New Sydney cleric outburst calls on Allah to kill Zionists ‘one by one’

A Sydney leader, friends with former sport stars Sonny Bill Williams and Anthony Mundine, preached for Allah to ‘kill them one by one’, referring to Jews.

Kamal Abu Mariam gives a sermon on November 24 at Roselands Mosque.

A Sydney Islamic leader friendly with high-profile former rugby league stars Sonny Bill Williams and Anthony Mundine has given an incendiary sermon in which he prayed to Allah to “kill them (Jewish Zionists) one by one”, which could fly close to breaching NSW hate-speech laws.

Footage has surfaced of Sheik Kamal Abu Mariam giving a 30-minute long sermon at southwest Sydney’s Roselands Mosque in which he called for a boycott of companies linked to the “Zionist Nazi regime” and prayed for Allah to strike down and “kill” – what appeared to be a reference to – “Jewish Zionists” in Israel.

“Oh Allah (God), we hope you count them (Jewish Zionists) and kill them one by one,” the sheik said in Arabic, translated into English by The Australian. “Don’t keep any (one) of them.”

The sermon, posted to the mosque’s Facebook page in late November and picked up by extremism monitoring services this month, comes as The Australian has revealed a raft of hate-speech sermons by Islamic leaders across southwest Sydney.

The site used to be owned by Mr Mundine and former Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldog Hazem El Masri, who put in the initial 2009 application for the mosque but later stepped away and are no longer associated with it.

Roselands mosque in southwest Sydney.

According to the latest documents filed by the mosque with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, current directors are Rabih El-Ayoubi and Ahmad Kamaledine. The latter is a former director of the influential Lebanese Muslim Association but is no longer on that organisation’s board.

On January 8, another LMA former director, Samier Dandan, ceased his role as a director and secretary of the mosque, according to ASIC.

On the sheik’s social media accounts he posted pictures last year with Mr Williams at the mosque, describing the rugby star as his “dear brother” and appeared in 2018 pictures at the holy city of Mecca with the former All Blacks player.

Mr Mundine and Mr Williams also helped fund a new mosque in Hurstville that reportedly was “spearheaded” by the sheik.

A picture posted by sheikh Kamal Abu Mariam, right, in April 2023 alongside former All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams. Picture: Facebook

“Oh Allah, shake the ground under their feet,” Sheik Abu Mariam said in the sermon, giving a traditional Islamic du’a, a prayer asking God for help. “Oh Allah, don’t raise their flag and don’t achieve their goals, and make an example of them.”

The rhetoric is significant in its seemingly direct – albeit broad – call for violence, although it appears the sheik is referring to Jewish Zionists in Israel in the context of the conflict, rather than in Australia. In NSW, hate-speech legislation – enclosed in section 93Z of the criminal code – outlaws inciting violence on the basis of race or religion.

The Australian has previously reported how – although strengthened by the Minns government in November – the legislation’s threshold is high and narrow, and it is understood only specific calls to violence would likely be chargeable under the act.

NSW Premier Chris Minns in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Speaking on Tuesday, Premier Chris Minns was reluctant to comment on the sermon out of context but said he would change existing laws if they failed to “capture inflammatory or racist rhetoric”. “The (reporting) I’ve seen in relation to these speeches (given by religious leaders) has been terrible,” Mr Minns said. “It’s racist and designed to sow seeds of division in our society. I’m concerned about its impact on our cohesive society.”

The government’s November changes to section 93Z dropped the requirement for police to seek approval from the Director of Public Prosecutions to lay charges. “I’ve made it clear that we are not averse to changing the laws around hate speech if we don’t believe that they are capturing the kind of inflammatory and racist rhetoric that’s designed to pull people apart,” Mr Minns said.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said this type of rhetoric “undermined” the societal harmony “that all Australians treasurer”.

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley, left, shaking hands with NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip. Picture: Monique Harmer

“It is outrageous and intolerable that preachers in Sydney are allowed to call for Jews to be ‘killed one by one’,” he said.

“If the law does not prohibit dangerous incitement such as this, then the law needs to be urgently amended.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the words were not fit for “civilised society”.

“These chilling words spoken to a room of devout believers expresses the extermination of the Jews as an aspiration and a religious duty,” he said.

“It is repugnant to our society and a threat to every Australian... This has to end and the only way that will happen will be through the police and the courts.”

The Australian revealed how the Executive Council of Australian Jewry were taking legal steps against some of the clerics, most likely via the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Roselands Mosque was contacted for comment on Sheik Abu Mariam’s sermon, and the sheik through the mosque’s channels.

NSW Police were contacted to ascertain if it was aware of the sermon and whether it was making inquiries. Mr Mundine declined to comment, citing a lack of context and fear of his words being “twisted”.