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Down Under

Aussie judge jails extremist in Philippine terror plot

2019-05-06

[Inquirer] The ringleader of a plot to take six Islamist extremists from Australia in a motor boat to the southern Philippines to overthrow the provincial government was sentenced by an Australian judge on Friday to seven years in prison. Victoria state Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher ordered Islamic State sympathizer Robert “Musa” Cerantonio ...the Melbourne-born radical preacher who had converted from Catholicism in his youth... to serve at least five years and three months in prison before becoming eligible for parole. The 34-year-old had pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for hostile activities in a foreign country. Cerantonio and five other men had plotted in 2016 to take a 23-foot power boat off the northeast Queensland coast to encourage others to overthrow the government in the southern Philippines and install sharia law. None of them could travel the 2,200 miles to the Philippines by conventional means because their Australian passports had been canceled due to concerns they would become foreign fighters. They had towed the boat with a car 1,900 miles from their homes in Melbourne to Laura in the tropical north before they were arrested by police in May 2016. Croucher described the planned voyage by men with no experience of boats as a trip “foredoomed to failure.” “It’s hard to imagine they would have made it very far past the breakers,” said Croucher. The other five had already been sentenced from three years and ten months to four years in prison. Croucher said Cerantonio’s role in sharing his “putrid ideas” deserved a greater punishment than the others who were subordinates and influenced by him. Philippine authorities deported Cerantonio in 2014 because of his suspected links to militants based on YouTube videos showing him advocating jihad. The judge said Cerantonio was obviously intelligent. He said, "He intended to use his considerable gifts for evil, not for good." Croucher was not satisfied Cerantonio had renounced his extremist beliefs since his arrest. Defense lawyer Jarrod Williams said Cerantonio did not fit the extremist stereotype and enjoyed music by AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Johnny Cash, Paul Simon and Rammstein. Williams said, "This is a man who doesn’t always fit the profile of an Islamic extremist."

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Down Under

Terror case magistrate in Australia slams disrespectful supporters

2016-05-20

[The Australian] An Australian magistrate lashed out at ­supporters of five alleged terrorists for failing to respect her position when she entered the court, leading to a standoff in which a lawyer said the protesters were simply adhering to their faith. Islamic cleric Robert "Musa" Cerantonio, Shayden Thorne, Antonio Granata, Paul Dacre, and Kadir Kaya were ­arrested in Cairns on Sunday and charged with preparing to enter a foreign country with the ­intent to engage in a hostile ­activity. It is alleged they planned to travel to the Middle East after sailing on a small boat to Indonesia. A group of about ten men appeared in court yesterday to support the alleged terrorists and refused to stand when magistrate Luisa Bazzani entered the courtroom. Bazzani told the young men it was customary for people to stand and showed a lack of respect for them not to, and that this may be relevant at a later time. She subsequently mentioned the matter to the five men's lawyer, Rob Stary, who told her the refusal to stand was in accord with the men's Muslim faith. Stary told Bazzani that former Supreme Court judge ­Bernard Bongiorno had previous­ly excused Muslim men from standing due to their religious convictions. He said, "They stand for no one other than Allah. Justice Bongiorno accommodated that." Bazzani said she did not share Justice Bongiorno's position. She said, "I consider it absolutely disrespectful."

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Down Under

Australia holds five suspected of plotting sailing trip to join ISIS

2016-05-11

[Jpost] Australian police have detained five men suspected of planning to sail a small boat from the far north to Indonesia and the Philippines en route to joining Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Syria, officials said on Wednesday. The men were held on Tuesday after towing the seven-meter boat almost 3,000 km (1,865 miles) from Melbourne to Cairns in Queensland state, police said. Australia has come under criticism for its tough immigration policies aimed at stopping asylum seekers taking boats from Indonesia to Australia, but few are believed to have attempted the journey in the opposite direction. "We're investigating the allegation they were planning to make their way through Indonesia to the Philippines, with a view to ending up in Syria," Victoria state Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton told news hounds in Melbourne. "It's not a common occurrence, I would suggest, people trying to get to Syria via boat, but I don't have the exact figures for sure." The five had not yet been charged. Under tough new security powers passed in 2014, Australian face up to a decade in prison for overseas travel to areas declared off limits, which includes the province of Raqqa in Syria, a key strategic hub for Islamic State myrmidons. Australia, a staunch US ally, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown murderous Moslems since 2014 and authorities say they have thwarted a number of potential attacks, while there have been several "lone wolf" assaults, including a cafe siege in Sydney that left two hostages and the gunman dead. Approximately 100 people have left Australia for Syria to fight alongside organizations such as Islamic State, Australia's Immigration Minister said last month. Police said it was unclear where the men, aged between 21 and 33, had planned to put the boat in the water. Indonesia and Australia share a maritime border, but it spans several hundred kilometers of open sea at its narrowest point. The Australian Broadcasting Corp said that Melbourne-born radical preacher Musa Cerantonio, a vocal supporter of the Islamic State who was deported from the Philippines to Australia in 2014, was among those detained. Cerantonio, who converted to Islam from Catholicism at 17, was believed to be planning to join Islamic State when he was deported for having "invalid travel documentation." He was placed under surveillance but not jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! upon his return.

