Feiz Mohammad

Feiz Mohammad (born 1970) is an Australian Muslim preacher.

Biography Mohammad is of Lebanese origin, and was born in Sydney, in 1970. After quitting school at year 10 to learn carpet laying, he took an interest in boxing, where he became the NSW amateur welterweight champion in 1987, and in bodybuilding, winning the national under-19 bodybuilding title in 1989. At the age of 19 he began explore world religions, studying Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism before finally choosing Islam.

Mohammad studied under Sheikh Mohammed Omran, the spiritual leader of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jam'ah Association of Australia, who sent him, in 1990, to Saudi Arabia's Islamic University of Madinah, where he spent four years studying Islamic law. He returned to Australia in 1997. He relocated to Malaysia to continue Islamic studies, aiming for a PhD in Sharia, and returned to Australia, likely in 2010, to open a new prayer hall in Auburn.

In March 2011, Mohammad returned to Australia after a six-year absence. His last known residence as of September 2012 was in the Southern Highlands.

Global Islamic Youth Centre In Australia, Mohammad and others founded the Global Islamic Youth Centre in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool in 2000 to "cater for the physical, social, educational and religious needs, especially for the youth and the children, in accordance with the teachings of the Quran". He was its head in 2005, and in 2008 was still active at the centre. Even after he left Australia for Lebanon, he continued to direct the centre from abroad.

As of December 2008, the Global Islamic Youth Centre had raised $700,000 towards a new facility in Liverpool. The DVDs urge young Muslims to kill infidel non-believers and sacrifice their lives for Allah. It says the children should be taught that there is "nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a Muhajid [holy warrior]," and that the parents should "put in their soft, tender heart the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom", preach jihad. He said: "Kafir (disbeliever) is the worst word ever written, a sign of infidelity, disbelief, filth, a sign of dirt".

The DVDs came to public attention when they were featured in the documentary Undercover Mosque, which aired on Britain's Channel 4. Australian Acting Attorney-General Kevin Andrews called the DVDs "offensive, unacceptable and outrageous" and "importations of hatred". The Opposition called for him to be charged with inciting terrorism, and Federal Opposition leader Kevin Rudd said the comments were obscene and an incitement to terrorism, and that he wanted the government to act, and that Mohammad "has no place in our society".

In July 2007, federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, referring to the DVDs, said that Australia needed better laws to deal with items that encourage people to commit terrorist attacks, and that "Waiting for a terrorist attack to happen is unacceptable." He added: "People who may be susceptible to carrying out a terrorist act ought not to be instructed in how to do it, how to use household products to produce a bomb, or be encouraged to think about violent jihad and taking their own life."

Other lectures He said:

"Jews are pigs that will be killed at the end of the world".

In late 2008, a site he created called Faith Over Fear had links to the centre.

Call for beheading of Geert Wilders In an internet chat room, Mohammad incited Muslim followers to behead Dutch politician Geert Wilders, it became known in September 2010. The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf released an excerpt of the talk, after Dutch intelligence officials received a tip about the threat. Sheikh Fedaa Majzoub, the vice president of the NSW branch of the National Imams Council, said that the comments were "completely rejected by us as Islamic authorities".

Denouncement by Taj El-Din Hilaly In March 2011, Australia's most senior Islamic leader, Imam Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly of Australia's largest mosque at Lakemba, denounced Feiz Mohammad. He added, "If religion had something like the Australian Medical Association, or a trade authority, they would not allow him to be preaching, they wouldn't give him a licence ... I haven't seen a change in him."

Feiz Mohammad had responded to requests from Australian authorities to remove videos by al-Qa'ida spiritual leader Anwar al-Awlaki from his website.

Denied connection with Boston marathon bombing suspects It was reported in April 2013 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, had a YouTube page that included four of Feiz Mohammad's videos. Mohammad volunteered to NSW police that he had no connection with the suspects. Attorney-General of Australia Mark Dreyfus said that Mohammad "condemned the use of violence" and has "changed his attitude", supporting a community program to prevent the radicalisation of Australian youth. Dutch politician Geert Wilders wrote: "Dreyfus has great faith in the conversion of the hate-preacher. But I do not share this optimism.... I have not heard the sheik recall his demand for my beheading. Nor did the Tsarnaev brothers hear Sheik Mohammed declare that the Islam he preached earlier is not the true Islam." Professor Clive Williams, who teaches at Macquarie University's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, believes Mohammad's extremist videos should be taken off the internet.