Musa Cerantonio

Robert "Musa" Cerantonio is an Australian Islamic preacher, accused of trying to join the Islamic State.[1]

Early life

Cerantonio was born on 28 January 1985 in West Footscray, Melbourne, Australia to a Catholic Italian family of six. Cerantonio has described his Christian upbringing as “Catholic by name only”. “We weren’t very practising, and whilst we were Catholic by name, we didn’t go to church except on Christmas or Easter, or when someone died or was getting married,” he said.

He attended a Catholic primary school as a child and did his secondary education at Footscray City College. It was according to Cerantonio, “a very liberal school, influenced by the politics of socialism."

In 2000, at 15, he visited the Vatican to strengthen his Christian faith, but was disappointed. "I began to question the role of the Pope in the Catholic Church…and saw people praying to a dead body. There was idol worship at the home of my faith…and I felt in my heart that this was not right.”

In 2002, during the month of Ramadan and at age 17, he converted to Islam. It came after two years of reading about Islam. In 2005 he visited Medina in Saudi Arabia.[2]

He later enrolled at Victoria University, Australia where he studied communications and history. While at the university he was President of the Islamic Society.[3]

Islamic activism

After converting to Islam he engaged in activism and preaching. He has lectured at conferences in Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and the Philippines. He has authored dozens of articles on Islam. [4]

In 2010, he traveled to the Middle East to raise funds for a Melbourne community centre to be run by the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia. He had previously attended IISNA camps. After the trip, he began receiving regular visits by ASIO.

In 2011, he traveled to work in Egypt. He presented the shows "Ask the Sheikh" and “Our Legacy" broadcast by the Saudi Iqraa satellite network.

In October 2011, he performed the Hajj, having previously done so in 2006. He spoke about the experience in a CNN documentary.[5]

Philippines 2012-June 2014

In 2012 he was again approached by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers. After a few months, ASIO started pushing Cerantonio for more information. According to Cerantonio, they ordered him "Tell us who’s up to no good, I know you know who they are." "We can make a lot of trouble for you based on those talks you give,” An ASIO officer threatened to cancel Cerantonio’s passport should he not co-operate.

Cerantonio temporarily agreed with ASIO’s demands, but then fled to the Philippines under the pretext of visiting his brother. His brother was in Manila, but Cerantonio traveled to Mindanao. While in Mindanao, during fighting between the Philippine Army and the Moro National Liberation Front, his apartment was bombed by warplanes. [6]

In February 2014, while in the Philippines, he married Joan Montayre, a 32 year old designer, and moved to an apartment in the Cebu province.

In June 2014, on Twitter Cerantonio claimed he was in Syria. He was branded by Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop as a fraud,“He said he was fighting in Syria and Iraq, but he was holed up in the Philippines.” Cerantonio says the tweet was posted to throw the police off the search. “I gave a friend access to my account, and the Australian Government knows I did not write that.”

In July 2014, he was arrested in the central Philippines city of Lapu-Lapu and taken to Manila. Cerantonio claims he was denied access to a lawyer by Warden L’rev J. Del Cruz. :The warden was telling inmates not to talk to me because I was a terrorist,” he says. After two weeks in detention he was deported to Melbourne without charges.[7][8]

In October 2014, he condemned the Letter to Baghdadi as a "letter of ignorance and disbelief". [9]

Australia May 2016 arrest

In May 2016, he was arrested along with four others over an alleged plot to flee the country in a boat. The group was charged with "making preparations for incursions into foreign countries to engage in hostile activities." Since his arrest he has been remanded in custody, with the trial delayed and now expected in January 2018. [10] [11]

Influence

In 2016, acting detective Sgt Adam Foley said according to worldwide intelligence services Cerantonio was the second or third most influential jihadist preacher in the world. [12]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/15/men-accused-of-trying-to-join-isis-by-boat-first-reported-to-police-by-jogger-court-told
  2. ↑ http://afterhardship.blogspot.my/2012/03/musa-cerantonio.html?m=1
  3. ↑ http://www.theage.com.au/national/musa-cerantonio-the-tale-of-the-tryhard-jihadist-20140712-zt5jh.html
  4. ↑ http://en.islamway.net/scholar/2581/musa-cerantonio
  5. ↑ http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-690590
  6. ↑ http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/musa-cerantonio-muslim-convert-and-radical-supporter-of-islamic-state-20141205-121c8s.html
  7. ↑ http://www.spookmagazine.com/preacherspyterrorist/#
  8. ↑ http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-11/preacher-musa-cerantonio-arrested-in-the-philippines/5591394
  9. ↑ https://musacerantonio.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/a-response-to-the-open-letter-written-to-the-khalifah-al-baghdadi-part-1-hijrah-abul-khattab-al-janubi/
  10. ↑ http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-19/five-men-extradited-arrive-melbourne-alleged-boat-plot-cairns/7426722?pfmredir=sm
  11. ↑ http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/06/14/11/15/vic-trial-over-tinnie-plot-delayed-to-2018
  12. ↑ http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/melbourne-man-robert-musa-cerantonio-one-of-top-two-or-three-jihadist-preachers-in-world-court-told/news-story/2a3464f514b6d7b290e7bd5b5fe00316
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