Latest news with #WisamHaddad
ABC News
31-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Jihadist preacher Wisam Haddad's organisation stripped of charity status after Four Corners investigation
An organisation run by Sydney jihadist spiritual leader Wisam Haddad has been stripped of its charity status after a Four Corners investigation revealed it was radicalising young Australians while receiving tax breaks from the government. Mr Haddad's Dawah Van Incorporated was registered as a charity to preach on Sydney's streets from 2022, despite his public infamy as a prominent supporter of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. The ABC can reveal the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) revoked the Dawah Van's registration in June, after Four Corners exposed in April how notorious extremists recruited young people through the street-preaching group. A former undercover agent for Australian spy agency ASIO, codenamed Marcus, told the program he infiltrated the Dawah Van group and witnessed how it indoctrinated teenagers into violent extremism. Video of the Dawah Van's activities showed Mr Haddad working to convert teenagers in Sydney's CBD with a violent convicted criminal, Wassim Fayad, who was previously identified in court as an IS recruiter. ACNC commissioner Sue Woodward declined an interview but in a written statement said: "Revocation of charity registration is the most serious action the ACNC can take." "Once a charity loses registration, it is no longer eligible for Commonwealth tax concessions and other benefits that charities are entitled to receive," she said. The Dawah Van has also raised funds for causes overseas. It can continue to operate but will no longer receive GST and income tax exemptions. Mr Haddad's lawyer, Elias Tabchouri, told the ABC the Dawah Van was "working through this issue with the relevant authorities". He said Mr Haddad vehemently denied allegations that he or the organisation were recruiting people into terrorism, or that he was a leader of a pro-IS network. The decision is another blow for Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, who was recently found by the Federal Court to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act in a series of antisemitic lectures. Mr Haddad has long been a controversial media figure, publicly celebrating IS attacks in the West and beheadings in Syria by slain Australian fighters Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar. He became notorious more than a decade ago for running the now-defunct Al-Risalah Islamic Centre, which was publicly identified by courts and media as a hub for terrorism recruiters. University of Queensland charity law expert Kim Weinert said the Dawah Van case exposed serious regulatory flaws, questioning why the organisation was ever granted charity status. "The case raises a number of concerns," Dr Weinert said. "The first is how easy it is for organisations that are actively carrying out questionable activities that can so easily claim charitable status with the ACNC." Dr Weinert accused the "under-resourced" and "tiny" regulator of an inconsistent approach to registering charities, with some rubber-stamped and others rejected almost solely based on paperwork. "It does raise eyebrows and concerns as to what entities are receiving charitable status," she said. Mr Haddad has never been charged with a terrorism-related offence, despite ties to a web of convicted terrorists in Australia and overseas. In recent years, he has worked with terrorist leaders to re-energise the pro-IS network, while a new generation of his teenage followers have been charged with serious terrorism offences and brutal hate crimes in Sydney. Mr Haddad used his new name, William Haddad, when he registered the Dawah Van as a charity in 2022. The charity's vision was to "reach out to the community in order to educating [sic] them about the greatness of God and comprehend purpose of life", according to its constitution. But the Dawah Van was a revival of a Sydney street-preaching group, Street Dawah, which was identified by multiple courts to have recruited young Australians into terrorism more than a decade ago. Similar Street Dawah groups have long been accused by authorities in the UK and Europe of being recruitment arms for terrorist groups. The roving street-preaching teams were pioneered by the international terrorist group al-Muhajiroun, whose leader, Anjem Choudary, was jailed for life in the UK last year. In the Four Corners program, former ASIO spy Marcus revealed Choudary had closely mentored Mr Haddad before his arrest. Marcus also exposed the inner workings of Mr Haddad's Bankstown prayer centre, Al Madina Dawah Centre, and covert groups of IS terrorists in his network. Marcus is now hiding in an undisclosed overseas location, protecting himself from threats published by extremists online. The ABC asked the ACNC why it deregistered the Dawah Van and whether its initial decision to grant charity status was a failure of governance and oversight. But