{"id":536164,"date":"2026-01-23T04:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T04:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/536164\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T04:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T04:03:11","slug":"letter-sent-to-lakemba-mosque-threatening-violence-on-australia-day-investigated-by-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/536164\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter sent to Lakemba Mosque threatening violence on Australia Day investigated by police"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police are investigating an “absolutely abhorrent” letter sent to a Sydney mosque threatening the death of Middle Eastern and Aboriginal Australians and political figures.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), which owns the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s south-west, said the letter addressed to “The Mullah” was found on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The note, seen by the ABC, incited violence against several groups, including Middle Eastern communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and a number of political figures from Labor, the Greens and “socialists” were also singled out.<\/p>\n

LMA secretary Gamel Kheir said while it was not the first time the mosque had received a threat, especially since the Bondi terrorist attack last month, the timing before Australia Day was concerning.<\/p>\n

“It was extremely disturbing as this is not a one-off, there has been a sharp rise in Islamophobia as well as antisemitism,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden said police were investigating the letter.<\/p>\n

“The content is absolutely abhorrent,” Assistant Commissioner McFadden said.<\/p>\n

“The information that is suggesting there is an incitement to kill any human being, regardless of where they originated from, is something in my view a criminal investigation.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden\u00a0says NSW Police is investigating the matter.\u00a0 (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

He said while there was no specific threat for any Australia Day gathering, counterterrorism police were involved.<\/p>\n

“The Campsie police commander is working in close concert with our counterterrorism, investigation and intelligence command,” Assistant Commissioner McFadden said.<\/p>\n

Vilification, threats to violence taken seriously, says premier<\/p>\n

NSW Premier Chris Minns said such racial vilification or threats to violence were taken incredibly seriously by police.<\/p>\n

“We live in a multicultural community; people come from different countries and live together,” Mr Minns said.<\/p>\n

“We need to have big bright red lines that if you encourage vilification or violence against Australia \u2026 we’re going to throw the book at you.”<\/p>\n

Assistant Commissioner McFadden appealed to the community for help trying to find those behind the letter.<\/p>\n

“We are working diligently and expeditiously to look at who has authored this document and who is disseminating it,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

He said people should contact their local police if they find or receive the letter.<\/p>\n

“We want to know who is sending it, where it originated from because I am committed to finding any opportunity to find those responsible and bring them to account.”<\/p>\n

Rise of Islamaphobia ‘needs to be addressed’<\/p>\n

Mr Kheir said there had been heightened tension over the last few years and the rise of Islamophobia needed to be addressed.<\/p>\n

“We are grateful for the police and the way they have been very cooperative and assisting us. But there is a responsibility for all politicians including Mr Minns to protect all Australians.”<\/p>\n

Federal Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke \u2014 whose Sydney seat includes Lakemba \u2014 and Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly issued a joint statement condemning the letter.<\/p>\n

“The threatening letter received at Lakemba Mosque is disgraceful and threats of violence have no place in Australia,” they said.<\/p>\n

Assistant Commissioner McFadden said police would be out in force on Australia Day, with about 1,500 officers deployed across Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are investigating an “absolutely abhorrent” letter sent to a Sydney mosque threatening the death of Middle Eastern…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":536165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,102899,237125,237126,177811,50,9309,13048,39803],"class_list":{"0":"post-536164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-extremism","10":"tag-lakemba","11":"tag-lakemba-mosque","12":"tag-mal-lanyon","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nsw-police","15":"tag-sydney","16":"tag-threats"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115942431417119220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}