Statement by Family First National Director Lyle Shelton
We need to face the fact that Islam in Australia is not a religion of peace. Here’s the proof.
Since October 7, 2023, Family First issued more than 27 public statements detailing Australian Muslim, Labor, Green, Teal and media support for, or justification of, Islamic terrorism.
No one who reads the media releases and blogs below could possibly be surprised that 15 innocent people, mainly Jews, were slaughtered at Bondi last Sunday.
This unspeakable atrocity did not occur in a vacuum. Petrol was poured on the flames of antisemitism.
Support for Islamic murder and rape began in Australia while the bodies of slaughtered Jews in Israel were still warm and months before any Israeli military response.
Deeply worried, Family First was quick to join calls for Muslim leaders to break their silence over the mass rally of Muslims on the steps of the Opera House on October 10 yelling “gas the Jews” and “f…the Jews”. That silence was never broken and it spoke volumes and the consequences have been devastating.
In the aftermath of October 7, Channel 9 screened an interview of a Muslim spokeswoman, Assala Sayara, saying Hamas had been “framed” as a terrorist organisation. Seriously?
No one in the Muslim community corrected this dangerous nonsense.
No Muslim leader condemned Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun, a former Director of Public Relations at the Australian National Imams Council, who declared on October 8 that he was “smiling” and “elated” while declaring a “day of victory”.
A crowd of western Sydney Muslims around him yelled “Allahu Akbar”.
Hate preacher after hate preacher rose to rostrums in mosques and Islamic centres and called for violence against Jews or called them vile names.
Much of this is detailed in the largely ignored media statements and blogs below that we published over the past two years.
In November 2023 we recorded the public comments of Wissam Haddad (aka Abu Ousayd) of the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown.
It turns out that centre was frequented by Bondi Jihadist mass murderer Naveed Akram.
We called out other Australian Muslim hate preachers such as Sheikh Ahmed Zoud, head of the Muslim Votes organisation Sheikh Wesam Charkawi and others for backing Hamas.
Zoud later apologised but that didn’t stop Dadoun and Charkawi from holding a “glory to the martyrs” rally last October 7 in Paul Keating Park celebrating the achievements of Hamas.
Family First also called for terrorist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir to be banned in Australia.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spoke up during the days of the first Holocaust, famously said “silence in the face of evil is evil itself, not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act.”
As protestors chanted weekly for two years “from the river to the sea”, a call for a second Holocaust, Australia’s religion of peace was silent as was the Labor Government.
Australian Islam has proven itself to be an enemy of peace, not a religion of peace.
Silence in the face of, and complicity with evil, created the environment for Islamic terrorism to visit Australia last Sunday.
Guns are not the problem. Islam is.
Below are some of the warnings Family First sounded since October 10, 2023.
October 10, 2023
Australia no place for terror-supporters
The Family First Party is shocked and horrified by the outbreak of Islamist terrorism in Israel and outraged by support for it on the streets of Sydney last night. READ MORE
October 11, 2023
Hamas “framed” as terrorist organisation says Opera House rally leader
Australia's terror-supporters must not be allowed to win, we must go back to the Opera House in peace. READ MORE
November 7, 2023
Is Islam a religion of peace?
Family First calls on Muslim leaders to reassure Australians that Islam is a religion of peace after yet another western Sydney preacher called for the killing of Jews. READ MORE
November 24, 2023
Sorry kids, Hamas is not your friend
“For years now, many of us have been warning that the barbarians are at the gates. We were wrong. They’re inside.” This is what cultural commentator Konstantin Kisin told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship forum in London a few weeks ago. READ MORE
January 4, 2024
Barbarous “attacks of the mujahideen” praised in Sydney mosque
The flood of antisemitic hate preaching from western Sydney Muslim leaders since the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas raises serious questions about the safety of Jews and non-Muslims in Australia. READ MORE
December 22, 2023
Hamas and CCP only winners from Red Sea no show
When Hamas benefits and the Chinese Communist Party is happy, it probably means Australia has made the wrong decision. Family First believes the Albanese Government should have said yes to the United States and joined the 24 nations deploying navy ships to the Red Sea. READ MORE
January 5, 2024
Nothing prior to Oct 7 justifies rape & slaughter
Just when we thought senior Labor minister Tony Burke was finding some moral clarity on Muslim hate preachers supporting Hamas, video emerged of him walking both sides of the street. READ MORE
February 23, 2024
Not just Jews, anti-Semitism threatens everyone
Family First is deeply concerned at anti-Semitism rising in Australia. READ MORE
May 11, 2024
Australia’s UN vote a reward for rapists, murderers and kidnappers
The raping of women, murderous slaughter of innocent people in their homes and the other terror tactics of October 7 like hostage-taking should not be rewarded. Australia’s vote shows moral inversion has overtaken the government. READ MORE
May 21, 2024
Why there is no genocide in Gaza being committed by Israel
