This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Over 200 people in western Sydney attended a protest about the pre-dawn counter-terrorism raids that occurred across the country.

Rally organisers took to Facebook to encourage people to join them at a rally at Lakemba station to oppose the treatment of the Muslim community in what have been touted as the largest ever counter-terrorism raids in Australian history.

More than 800 NSW and Australian federal police officers raided properties on Thursday morning across the suburbs of Beecroft, Bella Vista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park. Fifteen people were detained.

News of the event, starting from 7pm, was shared across social media and more than 3,000 people were invited. The rally was peaceful, with families in attendance, and heard from a number of speakers while some prayers were also held.

Some protesters carried placards that said “stop terrorising Muslims” and “raids terrorise women and children”.

A key speaker at the event was Uthman Badar, a controversial Muslim writer and activist, who recently had a talk he was planning on delivering on honour killings pulled from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

“There is anger in the community about being continuously scapegoated … for such a long period of time,” he said.

He added: “We’re not fools to be deceived by this politicisation of security.”

The rally also heard from a youth who said he had been in one of the houses that had been raided. Badar asked that the boy’s identity not be published.

“Two officers came into my room … they come and grabbed me and pushed me onto the floor and they handcuffed me,” he said.

“The dog puts his foot on the back of my neck, he puts his boots, his big foot, on the back of my foot and then he chucked me on to the wall.”

NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione confirmed officers tied to the operation would be at the protest at Lakemba station.

“You can be certain that Hammerhead will be showing any activity like that, in western Sydney, or anywhere else their full attention,” he said.

However, there was no visible police presence at the rally.

Scipione said people were entitled to protest but had to obey the law.

“If people break the law, they’ll be dealt with,” he said.

Scipione said anyone who chose to turn on Muslim communities would need to realise they would attract police attention.