the ACNC said it was precluded from disclosing information about specific charities and investigations, under strict secrecy provisions. The last federal parliament considered legislation to ease the secrecy provisions, allowing the commissioner to release information in limited cases, but the bill lapsed. "Any investigation we undertake must be thorough, independent, comprehensive, proportionate and consistent with our approach to all investigations," Commissioner Sue Woodward said in a statement. "They can be complex and take time to complete. "The ACNC will act firmly where vulnerable people or significant charity assets are at risk, where there is evidence of serious mismanagement or misappropriation, or if there is a serious or deliberate breach of the ACNC Act or ACNC Regulations." The ACNC said it prioritises compliance action against conduct that harms children and vulnerable adults, as well as misuse of a charity for terrorism or extremism, and financial mismanagement. Public records on Dawah Van, which have since been removed from the ACNC's website, showed it failed to submit financial reports to the regulator for two years — a breach that leads to revocation under the commission's policy. Australian authorities have long been wary of the risk of charities supporting terrorism. In 2017, the ACNC and financial crimes agency AUSTRAC assessed the risk of terrorism financing in Australia's not-for-profit sector as medium. In delivering that warning, they cited the number of non-profit organisations that were identified by counterterrorism investigations as linked to known extremists. In one such case, a Sydney charity in Mr Haddad's network, Dar al Quran Wa Sunnah, was accused by Lebanese and Australian authorities of funnelling funds and fighters to IS in Syria. The ACNC revoked Dar al Quran Wa Sunnah's charity status in 2019, four years after the allegations were first aired publicly.
ABC News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Notorious terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika organised funding for radical preacher Wisam Haddad's hate-speech trial
Notorious Australian terrorist leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika organised funding for radical Sydney preacher Wisam Haddad's hate-speech legal battle against Australia's peak Jewish body. The revelation is contained in a Victorian Supreme Court decision, published last week, handing a terrorism supervision order to Benbrika, in part because of his associations with Mr Haddad. Benbrika, who spent 18 years in jail for leading a terrorism cell, met last December with Mr Haddad, who was revealed by Four Corners last month as the spiritual leader of Sydney's pro-Islamic State (IS) network. According to the court judgement, Benbrika made arrangements after their meeting to help fund Mr Haddad's legal battle against the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. The group is suing him for racial vilification in the Federal Court over a series of antisemitic lectures at his radical prayer centre, Al Madina Dawah Centre. The Supreme Court heard the Australian Federal Police (AFP) was surveilling Benbrika, 65, a patriarch of Australian jihadism, when he travelled from Melbourne to meet with Mr Haddad, 45, in Sydney. The court has not revealed what was said between the two jihadist clerics during the meeting, which took place just days after limits on Benbrika's freedom were removed. But their interaction, along with Benbrika's contact with two other extremists, convinced a Supreme Court judge that he posed an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence. Justice James Elliott last month agreed to a federal government bid to extend a community supervision order against Benbrika, curtailing his freedoms and forcing him to continue to participate in a deradicalisation program. His meeting with Mr Haddad was a clear warning sign for authorities, according to John Coyne, a former AFP officer who was involved in the 2005 investigation that led to Benbrika's conviction, Operation Pendennis. "For him, as one of his first acts [after his restrictions were eased], to make contact with someone who is a renowned firebrand speaker in terms of extremist Islam is extraordinary," said Dr Coyne, who is now the director of national security programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "It is not the behaviour of someone who has been deradicalised." Authorities have for years expressed concerns about Benbrika's ability to influence others who have taken up his cause for violent jihad, even from jail. The Algerian-born man was released from jail in December 2023 after serving a 15-year sentence for being the spiritual leader to a terrorism cell that plotted attacks on high-profile targets in Melbourne and Sydney. A court had extended that jail term by three years, under a continuing detention order, after hearing he remained a father figure to Australian jihadists from behind bars. When Benbrika was freed, he was placed on a one-year supervision order