Did the Bondi shooters leave any manifesto?
Executive summary
Australian investigators say the Bondi Beach attackers prepared and recorded materials that authorities have described as a manifesto: police documents and media reporting allege a video manifesto found on Naveed Akram’s phone that combines religious text and spoken justification for the attack, and some police sources told reporters the pair had “prepared a manifesto” prior to the massacre [1] [2] [3]. At the same time, early official statements were cautious about confirming a physical paper manifesto in the vehicle or at the scene, and full authoritative publication of any manifesto text has not been produced in the reporting reviewed [4] [1].
1. Police allege a filmed “video manifesto” that mixes Qur’anic recitation with English statements of motivation
Court documents released to police and reported by The Guardian say the material authorities describe as a video manifesto shows Naveed Akram speaking in Arabic—appearing to recite a passage from the Qur’an—then delivering statements in English that include condemnations of “Zionists” and explanations for why the attack was planned, which Australian investigators link to Islamic State inspiration [1].
2. Several outlets report police found the video on a suspect’s phone and treat it as justification evidence
PBS and other reporting note police statements that a video found on Naveed Akram’s phone “express[ed] their political and religious views and appear[ed] to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack,” and those materials have been incorporated into the investigation and court documents as evidentiary material [2] [1].
3. Some reporting says a manifesto was “prepared” before the attack, but officials were initially cautious about confirming physical documents
The Sydney Morning Herald cited NSW Police sources saying the Akrams had prepared a manifesto before the massacre, yet earlier police comments reported by The Guardian declined to confirm claims that a manifesto or black Islamic State flag had been found in the car, indicating a degree of caution or withholding of specific forensic details in initial public briefings [3] [4].
4. News organizations and governments characterize the attack as IS-inspired and link that to manifesto claims, but the public record stops short of releasing a full text
Multiple international outlets and briefings by Australian officials have described the attack as “Islamic State-inspired” and have tied the alleged manifesto/video to that ideology, a view echoed in coverage by NBC, Fox, BBC and others; nonetheless, none of the reporting reviewed publishes the full manifesto text or a publicly released full transcription of the video manifesto, leaving the primary materials—if any beyond digitally stored video—out of the public record [5] [6] [7] [1].
5. What the available evidence supports, and what remains uncertain
Taken together, police documents and multiple news reports support the conclusion that investigators recovered a filmed statement on a suspect’s device that they treat as a manifesto or justificatory statement and that police sources assert the pair prepared manifesto material prior to the attack [2] [3] [1]. What remains unclear in published reporting is whether a standalone written manifesto document (paper or otherwise separate from the phone video) was definitively found and catalogued, and no outlet in the provided sources reproduces or publishes a complete manifesto for independent scrutiny [4] [1].
6. Wider context and why the distinction matters
That investigators emphasize a filmed justification and references to IS ideology shapes terrorism charges, public framing and political debate in Australia, and it has fueled both policy responses and contentious public conversations about security and community impacts—coverage that also notes surges in Islamophobic incidents and political fallout after the attack—making precise characterization of the “manifesto” important for both legal proceedings and public understanding [8] [9].