American professor tells Sydney mosque rally October 7 is a ‘good day’
Written by admin on October 8, 2024
A visiting American law professor has told a rally at a Sydney mosque that October 7 is a “good day” and “not fully a day of mourning”.
Arizona State University associate professor Khaled Beydoun, who has 2.5 million followers on Instagram and 300,000 on X, was among the eight speakers in front of a crowd of about 300 people at Lakemba Mosque in southwest Sydney on Monday evening,
The two-hour ‘Stand for Palestine and Lebanon’ event was organised by controversial Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Prof Beydoun told the crowd he was “feeling in a good mood today”, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“Today is not fully a day of mourning, today is also a day that marks considerable celebration, considerable progress and considerable privilege,” he said.
On October 7 last year, Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis in a surprise attack, as well as burning families alive and kidnapping 240 civilians.
More than 100 men, women and children are still being held hostage in Gaza.
“I want to talk about some good things because it’s a good day, and we’ve got to mark some of the good news that comes about that we often times neglect,” Prof Beydoun said.
“One thing that has taken place over the course of this past year that’s been unprecedented, that’s been transformative in many respects, is that the level of global literacy around what is taking place in Palestine has exponentially risen.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the newspaper he had asked his department to review Prof Beydoun’s visa “as soon as I heard about these comments”.
The Home Affairs Department has been contacted for comment.
The crowd waved flags of Palestine and Lebanon and chanted “to the river to the sea, Israel kills refugees” and “October 7 is not the beginning”.
Another speaker, Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun, said that “victory” was coming soon.
“Brother and sisters, today is not a day of mourning. Today is not a day when we think of our brothers and sisters who have left us,” he said.
“This is one year of activism, this has been one year of hope, this has been one year of change. There are losses on many fronts and the victory is coming soon.
“I ask of you to continue all the actions that you have started one year ago. And do not stop until we see the crumbling of Zionism, until we see the end of the occupying Israeli forces.”
Meanwhile, Sheikh Wesam Charkawi appeared to justify Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
“You stole their land,” he said.
“You killed its people. You raped its women. And you imprison hundreds of thousands of its people. The 7th of October, what it is … is an act of resistance.”
Sheikh Charkawi also shared a message to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“We recently heard about this thing called ‘social cohesion’, and we’ve heard about social cohesion from the Australian Prime Minister,” he said.
“Social cohesion to Muslims is a dirty word.”
An organiser reminded attendees that they had worked closely with police to make the event happen.
“There are legal requirements around the sorts of flags and so forth that you can carry,” he said.
“Just some quick housekeeping notes before we make a start. Today’s is a static rally, is a static protest, static demonstration. There is not a dynamic march.”
The Lakemba event was one of several held around the country on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the attack on southern Israel by Palestinian terror group Hamas, which saw militants storm the border and attacked nearly 50 different sites, including kibbutzim communities and army bases.
Militants went door-to-door shooting residents dead.
Hours later, Israel launched a military offensive that has reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble, and displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million residents at least once amid an unrelenting humanitarian crisis.
Of the 251 people taken hostage into Gaza, 97 are still being held, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
According to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, 41,909 people, the majority civilians, have been killed there since the start of the war. The figures have been deemed reliable by the United Nations.
Since Israel’s escalation in Lebanon began in late September, more than 1110 people have been killed and more than one million are displaced, official figures show.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton spoke at the Jewish community vigil Monday night at Christison Park in Vaucluse.
“Israel was at the epicenter of Hamas evil on October 7 last year. The shockwaves of that terrorist attack resonated around the world,” he said.
“That day of depravity, the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust awoke and exposed an anti-Semitic wave afflicting Western democracies.
“On this the first anniversary of October 7, and given all we’ve seen since then, several things are important.
“Memory is important. Even today, there are people seeking to distort, to deny and defend the barbarism that took place on October 7. What else is important? Moral clarity is important because, frankly, there hasn’t been enough of it. Instead, we’ve seen a moral fog.”
In a video statement, Prime Minister Albanese vowed to Jewish Australians to never let history repeat itself, calling the anniversary “a day that carries terrible pain”.
“On the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, we pause to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe,” he said.
“We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ actions on that day.”
He acknowledged that that anti-Semitism had spiked in Australia over the past year.
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“Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of anti-Semitism reaching into the present day and as a nation, we say, never again,” he said.
“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.”
— with staff writers and AFP
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