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Southeast Asia

Canadian Islamist Preacher Deported From Philippines

2014-09-15

[IsraelTimes] A Canadian Islamic preacher detained for being a security threat in the Philippines was flown back to Canada after agreeing to be deported, the immigration bureau said Sunday. Jamaican-born Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips was returned to Canada late Saturday after being detained last weekend in the southern Philippines while on a lecture tour. This came after immigration commissioners approved his request for voluntary deportation, effectively cutting short the deportation proceedings, the bureau said in a statement. "He was charged for being an undesirable foreign national and for being inadmissible at the time of entry," the bureau said, explaining Philips's detention. The bureau earlier said he was blacklisted based on information that he might conduct activities that were a threat to national security. Police said Philips may have ties to Lion of Islam groups as they prevented him from holding a series of lectures in the south where the Philippines's restive Moslem minority is based. In a post on his Facebook page dated September 14, Philips said: "Rejection can be utterly disappointing but we must never forget that every closed door is a redirection to what is better for us." Philips also acknowledged that he was blacklisted in the United States, Britannia, Australia and Kenya, but said this was based partly on statements that were taken out of context. He was the second Islamic convert preacher to be detained by the Philippines since July, when it incarcerated Please don't kill me! and later deported Robert Edward Cerantonio to Australia. Police said Cerantonio had used the Internet to urge people to join "jihad" in Iraq and Syria, though they said they had no evidence to show he had managed to recruit any Filipinos. Two southern Philippines-based Moslem guerrilla groups, the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, have uploaded videos on the Internet pledging alliance to the Islamic State faceless myrmidons who have overrun large swaths of the two Middle Eastern countries.

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Down Under

Australian jihadist supporter 'a fraud', says FM

2014-07-15

[Al Ahram] An Australian convert to Islam incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! in the Philippines for using the Internet to urge people to join "jihad" in Iraq and Syria was branded "a fraud" Monday by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Robert Edward Cerantonio, 29, who also goes by the name Musa Cerantonio, was detained in the central city of Cebu on Friday and will be deported to Australia, Philippine police said. A report in The Australian newspaper last month described Cerantonio as a preacher and "one of (the Islamic State's) most influential propagandists", but Bishop belittled the Melbourne native. "It seems that he is just a fraud, because he was saying that he was fighting in Syria and Iraq when all the time he was holed up in a flat in the Philippines," she told Sky News. "So presumably he's a fraud who has tried to dupe people into this dangerous activity. What happens to him will be a matter for the authorities." 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, Philippine officials said. The Philippines has a large Mohammedan minority in the southern region of Mindanao, a hotbed for a decades-old Mohammedan insurgency and where Islamic hard boyz 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". Police said they had been monitoring his activities 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.

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Southeast Asia

Australian Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio arrested in the Philippines

2014-07-12

[SMH.AU] Australian religious myrmidon Musa Cerantonio has been tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in the Philippines after boasting he had travelled to the Middle East to join jihadists. The arrest of 29-year-old Melbourne-born Mr Cerantonio on the island of Cebu early Friday morning is a coup for Western intelligence agencies which have named him as one of the top two influential jihadist "inspirations" for fighters in Syria and Iraq. Mr Cerantonio had announced on Twitter earlier this month that he had made it successfully to the Levant — presumably either Syria or Iraq — after leaving the Philippines where he was believed to be in hiding. But Philippine police, who said they had been tracking him for a week, believed Mr Cerantonio had been in the Philippines for about a year. Mr Cerantonio tweeted he was leaving the Philippines to join fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which began their march to try to capture Iraq's capital in early June. ''Al-Hamdulillah (Thanks to God) I have arrived in the land of Khilafah (caliphate) in Ash-Sham (the Levant)! May Allah honour all Moslems during this blessed time with His obedience,'' he wrote on Twitter. His arrival in the Middle East would have been a blow to Australian authorities who were reportedly hoping to issue a warrant for Mr Cerantonio's arrest. The Australian Federal Police have been investigating the former Catholic convert to Islam and pursuing possible charges under Australia's Foreign Incursions Act, which prohibits fighting with foreign paramilitary organizations, including recruiting others. Mr Cerantonio has previously used Facebook to urge Moslems to kill Western leaders. Police and immigration agents stormed a village outside Cebu to arrest Mr Cerantonio who was with a Filipino woman who was also wanted for questioning. Police said they recovered several SIM cards, mobile telephones electronic devices and cash during the operation. Cerantonio and a Filipino woman also had their passports and more than 14,000 Philippine pesos in cash, as well as other money in different currencies, the website said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Study: Syria Foreign Fighters Look to Western Preachers

