Mostafa Mahamed (born 14 February 1984,Port Said,Egypt),[1] known as SheikhAbu Sulayman al-Muhajir (orMostafa Farag)[2] is an Egyptian-bornAustralian Muslim who is a senior member ofal-Qaeda'sAl Nusra Front. He is from Sydney's southern suburbs now living inSyria. He is believed to be the highest ranking Australian member of al-Qaeda.[3]
Abu Sulayman was born Mostafa Mohamed in Egypt and migrated with his family toAustralia soon after his birth. In 1985, he was granted an Australian passport. He was raised inSydney's predominantly Anglophone southern suburbs and was reportedly the only Muslim at his primary school.[3]
Abu Sulayman reportedly was devoted to Islam from early in his life and set up the first students' Islamic society at his school.[3]
He later became a preacher in Bankstown in Sydney's Western Suburbs, at the now defunct Al-Risalah centre.[4][5]
By the early 2000s, he was associated with a small group of fundamentalists within Sydney's Muslim community. In 2003, those associations brought him to the attention of theAustralian Security Intelligence Organisation. He was approached by ASIO officers and asked to provide information about a small group of Sydney men he knew, but he refused. Two years later those men were arrested in Operation Pendennis. He was seen appearing at court to support some of the men, who were convicted of planning terrorism.[3]
Abu Sulayman was also close toBilal Khazal, anAl-Qaeda member who had travelled toAfghanistan and metOsama bin Laden. This supports what is commonly supposed, that he was associated with Al-Qaeda long before his travel toSyria. When Khazal returned to Australia he became a key facilitator for Australians who wanted to join Al Qaeda. He was also an associate of Houssam Sabbagh, a Lebanese al-Qaeda leader inTripoli, Lebanon who lived in Sydney from 1989 to 2005.[3]
Abu Sulayman arrived in Syria in late 2012 and soon after was appointed as one of the most senior religious scholars withinJabhat al-Nusra.[3]
According toThe Australian, Abu Sulayman was threatened by Australian JihadistKhaled Sharrouf.[6]
Sulayman reportedly has three children and a wife, whom he left behind in Sydney.[5]
In May 2016, theUnited States declared Abu Sulayman a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."[3] However,The Australian reported that Abu Sulayman was put on a US "kill list" a few years before.[6]
In August 2015, Foreign MinisterJulie Bishop included Abu Sulayman on Australia's counter-terrorism sanctions list. In a statement released by the Australian Foreign Minister's office, Bishop maintains that Abu Sulayman has solicited funds to finance Al-Nusrah Front's terrorist activities and has recruited Australians to travel to Syria to join the "terror ".[2]