Melbourne preacher warns young Australian Muslims ‘falling to liberal ideologies’

A cleric at a new Islamic centre in Melbourne backed by radical Sydney preacher Wissam Haddad says young Muslims are being ‘brainwashed’, and that the first words spoken by a child shouldn’t be mother or father but ‘Allah’.

A preacher known as Brother Abu Ahmad. Picture: YouTube

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A cleric at a newly established ­Islamic centre in Melbourne backed by radical Sydney ­preacher Wissam Haddad has ­lamented that young Australian Muslims are being “brainwashed … falling victim to liberal ideologies”, and that the first words ­spoken by a child shouldn’t be ­mother or father but “Allah”.

The Al Bayyinah Islamic Centre was established late last year in Springvale, in Melbourne’s southeast suburbs, renting space in a hall for Friday prayers.

It is backed by Sydney’s Al ­Madina Dawah Centre and its owner, Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, who is being sued by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Mr Haddad had previously ­expressed a desire to expand to Melbourne but has since voiced his support for the new centre.

Established in mid-October and initially based at Springvale’s Edinburgh Hall, which is owned and leased out by Greater ­Dandenong City Council, the Al Bayyinah centre has been spruiked by Mr Haddad on social media. He has urged his “Melbourne brothers” to show their support and attend its weekly prayers.

With a slick social-media footprint, a preacher known as ­Brother Abu Ahmad warned Al Bayyinah’s congregation – and followers on YouTube and TikTok – that young Australian Muslims were converting to “liberal ideologies” and becoming ­“desensitised” to what was forbidden in Islam.

“My dear brothers, it is saddening to tell you that we continue to hear stories of our youth falling victim to liberal ideologies and being confused, brainwashed by so-called logical thinkers,” ­Brother Ahmad told the congregation in January. “Our youth are turning away from Islam and are turning to other ways of life right under our noses.

“My dear brothers, Tawhid ­(Islamic monotheism) needs to be instilled in our youth from the ­moment they utter their first word. We have neglected our children. Instead of teaching them to say the name of Allah first, we teach them to say mama or baba. We didn’t set their priorities.”

An Al Bayyinah spokesman said the centre was composed of members of Melbourne’s Muslim community and that it was only aware of Mr Haddad as a fellow community member.

Wissam Haddad pictured outside Sydney’s Federal Court in December. Picture: NCA NewsWire

“We are an independent not-for-profit … (aiming) to build a community helping Muslim youths, swaying them away from street (and) gang life, anything that goes against our core ­beliefs and morals, and educating them about Islam,” the spokesman said.

In January, Brother Ahmad told the Al Bayyinah’s audience that young Australian Muslims were becoming “desensitised” to what Islam deemed a sin, such as “haram relationships” and certain music, and seeing women without religious headdress, ­lamenting how it had become the “new normal”.

“Tawhid is being neglected from our curriculum, especially as Muslims learning Islam in the lands of the West,” Brother Ahmad said, criticising mainstream imams and warning of those who had “secretly” left Islam but “lived among us”.

“Our community leaders need to work twice as hard, teaching our youth tawhid, because of how easy it is to be brainwashed and how easy our imams can be poisoned by other ideologies.

“And this is why it is prohibited to live in these lands (the West), the risk of losing your Islam is too high.”

In December, Brother Ahmad said sharia was the “legislation sent to mankind”, and the only set of rules to “be implemented and ruled by”, adding that Western societies would demand its implementation if they “knew the truth”.

“We’ve neglected the rule of Allah, and we have accepted and stayed silent to other legislations,” he said.

“If non-Muslims know the truth of the sharia they would be swarming the streets, protesting that they want the sharia themselves. (Non-Muslims) are paying 30 per cent tax and (in) sharia it is only 2.5 per cent.”

Criticising people who ­labelled some Muslim preachers as “extremists”, Brother Ahmad urged followers to “gain knowledge” from Muslim political prisoners and those “martyred in the path of Allah”. The centre’s spokesman said it was a reference to classical scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah and Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Edinburgh Hall, in Springvale, southeast Melbourne, which is owned and leased out by Greater Dandenong City Council.

The Al Bayyinah centre ­recently called for the release of Aafia Siddiqui – “Lady al-Qa’ida” – who it said was “imprisoned unjustly by the United States government”.

Once the US’s most-wanted woman for her links to al-Qa’ida’s leadership, Siddiqui was sentenced in 2010 to 86 years in prison for attempting to kill US military personnel.

The sentencing prompted protests in her native Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has lobbied the US for Siddiqui’s release, and al-Qa’ida and other extremist groups have demanded she be freed.

Separately, YouTube recently took down Mr Haddad’s page, but he has since taken to TikTok. In relation to legal ­action, he will appear in Federal Court in Sydney in February ahead of a possible June trial date.

In that matter, leaders from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry alleges Mr Haddad vilified the Jewish community with a raft of sermons that, among others, allegedly described Jewish people as “descends of pigs and monkeys”, and “vile, treacherous people” with their “hands” in media and business.

Mr Haddad disputes that allegation and is defending the matter in court. He claimed that his comments were “taken out of context” and nothing he said breached any criminal provisions, adding that it was “pointless to make a fuss about it now”.