The 2012 Gaza Delegation / The Covenant
7 OCT 2026 Imams and the Grand Mufti travel to Gaza and meet with Hamas
In December 2012, the Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, led a delegation of Australian Muslim scholars to the Gaza Strip. The ABC reported: "Local television has shown pictures of Dr Mohammed meeting with Hamas's political leader, Gaza's prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, on December 26." The ABC also quoted his remarks as translated by MEMRI TV: "We came here in order to learn from Gaza... to learn steadfastness, sacrifice, and the defence of one's rights from them."
Islamic Relief Australia's own documentary, uploaded to its official YouTube channel in July 2013, says: "Islamic Relief took an Australian Delegation of 22 Australian Muslim Imams & Community Leaders on a trip to Gaza, Egypt and the Syrian Camps in Jordan". The description lists the delegates. Sydney: "Grand Mufti of Australia: Sheikh Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed", plus Yahya Safi, Abdul Salam Zod, Abdel Moez Nafti, Mohamed Khamis, Omar El Banna, Shady Al Suleiman, Khaled Taleb, Hassan El Setohy, Khodr Saleh, Walid Ali, Keysar Trad, Rafique Kirsten, Walid Ibrahim, Tamer Kahil and Mohamed Al-Zoubi. Melbourne: Abdel Aziem Afifi, Faisal Shehata and Fawaz Chawk. Adelaide: Riad El Rifai and Amin Abou-Samaha. Brisbane: Mabrouk Houadchia. These names appear only in the organiser's material, not in the ABC report.
The ABC noted: "The military wing of Hamas is listed as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the Australian Government." It also reported: "The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is up to the individuals in the delegation to make sure they do not breach Australian laws." A parliamentary committee report records that Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades were first listed under the Criminal Code on 9 November 2003 and re-listed on 18 August 2012, so that listing was in force at the time of the trip.
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7 OCT 2026 Innocence of Muslims movie – riots
Innocence of Muslims was a low-budget, US-made film that mocks the Prophet Mohammed. A trailer dubbed into Arabic was posted on YouTube in September 2012 (BBC). The ABC reported that protests against the film had led to more than 50 deaths "since the first demonstrations on September 11". The BBC named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula as the alleged producer. On 7 November 2012 a US judge sentenced him to a year in prison for probation violations linked to an earlier fraud conviction. The BBC noted: "None of the charges was connected with the content of the controversial film".
In Sydney on Saturday 15 September 2012, SBS (citing AAP and police) reported that at about 1pm "an unannounced and unapproved" group gathered at Town Hall and marched towards Martin Place. Fighting broke out with police when the group tried to enter the US consulate in the MLC Centre. Around 300 people then gathered in Hyde Park, where police used capsicum spray. SBS reported banners including "Behead all those who insult the Prophet". Six police were injured, two of whom were taken to hospital, eight people were arrested and at least two police vehicles were damaged (SBS; ABC).
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: "I absolutely condemn the violence that we saw yesterday" (SMH). Khaled Sukkarieh of the Islamic Council of NSW told the ABC: "Violence is no way an answer to anything and we condemn the violence that's happened". By 24 October 2012, 12 people had been charged (SMH). Mohammed Issaka was jailed in November 2013 with a minimum of six months, for offences including assaulting a police officer (ABC). Former boxer Ahmed Elomar pleaded guilty to hitting an officer over the head with a flag pole and was jailed in June 2014 for four years and eight months, with a minimum of two and a half years (ABC).
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7 OCT 2026 100k Bounty put on Movie Maker
On 22 September 2012, a day after violent protests across Pakistan, the country's Railways Minister, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, offered US$100,000 for the death of the maker of Innocence of Muslims. The BBC quoted him: "I will pay whoever kills the makers of this video $100,000". The ABC (BBC/AFP) reported that he spoke to reporters in Peshawar and quoted him: "I also invite Taliban and Al Qaeda brothers to be partners in this noble deed."
