by Tim Anderson, 1 September 2025
It looks like any Australian Muslim or pro-Palestinian person – especially those with any links to Iran or Lebanon – is in line for vicious smears from the pro-genocide media these days, since Netanyahu suckered Albanese over Iran and since Canberra stupidly banned Hezbollah, part of the Lebanese government for the past 20 years.
In this sad tradition, and no doubt under editor’s orders, James King of The Australian ran a hit piece on Lebanese Australian man Hussein Dirani on 31 August. The story hides behind a paywall but the title is ‘Labor-praised Shia group’s leader Hussein Dirani’s ties to terror’.
The story carries several lies and distortions, especially in the baseless attempt to link Mr Dirani to terrorism. The article also tries to wedge the Labor Party, by forcing them to distance themselves from Australian Muslim groups.
The story semi-correctly identifies Mr Dirani as an Australian representative of the Ahlul Bayt World Assembly “an Iran-based organisation formed to promote the teachings of the family of the prophet Mohammed” but then falsely – and without even a source – claims that the group “allegedly serves as cover to recruit foreign students as agents for the IRGC’s Quds Force and Ministry of Intelligence”.
Mr Dirani says the Ahlul Bayt World Assembly is a non-government institute for Shia thought; “I am not the only one representing the institution, and it is not political.”
James King falsely claims that Mr Dirani “co-manages” the Shia National Network of Australia (SNNA). Mr Dirani says he is one of the trustees. King also falsely claims (again, with no source) that Mr Dirani is a “founding member and media manager” of Tajammo3, a Lebanese based resistance rights group.
To say that any of these groups or their supporters supports Hezbollah (part of the Lebanese government for the past 20 years) or the Palestinian resistance (which defends the Palestinian nation) is trite, as every decent person does so, in face of the constant Israeli aggression.
The baseless alleged link to “terrorism” in Australia however is a malicious lie and a disgrace to journalism. Mr Dirani points out that he is and has been “a law abiding citizen in Australia for 50 years” and has no record of breaching any laws.
Mr Dirani says “Australian security is more important to me” than to most others, as he is a member of a besieged community. As a semi-retired freelance activist who expresses political opinions, usually in the Arabic media, he expresses his opinion “within what the law permits”, although that area has been shrinking in recent years.
In response to this catalogue of slander, Hussein Dirani says “I condemn any terror action on any religious centres or any other place, I am a peaceful person and never encourage any act against the law.”
James King says he also works as “a national security consultant”, whatever that means, but it seems to include writing multiple pro-Israel and anti-Russian stories.
