October 2, 2024
Sydney mosques remembered slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah at commemoration services on Monday night as "no normal martyr and jihadi" but a "history maker" whose blood had not been "wasted".
The services come as the international and domestic fallout from the terrorist group leader's death escalated, with the Israeli military confirming a targeted ground invasion had begun in southern Lebanon and as Australian police rushed to investigate protesters displaying Hezbollah flags at rallies on Sunday.
Three Sydney mosques across the past 48 hours have held commemoration ceremonies for Nasrallah: Kingsgrove's Al Rahman Mosque also known as Masjid Arrahman the Sayeda Zainab Centre in Banksia and Al Zahra masjid in Arncliffe.
The Australian can reveal that at Al Rahman, which has routinely held commemoration services for slain Hezbollah terrorists this year, mosque leaders told hundreds of attendees that Nasrallah was a "supporter of the oppressed" who had left a "timeless legacy" that would be followed by generations to come.
"When martyrs depart, they leave behind a timeless legacy of good deeds and reputation that (forges) a path for future generations who will carry forward the ideology and movement, and will shake the thrones of injustice everywhere," one leader said in Arabic, and translated by The Australian.
"This is what our martyrs would have wanted so their blood is not shed in vain. They rose up for our dignity, for our home, for our holy sites, for our honour, and for fighting against the invasion (against) our culture and military." The Monday night service was so popular that many mosquegoers were forced to watch proceedings outside. They were told Nasrallah had no equal and that becoming a martyr for the sake of Allah was the "path". "If (a person) is killed for the sake of Allah, there is no righteousness above him," one leader said.
Concurrently, a few suburbs away in Banksia, the Sayeda Zainab Centre hosted a service, with its leaders calling Nasrallah's death a "painful tragedy" and saying the community was "indebted" to him and other Hezbollah martyrs.
"The blood of our martyrs are a testament of honour and we owe them all a great debt," one leader said, adding that the centre was "grateful" to the slain Hezbollah chief.
He called Nasrallah's death one of the "greatest tragedies" and said it had left the centre and its community "upset".
"We're not talking about a normal person (Nasrallah), we are not talking about a (normal) jihadi leader," he said, adding that the Hezbollah chief's strength and dignity were shown by Israel only being able to kill him with 80 tonnes of "bunker busters". "We are talking about a man who entered history."
All three mosques are made up predominantly of members from the Lebanese Shia community and have all held Hezbollah commemorations since the onset of the war in October last year. Al Rahman held services across the month for at least four Hezbollah fighters, with the mosque's highprofile sheik, Youssef Nabha, vowing to continue commemorating slain fighters.
In August, the Sayeda Zainab Centre hosted Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi for a film about Palestine.
The centre's social media pages have featured children wearing clothes embroidered with Hezbollah symbols.
On Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he did not "understand the reason" the Sydney mosques had conducted memorial services for Nasrallah.
"Well, the government doesn't mourn him for one minute," Mr Burke told ABC Radio National when asked whether the services were "appropriate".
"Not for one minute. But I'll tell you, there are civilians who have been killed who we mourn.
"There are people who have nothing to do with terrorism who were alive a week ago and are dead now. And we certainly, certainly mourn them."
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Australia had a "homegrown extremism problem" following the protests and memorials that glorified the terrorist group and Nasrallah.
Senator Paterson said the "sad truth" of the protests was likely that "the vast majority of people at these protests are Australian citizens and what we have here is a homegrown extremism problem, not only an imported extremism problem".
Senator Paterson's remarks came after pictures surfaced of a toddler at Sunday's protest in Sydney dressed in a Hezbollah Tshirt.
National Council of Jewish Women Australia president Lynda Ben-Menashe said: "Immersing children in a visual and verbal culture of genocidal hate and violence is a form of child abuse which every parent in Australia should condemn."
