Australian PM Anthony Albanese Heckled At Sydney Mosque During Eid Event

Last Updated:March 20, 2026, 09:28 IST

Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke were heckled at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney during Eid prayers, accused of being "genocide supporters."

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was heckled during an event at a Sydney mosque marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Albanese, along with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, was attending Eid prayers at Lakemba Mosque, one of the largest in Australia, after being invited by community leaders on Friday morning local time.

During the event, several attendees shouted “boo" and “get out of here," accusing the leaders of being “genocide supporters," as a mosque leader delivered a speech urging the government to improve its engagement with Muslim Australians.

Police removed a man who had been shouting at the prime minister from the mosque, but he was later released without charge and asked to leave, according to the Australian Associated Press.

As the event concluded, Albanese exited through the crowd, where several people continued to shout at him, including one who said, “Why is he here? Get him out of here! It’s a disgrace."

Soon after the gathering ended, the Lebanese Muslim Association, which manages the mosque, issued a statement saying Albanese had been welcomed at the prayers and that their doors would “continue to open."

“We understand that emotions are high, particularly given the ongoing suffering in Gaza and the devastation in Lebanon. These are not distant issues for our community," the statement said.

“But we also need to be clear. Choosing to engage with the elected leadership of this country is not a betrayal of those concerns. It is how we give them a voice."

Discontent remains widespread among many in Australia’s Muslim community over the government’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war, along with concerns about increasing Islamophobia domestically.

Later, Albanese said that he was welcomed by most of the 30,000-plus crowd at the mosque – which has been the target of several threatening letters in recent months, BBC reported.

“Overwhelmingly the reception was incredibly positive," he said, according to the Guardian Australia.

He indicated that the disturbance caused by a small number of protesters could be linked to his government’s recent steps to ban extremist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, which advocates for a unified Islamic state across the Muslim world and has faced allegations of supporting terrorism.

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