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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Australia Muslim named commander of Islamic State unit

Aug 31, 2014 11:30 pm By Robert Spencer

abu-yahya-ash-shamiAbu Yahya ash Shami has been reported as having been killed waging jihad for the Islamic State, so it is unclear who this new commander really is, but if he is indeed Australian, he highlights one of the West’s most important new exports: jihad terrorists.

“Sydney jihadist named commander of Iraqi Islamic State unit,” The Australian, September 1, 2014:

ASIO is investigating reports the head of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has appointed a 40-year-old Sydney man to a senior military leadership role in northern Iraq.

An Iraqi news website is ­reporting that an Australian fighting with Islamic State, and who goes by the name Abu Yahya ash Shami, has been named the military commander for the town of Jalula in northern Iraq.

Citing a local source, the Iraqi News site said the Australian had proved his allegiance to Islamic State after he beheaded four ­people who refused to swear a bayat, or oath of allegiance, to Baghdadi. “The Australian was fighting in the front of Deir al-Zour (in Syria) before arriving to Jalula,” the website quotes the sources as saying. “The new commander beheaded four militants belonging to different factions (who) were detained a week ago because they refused to swear ­allegiance to Baghdadi.”

The report could not be verified and there is a possibility it is a case of mistaken identity, as the nom de guerre quoted was used by Zakaryah Raad, an Australian man who was killed while fighting with Islamic State. The report also carried a picture of Raad, who ­appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video before his death. But ASIO, which in recent weeks has issued several high-profile warnings about the threat posed by foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, is understood to be investigating the claim.

Attorney-General George Brandis has said publicly that a number of Australians in Iraq and Syria had progressed from being mere foot soldiers and were now occupying leadership positions with jihadist groups. As many as 60 Australians are believed to be fighting in Iraq and Syria, with dozens more supporting the terrorist outfit from Australia.

Among them is former Sydney man Abu Sulayman, who is a sharia official and operational planner with Jabhat al-Nusra, al- Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria and bitter rival of Islamic State. Sulayman is considered by ASIO to be among the most senior terrorists ever produced by Australia. The report came as more details emerged about a Brisbane father now fighting for Islamic State in Syria.

As revealed in The Weekend Australian, Afghan-born Zia Abdul-Haq, who has adopted the nom de guerre Abu Yusseph, is believed to be in a unit with other Westerners from Canada and France, after leaving a son and former wife behind to enter the conflict. He had also sought a wife in Syria, bragging to friends on Twitter that one woman had told him his fighting in the “jihad” would be his dowry to her.

Brisbane newspaper The Sunday Mail yesterday reported that Abdul-Haq was a finance officer and moved to Australia in his late 20s. He had been “brainwashed” after hearing a talk by prominent radical cleric Musa Cerantonio. Mr Cerantonio, who was deported from The Philippines this year and has been identified as one of the most influential English-speaking clerics for Western fighters in the conflict, yesterday hit out the brainwashing claims. “At the time that I gave the talk that was mentioned in the article, the Islamic State did not even exist — it was given two years before the group was even founded,” he said.

Abdul-Haq has claimed that some things being reported about him were “lies”. His friends and supporters have rallied behind him on social media, with one urging him not to provide too much information on Facebook.

Abdul-Haq and two former Melbourne men in the Syrian conflict whose photographs were published in The Weekend Australian — Mounir Raad and a man known only as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi — have not responded to requests for comment.

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Filed Under: Australia, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Beagle says

    Aug 31, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    The West, here not literally, is exporting jihad to the Middle East. The proposed solution in the US: open borders and pretend jihad has nothing to do with Islam.

    Thanks for nothing, Obama.

  2. wolfgang says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 12:05 am

    Why do these people have the vacant look of no intellect in the faces ? do I detect a certain brutishness about their appearance ?

    • Don McKellar says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 12:10 am

      They all have one distinguishing characteristic, regardless of ethnic origin, and you can see it in every mug shot or close up photo. All of them have “shark eyes” that look lifeless and dead, like those on shark do. Many have commented on this remarkable trait.

    • BaconPerfume says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 1:55 pm

      Noticed it too. Dead lifeless, serial killer eyes.

  3. PJG says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 12:06 am

    “Brainwashing” does not happen during the course of one talk. I heard Musa Cerantonio talk once and no brainwashing whatsoever occurred.

    • cliffface says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 1:26 am

      HaHa PJG, you obviously just did not donate enough money to the cause.
      Don’t worry there are numerous places in NSW, VIC , QLD, SA the ACT and even WA that you could throw money at if you feel you have missed out on being included in something special.
      This post is tongue in cheek of course rather than tongue on a dirty floor mat.

  4. Kathy Brown says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 12:34 am

    ‘Abu Yahya Shami has been reported killed…’.

