Photo: Shaykh Wesam Cherkawi, Nick Hanna and Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah

The Muslim Vote fundraiser calls for an organised, independent and enduring Muslim political voice

The Muslim Vote (TMV) has declared its intention to turn the political mobilisation seen during Australia’s 2025 federal election into permanent political infrastructure, bringing together community leaders, activists, lawyers and supporters at a major fundraising dinner in Sydney on Thursday 13 August.

Held at The Renaissance in Lidcombe, the evening featured TMV convenor Shaykh Dr Wesam Charkawi, author and academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, lawyer and filmmaker Nick Hanna and internationally acclaimed American Muslim comedian Preacher Moss.

The fundraiser came as TMV prepares for the NSW state election and seeks to expand its work in advocacy, public education, political submissions, media engagement, campaign strategy and grassroots mobilisation.

TMV says its objective is not to become another political party or deliver the Muslim vote automatically to one side of politics, but to develop informed and strategic Muslim participation capable of holding all political parties accountable.

From political spectators to political participants

MC Ahmad Bassal opened the evening by telling the audience that the discussion would bring together “Islamic scholarship, community leadership, academia, activism, law and film making.”

“The Muslim vote is about building informed, organized, and effective Muslim political participation, ensuring our community understands political power and learns how to use its voice constructively,” he said.

But he stressed that political influence could not be separated from faith and ethics.

“For us as Muslims, it must also be around principles, values, responsibilities, and understanding what we owe to the society that we live in.”

A Welcome to Country by Jane Christian introduced the theme of integrity, using the meeting of salt and fresh water as a metaphor for communities engaging with wider political structures without surrendering their identity.


‘They understand the ballot box’

In the keynote address, Shaykh Dr Wesam Charkawi challenged what he described as a longstanding community approach of relying on access and personal relationships with governments and political leaders.

“For years, we’ve been told that relationships or government or to influence government could only be done through relationships,” he said.

“But there is a far more permanent question and the question is: What have relationships meaningfully changed in specific areas?”

For Charkawi, Palestine had been central to his political consciousness long before the current war.

“Palestine was not something that was introduced to me as I was growing up. The cause of Palestine was in my mother’s breast milk. And that’s the reality of it.”

He argued that electoral consequences ultimately carried greater weight than private access to politicians.

“These people do not understand any language except one, the ballot box.”

That strategy was tested at the 2025 federal election. TMV-backed independents Ahmed Ouf in Blaxland and Dr Ziad Basyouny in Watson did not win their seats, but both recorded substantial votes against senior Labor ministers.

Ouf secured about 20 per cent of the primary vote in Blaxland and reached around 46 per cent at several booths, while Basyouny also significantly challenged Labor’s traditional dominance in Watson.

The results prompted political analysts at the time to describe the scale of the early electoral surge as unusual for such a new movement.

Charkawi told the fundraiser that what began as an electoral intervention now needed to become something much larger.

“What began as intervention or electoral intervention is becoming absolutely permanent political infrastructure,” he said.

“We’re not going to vote in fear… we need to understand that your vote is powerful and we cannot give it to them for free.”

A generation unwilling to accept old politics

During the panel discussion, Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah argued that one of the greatest obstacles facing Australian Muslims was internal rather than electoral.

“One of them I would say is internalised insecurity complexes. We actually don’t have the confidence to understand that we have power as a community,” she said.

She said Gaza had profoundly changed the political consciousness of younger Australian Muslims, who had watched the destruction and killing unfold through their phones and social media.

“An entire generation is sitting on live stream genocide and they are seeing both Labor and Liberal parties, two faces of the same point, justify, enable, and support and provide that weapons parts for this genocide.”

Israel has rejected allegations that its actions in Gaza constitute genocide, while proceedings brought by South Africa remain before the International Court of Justice.

Abdel-Fattah said Muslim participation in political institutions was necessary even when those institutions themselves required fundamental change.

“We need our voices in those rooms, in those chambers to push back at least at the very least to show that we cannot be stood over, that we have the dignity to at least fight back and we should be pushing for more.”

Defending civil liberties

Lawyer Nick Hanna focused on the legal consequences faced by Australians speaking publicly about Gaza and Palestine and the need for independent institutions capable of defending civil liberties.

“The impetus for establishing the Civil Liberties Defense Center was sheer necessity. Since October 2023, we’ve of course seen an unprecedented level of political repression in this country,” Hanna said.

He also warned that dependence on government funding could limit the ability of community organisations to challenge government policy.

“The reality is that most Muslim community organizations are largely dependent on government funding for their survival… It’s led to organizations and leaders being too scared to speak out because they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them.”

Hanna argued that political organisation was therefore inseparable from defending civil liberties.

“Just as these laws were enacted due to political pressure, they need to be pushed back against with political pressure.”

‘Muslims aren’t going anywhere’

The evening shifted from politics to humour with American comedian Preacher Moss, who used comedy to explore Muslim identity, racism and the experience of converts to Islam.

“Muslims aren’t going anywhere,” Moss told the audience. “When you become Muslim, it’s extremely hard to unmuslim. You cannot unmuslim.”

He ended on a message about remaining confident in Islamic identity: “Do not let people mislead you off the deen.”

Returning to the stage for the fundraising appeal, Charkawi stressed that TMV’s work was being undertaken by volunteers rather than paid campaigners.

He urged Australian Muslims to complement their generosity towards international humanitarian causes with investment in institutions at home.

“While all of that is for a good cause and it is for a good cause, we need also to not forget about the institutions and building the institutions here.”

For TMV, the message of the evening was that Muslim political engagement cannot appear at election time and disappear afterwards.

“Ultimately, it’s about justice,” Charkawi said.

The challenge now is whether the electoral energy demonstrated in 2025 can be converted into an organised, independent and lasting political force — one capable not simply of asking politicians to listen, but of giving them an electoral reason to do so.