'Sheik Google' spreading radical ideology

As authorities sweat over potential terror plots, Muslim leaders have warned about the difficulties of stopping disaffected young men from becoming radicalised.

Mass pre-dawn police raids, plots to randomly behead people and the fatal shooting of teenage terror suspect Numan Haider have seen the resurfacing of simmering community tensions.

And calls have been made for Muslim groups to do more to keep their congregations in order.

If only it were that simple in the internet age.

Samier Dandan, president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, says radical ideologies are coming from social media and other online sources and not local mosques and imams.

"We don't want our youth to be instructed or seek advice from Imam YouTube or Sheik Google," he said.

"This is what the dilemma is. We are also dealing with parameters that are outside the control of any local religious leader."

A spokesman for The Australian National Imams Council said the men being investigated for alleged terrorism activities don't belong to local congregations or mosques.

He said while the majority of practising Muslims respected the religious authority of qualified Australian imams, a "tiny minority" of people took guidance from "unknown" online sources.

With 800 police detaining 16 people in last week's raids across Sydney's west, only one person - 22-year-old Omarjan Azari - has been charged with terrorism-related offences.

Another man, 24-year-old Ahmad Azaddin Rahmany, has been fined $500 and given a two-year good behaviour bond for having a Taser and four bullets in his bedroom.

Many of the people police targeted in raids were young men, barely out of high school and still sleeping under their parents' roofs.

Families would later claim they had no idea how their sons became persons of interest in terrorism-related investigations.

In Marsfield, 20-year-old Maywand Osman's family home was scoured by federal police, who he later alleged left him bruised and battered.

Court documents in the case of Rahmany, identified 19 people Rahmany was banned from associating with after the terror plot crackdown.

Counter-terrorism police started investigating Rahmany and his "criminal associates" in May, the documents state.

Monash University terrorism expert Professor Greg Barton said it was becoming increasingly difficult for local sheiks to reach out to at-risk youth who may be drawn to extreme ideologies.

"They can have any number of imams or sheiks drop by and say `look brothers, do you realise that this is not what your faith teaches?'" he said.

"From the point of view of these young people, they're involved in a cosmic battle in which there's a small group of `true believers' who lead the way and there's this large number of kuffar, or unbelievers, and misguided Muslims who have lost the truth.

"They regard the religious teachers and religious leaders as particularly culpable because they think (the leaders) should know better and yet they've failed to give their view of the true teaching."

Before he fled to the Middle East, Mohammad Baryalei was a leader in the "Street Dawah" movement in which members preached their puritanical version of Islam on the streets of Sydney.

It was a change of pace from his earlier days in Kings Cross as a nightclub bouncer.

But his alarming levels of fanaticism became clear when it was reported he had helped recruit Australians to fight with terrorist groups overseas.

It has since emerged in court documents Baryalei, identified as a senior Islamic State member, is accused of conspiring with Azari to carry out a terrorist attack on Australian soil.

It is alleged the plans to "shock and horrify" would involve a public execution.

Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai, who had his passport cancelled after his overseas jaunts came to ASIO's attention, was also on Rahmany's non-association list.

Al-Ahmadzai, a known Islamic radical, was charged last year over a shooting murder at a sex club in Sydney's west.

The case is still before court.

As the Muslim community grapples with pressure to rein in radical figures, Prof Barton says it was unfair to expect it to solve the problem of radicalisation by itself.

"You might as well ask the archbishop of Australia to speak out against Christian extremists," he said.

"These groups operate almost at a cult level ... with complete contempt and disregard for the larger community."

He said young people are often drawn toward radical groups because of a desire to belong to a social group rather than for religious reasons.

"Many do come from troubled backgrounds but the common narrative is young people who are either lost or just adrift but in any case fell in with bad company," he said.

"It's bad company corrupting character.

"It's that peer community that's the big factor here."

Ahmed Kilani, who runs muslimvillage.com, says online sources have taken away much of the power and influence of traditional Islamic scholars - who have been condemning extremism.

"People can just go and Google an Islamic opinion or question or look it up on Facebook," he said.

"There's no way of knowing if that's a qualified opinion or not.

"It's a very, very dangerous place that we live in where everyone has a voice but there's nothing to measure how much knowledge or qualification that voice has."

The recent backlash against Australian Muslims is working against those trying to stem radicalisation.

In the space of a week, a mother has been spat on, a baby's pram kicked, a pig's head impaled on a cross and mosques vandalised.

And most worryingly, an Islamic school in Sydney's southwest targeted by a knife-wielding man.

Mr Kilani sees many parallels between the young Australian Muslim men drawn to radical ideologies and the 5000 people involved in racist attacks in the 2005 Cronulla Riots.

"You have what I call the Angry Young Man Syndrome," he said.

"We had all these angry guys down (in Cronulla) there that also felt they were disenfranchised from society, they also felt that they don't belong, they also feel that their country has been taken away from them and they lashed out in a very similar way.

"So it's not just something that's common to the Muslim community."

RISING TERROR TENSIONS

• September 12

- Australia's terror threat is raised from medium to high. Prime Minister Tony Abbott says there is intelligence there are people with the intent and capacity to carry out an attack in Australia.

• September 16

- Men drive past Maronite College of the Holy Cross in Harris Park and allegedly threaten to "kill the christians" with a flag hanging out the window.

• September 18

- 800 police carry out 27 raids across Sydney's western suburbs.

- Sixteen people are detained and four people are charged but only one with terror-related offences.

- Omarjan Azari faces court accused of conspiring with former bouncer and alleged IS figure Mohammad Baryalei to plan a terror act in Australia.

- Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the raids averted a terrorist attack that was likely to take place in a few days.

• September 19

- Three men detained under controversial Preventative Detention Orders are released from custody.

• September 23

- Numan Haider shot dead after stabbing two police officers in Melbourne. Police say the teen had been under surveillance after his behaviour and rhetoric sparked concern.

• September 24

- Mosque in Brisbane's south vandalised and spray painted with anti-muslim slogans

• September 25

- An Australian Defence Force officer claimed to have been assaulted in Bella Vista, Sydney, while in full uniform by two men of Middle Eastern appearance. The officer later withdrew his claim with police.

- A man enters an Islamic school in Minto in Sydney's southwest, asking if it is a "Muslim school" and threatens a female teacher and student with a knife.