The BBC reported that the Pakistani Prime Minister's press secretary said the government "absolutely dissociated itself" from the statement. Bilour's party, the ANP, called it a personal statement and not party policy. The US State Department told the BBC: "Therefore we find Mr Bilour's announcement is inflammatory and inappropriate."
The man named as the film's alleged producer, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, was in hiding at the time (BBC). In November 2012 he was jailed in the US for probation violations unrelated to the film's content (BBC).
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7 OCT 2026 Toulouse and Montauban shootings – Mohammed Merah
Over eight days in March 2012, a gunman on a scooter killed seven people in three attacks in south-western France. On 11 March, paratrooper Staff Sergeant Imad Ibn-Ziaten was shot dead in Toulouse. On 15 March, Corporal Abel Chennouf and Private Mohamed Legouad were killed in Montauban, and a third soldier, Corporal Loic Liber, was left in a coma. On 19 March, the gunman attacked the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, killing Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Gabriel and Arieh, and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego.
Police identified the gunman as Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin from Toulouse. After a siege at his flat lasting about a day and a half, a police commando shot him dead on 22 March. The BBC reported that prosecutor François Molins said Merah cited the fate of the Palestinians, the French military presence in Afghanistan and France's ban on the full veil as motives. The BBC also reported that France's domestic intelligence agency had known of his trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan and had questioned him in November 2011.
On 18 April 2019, a special Paris assize appeal court found Merah's brother Abdelkader Merah guilty of complicity in the terrorist murders and attempted murders committed by Mohamed Merah in March 2012. It sentenced him to 30 years' imprisonment, two-thirds of it non-parole. He had been acquitted of complicity at his first trial. (Translated from the French press release of the Paris prosecutor-general.)
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7 OCT 2026 Shady Alsuleiman sermon: “Palestine Belongs To The Muslim Ummah”
A sermon by Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman, president of the Australian National Imams Council, published on YouTube under the title "Palestine Belongs To The Muslim Ummah, Palestine Is In Our Hearts".
The place it was given is not known. Its content dates it to the November 2012 Gaza conflict, five weeks before he joined the Australian delegation to Gaza: he says Gaza is being bombed "every single night for the last few nights", quotes Barack Obama saying Israel has "the right to defend" itself, and says leaders who "came after the Arab Spring" have told Israel "the situation with Gaza now is different than four years ago" (the 2008-09 war). The earliest copy found on YouTube is a 12-minute version titled "Palestine Belongs To The Muslims Emotional", uploaded on 1 June 2013. The 14-minute version shown here was uploaded on 11 November 2014 by the channel AL MASHUD.
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Introduction
In late December 2012, the Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, led 22 Australian Muslim imams and community leaders on a trip with Islamic Relief Australia. They went to Gaza, Egypt and the Syrian refugee camps in Jordan.
According to Islamic Relief's own record (the description of its documentary of the trip, published on YouTube on 18 July 2013), the Sydney delegates were the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Yahya Safi, Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud, Sheikh Abdel Moez Nafti, Sheikh Mohamed Khamis, Sheikh Omar El Banna, Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman, Sheikh Khaled Taleb, Sheikh Hassan El Setohy, Mr Khodr Saleh, Mr Walid Ali, Mr Keysar Trad, Mr Rafique Kirsten, Mr Walid Ibrahim, Dr Tamer Kahil and Mr Mohamed Al-Zoubi. Sheikh Abdel Aziem Afifi, Mr Faisal Shehata and Mr Fawaz Chawk came from Melbourne, Sheikh Riad El Rifai and Sheikh Amin Abou-Samaha from Adelaide, and Sheikh Mabrouk Houadchia from Brisbane.
Hamas had governed Gaza since 2007. The delegation arrived about five weeks after the November 2012 conflict between Israel and Hamas.
While they were there, they toured sites damaged in that conflict and visited schools, a hospital and Islamic Relief projects. They also met Hamas government ministers.
