His father and accomplice, Sajid Akram, was killed by police during the attack.
This week this masthead reported that a teenage Akram had associated with a street-preaching group in Bankstown called Street Dawah Movement, appearing in a series of videos and photos on their social media.
The group has distanced themselves from Akram, saying he attended their programs only briefly in 2019, calling him a “visitor”.
Naveed Akram on the street in Bankstown as part of the Dawah movement.Credit: Facebook
“He is a criminal, a thug and a terrorist,” a spokesman for Street Dawah Movement (SDM) told this masthead on Thursday.
“It’s not us.”
This masthead this week reported that other members of an IS cell, first detected by counter-terror squads in 2018, had also attended SDM events.
Convicted terror sympathisers Joseph Saadieh and Youssef Uweinat have appeared on their social media, and were on the radar of counter-terror authorities at the time for associating with IS terrorist Isaac El Matari.
Naveed Akram has been charged with almost 60 offences, including 15 murders.
Saadieh and another convicted IS sympathiser, Moudasser Taleb, also attended SDM programs in 2021, shortly before Saadieh’s arrest, according to court documents.
“It is a betrayal – they are snakes,” the SDM spokesman said.
“They have been charged and released and are no longer part of our movement — they were only visitors.
“We are based in a factory of terrorism – this is Bankstown in Sydney.
“But we don’t have any associates who are terrorists, and we don’t agree with terrorists. We are a community group that helps anyone who needs it.”
Extremist preacher Wissam Haddad outside the Federal Court in Sydney in July.Credit: Edwina Pickles
A number of IS cell members have also been linked to Haddad, the radical cleric who has become the target of increased attention due to his extreme rhetoric.
In July, the Federal Court ruled Haddad vilified the Jewish community in lectures posted online that perpetuated “age-old tropes against Jewish people that are fundamentally racist and antisemitic”.
Haddad, in a recent sermon at the Al Madina Centre in Bankstown, railed against mosques which take money from the government to run programs to curb extremism.
He asked followers to donate money to attend his sermons, in part to fund his own Dawah Van initiative.
Haddad did not respond to questions on Thursday, but released a lengthy statement in which he sought to distance himself from Akram by saying there were “no verified photos” of the two together.
IS associate Joseph Saadieh with the same street Dawah group before his arrest in mid-2021.Credit: Street Dawah
While he did not address whether he knew the alleged shooter, he said it was “misleading” to call Akram a follower because “no evidence has been produced showing any personal, organisation or instructional link” between the two.
Haddad, who has been described as the spiritual leader of Islamic State in Australia, said there was “no evidence to support this allegation” and that he had never been “charged, tried, or convicted” of IS membership.
The SDM spokesman said the group had referred Saadieh, in particular, for counselling services, and blamed Haddad for influencing young and impressionable Muslims.
“Haddad takes advantage of their vulnerability,” the spokesman said.
“Most of them are unstable, so they feel special there.”
A senior source within the Muslim community who has worked across a range of organisations and with knowledge of Haddad’s history told this masthead the preacher had a “silver tongue” and targeted “vulnerable young men”.
Vision of Sajid Akram being tackled by Ahmed al Ahmed during the Bondi Beach shooting.
“They’re always young, and usually come from broken homes,” the source said.
They added that Haddad had been “excommunicated” from the broader Muslim community for his views, and that there had always been a “strong correlation” between Haddad and a string of terror offenders.
“He is always pictured smiling in the background with these guys, and always people under 25. He gets to them and they get into his circle, and then get locked up.”
“It’s cowardly behaviour.”
Pro-IS social media networks on Thursday began releasing videos which showed Akram’s attack set to religious hymns and verses.
Other videos, shared by the same networks, show Akram advocating for Dawah during the time he associated with the broader street movement.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised new reforms to target hate preachers and increase penalties for hate speech that promotes violence.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said individuals who “spew hatred and cause fear are on my radar”.
“I have had the counter-terrorism and Special Investigations Command reviewing information and other material in relation to these individuals since I became the commissioner,” she said.
Barrett said the AFP were working through “a lot of material” with domestic and foreign counterparts to “build a more complete picture of the movements and who the alleged offenders had contact with, both in Australia and offshore”.
There have been a number of “street Dawah” groups that have emerged over the past 20 years.
Essentially proselytising, street Dawah programs are popular among some hardline Salafi Muslims. They aim to convert people to their version of Islam.
They have been linked to a series of terror cells overseas and in Australia. In 2014, seven of the 15 men detained as part of counter-terror raid were connected to Parramatta Street Dawah.
Extremist expert Associate Professor Josh Roose from Deakin University, said the broader street Dawah movement had produced “a significant number of jihadis” including the most notorious perpetrators of atrocities in Australia and abroad.
“They are benign looking, but under the surface you see the hatred at the core,” Roose said, calling them “amorphous shape-shifting” entities.
“It’s an organic street movement, which makes it harder to take action against them or proscribe them as a terror group.”
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