"Albanese and Burke must never have a place in our mosques"
Facebook post the day after the Lakemba Mosque incident.
Primary Role
Wesam Charkawi is convener of The Muslim Vote and was, for 13 years, a student support officer at Granville Boys High School (NSW Department of Education). In February 2025 he was barred from the school over an Instagram post about the Bankstown nurses controversy and government "hypocrisy," before being reinstated following student protests. He publicly defended the nurses' comments as "never meant to be taken literally." He also led the prayer group at the protest against Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit, with Amer al-Wahwah - a relative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia founder Ismail al-Wahwah - in the front row, and police forcibly moved the praying group on. NSW Police later said the men had been given permission to pray (ABC). Commissioner Mal Lanyon apologised privately "for any offence that may have been taken"; Charkawi told SBS News he would not accept the apology unless it was made public, and said: "Somebody has to lose their job for what happened and somebody has to be held accountable." A joint letter from Muslim organisations called for a public apology, the resignation of the police commissioner and an independent inquiry. Premier Chris Minns refused to apologise, defending police actions in what he described as the "middle of a riot", and the police watchdog began an investigation (SBS). The day after the March 2026 Lakemba Mosque incident involving Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, he posted on Facebook: 'The genocide supporters and enablers in politicians (Albanese and Burke) must never have a place in our mosques.'
On the Lindt Café siege
Interviewed by OnePath Network on 27 February 2015, two months after the Lindt Café siege, he said of the gunman: "the person in question was a person of... unsound mind... it ensued from a crazed man, I think to put it in the terrorism basket, I think is a very unreasonable and untenable position." He also said: "how much more can a community censure and condemn?"
His research
In 2017 he completed a Master of Research at Western Sydney University, "Attitudes towards radicalising to violent extremism among Australian Muslims: role of structures, social dynamics and social identity". From a survey of about 200 participants, it found that alienation increased susceptibility to radicalising, and that a greater sense of belonging meant greater rejection of violence.
In a January 2026 OnePath Network interview he argued that faith is "not a driver or cause of terrorism", and said: "It's unfortunate that John Howard included ideology and faith and religion into the terrorism definition."
Reporting: ABC News (24 and 26 Feb 2025); Green Left (28 Apr 2025, Parramatta preferencing). Own Facebook (Lakemba Mosque post, verified account). Own Instagram (themuslimvoteau).
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