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Australian Muslim who called on Muslims to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria arrested in Philippines

Jul 12, 2014 1:02 pm By Robert Spencer

MusaCerantonioarrestedCerantonio said back in 2012 that “reestablishing the Islamic state is eventually going to be a military matter, and it is a matter that concerns a large part of the Islamic nation.” He enthusiastically endorsed the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and called on Muslims to join the jihad there. How did this convert to Islam come to misunderstand his new, peaceful religion so severely? Where did he learn his understanding of Islam? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?

“Australian jihadist supporter arrested in Philippines: police,” AFP, July 11, 2014:

Manila (AFP) – An Australian convert to Islam who used the Internet to urge people to join “jihad” in Iraq and Syria was arrested in the Philippines on Friday, local police said.

Robert Edward Cerantonio, 29, who also goes by the name Musa Cerantonio, was detained in the central Philippine city of Cebu and will be deported to Australia, said Superintendent Conrado Capa, the region’s deputy police chief.

“In one broadcast on his website, he called on brother Muslims to join the war in Iraq and Syria,” said Capa.

“We cannot say with certainty that he had any contact with local Muslim groups,” Capa added.

The Philippines has a large Muslim minority in the southern region of Mindanao, a hotbed for a decades-old Muslim insurgency and where Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda also operate.

But Cebu’s police commander, Chief Superintendent Prudencio Banas, said there was “no evidence linking him to any terror act”.

Cerantonio was arrested at the request of the Australian government and will be deported because Canberra has cancelled his passport, making him an illegal alien, Banas added.

A media officer at the Australian embassy declined to comment when asked about the arrest.

Television footage aired by the ABS-CBN network showed a bearded Caucasian man in a white robe being ushered out of an apartment by officers wearing helmets and flak jackets.

The station later showed him being escorted by police through Manila’s airport, wearing a hooded jacket.

Police said they had been monitoring the activities of the Melbourne native since February when he arrived in Cebu, the country’s largest metropolis outside Manila.

He lived with a Philippine woman and moved around Cebu until his arrest at a one-room apartment near the airport, Capa told AFP in a telephone interview from Cebu.

“For the most part, he keeps to himself in his rooms, in hotels or apartments,” Capa said, adding that the woman bought food and other supplies for him.

The 32-year-old woman was wanted by police over an unrelated fraud case and was also arrested Friday, Capa added.

A police intelligence officer involved in the operation said Cerantonio had also visited Mindanao, though there was no indication he had tried to recruit Filipinos to fight alongside Islamic State militants who have seized large swathes of territory in eastern Syria and in neighbouring Iraq.

“Sometimes he mentions the Philippine government (on his website), but does not call for violence” against it, the officer added, adding that the Australian has “no overt following” in the Philippines.

A report in The Australian newspaper last month described Cerantonio as a preacher and “one of (the Islamic State’s) most influential propagandists”, and that Australian police were planning to move against him.

The newspaper said Cerantonio called for the assassination of Western leaders in a Facebook post in December, and that a study had found one in four foreign fighters in Syria followed his Twitter account.

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Filed Under: Australia, converts to Islam, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh)


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Comments

  1. exsgtbrown says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 1:18 pm

    Nary a mosque nor an Islamic school anywhere in the West has any program designed to stop converts to Islam from getting this idea, despite their claim to reject this understanding of Islam and jihad.

    • Beagle says

      Jul 12, 2014 at 1:25 pm

      No, but they do have a program to shut up and threaten all the counterjihadists who talk about this understanding of Islam and jihad. The Muslim trolls here could be doing something productive with their time instead of badgering Robert.

  2. RG says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 1:33 pm

    what a sick, demented fool!

  3. Mazo says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    He should be deported back to Australia and stripped of his passport. Moros in Mindanao have been swamped by over 8 million Filipino Christian colonists and should not abet the colonization program by leaving for Iraq or Syria

    • FatherJon says

      Jul 13, 2014 at 2:53 am

      In Australia we’d rather the Philippinos dealt with Cerantonio according to their laws. After all, they’re the ones who’ve been fighting a brutal war against Islam in Mindanao.

