The Coalition has called for taxpayer funding to be revoked from Muslim organisations linked to signatories of a statement condemning the response to two Bankstown nurses who were sacked over antisemitic comments.

The ‘United Muslim community statement’, shared online by Stand For Palestine Australia, was signed by more than 60 individuals and groups. It declared, “We condemn the hypocrisy over (the) nurses controversy,” referring to former NSW nurses Ahmad “Rashad” Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh. Both were dismissed immediately after a video of them threatening to kill Israeli patients circulated online last week.

🚨 Demands to DEFUND Islamic groups DEFENDING nurses in chilling video

Not a single Muslim leader or organisation in our country has condemned the nurses in the strongest terms it requires

They're condemning the outrage instead

SIGN https://t.co/uGABTzsHcM NOW! pic.twitter.com/rcuuzjNGLr

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) February 18, 2025

Although the statement admits that “healthcare should be provided justly to all,” it also criticised what it described as “the selective outrage and political motivations” behind the reaction to the scandal. In the video that led to their sacking, Nadir said he sent Israeli patients to “Jahannam,” an Arabic term for hell.

“The statements made by the nurses regarding ‘killing Israelis’ were clearly emotional and hyperbolic, as supported by subsequent investigations,” the statement read.

PETITION: Expose The Terror 'Doctor' and Nurse!

45,419 signatures

Goal: 55,000 signatures

Sign this petition to call on authorities to take immediate and decisive action against the Sydney hospital workers making shocking claims and for authorities to hold them accountable!

Sign Now

Optional email code

Will you sign?

First Name

Last Name

Email

Mobile phone

Send me email updates

Send me text message updates

Comments (optional)

Among the signatories is Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, a fundamentalist Islamic group that has previously courted controversy.

Independent candidates from The Muslim Vote movement, Ziad Basyouny and Ahmed Ouf, also signed the letter, along with the movement itself. Basyouny is challenging Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in the electorate of Watson, while Ouf is contesting Education Minister Jason Clare’s seat of Blaxland.

Other signatories include Gamel Kheir, secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), which was allocated part of a $2 million grant for youth programs, and Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun of the United Muslims of Australia (UMA), which received funding from the Securing Faith-Based Places Grant Program.

Dadoun previously gained attention after stating he was “elated” at a rally in Lakemba following the October 7 terror attacks on Israel. Neither the UMA nor the LMA officially endorsed the statement.

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson described the breadth of support for the statement as “alarming” and called on Burke to act.

“Tony Burke must put the national interest before his political interest and rescind grants from any organisation which signed this statement. Taxpayers’ money should never be spent excusing extremism,” he said.