The IS speech that ‘inspired’ the Bondi Beach shooting

Terrorism experts say an Islamic State speech urging followers to prey on other faiths probably inspired Sajid and Naveed Akram to carry out their deadly attack on a crowd of Jewish families on Bondi Beach.

The speech, by a resurgent IS attempting to exploit Israel’s war in Gaza and remobilise after the collapse of its caliphate, called on followers to kill people of other faiths “by the worst of means, turn their gatherings and celebrations into bloody massacres.”

This week the West Point Combating Terrorism Centre in the US will publish research by Australian academics into the IS messaging that preceded the December attack which claimed 15 lives and left dozens injured.

Researchers Andrew Zammit and Levi J. West conclude a January 2024 speech by IS spokesperson Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari was a “call to arms” for jihadists in the west.

That speech sanctioned specific targets and techniques – “detonate explosives … [and] shoot them with bullets”.

“It explicitly stated that its targeting advice sought to ensure that any resulting attacks matched the movement’s strategic and ideological logic,” the researchers said in the Sentinel article.

“(It) stated that followers should: seek easy targets before hard ones, civilian targets before military one[s], religious targets like synagogues and churches before others, for this will satisfy the soul and will demonstrate the characteristics of the battle, as our battle with them is a religious one and we kill them wherever we come upon them in response to Allah Almighty’s command.”

The speech explicitly urged jihadists to attack Jews and Christians within “crusader” homelands.

“Chase your preys whether Jewish, Christian or their allies, on the streets and roads of America, Europe, and the world,” the speech said.

“Kill them by the worst of means, turn their gatherings and celebrations into bloody massacres.”

‘Chase your preys whether Jewish, Christian or their allies, on the streets and roads of America, Europe, and the world ... Kill them by the worst of means, turn their gatherings and celebrations into bloody massacres.’

Islamic State spokesperson, Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari

The Bondi gunmen allegedly used IEDs, as per the instructions of the speech, but they failed to detonate.

Their target selection “matched” the growing focus on Jewish people, the research says, marking it out against prior failed terror attacks in Australia which have often targeted police.

The speech, titled “And Kill Them Wherever You Find Them”, also put the war in Gaza at the centre of the Islamic State’s attempt to mobilise. It denounced Israel, its Western backers and Arab states.

The speech echoed an infamous 2014 IS speech which precipitated a wave of attacks across the West.

That address called for jihadists to strike police and counter terror authorities, and “kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever”.

Days later, Melbourne teenager Abdul Numan Haider attacked two counterterror police with a knife at Endeavour Hills and was shot dead.

“[These speeches are] designed to provide (jihadists) with a kind of choose your own adventure. You could target these people or those, in this way or that, and it’s inevitable someone will pick it up and run with it,” West told this masthead.

“It’s very difficult to identify in advance what it will be.

“It’s a very challenging thing to undermine an ideology as opposed to an organisation and their capabilities.”

As had happened a decade earlier, the new IS messaging appeared to find its target audience in the west.

Europe experienced 15 jihadi attacks from October 2023 to December 2024 compared to three in the preceding 15 months.

An Islamic State supporter murdered two people at a Manchester synagogue in October 2025.

That same month, the Akrams were allegedly training with guns on a remote bush property and recording a 15-minute video manifesto talking, in part, about “Zionists”.

West said that while there was no direct evidence that the Akrams explicitly cite the speech in the video, it was highly likely they had seen it.

“We know what happened the last time one of these speeches was released – a wave of inspired attacks that came off the back,” West said.

“In my assessment it is likely, if not highly likely, that English speaking jihadists of South Asian heritage would be reading the English-language magazine published by the Afghanistan chapter of Islamic State.”

Police allege Naveed and Sajid, who was killed in the attack, travelled to the Philippines city of Mindanao potentially in an attempt to receive jihadi training.

However, the pair appear to have met with no one and no contact with any member of the Islamic State has been revealed by authorities so far.

Rather, authorities believe, the Akrams allegedly carried out an IS-inspired attack, rather than an IS supported one. A hand-painted Islamic State flag was allegedly found inside their car at Bondi Beach following the attack.

Sentinel concludes the timing of the Bondi massacre sets it as “a consequence of the Islamic State’s post-2023 exploitation of the war in Gaza to remobilise its transnational support”.

Regardless of the level of IS involvement, the organisation formally recognised the Bondi attack as “The Pride of Sydney” in its publication.

“(The Bondi terrorists) answered the call and carried out the recommendations to target holidays and gatherings,” the IS magazine said.

“They armed themselves with the Prophetic methodology and set off without looking back, plunging unarmoured into the Hanukkah celebration and turning it into a scene of mourning.”

Sentinel also notes findings, first aired by the ABC and with further links uncovered by this masthead, that Naveed was linked to a Bankstown street preaching group which had previously counted other jihadists among its ranks for brief periods.

The Street Dawah group, which is not accused of any wrongdoing, was pictured with two convicted terrorists linked to a young jihadist named Isaac El Matari.

The El Matari network, as Sentinel calls it, was heavily disrupted by joint counter terror teams beginning in 2019.

Naveed Akram was around that time questioned by Australia’s spy agency ASIO, but he was ultimately discounted as a serious threat.

Prior to Bondi, every mass casualty plot had been disrupted by counter terror authorities.

Gun control and travel restrictions to the caliphate’s training grounds ensured that the few plots which slipped through caused only a few deaths, Sentinel says.

“This was an internationally unusual track record that was not likely to last indefinitely,” the researchers said.

“Targeted countries need to be prepared for some of their citizens heeding these calls for ‘attacks against the Crusader and Jewish targets in every place’, acting consistently with the Islamic State’s tactical advice, and proving capable of carrying out devastating attacks.”

Naveed Akram remains before the courts on charges of murder and terrorism and has yet to enter a plea.

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