Australia / Israel Review

The Roselands Mosque in NSW has become a hub for extremist preachers articulating hate and antisemitism and undermining Australia’s multiculturalism.

“Allah! kill the Zionist Jews and purify al-Aqsa from Jewish abomination”

One of the imams speaking regularly in front of audiences in this mosque is Kamal Abu Mariam. According to the Australian, this cleric is “friendly with high-profile former rugby league stars Sonny Bill Williams and Anthony Mundine,” who later even helped Abu Mariam in fundraising for a mosque.

Yet Abu Mariam is an extremist who, for example, encourages martyrdom (February 2024), listing the many ‘benefits’ the Muslim martyr will ‘enjoy’ in the afterlife (such as forgiveness from Allah, 70 heavenly women and a crown). Similarly, he is not a fan of multiculturalism and respect for other religions.

In January 2024, he warned an audience at the mosque “not to partake in any of these non-Muslim celebrations,” and that even saying “Merry Christmas” is forbidden, because doing this may convert a person to Christianity.

The Australian story (Jan. 17) focused on Abu Mariam’s November 2023 sermon, where he called on Muslims to boycott firms with ties to the “Zionist Nazi regime”, and beseeched Allah to “count them (Jewish Zionists) and kill them one by one. Don’t keep any (one) of them [alive].”

Despite being exposed by the media, Abu Mariam did not end his rhetoric of incitement. On the contrary – his extremism was again revealed during an event at the Roselands Mosque in December 2023 titled “The Conflict in Palestine”. The other two speakers at the event were preachers Abd al-Salam Zoud and Mohammad Doar (who speaks about “the Zionist oppressive movement”) from the fundamentalist “Ahl As-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah” movement, who occasionally give sermons at this mosque.

Soon after October 7, for example, Doar gave (Oct. 20) the Friday Khutba (sermon) at the mosque. Headlined “Palestine! What did we expect?”, Doar said during the sermon: “Allah says that you will find that the most severe in enmity towards the believers are the Yahud [Jews]… So the reality is… as hard as it is to witness what is happening [in Gaza] we should not expect anything less from such a people. A people that Allah… has taught us are Katalat al-anbiyah [killers of prophets]. They killed hundreds of prophets and messengers in their time. Why would they show mercy to the innocent and the weak today?” He later also argued that Jews “distorted” their holy books.

In his speech at the December event, Abu Mariam claimed that “the Zionist narrative was always in the forefront, always took precedence worldwide, and the truth was always hidden, concealed.” His explanation of this ’phenomenon’ was directly rooted in classic “Jewish world domination” tropes: “Because they [Jews] were in charge of the media, of journalists, of governments, of of of… [everything]. That’s how powerful… the Zionist Jewish lobby is.”

Constantly labelling the Jewish state “the criminal Nazi apartheid regime,” Abu Mariam warned that unless the Muslims voice their opinions against “the enemies of Allah [Israel]… their narrative will be in the forefront. Their [Jews] deception, and lies and propaganda will be at the forefront, deceiving fools who parrot and puppet what they [the Zionists] want them to do, what they want them to say.”

“And that’s what we have always been hearing, from governments and politicians and what have you – things that please this Zionist criminal regime. [This is] because… they have a strong lobby, where they bribe politicians, they sponsor politicians, they support politicians. And anyone who goes against them, they’ll do anything to destroy them – physically and verbally.”

In a separate sermon in December, Abu Mariam again spoke about the war in Gaza, condemning “the relentless and cowardly bombings [by] the criminal Israeli Nazi apartheid regime.” He complained that “in some countries” you cannot protest against Israel, and “you have to remain deaf, dumb and blind and silent to your puppet masters – to the Zionists and the Jewish lobby.” The sermon finished with a prayer (Dua’a) by Abu Mariam, asking Allah to kill all “Zionists” and “purify” al-Aqsa from Jewish filth:

“Oh Allah, honour Islam and Muslims, and humiliate polytheism and polytheists… Allah the defeater of all parties, defeat the Zionist usurpers. Oh Allah, defeat them. Oh God, shake them. Oh Allah, show us the wonders of your ability over them. Oh Allah, place [your might] in their throats and as we seek refuge in you from their evils. Oh Allah, overcome them in numbers and kill them wastefully, and do not leave any of them alive… Oh Allah, purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the abomination and defilement of the Jews, and purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the abomination and defilement of the Jews.”

Abu Mariam also said, “Zionist Jews have transgressed and wreaked havoc, and caused corruption on Earth.”

The video of his speech concludes with a warning that these Zionists will be punished, a quote from the Koran (Surah Ibrahim, Ayat 42): “Do not think ‘O Prophet’ that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them until a Day when ‘their’ eyes will stare in horror.”

Another extremist preacher at the Roselands Mosque is Omar Najjarine, a podiatrist by profession, who seems to hold similar extremist views to Abu Mariam and Doar.

For example, in a 2020 lecture (published by ASWJ), Najjarine warned that the fictional Netflix show “Messiah” (about a 21st-century man claiming to be the Messiah) was created to “confuse” Muslims about the real life and character of Jesus. In Najjarine’s conspiratorial mind, the creators of this show “are very well educated on the Dajjal [devil], the anti-Christ, the Mehdi [Islam’s Messiah], the story of Islam, the end of days [Day of Judgment] – they know it very well. And they are trying to obviously distort the mind of the believer, the mind of the Muslim, or leave him in limbo.” He suggested confusing and harming Muslims was the only explanation for the show, asking: “Why would they spend millions of dollars to make a movie about this?”

In a sermon on Dec.1, 2023 at the Roselands Mosque, he argued that “Arabs to the Israelis are like nothing. [They say], ‘We are superior.’ And we [Arabs] are nothing.” He then repeated the famous false belief that Jews in Muslim countries “have no fear of where they are living… they are happy to be under the rule and protection of the Muslims. This is how it has been for hundreds of years.”

Then, Najjarine went into a full antisemitic tirade – “This is who they [Jews] are. Allah told us about the Israelites so many times in the Koran… Allah has warned us over and over about them. He has told us they have killed prophets and messengers because they didn’t like them. Allah told us how they disobeyed Moses. The Israelites have always been a problem. They have broken their covenant with Allah over and over and over again.”

In line with the popular ‘Zionism is not Judaism’ line, Najjarine referred to “Jews – Orthodox Jews – that understand that Allah banished them from the Land of Israel, from this land, because they disobeyed Allah.”

Jews, concluded Najjarine, are cursed, malicious and a source of evil and corruption: “What is your expectation from people that Allah has told that they are cursed? They cannot fight a people who love death more than they love life. This is the key. Why are there so many verses [in the Koran] and chapters even about the Israelites? Because Allah is teaching you about who they are. Because there will be many days to come when these people will cause strife, corruption, and evil on this earth.”

Ran Porat is a lecturer on Israel and Middle Eastern Affairs at Monash University and an affiliate research associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. He is also a research associate at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) and a research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University in Herzliya.