[Exclusive] Melbourne-born, the 29-year-old jihadist has been staying in the Philippines for nearly a year. He has been seen in Manila, Cebu and Zamboanga, according to Rappler’s sources.
[Video: how I came to Islam :: talk by musa cerantonio :: Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf2mH-CGQFc]
For the first time, authorities in the
The 29-year-old
Cerantonio is a Christian convert to Islam who’s using social media effectively
to encourage terrorism and urge Muslims to join the jihad in Syria and Iraq
Philippine and
Australian sources verified to Rappler that Melbourne-born Musa Cerantonio is
in the Philippines
“He spent a lot
of time in the Middle East ,” said another.
Reports said he appeared on numerous English language shows from Egypt
Two weeks ago as
jihadist forces captured Tikrit and Mosul , Cerantonio
told his followers: “The black flags fly high today over Mosul and much of Iraq
On June 13, 2014, the Australian said Cerantonio was under investigation and
that the Australian Federal Police may be moving against him where “he’s
believed to be living” in the Philippines.
“Have fun finding
me,” Cerantonio tweeted in reaction. “I’ll be waiting for you or whichever dogs
you send.”
“Come and meet us
in the mountains of Sulu if you wish to find me,” he wrote in another tweet.
“We will be waiting, no promises that we will be gentle though.” Soon after,
Cerantonio’s Twitter account was shut down.
So far, Filipino
sources said, there has been no request from Australia
Gray area
When asked why
Cerantonio isn't being arrested, a Filipino official not authorized to speak
about him replied, “He’s always in the gray area...He knows what governments
can do to him so he makes sure he stays in the gray area.”
It’s a gray area
that was exploited by many radical preachers around the world, from the Middle
East to London to Southeast Asia, where it once
seemed difficult to hold accountable radical preachers like Abu Bakar Ba’asyir,
once the emir of Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda’s arm in Southeast
Asia .
Shortly after the
2002 Bali bombings, it seemed Indonesians
could only bring Ba'asyir in for questioning. He told
intelligence officers: “I make many knives, and I sell many knives,
but I’m not responsible for what happens to them.”
The International
Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) published
a paper in April that studied the social media activity of 190
Western and European fighters in Iraq
and Syria
“Social media
represents an essential source of information and inspiration to them,” said
the study. “Social media is no longer virtual: it has become an essential facet
of what happens on the ground.”
Based on a
detailed analysis of their activity on social media, Cerantonio was identified
as one of the two most influential voices providing “inspiration and guidance”
to fighters.
The ICSR study
said that one in 4 foreign fighters followed Cerantonio’s Twitter account. More
than 92% of his tweets involved an interaction of some kind: 53.8% involved
interactions with other users; 38.4% of his tweets were retweeted.
ICSR wrote that
on Twitter, “Cerantonio typically employs highly inflammatory language, for
example, calling the State Department ‘pussy Yankee scum,’ and claiming that
‘the USA
Cerantonio was
far more active on Facebook: his Facebook page was the third most “liked” page
among jihadists. He is “explicit in his endorsement of violent jihad and
support for jihadist organizations operating in Syria ”
and is openly supportive of ISIS and
“indirectly bringing in recruits.”
“I have been very
clear about why ISIS are the best forces on
the ground,” Cerantonio wrote on Facebook. “That is because they are doing what
the others do not, i.e., establishing a state and declaring the intention to
establish the Khilafah.”
The goal, like
al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia ,
is to establish an Islamic Caliphate, the “Khilafah.”
“He’s certainly a
very powerful apologist for ISIS even though he claims not to be linked to
ISIS,” Professor Greg Barton, from the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University ISIS .”
ISIS, the Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria , finds its roots in Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq, but it became so brutal that at one
point, al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri disowned it.
“ISIS , in some sense, is the most powerful manifestation
of al-Qaeda today,” said Barton. “ISIS controls territory, is more powerful and
more successful than al-Qaeda has ever been – because technically, ISIS is not an affiliate of al-Qaeda.”
The social
networks that once formed al-Qaeda have been disrupted: with top and
middle-rank leaders captured and killed, members of the cells merged, allowing
diffferent affiliated groups to mutate in different ways.
The threat today
is more dispersed: the central core is weaker, but the offshoot groups carry
the same virulent ideology.
Social media
spread
That ideology
spreads far more rapidly on social media, connecting a Filipino or Indonesian to a global jihad much
faster and cheaper (and with less risk) than ever before.
Now face-to-face
meetings are no longer needed to preach and recruit, and that may be the soft
underbelly for global counterterrorism forces.
It allows an
Australian (although some say he’s renounced his citizenship) to proselytize
globally from the Philippines
Musa Cerantonio
has been seen in Manila , Cebu
and Zamboanga, according to Rappler’s sources. His Facebook account, like his
Twitter, has been deactivated.
“He’s aware of
the vulnerability of his circumstances,” Barton told Rappler. “He’s been clever
enough not to divulge his position.”
As the US and its allies struggle with how to handle
the crisis triggered by ISIS’ march in Iraq
http://www.rappler.com/nation/61200-isis-online-cheerleader-musa-cerantonio-ph
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