CLAIRE Harvey: We now know the older bomber . . . was a fan of a radical Australian cleric who lives in Sydney called Sheik Feiz Mohammed . . . What's ASIO doing about this man?
Mark Dreyfus: I think you might also see that those videos were some years old, and Sheik Feiz Mohammed, in recent months, particularly in the latter period of last year, when there were some quite dramatic demonstrations in Sydney, condemned the use of violence and certainly, as a community leader, he's someone that's getting behind the countering violent extremism program that we have in many communities.
Some years ago? Radio Netherlands, April 21, 2010:
DUTCH anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has received a death threat after his appearance on Australian TV. A radical Muslim preacher, Feiz Mohammed, speaking on a members-only jihadist website, described Mr Wilders as a devil and a dirty politician. The preacher called on Dutch radical Muslims to decapitate Mr Wilders because he was "humiliating Islam". Mr Mohammed said: "Seeing this evil filth from people like that dirty politician . . . In Islam, anyone that mocks Islam, anyone that laughs about Islam, degrades Islam, the punishment whether he is a Muslim or a non-Muslim, the punishment of mocking Islam is death. (. . .) If he did this, if it's been confirmed, behead him, chop his head off." Intelligence sources say Feiz Mohammed is considered on a par with US Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is seen as the brains behind a failed attack on a plane flying over Detroit.
Too radical for Sheik (cat meat) Hilaly? Yoni Bashan, The Sunday Telegraph, March 20, 2011:
AUTHORITIES have asked Auburn cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed to remove from his website footage featuring the al-Qa'ida spiritual leader Anwar al-Awlaki. . . . Sheik Taj El-Din al-Hilaly (said): "If religion had something like the Australian Medical Association, or a trade authority, they would not allow him to be preaching, they wouldn't give him a licence. . . I haven't seen a change in him."
Unicorn blood? Alex Spillius, London Telegraph, Friday:
IN April 2012, Tamerlan was clearly watching radical Islamist content on the internet. His YouTube channel includes several posts by Sheik Feiz Mohammed, an Australian ex-boxer, now resident in Lebanon. One rant by Mohammed includes a denunciation of Harry Potter films as promoting "paganism, evil, magic and the drinking of unicorn blood".
Alan Jones, 2GB, last Wednesday:
I THINK what we have to remember about Boston is that it's a student city, you've got Harvard, MIT and a stack of other colleges. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a conspiracy among students, left-wing radical students in Boston . . .
Mike Carlton, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday:
SURELY the FBI could have saved itself a lot of time and trouble if it had rung our very own Alan Jones, the visionary broadcaster, to find out who was behind the Boston bombing. Possessing powers beyond those of mortal men, Alan knew instinctively who had done it: left-wing students. . . . It springs from those sinks of terrorist conspiracy, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which, believe it or not, are quite close to Boston. This warning, this tocsin, dare I say it must not be ignored. The pursed lips, the knowing frown, the ruddy cheeks, the matching tie and hanky set, all indicate a thinker of great purpose and wisdom. And there was more: "We're very keen to have foreign students pay the way of universities in this country without a lot of discernment about who comes in," he added.
Foreigners. Students. Lanai Scarr, News.com.au, Sunday:
THE masterminds. . . had escaped war-torn Chechnya. . . Dzhokhar, 19, was a medical student at the prestigious University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth . . . Tamerlan had studied accounting at Bunker Hill Community College.