- Sydney-based radicaal Islamic group denounce Australian flag and talk about beheading ‘non-believers’
- Tony Abbott: “the only flag that should be flying is the Australian national flag”
- Wissam Haddad: “Shahada flag ... that’s a flag that I stand and live and die for and I don’t stand and live and die for the Australian flag”
A SENIOR leader of radical Sydney-based Islamic organisation al-Risalah has denounced the Australian flag, as the group’s supporters posted Facebook messages about beheading “non-believers”.
Wissam Haddad, the head of the al-Risalah Islamic Centre in Sydney’s southwest, yesterday told The Daily Telegraph he followed the “flag of Allah” rather than the flag of Australia.
The flag, called the Shahada, is the same as the one used by Islamic State terrorists who have been spreading death and terror across the Middle East.
TIM BLAIR: A LOOK INSIDE SYDNEY’S MUSLIM LAND
TIM BLAIR REPLIES TO SOME OF HIS DETRACTORS
I’m not comfortable personally holding the (Australian) flag because this flag does not represent me as a Muslim. My flag is the flag of Allah. That’s my flag.
I’m not comfortable personally holding the (Australian) flag because this flag does not represent me as a Muslim 
“For me to have the Shahada flag, as it’s called, that’s a flag that I stand and live and die for and I don’t stand and live and die for the Australian flag.”
Mr Haddad’s comments came just hours after Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Ray Hadley on 2GB radio that “the only flag that should be flying is the Australian national flag”.
The PM sat down with community leaders yesterday in a bid to allay fears about recently beefed-up counter-terror laws.
“We’ve got a serious problem of radicalised people going to the Middle East to fight with terrorist groups,” he said.
“Some of them will want to come back to Australia and they do pose a risk if they do, because they’ve been radicalised, militarised and brutalised by the experience.”
In the past week, al-Risalah followers have posted messages about beheading, in the wake of the shocking image of Sydney terrorist Khaled Sharrouf’s son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier.
This followed fellow terrorist and former Sydney boxer Mohamed Elomar posting similar photographs on Twitter. Al-Risalah members wear black supporter vests, which sell for $65.
The al-Risalah centre has hosted radical preachers, and Mr Haddad is a supporter of the Islamic State’s “Jizyah” protection tax on Christians and Jews in Syria and Iraq.
Also yesterday, teenage Muslim extremist Sulyman Khalid, who was arrested for an alleged hate crime against a Bankstown cleaner, has been released on bail. Mr Khalid, who calls himself Abu Bakr, will front Bankstown Local Court on September
