'Unfathomable state violence': NSW Police set upon Muslim prayer group, protesters at Sydney rally
Muslim groups decry 'shocking abuse' of peaceful worshippers
Muslim organisations, civil liberties bodies and activist groups have expressed “outrage and disgust” at police violence against attendees of a pro-Palestine rally outside Sydney Town Hall yesterday.
Footage circulating widely on social media shows NSW Police officers punching and pepper-spraying protesters, charging into crowds and violently disrupting a group of Muslim men praying outside Town Hall.
Footage originally published by Palestinian Australian doctor Mohammed Mustafa shows police forcibly breaking up an evening prayer congregation led by Sheikh Wesam Cherkawi, pulling several worshippers to their feet as they kneel in prayer and shoving others to the ground.
“I’m shocked, but I’m not surprised,” Mustafa said. “The police went in and beat up and pushed Muslims as they were praying.”
“This is state-sponsored violence on the Muslim community.”
The Islamophobia Register Australia expressed “absolute outrage and disgust” at the incident, recounting a witness report of being “dragged from Sujood [prostration], made to stand and told: ‘it’s time to move on, buddy’.”
“There is no justification for police to interfere with prayer in a manner that is aggressive, humiliating, or discriminatory,” the Register said in a statement. “This conduct is deeply disturbing and represents a profound failure of policing standards, accountability, and respect for religious freedom.”
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Other footage shows officers throwing punches, charging into crowds en masse and using pepper spray against fleeing protesters.
State Labor backbencher Anthony D’Adam, who was demoted by Minns in 2024 after criticising police treatment of pro-Palestine protesters, said yesterday that he “personally witnessed disgusting and excessive police violence which needs to be investigated”.
“This could have been avoided if police had been allowed to facilitate a peaceful march to the parliament as originally proposed,” D’Adam said.
“What we’ve seen tonight is an absolute outrage,” Palestine Action Group Sydney spokesperson Josh Lees said.
“As we were trying to disperse from the area outside Town Hall, the police had us kettled in on all sides, and they started repeatedly charging people with horses and pepper spray.
“Riot police were absolutely off the chain.”
Former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas, who was hospitalised in June after NSW Police broke up a protest in Belmore, described the scenes in Sydney as “carnage” and blamed NSW Premier Chris Minns for the “unfathomable state violence”.
“Chris Minns is to blame for every single injury, for every act of violence today,” Thomas said. “He is a dangerous fascist, totally unfit for public office.”
Minns vowed on Saturday that yesterday’s Town Hall protest would be met with “a massive [police] presence”.
The protest took place as Minns attended An Evening of Light and Solidarity, an event hosted by the Zionist Federation of Australia and Jewish Board of Deputies, to welcome Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Sydney.
In September, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that Herzog incited genocide in October 2023 when he claimed that “an entire nation out there [in Gaza]... is responsible” for the October 7 attack on Israel.
Tumbalong Park in the CBD was gated off as attendees of the event at the nearby International Convention Centre (ICC) passed through bag and body search checkpoints. Besides a heavy police presence, Deepcut spoke with several members of an unidentified security detail who wore medical masks and tried to prevent filming and photography.
Earlier on Monday, Minns held an umbrella for Herzog as the pair attended a memorial service at Bondi Pavilion, where Herzog lay a wreath in memory of the 15 victims of the Bondi terror attack.
Asked by AAP reporter Farid Farid whether he had any message for “people [in Sydney] who are mourning 70,000 killed in Gaza, including 20,000 children,” Herzog replied that “these demonstrations, in most cases, what you hear and see, comes to undermine and delegitimise our right — my nation’s right, the nation which I am the head of state of — its mere existence”.
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Our government and police have turned against their citizens in thrall to a foreign state. The most effective counter is for those of us in the electorate who are appalled by this is to mobilise behind parties and candidates who support democracy and oppose authoritarianism. Both major parties have betrayed us. I cannot in conscience vote Labor any more. Unfortunately the Liberal lite teals are not going to defend democracy and One Nation is surging. These are hard times. I fear for our children and grandchildren.
Might not like what the police did, dont blame the coppers blame the politicians. The praying is always a good diversion it should not be a concern of the coppers if these blokes are pretending to pray it was about breaking the law and the coppers are doing there job as instructed by the likes of Minns.
Lets not forget Minns got the free trip to Israel many years ago as did so many politicians and public servants, forward thinking by Zionist organisations which is paying off now.
Our federal and state politicians are bowing down to a Zionist organisation that only has hate in their heart.