AN Australian doctor who appeared in an Islamic State (IS) propaganda video over the weekend was working in the Murraylands only five years ago.
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Dr Tareq Kamleh undertook a 10-week internship at Mannum Medical Centre in 2010 before moving on to work in Western Australia.
On Friday he appeared in a 15-minute video promoting the Islamic State Health Service, apparently filmed in the paediatric department of a hospital in Raqqa, Syria.
Mannum Medical Centre co-owner Stephen Napoli told Fairfax Media he recognised the man in the video.
“As a doctor he worked quite well; he was quite intelligent, he presented to our practice as quite a sound doctor with good medical knowledge,” Dr Napoli said.
“There was no indication I'd be worried about his other associations when he was with us.
“There was nothing that I saw of his work as a medical practical that would suggest he would have any of these sorts of views.”
In the video, Dr Kamleh acknowledged the people of Syria were “truly suffering” and said he felt he needed to help.
“I saw this as part of my jihad for Islam, to help the Muslim ummah (community) in the area that I could, which was the medical field,” he said.
“Unfortunately the Muslims here are really suffering from not necessarily a lack of equipment or medicine but mainly a lack of qualified medical care.”
He appealed to western doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and dentists to join him in the area controlled by the alleged caliphate.
A spokesman for the Federal Attorney-General’s department described the video as a “vile” attempt to entice westerners to put their lives at risk.
“Joining ISIL (the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant) does not help the people of Syria and Iraq, it helps a terrorist organisation that’s on a murderous rampage, killing Muslim and non-Muslim people in their way,” he said.
“There are safer, legal ways of helping the people affected by these conflicts than travelling overseas to fight or support a terrorist organisation.”
Under laws introduced in December and March, it is illegal for Australians to travel to Raqqa, the Islamic State’s unofficial capital, or to Mosul, Iraq.
The penalty for doing so is 10 years’ imprisonment, though some exceptions – including “providing aid of a humanitarian nature” – apply.
