed Ghuloom has spent the past 11 days giving talks in major cities, despite a warning by the ZFA on June 12 that he had glorified former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Mohammed Ghuloom has previously appeared to glorify slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Picture: Instagram

A Muslim speaker who has glorified former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a former Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leader has been on a speaking tour of Australia for more than a week, despite the Zionist Federation of Australia having urged the Albanese government to cancel his visa.

Mohammed Ghuloom has spent the past 11 days giving talks in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, despite the warning on June 12 by the ZFA and has shared videos and images of his talks, including one where he led primary school-aged children in a song.

On the day after Nasrallah was assassinated by the Israeli air force, Mr Ghuloom posted on Instagram a greyscale picture of the then leader of Lebanese terror organisation Hezbollah with a caption that read, in Arabic, “to God we belong and to him we shall ­return … Killing is our custom, and our honour is martyrdom.

“May God reward you greatly, oh master of the age, may God hasten his reappearance.”

In another post, Mr Ghuloom uploaded a greyscale image of former IRGC major general Qasem Soleimani on the one-year anniversary of his assassination by the US. And in yet another social media post, he referred to Iranian revolutionary Mostafa Chamran – who served as the country’s deputy prime minister after the revolution and commanded the guerilla warfare units in the Iran-Iraq war – as a “martyr”.

Chamran was assessed to have been among the leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in a 1979 US Central Intelligence Agency report, published publicly in 2004.

ZFA president Jeremy Leibler and chief executive Alon Cassuto wrote a letter to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on June 12 urging him to cancel Mr Ghuloom’s visa. “We are deeply concerned Ghuloom’s presence in Australia poses a significant risk to the health, safety and good order of the Australian community, including through promoting extremist ideologies and vilifying Jewish Australians,” they said.

“Ghuloom has a record of support for Hezbollah – a listed terrorist organisation under the Australian Criminal Code.

“Ghuloom’s social media features video and images of him glorifying Hezbollah terrorist organ­is­­ation leader Hassan Nasrallah, on stage in front of a large crowd, as well as uploading a post to his social media accounts eulogising the terrorist leader following his death.

“Similarly, Ghuloom posted an image dedicated to Mustafa Chamran, a commander and guerrilla fighter for the IRGC.

“We are gravely alarmed that Ghuloom’s speaking tour is currently under way, with scheduled events until at least the 23rd of June – including 13 engagements across four states. This offers him a broad platform from which to espouse potentially dangerous and divisive ideologies.

“Your government has expressed concern about the increasing embrace of extreme ideologies by Australians. In light of this, we strongly urge you to cancel Ghuloom’s visa without delay, as his platform risks amplifying hatred and division at a time when community cohesion and safety must be paramount.”

Contacted for comment, Mr Burke said: “Visa cancellations are decided under the same provisions of the Migration Act, which have been in place for many years.”

The letter came after Mr Burke cancelled the visa of Israeli-American tech influencer Hillel Fuld, who was due to speak at fundraising events in Australia, as The Australian revealed this month.

The department accused him of having used social media to deny “documented atrocities” in Gaza, promoted Islamophobic views, and spread inflammatory content to incite division.

Mr Ghuloom did not respond to requests for comment.