A display for Hamas's military commander
Early in Islamic Relief's film (about 2:15 to 2:20), members of the delegation are shown at a roped-off display of a wrecked car. On the car's bonnet is a poster of Ahmed al-Jabari, "Abu Mohammed", the commander of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Al-Jabari had been killed in an Israeli air strike on his car about six weeks earlier, on 14 November 2012. That strike began the November 2012 conflict.
Behind the car is a martyr banner. It shows a man in a shirt bearing the Qassam Brigades' name, under a Quran verse often used on martyr posters, "Among the believers are men who have been true to what they promised Allah", and the slogan "With the blood of ... Gaza was victorious".
At the time, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades was a listed terrorist organisation in Australia. The film's narration does not mention the display.
What Hamas's ministry said to them
On 26 December 2012, the delegation went to Gaza's Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments). Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV filmed the visit, and the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) later translated the broadcast. The minister, Dr Isma'il Radwan, told the Australians that Gaza "will be the first line in defending the honor of the nation, and will fuel the resistance". The visit, he said, meant "we can all participate, Allah willing, in the battle for the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine."
When they met Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, the Grand Mufti said, in MEMRI's translation: "I am happy to be here in the land of jihad and to learn from its sons."
The al-Quds Covenant
Islamic Relief Australia made its own documentary of the trip, "Australians for Syria & Gaza". At about 7:36, a Gaza minister greets the delegation, a keffiyeh is placed on the Grand Mufti's shoulders, and he is presented with a plaque. Then a large printed scroll is held up beside him.
The scroll is headed "Al-Quds Committee, Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Gaza, Palestine". Its title is "عهد القدس", the Covenant of al-Quds, and it is dated 1429 AH / 2008.
The Al-Quds Committee's own website, archived in 2008, explains what the covenant was. The committee was headed by the Hamas government's Awqaf minister. In 2008 it launched a "million signature campaign", and the covenant was the pledge people were asked to sign online. By November 2008, the site had counted 47,765 signatures.
What the covenant says
Full translation. Two independent translations of the scroll, checked against each other. [?] marks words too unclear to read.
The Al-Quds Committee
Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs
Gaza, PalestineThe Covenant of Al-Quds
We, the sons of the Muslim nation in all parts of the inhabited world, and the sons of the Palestinian people, steadfast in Bayt al-Maqdis and the environs of Bayt al-Maqdis:
Out of our faith in the sanctity of the city of Al-Quds and its blessedness and what surrounds it, and faith in our religious and historical right to our holy city, and affirming our full right to every grain of its soil, and our holding fast to it as capital of a Palestinian state, and in continuation of, and loyalty to, the blessed historic Covenant of Umar,
We pledge to God, glorified and exalted, that we will remain bearers of the banner of preserving Al-Quds Arab and Islamic, and that Al-Quds remain part of our creed, our history and our civilisation, and the emblem of our solidarity, and that we remain protectors [?] [?]. And we pledge to God, mighty and majestic, that Al-Quds will remain present in our hearts, minds and feelings; we will not give up a grain of its soil, and we affirm that there is no peace and no stability without it, and that the measures of the Zionist enemy to change its images and forms, by settlement and confiscation of lands and Judaisation, are illegitimate; we reject them [?] the legitimacy of the occupation.
We, the sons of the Muslim nation, sign this covenant so that it will be [our pledge] in sacrifice and redemption, and the giving of self and wealth, and serious, continuous work, until the end of the Zionist occupation of the city of Al-Quds and all our Palestinian land, and its return to its rightful people.
The footage shows the covenant being presented. It doesn't show any member of the delegation signing it.
The scarves
All through the visit, the delegates wore matching keffiyeh scarves. You can see them in Islamic Relief's film and in Al-Aqsa TV's footage of the delegation with Ismail Haniyeh. Each scarf has a round emblem showing the Dome of the Rock. The lower ring of the emblem reads "...Awqaf and Religious Affairs", and underneath, in red, is the word "إهداء", meaning "a gift". The scarves were gifts from the same Hamas-run ministry that issued the covenant.
