Family First National Director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton has called on the Australian Federal Police to urgently investigate Melbourne Islamic preacher Abu Ahmad and, if the evidence establishes an offence, charge him over reported remarks urging Muslims to \u201ctake up arms\u201d against the enemies of Allah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Age\/SMH<\/a> and News2<\/a>4 today reported that Abu Ahmad, a preacher associated with Melbourne\u2019s Al Bayyinah Islamic Centre, told followers in a July sermon not to take \u201cthe Jews and the Christians for friends\u201d and spoke of an obligation \u201cto take up arms against his enemies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is chilling language which demands an urgent response from law enforcement,\u201d Mr Shelton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralians should not have to tolerate preachers using places of worship or social media platforms to promote hostility towards Christians, Jews or anyone else, let alone language about taking up arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe AFP should examine the full, unedited sermon and all relevant material and determine whether Commonwealth criminal laws have been breached. If the evidence establishes an offence, Abu Ahmad should be charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralia has religious freedom, but religious freedom is not a licence to incite violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf Islam is a religion of peace, Australian Muslim leaders should be among the strongest voices condemning rhetoric about taking up arms against Jews and Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere should be no ambiguity. There should be no excuses. Muslim community leaders should make clear that incitement to violence against people because of their faith has no place in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomeone found to be inciting religious violence should not be free to continue preaching that message in Australian Islamic worship centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGovernments should examine what lawful mechanisms are available to prevent people found to have incited violence from using religious institutions as platforms for further extremist preaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Shelton said authorities should also investigate the Al Bayyinah Islamic Centre itself, including the material it has published and any relevant organisational or financial links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Age\/SMH reports the centre was established in Springvale in 2024 and has been supported by Sydney preacher Wisam Haddad. It also cites an April 2025 ABC Four Corners investigation which described Al Bayyinah as an affiliated Melbourne prayer centre in a wider network associated with Haddad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe vast majority of Australians, whatever their religion, want to live peacefully alongside their neighbours,\u201d Mr Shelton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat peace depends upon authorities drawing a clear line at incitement to violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralia must remain a country where Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of every faith or none can live without being threatened because of what they believe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Family First National Director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton has called on the Australian Federal Police to urgently investigate Melbourne Islamic preacher Abu Ahmad and, if the evidence establishes an offence, charge him over reported remarks urging Muslims to \u201ctake up arms\u201d against the enemies of Allah. The Age\/SMH and News24 today reported that Abu … Continue reading “AFP must investigate \u2018take up arms\u2019 preacher”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41004,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003\/revisions\/41004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}