    I certainly hope it was an American who dispatched him. I also hope that, as he did, he yelled out: ‘Sham-WOW!’.

    • Mirren10 says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 4:34 am

      ”I certainly hope it was an American who dispatched him. I also hope that, as he did, he yelled out: ‘Sham-WOW”

      🙂 Nice one, Kathy !

      • Crystal Clear says

        Sep 2, 2014 at 5:43 pm

        Perhaps ‘Shazzam’ or ‘Shmore, shmore, shmore’

    • SpiritOf1683 says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 1:45 pm

      Or, alternatively, we hope his slayer was that British Kurd who left Britain to join the Peshmerga.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 2, 2014 at 11:26 pm

      Brilliant, Kathy!

      And for any non-Americans who might not get the “Sham-WOW!” reference, this is a cleaning product (based on a chamois cloth, hence the name) that is advertised on especially obnoxious late-night info-mercials here in the States).

      • Kathy Brown says

        Sep 2, 2014 at 11:55 pm

        Nothing can ‘make a mockery’ of the bravery of courageous men. Their valor will always be meaningful to us, their countrymen/women and, I daresay, to the Afghanis/Iraqis who witnessed it.

        But it is awful that their mission has been betrayed.

  5. cliffface says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 1:15 am

    bobby Cerantonio the same kid that struggled with homosexuality in high school.
    Certainly one of the biggest losers Australia has produced.
    But bobby did not invent his flawed Islamic supremacist mentality he was taught it at the mosque.
    All these jihadi rats think they are still playing play station.
    The sooner they get what they deserve the sooner they will find the truth.
    To put it in perspective Cerantonio’s facebook cover picture was from a video game.
    It’s just a pity the Kurds are not sadistic like the jihadi’s because a dose of immolation would really help these caliphate kids to settle into their next address.

  6. No Fear says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 1:20 am

    Did any one remember to cancel his welfare benefits?

  7. dumbledoresarmy says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 4:37 am

    He’s no “Australian”.

    He’s a Mohammedan mobster who happens to possess the temporary and tactical convenience of an Australian passport.

    A passport that should be rendered null and void, so as to make it much more difficult (preferably impossible) for him to ever come back to the allah gang colony inside infidel Australia, that infidel Australia for which he doubtless feels nothing but contempt and hatred.

    • wolfgang says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 5:22 am

      I would say this welfare bludging cheat is as Caucasian as I am , seems he has adopted his Muslim persona, may he die as quickly as his predecessor, hopefully taken out by a US drone with a hellfire missile [ be even better if his pals were taken out with him ] perhaps Mr Abbott could arrange this now that Aussie’s are going to be involved with Military air drops.we’ll see if Abbott really wakes up from his appeasement line with Islamists. I had the opportunity to work with a ” moderate ” Muslim woman for 2 years, interestingly, I got called a racist when I disagreed with her that Sharia law should never be brought into Australian law. They [ Muslims] are very quick to pull out the race card when a nerve is struck.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 6:02 pm

      Dumbldore’s Army wrote:

      He’s no “Australian”.
      ……………………….

      No, he’s not—any more than the Islamic State’s new finance minister is “British”.

      All of these “American” Muslims, and “Canadian” Muslims”, and “French” Muslims, and “Swedish” Muslims, and “Dutch” Muslims—on and on—are *just Muslims* who have managed to inveigle Western passports.

      Only the tiniest minority have any actual allegiance to the civilized nations of the West that have taken them in—and if they do, it is in direct opposition to the diktats of their ugly creed.

      And yes—all of these known Jihadists should have their passports canceled immediately, and warnings put out to other Infidel nations.

      Then, any family and associates remaining in the country—including, of course, their Mosque—should be *thoroughly* investigated.

  8. duh_swami says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 6:27 am

    Abu Bakr does not promote jihadists to leadership military positions without some kind of merit. Usually having to do with killing the enemy…

  9. paddy says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 10:46 am

    Why bother labeling him as an Australian. Australians don’t regard him as one. He certainly doesn’t see himself as such. Perhaps in future JW could identify these people as, say, ‘Abu Yahya ash Shami – IS’ (ignorant savage)

    • SpiritOf1683 says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 1:47 pm

      As reports now say he’s been despatched to his raisins, I wonder if his nemesis was that Kurd who left Britain to join the Peshmerga.

  10. gravenimage says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    Australia Muslim named commander of Islamic State unit
    ………………………..

    This should not surprise—after all, the Islamic State’s head of finance ran an Islamic school in England until just recently.

    This is the grotesquely predictable result of the West allowing Muslims to use our civilized nations as bases from which to wage violent Jihad—in some cases for decades.

  11. jihad watcher says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    Here is an idea for a great movie epic. The title of the film would be called: “CALIPHATE”. The plot, Europe set in the year 2150, Muslims now outnumber the rest of the population and have taken control.

