Abdul Salam Zoud

Abdul Salam Zoud is a director of Awqaf Australia, who has run Sharia mediation out of the Grand Mufti's Fairfield office and was floated as a possible successor to the Grand Mufti in December 2015. Until 2014 he was a major figure within Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah (ASWJ), and holds a BA from the Islamic University of Madinah. He is a different person from Awqaf Australia's Executive Director "Mohammed Zaoud" and board director "Abdullah Zoud" — similar names, different people. In December 2012 he was a member of the Australian delegation of imams and community leaders that travelled to Gaza and met Hamas leadership, according to the delegate roster in Islamic Relief Australia's own documentary, Australians for Syria and Gaza (2013).

Raised in Parliament
On 10 August 2005, in his first speech to the Senate, Senator Michael Ronaldson said: "We must use the full force of the law against those who use positions of trust and authority to incite hatred and violence. Neither radical Muslim cleric Abdur Raheem Green nor Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud should be allowed to enter this country to preach their messages of hate."

In October 2005, The Australian's Richard Kerbaj attended Zoud's Friday sermon at the Haldon Street prayer hall in Lakemba. His report, "A call to hate and to prayer" (The Australian, 4 November 2005), quotes Zoud saying "Ramadan is a month for jihad upon oneself and jihad upon the enemy", praying "God grant victory to the mujaheddin in Iraq", and saying "Inshallah, dark days will descend upon America soon."

On 28 November 2005, debating the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No. 2) 2005, Jason Wood MP told the House of Representatives, citing that investigation: "He spent four weeks attending radical mosques, where Sheikh Mohammed Omran from Melbourne and Sheikh Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud from Sydney openly urged insurgents to wage war against Australian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The extremist leaders are not directly inciting followers to go out and become suicide bombers or commit terrorist attacks in Australia, but they are planting the seeds."

The 2023 sermon, apology and prayer
Reports of the following name the preacher "Sheikh Ahmed Zoud" (The Australian) or "Sheikh Ahmed Zod" (Australian Jewish News); The Evidence Project identifies him as Abdul Salam Zoud. In an Arabic Friday sermon at Masjid As-Sunnah, Lakemba, on 22 December 2023, "The truth about the Jews and their characteristics", he said: "These (people) are the Jews, not all of them, but most of them. The most important characteristic of the Jews is that they are thirsty for bloodshed... betrayal and treachery", and asked "Who are these terrorists... these monsters... who have removed mercy from their hearts"; he said the Jews "ran like rats" from the 7 October attack (The Australian, 3 Jan 2024; AJN, 30 May 2025).

In March 2024 the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) complained to the Australian Human Rights Commission. On 23 April 2025 he signed an apology "unreservedly and unconditionally": "I deeply regret the way I framed my comments... I did not seek to harm Jewish people based on their race or religion", and undertook not to repeat such statements. ECAJ's Peter Wertheim welcomed it and warned ECAJ would use "legal remedies" if the undertakings were broken.

The Australian (29 May 2025) reported that days before the apology was announced, he ended a sermon with a prayer for Gaza: "Oh, Allah, deal with the tyrants and the oppressors. Oh, Allah, count them one by one, kill them all, and leave none of them behind... cast terror into their hearts." That prayer did not name Jews.

From November 2025 he has regularly given the Friday sermon at the Australian Islamic House (Masjid Al-Bayt Al-Islami), Edmondson Park, whose recordings are posted on the mosque's YouTube channel.