in the community. The order was extended on an interim basis in December 2024, but a judge removed many of his conditions — including a curfew, electronic monitoring and restrictions on travel and financial transactions. Within days, he travelled to Sydney to meet with Mr Haddad, according to the Victorian Supreme Court judgement published last week. A forensic psychiatrist found that Benbrika's associations with Mr Haddad and two other extremists increased the risk of the convicted terrorist being encouraged, or encouraging others, to violent extremism, the court heard. According to the psychologist's expert report, the "evidence [of the associations] was a clear risk factor for the commission of a serious [terrorism] offence", Justice Elliot said. Mr Haddad has long been a follower of Benbrika, describing him as a sheikh teaching true Islam. The latest Supreme Court ruling provides further evidence of Mr Haddad's work with jihadist leaders to re-energise Australia's pro-IS network, and indicates just how dangerous authorities consider him to be. A Four Corners investigation last month revealed Mr Haddad's close ties to global terrorist leaders and links to teenage followers accused of terrorism and hate crimes. A former ASIO spy, codenamed Marcus, told Four Corners he infiltrated Mr Haddad's network of prayer centres and covert groups, witnessing how young people were indoctrinated into supporting IS. Mr Haddad has never been charged with a terrorism-related offence, despite his longstanding influence and notoriety. He has for more than two decades been at the centre of a network of terrorists, including slain Australian IS fighter Khaled Sharrouf, who was previously jailed for being a member of Benbrika's cell. Sharrouf, a close friend of Mr Haddad, shocked the world during the Syrian war by posting a photo of his young son holding a severed head. Authorities have long struggled to contain Mr Haddad's influence, securing court orders banning several convicted terrorists from associating with him, and forbidding him from owning weapons. Benbrika is not banned from associating with Mr Haddad. The Supreme Court judgement also reveals Benbrika is considering opening his own Islamic centre in Melbourne. Members of Benbrika's community encouraged him to open the centre, after he was excluded late last year from a mosque he was attending, the court heard. In handing down the extended supervision order (ESO), Justice Elliot found there was a "real possibility" that Benbrika would re-assume a religious leadership role and encourage others to acts of terrorism . "Benbrika is seen as a figure of religious authority and is routinely sought out for religious advice by other members of his community," the judge said. "There remains a risk of Benbrika radicalising or encouraging others to religious-inspired violence, and in doing so committing a serious [terrorism] offence," he said. But the judge significantly relaxed the conditions of the supervision order. He found Benbrika had recently embraced a non-violent ideology, but it "remains fragile" and he still "struggled" to denounce IS and violent jihad. The court heard a March 2025 psychological report concluded Benbrika was not "dangerous or still heavily radicalised", but was "still not convinced … that [the Islamic State terrorist group] should receive no defence". The judge also highlighted Benbrika's contact with other extremists, including in phone calls in which he urged them to avoid unnamed topics because of surveillance. The AFP monitored Benbrika acting as a religious mentor in multiple meetings with Joshua Clavell, a radical convert who was jailed over a violent stand-off with counterterrorism police in 2019. The pair discussed topics including monitoring, infidels and bullets, but the judge said a psychologist believed Benbrika was "acting as a moderating influence" on Clavell. Benbrika also spoke at least three times with one of his co-offenders in the Pendennis terrorism plot, Aimen Joud, after a prohibition on their association lapsed late last year. Under the new ESO, which expires in November, Benbrika is banned from associating with people convicted or accused of terrorism offences, as well as a number of named extremists. Benbrika is also required to continue to participate in a deradicalisation program and psychological treatment, and faces restrictions on his use of the internet, phones and devices. The federal government has fought a series of protracted and controversial legal battles against Benbrika for several years. Benbrika won a High Court bid to have his Australian citizenship restored in 2023. And in 2022, the national security watchdog was scathing of the Home Affairs department for deliberately withholding from Benbrika's legal team a report that cast doubt on the reliability of a tool used to predict his future risk. Mr Haddad did not respond to questions from the ABC. He previously said he denied any suggestion he was involved in or associated with terrorism, and he reserved his rights against the ABC.
