False
Fact-Checked
- 16.12.2025
Hero who disarmed Bondi Beach shooter in Australia is not Lebanese Maronite Christian but Muslim
CLAIM
Hero who disarmed Bondi Beach shooter in Australia is a Lebanese Maronite Christian
RATING JUSTIFICATION:
The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.
To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a keyword search to find the original source.
Multiple people, including right-wing users and personalities, on social media platform X were claiming since December 14, 2025, that the man who disarmed the Bondi Beach shooter in Australia is a Lebanese Maronite Christian. However, he is a Syrian Muslim from Idlib.
On Dec 14, 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed in a mass shooting targeting Australia’s Jewish community at a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Police identified the two gunmen involved in the attack as father and son.
The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in a critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference on Dec 15.
Witnesses said the attack at the famed beach, which was packed on a hot evening, lasted about 10 minutes, sending hundreds of people scattering along the sand and into nearby streets. According to the police, around 1,000 people attended the targeted event, which was held in a small park off the beach.
A bystander captured on video tackling and disarming an armed man during the attack has been hailed as a hero whose actions saved lives. 7News Australia named him as Ahmed al Ahmed, citing a relative, who said the 43-year-old fruit shop owner had been shot twice and had undergone surgery.
HOW IT STARTED
On Dec 14, an X account that routinely shares Islamophobic content posted pictures of Ahmed Al Ahmed after he was injured, claiming that the man was a Lebanese Maronite Christian.
The caption of the post read: “He is a Christian Maronite! The hero who stopped one of the terrorists in Australia is called Ahmed Al Ahmed. The anti-Israel mobs celebrated him being a Muslim, as if that made the terror attack less terrible. But he is not a Muslim! He is a Christian Maronite!”
The post gained 2.2 million views and 42,000 likes.
Another right-wing account shared the same claim with the caption: “No, a Muslim did not stop the Bondi shooter. He was a Christian. Back in your boxes, Lefties.”
The post gained 873,500 views.
American far-right activist Laura Loomer also shared the same claim. Her post read: “The media keeps saying the man who disarmed the Muslim terrorist in Australia today is also a Muslim who owns a fruit stand. Credible reports suggest the man is a Lebanese or Coptic Christian. Don’t fall for the propaganda.”
Her post gained 675,200 views and was liked 28,000 times.
It was also shared by an American right-wing influencer on X, gaining 1.1 million views.
The same claim was shared by other right-wing accounts on X, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here; collectively gaining more than 350,000 views.
METHODOLOGY
A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and immense public interest and debate in the identity of the hero.
A keyword search was conducted to corroborate the matter and yielded a news article published on Dec 14, 2025, by The Times of Israel titled: “‘A genuine hero’: Unarmed Muslim bystander filmed disarming Sydney terrorist”.
It described Ahmed al Ahmed as a 43-year-old Muslim fruit seller and father of two, who was filmed tackling and disarming one of the gunmen who opened fire at the Hanukkah event in Sydney. It added that his intervention, despite being shot twice in the arm, saved lives and led leaders like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to call him a hero.
A social post on Facebook by Turkish media outlet TRT World shared images of the scuffle as well with the following caption, which explicitly identified Ahmed as being Muslim: “The unarmed man who tackled one of the gunmen involved in a Sydney shooting has been identified as Ahmed al Ahmed, a 43-year-old Muslim father of two. He is a fruit stand operator from a Sydney suburb who happened to be in the area at the time. He was shot twice and is currently in the hospital receiving treatment.”
Australian media outlet ABC on Dec 16, also published an article titled: “The courage of Ahmed Al Ahmed: Why arguing over the Bondi hero’s faith misses the ethical point”.
According to the article, there was a debate on Ahmed’s identity, whether he was Muslim or Christian and whether he was Syrian or Australian-born, in the aftermath of the heroic act. It said that while some said he was a Christian, “others corrected the record, noting that he is a Syrian-born Arab Muslim from the city of Idlib.”
The Sydney Morning Herald described him as a Muslim who arrived in Australia in 2006 from Syria.
Similarly, international wire news agency Reuters also referred to Ahmed as being a Muslim in a Dec 15 news report.
It was also found that Netanyahu, in a press conference after the incident, had also praised Ahmed, calling him a “brave Muslim” man.
The same was also shared by the official X account of the Israeli prime minister.
Reviewing an interview given by the hero’s cousin, Mustafa Al-Ahmed, to Qatari media outlet Al Araby TV showed that he also did not contest the anchor’s description of his cousin being a Muslim when asked a question at the 5:13-minute mark of a clip uploaded on X.
The transcript of the anchor’s question is provided below:
“Israel is portraying the situation in Australia as this attack being due to anti-Semitism. Before Israel discovered that the one who ultimately saved the lives of jews was a Muslim from an Arab country. In your conversation with, do you sense any negative view towards Jews?”
Furthermore, a keyword search yielded multiple articles, according to which, initial misinformation was shared regarding Ahmed’s identity due to AI chatbot Grok hallucinating when asked for further information about the man who stopped one of the attackers.
According to the articles, Grok identified a man named Edward Crabtree as the hero who risked his life to disarm one of the attackers and hallucinated a fictional story of Crabtree.
FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE
The viral claim that the hero who disarmed the Bondi Beach shooter in Sydney is a Lebanese Maronite Christian is false.
Ahmed el Ahmed is a Syrian Muslim from the city of Idlib.
EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES
Dec 14, 2025, The Times of Israel news article:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-genuine-hero-unarmed-muslim-bystander-filmed-disarming-sydney-terrorist/
Dec 14, 2025, TRT World’s Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/trtworld/posts/the-unarmed-man-who-tackled-one-of-the-gunmen-involved-in-a-sydney-shooting-has-/1328025002693071/
Dec 15, 2025, ABC news article:
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/bondi-attack-hero-ahmed-al-ahmed-arguing-about-faith/106148028
Dec 14, 2025, The Sydney Morning Herald news report:
Dec 15, 2025, Reuters news report:
Dec 14, 2025, Sky News English YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/ohEuRU-ZKTQ?si=yJG7fX2HIS91GR47&t=84
Dec 14, 2025, AlarabyTV X post:
https://x.com/AlarabyTV/status/2000260290500297060