Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been heckled and abused by aggressive Muslims while visiting a mosque in an Islamic enclave in Sydney.
Mr Albanese and immigration minister Tony Burke were sitting on the floor in their socks at a religious event inside Lakemba Mosque on Friday morning as Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir addressed the male-only crowd.
Shortly after Mr Kheir declared that aboriginals were the “rightful custodians” of Australia and pointed out that the Muslim community supported Mr Albanese’s failed Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023, several men began to boo as others chanted “Allahu Akbar”.
The men yelled “get them out of here”, “boo Albanese”, “boo Burke”, “genocide supporters”, “why are youse protecting him?” One shouted “putrid dog” at the Prime Minister, and another was ejected by police.
Mr Albanese and Mr Burke were then abused again as they left the mosque, with Muslims yelling “shame on you” and “you have killed our brothers and sisters”.
Video by ABC News showed both men looking visibly shaken and uncomfortable during the incident.
Muslims declare aboriginals the “rightful custodians” of Australia before yelling Allahu Akbar and shouting abuse at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Immigration Minister Tony Burke who sit helpless on the floor in their socks.
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— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) March 20, 2026
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The mosque, which last year attempted to get approval to blast a Muslim call to prayer from minaret loudspeakers across the surrounding area, is located in Mr Burke’s southwest Sydney electorate of Watson, where White Australians have been almost completely replaced by immigrants.
At the time of the 2021 Census, just 30% of Watson’s population spoke only English at home, 11.7% were of Australian ancestry, and 25.1% were Muslim, while in the suburb of Lakemba the figures were 16.6%, 8.3%, and 61.2% respectively.
Mr Albanese later attempted to play down the incident, and said “overwhelmingly the reception was positive”.
“I walked through the crowd to the mosque and not a single person heckled,” he said.
“There were a couple of hecklers inside, they were dealt with … no one was rushed out, we just sat there, it was dealt with. It was dealt with by the community themselves because overwhelmingly they did not want that to occur.
“Yes, there were a couple of people who were heckling. Some people don’t like the fact that we have outlawed extremist organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir, and that brought a response from a couple of people.
“But if you got a couple of people heckling in a crowd of 30,000, that should be put in that perspective.”
He then posted a series of photos on social media captioned “Eid Mubarak”.
Eid Mubarak.
An honour join thousands for Eid al-Fitr at Lakemba Mosque this morning. pic.twitter.com/br1n6si2Du
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 19, 2026
Many Aussies responded to the scenes in and outside the mosque by remarking that Mr Albanese’s attempts to pander to Muslims had failed, and that he should be trying to fix the fuel crisis instead of winning over minority voting blocs.
“While the nation runs out of fuel and is about to grind to a halt, the Prime Minister is sitting on the floor of a mosque. His priorities are clear. He doesn’t care about us,” wrote political commentator Fred Pawle.
“When you try to please everyone, you please no one. Australian PM heckled in a mosque by the only supporters he had,” read another popular X post.
“It seems that even their own imported voter base now hates them too,” said another.
Header image: Left, right, the scenes at the mosque (ABC News).