In 2024, delegate Khodr Saleh, by then a Labor councillor, wore the same scarf in his campaign material for the Roselands Ward council election. That was after 7 October 2023, and two years after Australia had listed the whole of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Government Response
How it was reported here
On 31 December 2012, the ABC ran the story "Australian Muslim cleric meets Hamas leader", noting that local television had shown the Mufti with Hamas officials.
Hamas's legal status in Australia
At the time, only Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was listed as a terrorist organisation under Australia's criminal code. The whole of Hamas was listed in 2022 (see the timeline).
What the government said
The Department of Foreign Affairs told the ABC "it is up to the individuals in the delegation to make sure they do not breach Australian laws".
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Bob Carr told J-Wire on 3 January 2013: "It is unlawful to offer financial support for Hamas, which Australia considers a terrorist entity. There are also additional prohibitions on interaction with the Hamas Brigade which is a proscribed terrorist organisation. It is not unlawful to travel to Gaza as a private citizen but the Australian Government strongly advises against it... Allegations that any Australian had breached the restrictions on dealings with Hamas would be subject to examination by government agencies."
The Opposition's Shadow Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, told J-Wire: "If reports about the Mufti's comments and conduct in Gaza are accurate, this is an extremely disturbing development... The Mufti must immediately withdraw these remarks, condemn the attacks on Israel by Hamas and other extremist groups, recognise Israel's right to exist and call for a peaceful negotiated resolution."
Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said: "His visit and his comments undermine Australia's efforts to build a peaceful, inclusive and democratic multicultural society."
We have found no record of any examination by government agencies following the visit.
What the delegates said when they came home
The day after he got back, delegate Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman gave a sermon titled "The Gaza Strip". In it he said:
"We met with some of the leaders there, and you're probably all aware that the Gaza Strip is led by Hamas, and Hamas to some of the countries is a terrorist organisation, but by the way in Australia it's not..."
"When the Palestinian people want to protect their lands... they are called terrorists... You are not allowed to sit down with terrorists."
"Wallahi, I felt pride when I was there... I felt that I was a proud Muslim to be amongst true men... this is the experience I heard from every single sheikh and imam and leader that was with us in this trip."
What he had said just before the trip
Five weeks earlier, during the November 2012 Gaza conflict, Shady Alsuleiman gave a sermon, "Palestine belongs to the Muslim Ummah". In it he said that "54 Muslim countries... have been bought by the Zionists", and quoted the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II: "Wallahi I would never give up an inch of Palestine". Then, in his own words, he added: "Wallahi, I want this land back."
Summary
In December 2012, Australia's Grand Mufti led 22 Australian imams and community leaders into Hamas-run Gaza with Islamic Relief Australia.
While there, they met Hamas ministers. Hamas's religious affairs minister told them Gaza would "fuel the resistance" in "the battle for the liberation of Jerusalem", and the Grand Mufti said he was "happy to be here in the land of jihad".
Islamic Relief's own film shows the Grand Mufti being presented with the Hamas ministry's al-Quds Covenant. People had been signing that pledge since 2008, and it vows "sacrifice and redemption, and the giving of self and wealth... until the end of the Zionist occupation of... all our Palestinian land."
When one of the delegates got home, he told his congregation he had met Hamas's leaders and felt "pride... to be amongst true men".
The covenant's purpose was to collect pledges. Did any of the delegation sign it? Do they stand by it today? We have found no public record of any of them being asked.
You be the judge.
Evidence
- ABC News, "Australian Muslim cleric meets Hamas leader" (31 Dec 2012)
- J-Wire, "Australian Muslim scholars meet Hamas leader" (3 Jan 2013) - Bob Carr's office, Julie Bishop, ECAJ
- MEMRI Special Dispatch 5112 (28 Dec 2012) - archived copy
- MEMRI Special Dispatch 5114, "I Am Happy To Be In The Land Of Jihad" (1 Jan 2013) - archived copy
- Al-Quds Committee website (Hamas Awqaf ministry) - covenant and million-signature campaign, archived 19 Nov 2008
- The al-Quds Covenant scroll (enlarged still)
