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Ben McClellan
The Daily Telegraph
December 05, 2014 12:00AM

Taha El Baf with his Regents Park under-16s teammates, none of whom are accused of any religious extremism. Picture: Facebook

THE former head of the controversial al-Risalah Islamic Centre in Bankstown said the four El Baf brothers who fled Australia to join Islamic State in Syria would be given a free house and he whole heartedly supported their decision.

Wissam Haddad said he knew the El Baf family but not the brothers Omar, 28, Bilal, 25, Hamza, 23, and Taha, 17, personally.

The brothers told their parents they were going to Thailand but later sent a text indicating they were in Syria.

“Do I support any Muslim wanting to live under a full Islamic system, yes I do,” Mr Haddad said yesterday.

“It’s not surprising to me ... I don’t believe it’s out of Muslim character.

“If they just want to live under the Sharia, from what I’ve heard migrants who come to the Islamic State are given housing and all sorts of things.

“They could just be living there. I don’t know if living in Syria is a crime under the Islamic State.
“There is something that Allah is offering more than any person or country can offer and that’s paradise..

“One of the scholars said how can you fight a people who look down the barrel of a gun and see paradise. It’s what we are all after, eternal bliss, eternal paradise, which is a lot better than the world we live in.”

The extremist al-Risalah bookstore closed its doors in September a month after Mr Haddad told The Daily Telegraph he supported Islamic State’s black shaddad flag and not the Australian one.

Mr Haddad said he was still in limited contact with his friends in Syria, including Khaled Sharrouf, and had plans to re-open “an office or a youth centre”.

The El Baf brothers’ great uncle Abdul El Baf, 75, said the family hailed from Tripoli in northern Lebanon and the boys were born and bred in Australia.

He said the boys prayed at the Sefton Mosque, close to their Yagoona home, with their father Issam but he did not think they were radicalised there.

“Somebody put shit in their heads. I don’t believe in this religious bullshit. I believe in Allah and pray and that’s it,” he said.

“I wonder what happened to these idiot kids. Don’t listen to these idiot political people.

“I am very upset for his family. He is a good father. I hope they would come back to the best country in the world — Australia.”

High school student Taha also played rugby league for the Regent Park Pumas, playing in the finals last year.

Pumas president Mike Cogger said Taha was a “pretty good player” who played in the centres.
“I always found him very polite. That (travelling to Syria) doesn’t sound like him,” he said.