Ben McClellan,Clementine Cuno,Ashlee Mullany
The Daily Telegraph
January 15,2014
A SHEIK who worshipped with the husband of a young, radicalised Sydney woman who was killed in Syria last week told his followers an Islamic caliphate - or state - in the war-torn country would be "beautiful news".
Sheik Omar El Banna used a YouTube video to tell followers that if the Syrian regime fell, "Allah will ask what change did you bring about?"
ONLINE TRIBUTE TO SISTER 'SOLDIER'
Before breaking into Arabic in the 2012 speech titled "Syria is My Responsibility", he urged those watching to take action, telling them: "I was ready for jihad."
But he denied yesterday that it was a call to arms for young Muslims such as Amira Karroum, 22, and her husband, Yusuf Ali, who were killed in the rebel-held town of Aleppo on Saturday.
He said it had been misinterpreted and wasn't meant to motivate his followers to fight, adding he discouraged people from joining the war.
Federal police will investigate how Ms Karroum and Mr Ali got into Syria and if they were assisted.
Mr Ali has been linked to Sydney Muslim radical Hamdi Alqudsi, 39, who was charged late last year and accused of being "actively involved" in recruiting six men and facilitating their travel to Syria to fight with terrorist groups Jabhat Al Nusra and al-Qaeda affiliates.
A memorial was held for the couple on Monday night at Sheik El Banna's Masjid Al Noor mosque in Granville, where Ms Karroum's sister, Rose, also worships.
Rose, (Pious Muslim ?) who returned to the Gold Coast to be with her grieving mother Honor Deane yesterday, has pledged on Facebook: "Until Victory or Shahadah."
Sheik El Banna had worshipped with Mr Ali at Auburn's Omar mosque and, although he last saw him 12 months ago, he was aware he had travelled to Syria and said he may have been fighting in the civil war.
"Yusuf was very quiet, very gentle, a good natured person. He wanted to go and help. The (Karroum) family is in a lot of pain," he said.
"We received information he had secured accommodation. We heard after she left that she was going to catch up with her husband ... They wanted to help and they knew it was a dangerous situation. "
Martyrdom gone bad ? No Virgins ? or does the koran lie?
Sheik El Banna said Mr Ali migrated from the US four years ago and he said, because the couple was killed by fellow Sunnis from the Free Syrian Army,(The FSA must have run out of Christians that day so they turned on their own) they couldn't necessarily be considered martyrs: "Martyrdom is something that no human can assess - only Allah can give this rank.
"I hear conflicting reports he was fighting, others say he was doing aid. I believe they were caught in a crossfire. It's not looked at as a wasteful death."
It emerged yesterday that Ms Karroum once likened a location in Sydney's southwest (Sydney's Occupied Territories) to "Osama Bin Laden's Cave".
She "checked in" on Facebook at the venue in Liverpool in September 2012, posting: "It's going off."
'My heart will never heal': grieving mother says of Amira Karroum Australia's home grown dead Jihadi
Pious Muslim Sociopath Amira Karroum "F … the police! Smash all the cop cars.''
Australian Based Muslim Jihadi's Amira Karroum and Yusuf Ali Killed in Syria.... NEXT!!!!
