On December 14, 2025, a terrorist mass shooting occurred at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, during a Hanukkah celebration attended by hundreds of people.
Two gunmen, identified as Pakistani-Australian father-son duo Naveed Akram and his son, opened fire, killing 15 people (including a child) and injuring several others before being killed by police. Australian authorities classified it as a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State group, with court documents revealing "meticulous preparation" by the perpetrators in a regional area.
A standout story from the chaos was Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Syrian Muslim father of two, who heroically tackled and disarmed one gunman, sustaining injuries in the process. His family described his actions as a "matter of conscience," unable to bear watching people die.
In the aftermath, misinformation exploded online, including claims of "crisis actors," false flags, and AI-generated fakes.
For instance, an AI-manipulated image of survivor Arsen Ostrovsky (who was grazed by a bullet and had survived the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel) was circulated to allege he was a "crisis actor" with fake blood, showing distortions like mangled hands and inconsistent backgrounds.
Other falsehoods included misidentifying uninvolved people as attackers, fabricating quotes from politicians like Pauline Hanson, and even Elon Musk's Grok AI bot spreading debunked claims about footage.
Fact-checkers like AAP and NewsGuard debunked these, urging people to spot inconsistencies via reverse image searches and trustworthy sources.
Amid this, Sheikh Kamal Hamed, an Islamic preacher based in Western Sydney (in Labor MP Tony Burke's electorate), drew significant backlash for comments made in a sermon or video clip shared online.







