A dangerous local loon

The Herald reports:

A Facebook page belonging to an Auckland man shows pictures of him posing with an Islamic State flag, holding an AK47-style rifle and speaking of his role in a holy war. …

Mr SaifuAllah, 23, told the Herald that he “100 per cent” supported the views and actions of Islamic State.

He said he changed his name three years ago but was born as William Ringo Ratapu-Howard in South Auckland, where he still lives.

He said the Government had confiscated his passport last year, stopped him travelling to Sydney in May where he planned to marry his Lebanese fiancée and that he had repeatedly been questioned by the SIS about his beliefs.

Mr SaifuAllah said he converted to Islam about three years ago to escape his life of drugs and crime.

“I was in Black Power. I couldn’t see my life going anywhere, I was having a bad life, I was a gang member.”

His older brother found the religion first, and introduced it to their mother and then him, he said.

The religion has led him away from those aspects of his past. However, he has also been introduced to radical beliefs that see him sympathise with the terror group.

Maybe people will realise that when the Government says there are a non-trivial number of extremists in New Zealand, they’re not just making it up.

One can hope he is one of those who is talk, not action. But you never know. Australia has had several who have gone from talk to action.

Mr SaifuAllah has multiple photos and comments on his Facebook page professing allegiance to the terrorist group.

In a 2014 interview with TVNZ, he said he did not support the views of the terror organisation. He does now.

“These are my views and I support them 100 percent,” he said.

His photos are captioned with war cries and comments made this week spoke of his role in a holy war fought so “one day Islam will dominate everything that the sun sets on”.

He has images of the Islamic State flag and other propaganda from the terrorist group.

Photos and graphics show soldiers, war cries and religious quotes.

Comments in recent days show his allegiance to these sentiments. “One day Islam will dominate everything that the sun sets on meaning the whole earth,” he said on Wednesday.

Personally I’d let him travel to Syria so long as he agrees to cancel his NZ citizenship and never come back.