Do-gooder converts to Islam

Everybody seems to be treating this as a great mystery.  It is not.  Do-gooders are mostly Leftists and the Left has a romance with Islam.  They love its destructiveness.  So for a Leftist to convert to Islam is only a small step

He was a well-educated boy who was working with underprivileged children in Asia and dreamed of one day becoming a lawyer or doctor.

But family and friends of 18-year-old Oliver Bridgeman are devastated by revelations he had led a double life and is suspected of joining an al-Qaeda linked terror group in Syria.

The blonde-haired teen, from Toowoomba, on Queensland's Darling Downs, had reportedly converted to Islam after becoming friends with several Muslim students at the school.

His friends believed the former high school captain and talented rugby league player had been transformed and brainwashed by the 'wrong people', The Courier-Mail reports.

'Oh my God! Oh my God!' one friend said.  'We knew he had gone a bit strange but never imagined he would do anything like this. He was just a kid who loved school, football and music.'

Another stunned friend said: 'He's a really good guy and smart too but obviously the wrong people have been in his ear and he's been led down the wrong path.'

Federal counter-terrorism police intelligence suggests he is in a conflict zone and Mr Bridgeman is suspected to have taken up arms with a terrorist group.

His last movements on his Facebook account shows a series of photos during a stint working with children in Indonesia in March to his high school graduation from last year.

At the same time, Mr Bridgeman was building a separate account, under the alias Yusef Oli, where he documented his thoughts and photographs of himself posing at mosques after he found religion.

'Extremism is as a result of lying against Allah,' one post from December 2014 reads.

'For when the extremist fails to produce evidence and interpretation, he resorts to lying against Allah to fulfill (sic) his whims.'

Islamic Society of Toowoomba president Dr Shahjahan Khan said Mr Bridgeman had attended some prayer sessions but believed the teen was radicalised online.  'Whatever he is doing is no way linked to Toowoomba,' he told ABC radio.  'I think it's something else that comes from online. It has nothing to do with the Toowoomba community or Toowoomba Islam.'

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Hate preachers and terrorists could be stripped of citizenship under anti-terrorism proposal



HATE preachers and terrorists face being stripped of their Australian citizenship and sent back to their original countries under tough anti-terrorism measures being examined by the Abbott Government.

The proposal would see immigrants who became Australian citizens but then preached hate or carried out terrorist attacks given a one-way ticket back to their birth countries, or a third nation.

The move could for the first time encompass Australian citizens who were not dual nationals, meaning the terrorists and hate preachers would have to be accepted by another country.

That would mean people such as Melbourne hate preacher Harun Mehicevic, who migrated from Bosnia but became an Australian citizen in 1996, are on notice they could be stripped of their citizenship if found to be acting against the interests of Australia.

A Cabinet source said the plan would not affect Australian-born citizens who do not have or have not held another nationality.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has indicated support for stripping dual nationals of their citizenship: “We cannot allow bad people to use our good nature against us.”

And in a sign of the growing momentum within the Government for an overhaul of the Citizenship Act, the chairman of Parliament’s powerful Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Dan Tehan, has called for an international agreement signed with the United Nations to be amended to give Australia more power to banish terrorists.

The Government has been examining the Citizenship Act since February but until now was believed to be focused on dual nationals, such as the leaders of the 2005 MCG terror plot, Abdul Nacer Benbrika and Mohamed Ali Elomar.

But Mr Tehan has gone further, writing in the Herald Sun that Australia should follow Britain in cracking down on citizens who betray the country that has bestowed citizenship upon them.

“It is time we looked at new ways to revoke the citizenship of those who wish to harm us and have abused those rights and privileges,’’ he said.

Mr Tehan, the Liberal MP for Wannon, said the new laws introduced by the United Kingdom were “a sensible example for Australia”.

Since Australia’s terror threat level was raised to high last September, 23 people have been arrested in eight counterterrorism operations.

Government sources have told the Herald Sun that the agreement Australia signed with the UN in 1973 meant Australian citizens could not be stripped of their citizenship.

More than 60 countries have signed up to the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 1961, which is one of two treaties spelling out the legal framework to protect refugees and individuals from being rendered stateless, or without a country to call home.

It makes it almost impossible for a government to strip citizenship from a person who is not a dual national.

But unlike Australia several countries, including the UK and New Zealand, lodged notices called “reservations’’ at the time they signed the treaty, which gave them greater powers to revoke citizenship.

Mr Tehan is calling for Australia to lodge a late “reservation’’, arguing the treaty makes it more difficult for Australia to consider treason charges against some terrorists.

If Australia had previously been able to strip Australian citizenship from those who had given up their birth-country citizenship, the Government would have been able to deport Man Haron Monis, the Iranian-born hate preacher who raged against Australia for years despite being awarded citizenship.

He then went on to launch the Lindt cafe siege last year, which claimed two lives.

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Queensland police misconduct doubles with allegations over drugs, assault and drink-driving

IS Queensland returning to the days of the Moonlight State?

