The Deacon's Bench
He was arrested in the Philippines:
Radical Australian hate preacher Musa Cerantonio has been arrested in the Philippines, exposing as lies his boasts of having joined a new Islamic caliphate in the Middle East.
Melbourne-born Cerantonio, regarded as one of the top propagandists for jihadists and the violent Islamic State, is now likely to be deported back to Australia.
The 29-year-old, who is under investigation by the Australian Federal Police, was arrested with cash, SIM cards, mobile phones and his passport in Lapu-Lapu City and served with a warrant for deportation over suspected immigration breaches.
It is believed he had been under surveillance for months.
But where did he come from? Details:
Jihadist Musa Cerantonio’s blood-curdling online threats and calls to arms are lapped up by up to one in four foreign extremists at war in Islam’s name.
But before he became one of the world’s most influential jihadists, he was just a good Catholic boy from Melbourne.
Believed to have been born Robert to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he attended a Catholic school.
But at 17, a family visit to the Vatican saw him reject Christianity.
He later travelled to Cairo where it is believed he became immersed in the Islamic faith, and then its extremist wing.
His profile rose as he retweeted sentiments of terrorist group al-Qaeda, becoming a strong force on social media.
An International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation report in 2014 said one in four foreign fighters follows him online. He’s been likened to al-Qaeda’s most prolific online cleric, Anwar Al Awlaki, killed in 2011 by a drone in Yemen.
In April, Cerantonio’s personal Facebook page was shut down after he called upon 12,000 subscribers to assassinate US politicians and VIPs.
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