Australia issues warrant for doctor recruiting in Syria

[TexasTowelie]

CANBERRA, Australia — Australian police issued an arrest warrant Thursday for an Australian doctor who appeared in an Islamic State movement recruitment video urging Western medical professionals to join him in Syria.

Tareq Kamleh, a 29-year-old Australian born and educated doctor who had worked in several Australian public hospitals appeared in the video in April describing his medical work in Syria as his "jihad for Islam."

The blue-eyed son of a Palestinian father and German-born Muslim convert mother, who grew up in the Australian west coast city of Perth, has said his only regret about leaving Australia last year to join the Islamic State movement was that he had not left sooner.

Australian Federal Police said in a statement that Kamleh, who now uses the name Abu Yusuf al-Australi, would be arrested if he returned to Australia on three terrorism charges that carry a maximum total of 45 years in prison.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/world/article24836917.html#storylink=cpy

[Violet_Crumble]

1. I've heard of bad career moves...

I wonder if he woke up one day and thought to himself 'Perth's pretty boring and I don't get paid enough working as a GP, so I might see what it's like over in Syria working for those nice ISIS folk'.

While I suspect he's not planning on ever coming back, if he did I think prison's the right place for him...

Here's the slick recruitment video if you haven't seen it before...

[Matilda]

3. A rather warped idealism.

Being a Muslim jihadist won't necessarily stop IS cutting off his head if it will bring them publicity.

And I do find a bit of a disconnect about a doctor joining a group that kills even its fellow Muslims in large numbers.

[Fairgo]

2. Let's check in with this gentleman in a couple of years

And see how he's going. Presently, he's a celebrity and a debutante. I'll be interested to hear his extremist rants after he becomes a faceless soldier for the cause...for about three minutes. Then I will forget him forever.