2014-04-17

[An Nahar] Foreign fighters in Syria are looking to Western-based spiritual authorities acting as "cheerleaders" on social media, a British-based research body said Wednesday. A study of the social media activity of foreign jihadists showed many were following certain influential preachers -- one from the United States and another from Australia, said the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at King's College London university. Their 36-page research paper entitled "Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks" examines how imported muscle in Syria receive information about the conflict and who inspires them. Over the past 12 months, researchers studied the social media profiles of 190 Western fighters in Syria. More than two-thirds were affiliated with the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) group or the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front. The research found that for the fighters they followed, social media has become an essential facet of the conflict. They found that a large number of imported muscle received their information from "disseminators" -- unaffiliated but broadly sympathetic individuals mostly based in the West. The ICSR said they had found "new spiritual authorities" who imported muscle in Syria look to for inspiration and guidance. "They are playing the role of cheerleaders," the report said. "Their statements and interactions can be seen as providing encouragement, justification, and religious legitimacy for fighting in the Syrian conflict, and -- whether consciously or not -- play an important role in radicalizing some individuals." It stressed there was no evidence to suggest those individuals were involved in facilitating imported muscle' entry into Syria or coordinating their activity with jihadist groups. Based on quantitative analysis of their popularity within foreign fighter networks, the paper identified the two most prominent of these new spiritual authorities as U.S.-based Ahmad Musa Jibril and Musa Cerantonio, an Australian convert to Islam with Italian roots. Jibril, who is in his early 40s, "does not explicitly call to violent jihad, but supports individual imported muscle and justifies the Syrian conflict in highly emotive terms," the report said. "He is eloquent, charismatic, and -- most importantly -- fluent in English." Cerantonio, 29, has become an "outspoken cheerleader" for ISIL. "Jibril is a subtle, careful, and nuanced preacher, while Musa Cerantonio is much more explicit in his support for the jihadist opposition in Syria," the paper said. "Foreign fighters who follow them both are exposed to the same essential message: fighting in Syria is legitimate and honorable." Nearly 55 percent were identified as members of ISIL, while just under 14 percent were through to belong to al-Nusra. Fighters that could not be clearly placed in one camp made up 29 percent. The sample found 18 percent of the fighters came from Britannia, followed by La Belle France (12 percent), Germany (11 percent), Sweden (10 percent), Belgium (nine percent) and the Netherlands (six percent). In December 2013, the ICSR estimated that up to 11,000 people from 74 nations, including 2,800 from European or Western countries, had gone to Syria to fight.

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Down Under

Wahwambulance for a Hizbie hatemonger

2013-01-14

RADICAL Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir were upset with reports this week that their leader, the euphoniously named Sheik Ismail Al-Wahwah, That's not a Fred addition -- the journalist actually wrote those words. I'm in love. had called for Australia to be ruled by Moslem law. Under a Wahwah-style government, reports said, alcohol would be banned, an Islamic dress code enforced and languages other than Arabic outlawed in schools. This was the Hizbies' cue to call a Wahwambulance. "Ismail al-Wahwah did not mention Australia at all in his lecture, a fact evident to anyone who watches the excerpts of the lecture on the basis of which the claim was made," the group wailed. "The lecture, the complete recording of which will be up on our website soon, was about the establishment of the Caliphate in the Moslem World. At no point was any vision for Australia presented." Well, let's check exactly what Wahwah said in his lecture, which formed the basis of those reports. "That is the duty of the caliphate to implement Islam internally and carry the light of Islam to the rest of the world," the Sheik declared. "How? Not with flowers." Key words: "The rest of the world." The last time we checked, Australia was part of that world. Wahwah's wishes apply as much here as they do anywhere else. Wahwah is pedalling caliphate crap, plain and simple. (By the way, no flowers and no booze? Dates with this bloke must be a delight.) Another local caliphate fan also emerged recently, courtesy of international monitoring organization The Middle East Media Research Institute. Former Catholic Musa Cerantonio spoke at Islamic venues in Sydney and Melbourne late last year. "Re-establishing 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," Musa, raised in Victoria, said. "The Taliban, may Allah grant them victory, they are the heroes of the Islamic nation these days. These are men." Lucky for them. If they were women, they'd be pelted with rocks and have acid thrown in their faces. "They are the men of this Islamic nation today, the Taliban, may Allah grant them victory. You don't find anyone like them on the face of this earth."

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