Mohammed Junaid Thorne
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Mohammed Junaid Thorne is an Australian Islamic preacher of Aboriginal heritage from
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
, Western Australia. Thorne is noted for his controversial views on Islamic militant groups including
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
. Thorne is a member of the Australian branch of Millatu Ibrahim, a Salafi organisation banned in Germany."Perth man delivers 'radical' Islamic lectures."
''SBS''. 8 January 2014.
Chambers, Geoff
"Radical Islamic preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne to spread the word of jihad on his Sydney tour."
''The Daily Telegraph''. 27 August 2014.
In August 2015 Thorne was sentenced to between four and eight months jail for travelling on an aircraft under a false name, and using fake ID to obtain his ticket.


Personal life

Junaid Thorne was born to a
Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...
Aboriginal man named Graham Thorne and to a Malaysian Muslim woman. His parents divorced and Junaid's mother remarried a Moroccan Muslim. In 1996, when Junaid was five he was taken to Saudi Arabia to live as his stepfather secured work there. Junaid lived and studied in Saudi Arabia and became transcultured as a Muslim Arab. He stayed in Saudi Arabia until the age of twenty three.Lloyd, Peter, and Suzanne Dredge
"Muslim preacher Junaid Thorne says slain Melbourne man Numan Haider was his follower."
''
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
'' (ABC). 31 October 2014.
His older brother Shayden was sentenced by Saudi authorities to four and half years on terrorism charges. Junaid was deported from Saudi Arabia to Western Australia in July 2013 after protesting his brother's imprisonment. For his part in the 2016 " Tinnie terror plot", Shayden Thorne was sentenced to three years and ten months jail. Shayden was released in early March 2020, under an interim control order. In November 2014, Junaid Thorne moved from Perth to Sydney.Chambers, Geoff
"Islam radical’s exorcism tour: Preacher Junaid Thorne’s hate extends to devils."
''The Daily Telegraph''. 14 November 2014.
Thorne is on the Australian Federal Government's terrorism watchlist for his inflammatory social media posts and for lectures indicating support for Islamic State. On 15 January 2015 Thorne's home in
Bass Hill Bass Hill, () a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 23 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydne ...
, New South Wales was raided by Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers. He was served with a notice to appear at court in Perth. When traveling between Sydney and Perth, with Omer Issak and Mostafa Shiddiquzzaman, they all used false names. All three plead guilty to the charges. Shiddiquzzuman was sentenced to four months in custody, while Issak received a "community-based order" earlier the same year in Perth. On 15 June 2015 Thorne was sentenced to nine months' jail. He was released on
bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...
pending an appeal of his sentence. In August Thorne was sentenced to eight months, with a minimum of four. He is being held in segregation at Goulburn Correctional Centres supermax facility after being classified with the most secure rating, AA. In 2019 Thorne was charged with drug- and firearm-supply offences.


Activities

Thorne has been an active Islamic preacher in the Muslim community of Australia; he has given a series of lectures at local Islamic centres known for their hardline views of Islam including the iQraa Islamic centre in Brisbane, the (now-closed) Al Risalah Islamic centre in Bankstown, and the (now closed) Al Furqan Islamic centre in Melbourne. According to Thorne, teenager Numan Haider, who was shot and killed after stabbing two officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism team outside the Endeavour Hills police station in Melbourne, attended a number of his lectures, and he met with the teenager several times. Thorne claimed Haider was "innocent" and had been "murdered in cold blood"."Islamic ‘Sheik’ Junaid Thorne reports death threats to WA Police."
''Perth Now''. 25 September 2014.


Millatu Ibrahim

Junaid Thorne has become a member of the Millatu Ibrahim branch in Perth; Millatu Ibrahim has been banned in Germany. According to Thorne, Millatu Ibrahim means "to follow the path of Ibrahim (
Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...
)," who is considered a prophet in the Islamic faith. Thorne has claimed that no connection exists between the Australian and German Millatu Ibrahim groups, stating "just because the name is the same... doesn't imply that they're the same or that they know each other."


Ruqyah healing

Following his move to Sydney in November 2014, Thorne turned toward an Islamic form of spiritual healing known as '' ruqyah''; Thorne, collaborating with a Sydney-based healer, Abu Hamza, began a series of lectures on the subject of spirits in Islam or ''
jinn Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...
''.


Views

;Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) "If I were to vocalise my complete support to them slamic State I would get in trouble... If I was to say that don't support them at all, that would be untrue... I may support them ncertain issues, while I disagree with them in other issues." ;Democracy and Sharia "As Muslims, we do reject democracy, we reject other, we look to Sharia, Sharia law, as our main way of governmental system. Not that we are like trying to impose it here or anything. It's just that what we as Muslims want. Me personally, I want, I would love for Sharia law to be implemented here, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to impose it on anyone. But if there was an Islamic state where Sharia law was being implemented I would happily move there. Because as a Muslim, all Muslims, we see that Sharia law is our salvation, or our solution to the problems that we see nowadays." ;''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting Thorne has been critically cited in the media for providing justification for the terrorist attack on the French ''Charlie Hebdo'' magazine in Paris, in which 12 people were killed."Junaid Thorne backs Charlie Hebdo killing."
''The West Australian''. Accessed 12 January 2014.
"Paris terror, Charlie Hebdo newspaper: Junaid Thorne justifies ..."
''The Herald Sun''. Accessed 12 January 2014.


Victim of trolling

In 2015, Thorne was the victim of Jewish American online troll, and convicted bomberPolice briefs 12/28/17
/ref> Joshua Ryne Goldberg, who set up a fake account in the name of the preacher with the intention of smearing Thorne, as well as creating fake jihadist personas that interacted with the fake Thorne account, sending screengrabs of these fabricated interactions to journalists. Not realizing that the "jihadist" accounts were controlled by the same hoaxster that was impersonating Thorne, these faked interactions were published in
The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, '' The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuous ...
on 18 April 2015, and described as evidence of "the deep hatred many of Thorne's followers harbour towards non-Muslim Australians".


See also

*
Islam in Australia Islam in Australia is a minority religious affiliation. According to the 2021 Census in Australia, the combined number of people who self-identified as Muslims in Australia, from all forms of Islam, constituted 813,392 people, or 3.2% of th ...
*
Islamic organisations in Australia Islamic organisations in Australia include a wide range of groups and associations run and supported by the Islamic community in Australia. Organisations include major community councils, local organisations, mosques and schools. Most Australia ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, Mohammed Junaid 1991 births Living people Australian Muslims Noongar people Australian people of Malaysian descent Australian propagandists Jihadist propagandists Australian Salafis People from Perth, Western Australia Australian male criminals Prisoners and detainees of New South Wales