Anti-Islamic shooting victim Nathan Abela has string of detractors
Megan Levy and Rachel Olding
SMH
April 4, 2014
He's offended countless Muslims, been described as a "grub" on Sydney radio and been in court over a domestic dispute, and that's just in the past fortnight. When it comes to the shooting of Nathan Abela's house, it seems there is no shortage of suspects.
Just last week, Nathan Abela posted footage of himself on YouTube standing outside an Islamic school in Chullora.
The 24-year-old had made the journey there from his home in Greystanes, apparently aiming to educate people about what he believed was occurring behind the large fence of the Waterloo Road school.
Nathan Abella, Australian Defence League leader home shot up narrowly dodges bullets .
"Why have we got a fort in the middle of Sydney?" he asks in the footage.
"...Why do we need Fort f---ing Knox in the middle of Sydney with a mosque in it and children like this? So I daresay they're keeping and locking up people inside there because it's a massive complex."
One week on and it appears that Mr Abela, the president of the western Sydney chapter of the anti-Islamic Australian Defence League, could do with a similar security fence around his home, after it was sprayed with bullets overnight in what police say was a targeted attack.
Mr Abela claims that up to eight bullets were fired through the front window, narrowly missing him as he dived for cover. He suffered a minor injury to his shoulder while diving over a table and doing a commando roll. He was not shot, and neither were his mother and 15-year-old sister, who were upstairs at the time.
The gunman or gunmen then took off in what witnesses told police was a silver Audi.
Targeted shooting: Nathan Abela is a member of an anti-Islamic group.
Targeted shooting: Nathan Abela is a member of an anti-Islamic group. Photo: Facebook
Plenty of detractors
Thursday night's shooting appears to be the culmination of simmering tension between Mr Abela and many people who had taken exception to his and his organisation's extremist views.
The Australian Defence League, based on the emergence in early 2009 of the English
Mr Abela has posted several YouTube clips in the past week that include the slogans "Love of country leads me" and "ban Islam".
His anti-Islamic have led to online threats, including that he should be "demolished", while his mobile phone number was also published online and people were urged to call him at any hour.
"I'm surprised this didn't come sooner," said Wissam Haddad, the owner of the former Al Risalah Bookstore in Bankstown, following Thursday night's shooting.
Mr Haddad said he had been trying to get Mr Abela's public pages closed down to avoid inflaming tensions.
"He's offended 2.8 billion Muslims by insulting our prophet; he has numerous AVOs out against him; he's even offended Ray Hadley."
Mr Abela last week had a verbal stoush with 2GB host Hadley, who accused him of secretly and illegally taping a conversation with Hadley's personal assistant and posting it on YouTube.
Mr Hadley described Mr Abela on air at the time as a “liar”, a “grub” and a "cowardly bastard".
On Friday morning, Hadley once again denounced Mr Abela, as well as the actions of the shooter or shooters.
"To the people that shot up his joint - for God's sake, I mean, you could have killed his mother or his sister who were innocent bystanders," Hadley said on air.
"The simple fact of the matter is that you've now given this lunatic a platform that he doesn't deserve and all of a sudden his hateful, vengeful rantings will be out there for all people to see and that's not good."
After viewing the footage from outside the Islamic school in Chullora, Hadley also suggested that Mr Abela may have some "mental health issues".
Indeed, Mr Abela recently told a local court that he did suffer from mental health issues.
On Wednesday, he applied to have a domestic stalking/intimidating and breach of AVO matter dealt with under mental health legislation in Liverpool Local Court.
The charges relate to a domestic dispute with a woman.
Straight to camera
Following Thursday night's shooting, Mr Abela uploaded a new YouTube clip in which he recounted how the bullets were fired into his loungeroom.
Speaking to the camera, Mr Abela says: "Hello fellow Australians. I've just been shot at. It's not good, but it means nothing, in that we are never going to be silenced for speaking the truth. So I'm bringing you exclusively in my house of what we as Australians now have to put up with for speaking the truth."
Mr Abela then describes how he was sitting in his computer room on the ground floor, while his mother and sister were in the upstairs bedrooms, when he heard a knock at the front door and someone yelling his name.
"It was highly suspicious, because people don't knock at the door, and when police do or whatever they don't knock on the door like that, so I knew it was a split-second decision. If I didn't answer it, they were going to shoot upstairs because that's where the bedrooms are and it was 11 o'clock," he said.
Mr Abela said he then walked to the front window, knowing that "they didn't want a friendly discussion, these blokes".
He claims the men yelled: "Nathan, is that you?"
Mr Abela said he responded that it was him, because he did not want the men to target the upstairs bedrooms.
In the video, Mr Abela then dramatically recounts how he leapt over the lounge chair and table as shots rang out.
"The minute I said 'Yes, it's me' I jumped from about here over the lounge, over the table, landed somewhere about here, rolled, was ready," he says.
"I could have either went here, went up, went there, went back here, crouched and ran in the dark," he explains, pointing the camera at his possible escape routes.
"Many options, but I won't tell them what option I was going to take, but I jumped from there to there. It was a pretty far jump, considering I had to jump high. It was an interesting jump."
He says the men fired seven or eight shots before driving off "like it was a circuit".
He then says he believes he was targeted for speaking publicly about his views.
Police said the investigation into the shooting was in its early stages, but they believed it was a targeted attack.
A NSW Police spokeswoman would not comment on whether police believed Mr Abela's involvement in the anti-Islamic group was linked to the shooting.
Police have urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or to use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.