Police in Queensland have been misbehaving in record numbers, being stood down or suspended over serious allegations of domestic violence, drugs, drink-driving and assault, according to the The Courier-Mail.

One police employee was taken off duty every fortnight for alleged misconduct in the state in 2014-15, with 10 removed in the past six weeks.

A 39-year-old male senior constable was stood down this week ahead of an investigation into accusations related to the use of excessive force, wilful damage of a service vehicle and falsifying training records.

The number removed from a position with the service has almost doubled in the past two years from 14 to 27, The Courier-Mail reported.

Police confirmed 12 officers and staff were stood down and 15 suspended this year over serious allegations including drug use, stealing and assault, but refused to confirm how many were sacked or faced disciplinary action, according to The Courier-Mail

Four members of staff were removed from the service on disciplinary grounds in the past month alone, police reports show.

On April 30, a 36-year-old male constable from Brisbane was charged with drink-driving offences while off duty. The officer had not been stood down from his position.

A day earlier, a 27-year-old female constable was stood down pending a disciplinary investigation into the submission of false and misleading information, and being untruthful to an officer investigating a disciplinary matter.

On April 27, a 40-year-old male senior constable was arrested and charged with a number of offences including possession of unlicensed weapons.

And on April 23, a police liaison officer, aged 27, was dismissed ahead of a disciplinary proceeding relating to an allegation of dangerous driving.

Two officers were stood down in the past year for allegations of domestic violence, including a first-year Brisbane constable in August. Both are subject to investigation.

Brisbane senior constable Nicholas Sheahan was fined $750 after pleading guilty to a range of charges including possession of illicit drugs. He resigned from the force shortly after the drugs were found at his home in June last year.

The officer was once labelled a “hero” after saving a life on the state capital’s Story Bridge

The actions of officers who have faced court are examined by Queensland Police Service’s Ethical Standards Command.

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Parents seeking reform at ‘dictatorial’ Islamic school

More than 100 angry parents have picketed the Islamic College of South Australia, worried it is becoming too fundamental after it cut music and sport from its curriculum, described pianos as evil and stopped singing the national anthem at assemblies.

Parent representatives have called for the board and principal of the western Adelaide school to be sacked, fearing segregation is spreading from single-sex classrooms to corridors and buildings, and education standards are ­falling.

Mother of three Souraya Serhan said there were concerns about the curriculum after the school’s NAP­LAN results fell across all age groups from 2008 to 2013. “The board is dictatorial: they don’t have any focus on education, it’s about cutting costs,” Ms Serhan said.

She said that over the past three years 14 teachers had been sacked or forced to resign, and there had been four principals. Respected imam Khalid Yousuf was sacked last month.

“These are teachers who have been in the school that are trusted and very, very capable teachers, only to be replaced by less-experienced teachers,” she said.

Ms Serhan said her son had been suspended via text message, but she had negotiated his return because he did not want to go to a non-Muslim school.

Another parent, Esam Elhelw, said the board had been disciplining students inappropriately.

“My daughter was pushed into and locked in a room by (a board member) and two other people working in the school. She was physically pushed by someone who is working here as a teacher instead of Brother Khalid,” Mr ­Elhelw said.

School board chairman Farouk Khan said schools “usually” had a high turnover of staff and the board was comprised of competent and professional people.

He defended its academic performance and said Year 12 results “continue to grow”. “We are very proud Aussies,” Mr Khan said. “We sing the nation­al anthem on different occa­sions.”

He welcomed donations of pian­os to replace the ones that had been removed.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils administers the school and parents have contacted the organisation, also calling for the board to be removed.

AFIC spokesman Amjad Mehboob said he would interview parents, staff and the board next week.

“The board deals with these issu­es, and when it becomes a public issue AFIC steps in,” Mr Mehboob said. “We’re going to carry out investigations and step in next week.”

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne yesterday raised concerns about potential radicalisation at the school, and will write to his state counterpart Susan Close.

“We want our children to get a sensible and secular education, not an education that points them in the direction we don’t want them to go,” Mr Pyne said.

He said it was the second time he had written to a state government about an Islamic campus, after writing to the Victorian Education Minister James Merlino in April about the al-Taqwa College and its attitude towards Israel.

Mr Pyne said the most extreme measures included removing the school’s licence and all funding, but investigations needed to take place before extreme measures were considered.

The My School website shows the school received $7.5 million in funding in 2013, with about $5.6m from the federal government, about $800,000 from the state government and $1.2m from fees and parent contributions.

Ms Close said it was up to the Education and Early Childhood Services, Registration and Stand­ards Board to investigate, because the school was independent. She did not have the power to remove funding.

She said the standards board could only rule on whether the school was teaching the Australian curriculum appropriately or was looking after the welfare of its students. “They are an independent organisation which chooses to run a school: it has been registered because it is teaching the appropri­ate Australian curriculum, beyond that they really need to look at how they are looking after their kids,” Ms Close said.

Standards board registrar Paul Claridge said two parties had complained about the Islamic College and once their complaints were in writing, the board would consider investigating.

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