    They impose Sharia law on all, Christians, atheists and anyone else who disobeys their rule are arrested, imprisoned and executed. Woman have been reduced to sex and domestic slaves as education and the vote are forbidden to them. The welfare and economic system has long since collapsed and science and freethinking are banned under threat of death. Illiteracy rates and unemployment have risen to unprecedented levels.

    The Islamic dark ages have descended: no freedom, poverty, ignorance and illiteracy, with a corrupt and hypocritical Muslim elite ruling. (sounds like the Middle-East does it not?)

    The highest rating TV show is the nightly execution of infidels and individuals who have been condemned by Sharia law. No one must attack Islam or question Islamic law.

    Native Europeans are now second class citizens, living in closed off communities and they live in great fear and oppression.

    This is the background to story of one European family’s struggle to survive, they have lost their culture , their wealth, their freedom and their land. They look back with intense regret and disgust of the legacy that the liberal elites left Europe, with their suicidal immigration polices. “Naive fools!”: the father cries to his son in terrible frustration and sadness in one scene when they examine books of Europe written two centuries ago and see how great it WAS and what they have LOST.

    They are desperate to escape this horror, North and South America are still free, the USA has watched with regret as it has seen Europe fall and has learned not to make the same mistakes. The climax of the story is the family making their escape from this terror, their journey of escape dangerous with many twists and turns but they do succeed in the end, making it to the FREEZONE.

    You have some sort of happy ending, that’s how Hollywood makes money.

    Now would Hollywood make such a film, not in a million years!!!

    • Will says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 10:17 pm

      Maker such a movie? You are kidding? NO western movie maker would have the guts nor the wisdom to make such a movie and screenwriters would be running for their leftist shelters. It’s ok to brood over the gore in Game of Thrones but another to show its existence before you and especially so with the complicity of the western media and politicians.

      It is quite apparent to me that nothing will happen until the Common man unites and acts to place these savages back into their hellholes and covered with pig’s blood. Vigilantes only occurred when the law was seen as useless, incompetent or absent: does this describe now?

  12. wolfgang says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    My missus who is a real calm non violent gal remarked that she could not understand why Yazidi’s, Christians, RC church people have not risen up and fought the ISIS , FSA etc etc , her remark was to the effect” if your going to die then go out fighting the bastards “………..if a small woman can see the value in taking as many of these vermin down with you, how come so many men in these communities are so pacifistic ? or naive ? either one fits. That’s the way I see it, would not matter if they scum had machine guns and I was out numbered 100 to 1, I read some YT reports that 35,000 so called western trained Iraqi soldiers at the airbase were told by their officers to lay down their arms and surrender, they threw their arms down and then threw away their uniforms, certainly something does not add up, even if ISIS had 10,000 men assaulting the air base, what happened to the heavy weapons at the air base and the gunships or the close air support jets ?, this smacks of traitors within, to lay down your arms was and is suicide. That’s my take on it, makes a mockery of the US and Brits and Aussies and Canucks training these Bastards, pisses me off that so many good men died over in that hell hole for nothing.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 2, 2014 at 11:56 pm

      wolfgang wrote:

      how come so many men in these communities are so pacifistic ? or naive ? either one fits…
      …………………

      Actually, it doesn’t, Wolfgang.

      These communities in what was Syria and Iraq have been dhimmified *for centuries*.

      They’ve been taught that if they keep a low enough profile and give no “offense” to their threatening Muslim overlords that they *might* be allowed to live.

      Even so, they have been brutalized and periodically mass-murdered.

      And this might be the final genocide—but it *didn’t* come out of nowhere.

      These Christians are just the small remaining remnant—this region suffered through the Armenian Genocide a hundred years ago, which also targeted Assyrian Christians. And this whole area was Christian-majority before the Mohammedan hordes invaded.

      • Kathy Brown says

        Sep 3, 2014 at 12:10 am

        You nailed it GI.

        In the West we all assume that people everywhere long for ‘freedom’. But they don’t.

        That’s why nation-building is so pointless, esp. with the mideast. They know Islam, and dictators. The dictators keep the jihadi monsters in line. In like manner, Zero’s ‘diverse government’ in Iraq-comprised of Sunnis and Shiites? This is an absurdity which exists only in the minds of the Left and other such idiots.

        But I never knew this until the years after 9/11. I felt such exultation when they showed pictures of all those Iraqis holding up their purple fingers!

        We’ve all learned a lot about Is-Slime since then. All of it bad.

  13. wolfgang says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    sorry correction , 250 soldiers at the base and 35,000 soldiers holding the Iraqi northern front. but either way, the Allies should be none too happy about the training they did and how it “stuck ” with these Arabs. Apparently it didn’t “stick ” did it ? as proven by the shootings of coalition soldiers by their Iraqi trainee’s.

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