Unraveling the Complex Ties: Why Ayatollah Khamenei’s Passing Sparks Mourning in Australia

Politicians from both sides of the parliamentary aisle have expressed disapproval over local memorials being held for Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, raising concerns about potential violations of terrorism or hate speech laws.

The United States and Israel’s collaborative operation resulting in the death of Iran’s supreme leader has been perceived differently across communities. For some, it kindled aspirations for a regime change, while others mourned the loss of their religious figure.

Following confirmation of his death by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian state media, numerous Shia mosques and Islamic organizations in Melbourne and Sydney commenced a three-day mourning period on Sunday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with several other federal lawmakers, voiced their disapproval of these memorials.

“I don’t think they were appropriate. Certainly, I believe the vast majority will not be participating,” he remarked during an appearance on ABC’s 7.30 program Monday evening.

Those remarks were echoed by Opposition home affairs spokesperson Jonathon Duniam, who told Sky News celebrations of life could see organisations fall foul of terror laws passed after the Bondi terror attack.

Defence Minister Richard Marles labelled it “a grave misjudgment”, with “our thoughts and our mourning are for those brave Iranians” killed at the hands of the regime.

NSW Premier Chris Minns doubled down on his condemnation.

“I think it’s atrocious to use an opportunity to commemorate or memorialise an evil person. It says a lot about those people conducting the memorials,” he said on Tuesday.

So why do some in the community revere Ayatollah Khamenei?

Why are people mourning the Ayatollah?

There are more than 200,000 Shias in Australia, or roughly a third of Australian Muslims, according to the Shia Council of Australia.

There is no suggestion that they are all mourning the Ayatollah. SBS News has been able to confirm three mosques held public mourning rituals.

Director of Middle East Studies Forum at Deakin University, Shahram Akbarzadeh, explains that to those members of the community, the supreme leader is “more than a political role”.

“You have to make a comparison with Catholicism, just like in Catholic tradition, you have a pope who is the head of the church. In Shia tradition, you have a religious scholar that people follow,” he told SBS News.

Although there is more than one religious leader, Akbarzadeh said a large segment of the Shia community in Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan and parts of Syria follow Khamenei.

“So it’s only natural that the Shia community would mourn the death of the religious leader,” he said.

Akbarzadeh said that for many Iranians, Khamenei was the “embodiment of a repressive regime” which for decades silenced dissent, suppressed political opponents and in January, reportedly killed 30,000 protesters.

“All of that has meant that the Iranian diaspora is quite glad that he is gone,” he said.

On Sunday a group of over 100 Iranian-Australians gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Canberra, with many dancing, celebrating, cheering, playing music and waving flags.

Similar gatherings emerged in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney while some including the Palestine Action Group demonstrated against the strikes.

The Shia Council of Australia stressed that, irrespective of politics, for the Shia Muslim diaspora, Khamenei’s death is a “religious and communal loss”.

“Reducing his death to celebration alone erases the reality that millions are grieving. It dismisses the spiritual dimension of his leadership and the sincerity of those who feel this loss deeply,” it said in a statement.

“At a time when the Muslim community is already carrying profound anguish over the humanitarian catastrophe and documented human rights violations in Gaza and elsewhere in the region, this moment compounds an already heavy burden.”

Where do the memorials sit under new laws?

Opposition defence spokesperson James Paterson has argued the federal police should investigate whether the events are in violation of the law, particularly as the Ayatollah is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia.

“The IRGC… is now a listed terrorist organisation in Australia,” he told ABC Radio National on Tuesday.

“And it is a crime to praise or glorify a listed terrorist organisation in a way that could incite others to commit acts of terrorism.”

Asked whether it was investigating mosques holding events, the Australian Federal Police had no comment.

Anne Twomey, professor emerita at University of Sydney Law School, said: “It depends on what is being said or done.

“If people are just expressing condolences for the death of a person, I cannot see how that would constitute a hate crime or advocacy of terrorism.

“If instead, people are reflecting upon the past actions of the deceased and then using that history as a basis for advocating the use of force or violence against others because of their race, or advocating terrorism,” then it may amount to an offence.”

International law professor at Australian National University Donald Rothwell said on face value, a religious gathering mourning the Ayatollah would not meet the threshold for indicating support of a prescribed terrorist organisation.

But he said that new hate speech laws passed by the government in January are untested and “it’s not necessarily extraordinary” that test cases may be used by police, but he said “great sensitivity” should be shown when doing so.

“Clearly any suggestion that the Australian Federal Police should be actively monitoring these memorial services raises enormous sensitivity and also raises precisely the issue that the Prime Minister has been talking about since the Bondi terrorist attack, about social cohesion in Australia.

“Nevertheless, the Australian Federal Police have a job to do. They have new legislation to work with, so they need to be very sensitively monitoring these events, but also respectfully noting that the intent of these events would appear to be memorialised and to note, the passing of the Ayatollah,” he said.

Rothwell added that if IRGC symbols were being displayed that may be close to the threshold of what the new laws consider support for the organisation.

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