      • Mazo says

        Jul 13, 2014 at 12:30 pm

        Correct- the Philippines has been brutal in terrorizing civilians in its war of aggression against the Moros. Massacring civilians in Mosques, mutilation, cannibalism, and kidnapping civilians for ransom.

        • Jay Boo says

          Jul 13, 2014 at 12:47 pm

          brutal
          because of Muslim terrorists

        • Mazo says

          Jul 13, 2014 at 5:25 pm

          It is the Philippines which started this war with the brutal Jabidah massacre, with America’s violation of the Bates Treaty and illegal annexation of the Moro territories, with America’s first war of aggression on the Moros, with the Philippines colonization, massacres, and tortures on the Moros with western approval.

  4. Jay Boo says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 6:53 pm

    All floor kissing carpet chewing Muslims in the Philippines support Islamic terrorism and jihad either directly or indirectly by virtue of being Qur’an following Muslims.

    • Mazo says

      Jul 12, 2014 at 11:03 pm

      Brain eating, massacring, and rapist Filipino Christian Ilaga militants are commtting terrorism on Moros in Mindanao.

      • Jay Boo says

        Jul 13, 2014 at 12:57 pm

        Muhammad died 632 A.D. as a result of being poisoned by a captured female sex slave or as Muslims call it ‘wife’

        today is July 13, 2014 in the Philippines
        and islam is still not a religion

  5. PJG says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 6:54 pm

    Years ago, after he converted, he took a peaceful stance (I heard him talk) and gained no respect, only derision. He had a Muslim Asian wife at the time, who he used to take around to show off.
    Then he changed his tune, whether gradually or slowly I don’t know.
    Now he’s quite the cardboard cut-out of his big hero.
    We don’t want him back, but we have to have him. No doubt he will be “monitored” by our government; that’s when they take the time away from flattering Muslims, giving them grants and Ramadan wishes and arranging the new procedures for Islamic finance.

  6. Jay Boo says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    As soon as a Muslim convert makes his first choreographed ‘Make Big Ears’ prayer exhibition they become hooked on the Islamic vanity display and crave yet another temporary vanity fix.

    • PRCS says

      Jul 13, 2014 at 10:00 am

      “Make Big Ears” prayer.

      Heh. Heh.

  7. enwhitenment says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    I wonder how many facebook followers will stand by him now that they know his story is all lies.
    He had claimed to be fighting with the MILF and that the police had burned down his house but all the while he has been hiding in hotels with a cheap hooker.
    Lets hope the police can track down who has been sending him money.
    If his heart stops pumping we should all start clapping.
    Kiddie fiddling jihadi scum

  8. enwhitenment says

    Jul 12, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    I wonder how many facebook followers will stand by him now that they know his story is all lies.
    He had claimed to be fighting with the MILF and that the police had burned down his house but all the while he has been hiding in hotels with a cheap hooker.
    Lets hope the police can track down who has been sending him money.
    If his heart stops pumping we should all start clapping.
    Kiddie fiddling jihadi scum

    • Mazo says

      Jul 12, 2014 at 10:59 pm

      MILF has not fought the Philippines in months. It was negotiating and signed a peace deal. Its the BIFF, and one of the MNLF factions which have been fighting the Philippines recently.

    • Mazo says

      Jul 13, 2014 at 5:33 pm

      He claimed to be in the middle east, not with the MILF.

      http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/aussie-fake-sheik-musa-cerantonio-was-all-preach-and-no-practise/story-fni0cwl5-1226986651281?nk=4f5c5c8c361e3b47847075d07593163b

      All the time, he was encouraging supporters to risk their lives to travel to the region. It’s a judgment call that has ended in death for several young Australians.

      When Cerantonio surfaced on Twitter last week, he was still insisting that he had left Asia.

      “Al-Hamdulillah I have arrived in the land of Khilafah in Ash-Sham! May Allah honour all Muslims during this blessed time with His obedience,’’ he said.

      “Insha’Allah I will be arriving in Ash-Sham very shortly, keep us in your du’a, getting ready to travel,’’ he claimed in another post.

      His claims were reported by Australian media and lapped up by an army of online supporters. But when local police came knocking at 5:30am on Friday, he was still holed up in a flat in the Philippines with fashion designer Joean, some cash and three mobile phones.

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