Less than 24 hours after Australians across the country kicked off their shoes to enter the nation's mosques for a National Day of Unity, Muslims in Sydney were calling for a different kind of solidarity – against a demonising state and its agents.

Under the tinkling glass of chandeliers swaying in path of the air conditioning at The Bellevue function centre in Bankstown, hundreds came to hear how their community was being unfairly targeted by police and spies.

"There needs to be unity on issues that affect us as a whole, particularly when the target is Islam itself," prominent Hizb ut-Tahrir member, Wassim Doureihi, said.