Australian extremist Imam Sheik Feiz Mohammad. |
A radical Australian
Muslim cleric who despises Harry Potter and preaches that rape victims only
have themselves to blame had a fan in the Boston bombing suspect killed in a
shootout with police.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26,
posted a YouTube video of fiery Sheik Feiz Mohammad, who had encouraged
children to become martyrs for Islam, it was reported yesterday.
In 2007, a British
documentary called “Undercover Mosque” showed footage of him saying children
should be “soldiers defending Islam.’’
He said, “Teach them this:
There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid. Put in
their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom.’’
That year, Australian
authorities looked into whether his lectures could be prosecuted for inciting
violence, after the British show claimed that children were selling DVDs of his
preachings in a mosque parking lot, Fox News reported.
Mohammad also spoke out
against Jews, calling them “pigs’’ who “have got the most extreme racial pride
in them.’’He later apologized for the remarks.
In the rage-filled rant
against Harry Potter, Mohammad said he had visited a house where six Muslim
children were watching a Potter movie with their father’s approval.
“What does Harry Potter do
and his devilish schoolmates, what do they do other than cast spells, learn
magic, brew potions, learn how to tell the future.’’
The bombing suspect and
the controversial sheik had at least one thing in common — both were boxers.
Born in Sydney in 1970 or
1971, Mohammad was a youthful boxer and also a teenage bodybuilder and horse
trainer. He may have used drugs before he found religion and studied Islamic
law in Saudi Arabia, ibtimes.co.uk reported.
He returned to Australia,
founded the Global Islamic Youth Center and became a rising radical star. In
2005, in a sermon about rape, the cleric told an audience that a victim has “no
one to blame but herself. She displayed her beauty to the entire world.
“Strapless, backless,
sleeveless, showing their legs, nothing but satanic skirts, slit skirts,
translucent blouses, miniskirts, tight jeans: all this to tease man and appeal
to his carnal nature.’’
It’s not known if the
hardliner has any links to al Qaeda, but he has put sermons from its spiritual
leader, Anwar al-Awlaki on his Web site, ibtimes.co.uk said.
No one seems to know where
he is now — although there are suggestions he might be in Malaysia or even back
in Australia. Regardless of his whereabouts, Mohammad continued to preach.
In 2010 he called a Dutch
politician who opposed the Islamization of Holland “evil filth’’ and said,
“Anyone who mocks our learning, laughs at the Islam and degrades it must enter
death — decapitate him, cut off his head.’’