“The ratio of civilian to military casualties is the lowest in any conflict that I’m aware of, anywhere in the world.” – Colonel Richard Kemp. Israel is actually fighting a war on behalf of all civilised people because if Hamas succeeds, they won’t stop with destroying the Jews. READ MORE
May 23, 2024
Islamist hate speech thrives because politicians fear losing votes
Colonel Richard Kemp, a renowned British military expert with ties to Israel, has urged Australian political leaders to take decisive action against anti-Israel sentiment among certain Muslim leaders. READ MORE
May 30, 2024
“Hitler would be proud”, Cosgrove says of our antisemitism crisis
Josh Frydenberg’s documentary for Sky News Australia, screened on Tuesday night, should be a wake-up call. They say history never repeats but it rhymes. Too much of post-October 7 Australia is rhyming with 1930s Nazi Germany, as the former Treasurer’s work showed. READ MORE
July 7, 2024
Greens must stop rewarding Hamas
Greens’ support for the Islamic rape, death and kidnapping cult Hamas is further proof they are an enemy of Australia operating within. READ MORE
July 24, 2024
Family First calls for action against Muslim hate preachers, Hizb ut-Tahrir to be deemed terrorist organisation
Family First has called on authorities to reign in Sydney’s Muslim hate preachers calling for the killing of Jews and for Sharia law to be implemented in Australia. READ MORE
January 17, 2025
Australia’s Muslim leaders must reject Hamas’s terror and recognise Israel’s right to defend itself
The response of Australia’s large Muslim population, whose leaders seem firmly on the side of Hamas, is of deep concern for Australia’s social cohesion. READ MORE
January 22, 2025
Stopping antisemitic domestic terrorism starts with backing Israel
The best way to stop the escalating pro-Hamas Islamist terrorist attacks on Australia’s Jewish community is for the Albanese Government to apologise for its anti-Israel stance and urgently change tack. READ MORE
February 18, 2025
Pause Muslim immigration while leaders collaborate with terror
Family First has called for a pause on Muslim immigration after 50 Muslim leaders teamed up with an international Islamic terrorist organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, to sign an open letter defending the Bankstown Muslim nurses who boasted of killing Israelis. READ MORE
June 9, 2025
Burke’s blocking of pro-Israel advocate Hillel Fuld is un-Australian
Family First today called on the Albanese Government to reverse its decision to deny a visa to pro-Israel activist and influencer Hillel Fuld. READ MORE
July 23, 2025
Australia’s foreign policy backed by Islamic death cult is to our national shame
The Albanese Government’s decision to join 27 other nations in condemning Israel’s war against Hamas is a disgraceful betrayal of moral clarity and national integrity, Family First said today. READ MORE
July 31, 2025
Media Must Not Be Mouthpieces for Terror: A Breach of Trust Over Gaza Reporting
A recent clarification by The New York Times confirms what many already suspected—mainstream media coverage of the war in Gaza has been dangerously compromised. When the Times published a harrowing image of an emaciated child, claiming the boy was a victim of Israel’s blockade-induced famine, it made headlines across the globe. But the truth told a different story. READ MORE
August 8, 2025
Hamas and the Global Jihad are the only winners
First the Opera House steps were desecrated on October 8 with a baying mob celebrating rape, murder and kidnapping as part of an invasion of Israel they hoped would sweep “from the River to the Sea”. Now the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been co-opted for the cause of the Islamic death cult Hamas. READ MORE
August 11, 2025
Not in our name Albo, says Family First
The Albanese Government’s rewarding of the rapes, slaughter and kidnapping committed by Hamas on October 7 by recognising a Palestinian state shames all Australians, Family First said today. READ MORE
September 22, 2025
Labor brings shame on Australia by rewarding terror to recognise a Palestinian ‘state’
The Albanese Government has brought shame on Australia by rewarding the murder, rapes and kidnappings of October 7 with its recognition of a Palestinian State at the United Nations today. READ MORE
October 8, 2025
Bankstown pro-Hamas rally must be investigated for “advocating terrorism”
Family First has called on the Albanese Government to explain why the organisers of and speakers at last night’s Hizb ut-Tahrir-linked rally in Bankstown should not be investigated for advocating terrorism in breach of the Criminal Code. READ MORE
October 9, 2025
The struggle for the soul of Australia
In today’s Australian Peta Credlin makes these points: “Radical Islamism is the challenge of our times.” READ MORE
October 17, 2025
Lyle Shelton pledges parliamentary inquiry into Australian Muslim groups’ support for terrorist organisations
Family First NSW Upper House candidate Lyle Shelton today announced that, if elected, he will move for a Parliamentary inquiry into the support of terrorist organisations by Australian Muslim groups and clerics. READ MORE
November 28, 2025
Family First rejects bid to erase religious motivation from terrorism laws
Family First has warned that removing “religious motivation” from Australia’s counter-terrorism laws would put public safety at unacceptable risk and would amount to political correctness trumping common sense. READ MORE
December 15, 2025
Opera House sails should be lit in solidarity with Jewish community
Family First today urged the Minns Government to fight Australia’s on-going antisemitism crisis by lighting the Opera House sails with the star of David. READ MORE
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