Queensland teenager who fled to join Al Qaeda affiliate became radicalised over the internet, an Islamic leader says

*yet another* young non-Muslim Aussie who has swallowed the dawa snake-oil, and Gone Jihad, all the way to Syria. This is tragic, and it’s infuriating.  Our schools and parents and government are watching our kids being suckered by Islam.  How, how, how do we get it through to our kids, our young men and women – Islam is evil…DO NOT CONVERT to Islam?

Because it isn’t only the ‘naturally wicked’ or the stupid who swallow the Muslim lies.  (Otherwise jihadwatch forum wouldn’t have Saleem Smith and Istanbulchick, both of whom converted to Islam on the basis of insufficient information and then, when they got a bit further in, and found out what it was all about, got right back out as fast as they could).

Only six months ago Oliver Bridgeman, 18, denounced extremism on Facebook however it is now believed he left his hometown of Toowoomba in March to join the Al Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, and several Islamist factions.

The mosque Oliver went to in Toowoomba has distanced itself from the controversy.

He occasionally went to prayer sessions at the Garden City Mosque after his family moved from the Gold Coast last year. Before they relocated his mother had approached Toowoomba Islamic community leader Professor Shahjahan Khan to help with a smooth transition.

“I don’t think there was an attachment to anybody, a good relationship with anybody,” Professor Khan said. “He was just by himself mostly.”

Professor Khan did not believe Oliver became radicalised within the community. “We were really shocked to hear this news, it was totally surprising to us,” he said. “Whatever he is doing is not related to Toowoomba, it is something else, that come from the internet or somewhere else.”

Toowoomba’s detective Inspector David Isherwood said the teen told his parents he had gone to Indonesia to do aid work but when they went to pick him up from his return flight he was not at the airport. “His parents hit the panic button,” Detective Isherwood said. They filed a missing person report and the Federal Police and overseas security agencies discovered he had left Indonesia to Turkey.

His parents, who have not been named, have said in a statement they do not believe he was supporting terrorists.

“We had no indication that he was making plans to travel to the Middle East, however we now know that he is probably there,” his parents said in the statement. “We do not believe he is participating in fighting of any kind, nor do we believe he is supporting or participating in terrorist acts.”