We’re constantly told in the West that only greasy Islamophobes think that the Islamic concept of jihad has anything to do with violence, so how did this Muslim from Australia get the idea that jihad had something to do with guns and warfare? Mainstream analysts never ponder the implications of what people like Ahmed Shaheed III do and say. They can’t, because doing so would explode all their cherished assumptions.
“Australian Muslim ‘Ahmed Shaheed III’ shares startling vision of gunfire and bombing raids from the Syrian war front,” by Taylor Auerbach, Daily Mail, May 10, 2014:
He poses proudly with a bazooka in the Syrian desert.
But ‘Ahmed Shaheed III’ still hides his face in this grainy image which gives a stark insight into life on the Syrian war front.
The former Bond University student from Sydney has joined the treacherous fighting in the middle east, a deadly mission he describes as his ‘jihad’.
He is in Aleppo, in northwest Syria, locked in a civil war with the Syrian Armed Forces.
He refers to his opponents as the ‘Kuffar’ – an Islamic term for non-believers. And he doesn’t like the west.
A video Shaheed shared with his Facebook friends shows an American base in Afghanistan being destroyed by a cheering jihadist’s bomb.
In another one, martyred Sydney sheikh Mustapha Al Majzoub – who was killed in Syria in 2012 – delivers a lecture.
But most chilling are the photographs of guns and explosives and the videos of Shaheed practicing his shooting in the war torn state.
‘Say hello to my little friend,’ he wrote above a photo of a powerful machine gun and four huge shells.
Followers around the world egg him on. Beneath a photo of a rocket launcher, one friend wrote: ‘Land one of those in the mouth of the Assad troops’.
In February Shaheed posted a video, purportedly of a strike on his base by the ‘Kuffar’. Massive explosions and heavy artillery fire can be heard in the video, which is accompanied by the caption: ‘A small clip of it sounds like for the Kuffar to advance on your HQ’
In another video Shaheed hides behind a Guy Fawkes mask as he shoots a round of tracers into the distance.
A recent lengthy post criticised the west for waging their own jihad and called on like-minded Muslims to pick up their guns and join the fight.
‘By performing jihad, bithni’lah it will liberate the muslims from oppression and restore back our honor. Support the mujahideen and dont fear the blame of the blamers (sic),’ he wrote.
He describes as ‘having a bit of fun’ the moment he marches towards a building dressed in camouflage and a balaclava while shooting a machine gun at the lower level.
Shaheed calls Sydney his hometown and is part of the Facebook group ‘Martyrs of Hijra’, dedicated to Muslims around the world who have undergone a pilgrimage to the holy lands.
He is one of a worrying and growing number of young Australians who have chosen to fight in Syria. Anti-terrorism officials fear the war has the potential to turn moderate Muslims into radicals.
Earlier this week a 29-year-old mother-of-four was arrested with her children at Sydney airport as she tried to board a plane for the besieged middle eastern country.
It is believed she was attempting to smuggle equipment to the front line for Syrian fighters – including her husband – and was found with cash and camouflage.
In January The Sydney Morning Herald reported that western Sydney pensioner Hamdi Alqudsi, 39, had been charged with recruiting locals to join the war alongside terrorist groups in the country .
There are fears that Facebook and other forms of social media are being used to muster up support for the fight in Syria.
A number of chat groups exist, aimed at Sydney Muslims, which encourage people to meet up and organise trips to the war torn region.