SYDNEY, Australia — Standing in the rain outside a suburban Sydney train station, 17-year-old Naveed Akram stared into the camera and urged those watching to spread the word of Islam.

“Spread the message that Allah is One wherever you can… whether it be raining, hailing, or clear sky,” he said.

Another since-deleted video posted in 2019 by Street Dawah Movement, a Sydney-based Islamic community group that attempts to proselytize people outside train stations, showed him urging two young boys to pray more frequently.

Authorities are now trying to piece together what happened in the intervening six years that led a teenager volunteering to hand out pamphlets for a nonviolent community group to allegedly carry out Australia’s worst mass shooting in decades, killing 15 people and wounding dozens at a celebratory Jewish event marking the beginning of Hanukkah. Authorities have called it an antisemitic act of terrorism.

Akram was also a follower of radical Islamist cleric Wisam Haddad, counterterrorism officials told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Additionally, the shooter was pictured preaching with another outreach group, Dawah Van, which is linked to Haddad, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Earlier this year, a judge ruled Haddad’s lectures must be pulled from the internet due to their content vilifying Jews.

Old video of the Pakistani origin Bondi Beach terrorist Naveed Akram being involved in 'Dawah' has surfaced pic.twitter.com/RpShzKP8Dr

— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) December 16, 2025

Haddad’s lawyer denied his client had any involvement in the terror attack.

Akram, who remains under heavy guard in hospital after being shot by police, was briefly investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency in........

© The Times of Israel