A Shia Muslim community leader is recovering from surgery after being shot in the face with pellets outside a Sydney religious hall, which witnesses say was targeted by supporters of Islamic State hours earlier.
Rasoul Al Mousawi, 47, was standing outside the building in Greenacre in Sydney south-west around 1.15am on Monday morning when a number of pellets were fired.
Police said Al Mousawi sustained wounds to his head and shoulder, but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Other worshippers reportedly heard the shots and dragged the wounded man back into the Husseiniya Al Nabi Akram Islamic centre, where the man had been observing the first day of the holy ritual of Ashura.
The holiday is the most significant in the Shia calendar and commemorates the death of the prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein Ibn Ali.
A friend of the victim said threats by alleged Islamic State (Isis) supporters had been made during the evening, before the shooting.
“They drive past, they stop here, they make threats ‘Isis lives forever’ this and that,” he told ABC radio.
Sources said there had been a scuffle and an argument outside the centre on Friday that saw a security guard attacked by a group of men apparently belonging to the conservative Sunni Wahhabi sect.
The centre has reported internal conflict over ownership, but sources said the shooting was unlikely to be connected to those disputes.
A prominent member of the Muslim community, Jamal Daoud, said the attack followed “10 days of tension” between Shia Muslims and supporters of the militia group Isis.
Daoud said the threats were coming from a small, well-organised group and that he himself had been abused in the streets and followed on Sunday.