Muslim Leaders Condemn TV Host Over 'Baiting' Prayer Remarks
Australian Muslim leaders have issued a strong condemnation of Today show host Karl Stefanovic following controversial comments he made about men performing sunset prayers during a protest in Sydney. The remarks came after violent clashes occurred outside Town Hall earlier this week during demonstrations against Israeli President Isaac Herzog's arrival.
Violent Clashes and Controversial Commentary
Protesters who gathered at Sydney Town Hall on Monday faced pepper-spraying, arrests, beatings, and forceful shoving by police officers. Widely circulated video footage shows a group of Muslim men kneeling in prayer before officers moved in to physically remove them from the scene. In one particularly disturbing clip, a man is yanked to his feet and dragged aside by officers while others push the entire group away from the area.
During a Tuesday morning broadcast, Stefanovic suggested to New South Wales Premier Chris Minns that the prayer action could have been deliberately provocative. "So Muslims praying in the city as well, Premier – whether it was legitimate prayer or they were baiting police, who knows," Stefanovic stated during the interview. He added, "But that will be weaponised against the force, you know that."
Defence of Police Actions
Premier Minns subsequently defended the officers involved, asserting they had been dealing with what he described as a riot situation. "I want to make it clear there is … no suggestion, under any circumstances, that police would have wanted to cause offence to people praying, or get in the way of people lawfully exercising their religion," Minns declared. He emphasized the longstanding cooperative relationship between NSW Police and Sydney's Islamic Arabic community while stressing the challenging context of the incident.
"NSW Police have had a strong and cooperative relationship with Sydney's Islamic Arabic community going back decades. But context is important here," Minns explained. "It was in effect in the middle of a riot. Now, police have to make critical, early decisions in those circumstances. I think fair-minded people would look at the context of that interaction before condemning New South Wales police."
Strong Rejection from Islamic Leaders
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Rateb Jneid firmly rejected Stefanovic's comments, stating that worshippers were simply exercising their fundamental right to religious observance. The prayer occurred around sunset, corresponding to Maghreb – the fourth of five mandatory daily prayers in Islam that must be performed within a specific time window.
"The suggestion that Muslims praying in public were somehow provoking police is wrong and deeply unfair," Dr Jneid told the Daily Mail. "This was Maghreb prayer, which occurs within a very limited time window, and people were simply exercising their lawful right to religious observance."
Dr Jneid further criticized what he perceived as an attempt to shift focus away from police conduct. "Redirecting attention away from police conduct and onto worshippers engaged in prayer amounts to blaming those who were subjected to force, rather than scrutinising the use of that force itself," he asserted. "It is the clear brutality of the actions of the Police that is at issue here and this must be fully, and independently, investigated."
Government Envoy Adds Condemnation
The incident has drawn additional condemnation from Australia's Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, who described the footage as revealing "shocking NSW Police violence against Muslims praying." Malik provided context about the sequence of events, noting that NSW Police had issued a move-on order to people in the street, after which a separate group broke away from protesters specifically to pray in Town Hall Square.
"This behaviour was unprovoked and unacceptable. This has to be condemned unequivocally," Malik wrote on social media. "There cannot be any justification for this demeaning, aggressive and humiliating behaviour." The special envoy called directly on Premier Minns and the NSW Police Commissioner to issue formal apologies and demonstrate genuine accountability for the officers' actions during the protest.
