Oz IS terrorist’s bizarre rant

Syrian government warplanes target cities and rebel-held areas across Syria, amateur video purports to show. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

Luxury car ... Mohamed Elomar speaks to Paul Toohey in what is believed to be his first online interview. Picture: News Corp Australia Source: News Corp Australia

ONE moment he's there; the next, Mohamad Elomar is gone, his Facebook site shut down, possibly by federal authorities sickened by what they call "repulsive" social media postings coming from Australian jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

On the weekend Elomar, the boxer who left western Sydney for the Islamic State battlefront in Syria, from where the world saw pictures of him smiling as he held the severed heads of unidentified victims, began to talk online.

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Left western Sydney ... Mohamed Elomar joined the Islamic State battlefront in Syria. Picture: News Corp Australia Source: News Corp Australia

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Elomar, 30, has been very vocal and virulent on Facebook and Twitter, but has not thought to have engaged in a one-on-one conversation with the media until now.

After being accepted by Elomar as a "friend" on Facebook, News Corp Australia sent him a list of 18 questions, including whether he had himself executed the men whose heads he had held so proudly; and whether he knew his own father had days earlier said he was ashamed of him.

It was possible to see that Elomar was reading the questions; but he did not reply. Pressed for a response, on Saturday he said: "Hi, thanks for your questions, noted, however I am (not) available to comment. Cheers."

Later that day another message was sent, to see if it could draw him out in a wider discussion that might possibly throw some light on whether Elomar had any concept of how far he had left the path of acceptable behaviour.

"Newspapers are reporting Islamic state fighters are trying to get back to their home countries," I wrote. "They say the war is getting out of hand."

Elomar, whose responses have been punctuated and corrected for clarity, bit.

"Maybe it's true, maybe it's propaganda," he said in remarks sent from Raqqa, in northern Syria. "But Islamic State still holds its position either by victory or martyrdom. Besides, what can a bunch of planes do?"

Australian Mohamad Elomar ... Bites when Paul Toohey asks if the war is getting out of hand. Picture: News Corp Australia Source: Facebook

"Depends how many planes," I wrote. "It's not going to be just American planes soon. It will be a major Coalition."

Elomar replied: "Does not matter. All they do is hit civilians, not the Mujahideen. If civilians were to carry out jihad less lives would be lost.

"But civilians do not wish to carry out jihad."

"Tell that to America," he said. "Nice talking to u. I'm off."

Paul Toohey's online discussion with Mohamad Elomar. Picture: News Corp Australia. Source: Facebook

I told Elomar I would persist in trying to understand what was driving his ideology.

"Read Quran Surah Taubah," he wrote. "When finished, then we talk."

I told him I knew little about the Quran. What did the passage refer to?

"My thoughts are from Quran, and Quran is very easy understanding. Read Chapter 9 Taubah. When u have finished, notify me. Cheers."

I said I'd give it a shot.

"I ask Allah set to open your heart and guide you to Islam for this religion is the only way to paradise," he said. "Talk soon."

I read Chapter 9. The fifth verse is often called "The Verse of the Sword", which jihadists use to justify slaughter.

It reads: "And when the forbidden months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them and take them prisoners, and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent and observe Prayer and pay the Zakat, then leave their way free. Surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful."

Mercenary ... Mohamed Elomar is in Raqqa, Syria, fighting for the Islamic State terrorists. Source: Supplied

Moderate scholars of Islam point out that the Prophet Mohammad gave this order at a time of crisis for Muslim people, and that it is illogical to think it still applies today.

It would be like the US thinking it had to wage battle against the Vietcong for eternity, just because they were once at war.

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Furthermore, people such as Elomar chose to skip the bit that says "Allah is Most Forgiving".

The opportunity to talk further with Elomar then passed. By Sunday, his Facebook account — under the name Abu Hafs al-Australi — had been shut down.

Mohamed Elomar — new pics from the battlefield from Facebook and Instagram Source: News Corp Australia

The federal government would not confirm that it has begun to actively block the social media postings of Australian jihadists such as Elomar, saying it would not comment on "specific security or investigative matters".

But a spokesman for the Attorney-General's department said Australian security and law enforcement agencies were monitoring and investigating online activities of concern.

"Some of the images and narratives on websites and social media associated with extremists currently in Syria and Iraq and their activities are repulsive," the statement said. "The Australian Government condemns such content."

Elomar has gone for now. He will be back, under a new name, if he is not already.

There are many things I would ask him, including whether he considered all the people he associated with over many years, including his school friends, to have become his enemies.

But his answer would probably be self-evident.

Elomar may never be able to return to Australia, unless he wants a life term in a Supermax, but he is already a prisoner of the limitations of his thinking. It is a place from which he cannot escape.

With the flag of the Islamic State ... Mohamed Elomar Picture: Facebook Source: Facebook

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