Sami Yahood (Sami the Jew in Arabic) is a British Israeli Jew and a staunch critic of the political ideology of Islam. On X, he posted, ‘Islam, according to Islam, does not tolerate non-believers, apostates, women’s rights, children’s rights, or gay rights.’ He was scheduled to speak at synagogues, including to survivors of the Bondi massacre, and run self-defence courses. Yahood’s message is simple: ‘It’s time to stop being tolerant of those that are not tolerant of us.’

That is not a message that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was prepared to tolerate. He cancelled Yahood’s visa on Australia Day, three hours before his flight, causing maximum expense and disruption, and chose International Holocaust Remembrance Day to inform Australians of his decision.

Burke had no problem issuing almost 3,500 visas to Gazans from 7 October, 2023, to the end of 2024. He waived requirements for biometric testing or a visit to a consulate or embassy for an in-person interview and admitted the Gazans on tourist visas when it was clear that they were not in Australia to visit the Opera House, although it cannot be ruled out that they might join an anti-Zionist Jew hunt in its forecourt. Asio boss Mike Burgess said support for Hamas was not a ‘deal breaker’. Burke even turned up at the airport to give some lucky Gazans an unpublicised ministerial welcome, as did a band of friends and relations ululating in glee.

Burke also had no problem permitting the return of Australian women who went to Syria to support the Islamic State and their offspring. Despite the fact that supporting the Islamic State is a serious criminal offence, as far as we know, none of them have been prosecuted.

Burke does have a problem with Israelis, cancelling the visas of former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, American technology entrepreneur Hillel Fuld, and Knesset member Simcha Rothman. Rothman’s apparent offence was calling for the elimination of Hamas — a proscribed terrorist organisation. Fuld was rejected for what was described as ‘Islamophobia rhetoric’, including posts observing the ideological motivations of Islamist terrorism.

His brother Ari Fuld was murdered by a Palestinian teenage terrorist in 2018. Shaked’s disqualification appears to rest on her opposition to Palestinian statehood.

There are, of course, no shortage of clerics in Australia who not only deny the right of Israel to exist but call for violent jihad to destroy it. The Middle East Media Research Institute has compiled some of their greatest video hits.

Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud thundered at Masjid As-Sunnah in Lakemba, western Sydney, that the Prophet Muhammad and the Righteous Caliphs did not conquer the world by peaceful means or concessions, but spread Islam by jihad, which was created to reign supreme over all other religions, was the ‘only solution’ to infidels, and to restoring Palestine. Zoud is the director of Awqaf Australia charity and was deputy to Sheikh Mohammad Omran, leader of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah in Australia, who has been linked to Al-Qaeda.

Sydney-based Palestinian-Kuwaiti Dalya Ayoub said the Koran, sharia law, and the Sunnah are the only systems that should be obeyed, that Muslims must not be deceived by ‘so-called’ democracy, that jihad to liberate Palestine does not require approval because it is self-defence and a defence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Wissam ‘Abu Ousayd’ Haddad whose Al Madina Dawah Centre was frequented by the younger Bondi terrorist, said jihad is ‘definitely’ part of Islam and Muslims should ‘never shy away from this’ as Allah prefers jihadists to those who sit idle at home.

‘Brother Ismail’ railed at the same centre that jihadists in Palestine should raise the black jihadi flag used by Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, so they can die as martyrs, praised Hamas as freedom fighters and condemned ‘betrayal sheikhs’ who suppressed Muslims impatient to die as martyrs.

None of these diatribes troubled Burke or any Australian authority enough to prompt action. The Al Madina Dawah Centre was only shut down because it hadn’t filled out the correct paperwork to operate as a haven for hate-preachers. Haddad was prosecuted for breaching the Racial Discrimination Act only thanks to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

The cancellation of Yahood’s visa illustrates, with chilling clarity, the bias at the heart of the Albanese government.Criticism of Islam is treated as a threat to public order, indistinguishable from bigotry and appears to have been criminalised by the post-Bondi hate speech laws, while Islamist ideology is tolerated as a protected cultural identity. Clerics with documented proximity to Islamists are received as respected representatives of Muslims, while visa powers are applied asymmetrically against critics of Islamism, particularly Israelis, rather than its proponents.

This approach has paved the path from obscure prayer houses in Western Sydney to the massacre at Bondi. Leftist intellectuals and artists in a thousand rallies played a powerful role in creating the ecosystem in which terrorism becomes normalised as former Labor leaders marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge under the approving gaze of the Ayatollah. The ABC acted like a latter-day Lord Haw-Haw or Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler’s wartime propagandist in the Middle East.

Australia is pioneering a dangerous path here with deadly results. Denmark has charted a different course. It draws an explicit distinction between Muslims as citizens and Islamism as a political doctrine. The former are entitled to full protection under the law; the latter is regarded as incompatible with liberal democracy and therefore subject to restriction. Criticism of political Islam is treated not as hatred, but as legitimate democratic contestation.

Denmark’s approach does not rely on criminalising speech. It rests on conceptual clarity. Hatred is defined narrowly as incitement against people, not opposition to ideas. Ideological critique is not collapsed into racial or religious vilification because suppressing criticism of intolerant doctrines does not foster cohesion; it breeds resentment and self-censorship. Denmark is willing to absorb reputational criticism and accusations of intolerance to maintain clear civic boundaries.

Despite the devastation of Bondi, Albanese is taking Australia in the opposite direction. Criticism of an illiberal ideology is treated as a threat to social harmony, even in the absence of incitement to violence. That is a dangerous threshold. A democracy that cannot tolerate robust criticism of illiberal doctrines will find itself protecting those doctrines rather than the democracy itself. Nothing illustrates the peril Albanese is courting more clearly than this. Yahood was not denied a visa to the United Arab Emirates because they recognise that the real threat comes not from Israelis, but from Islamists.