Islamic preacher Junaid Thorne ‘not obliged to be loyal to Australia’, by Sam Buckingham-Jones.

The Islamic preacher who police believe is the leader of a new terror cell in west and southwestern Sydney says he cannot respect Australian law while he is being treated as an “enemy” and a “slave”.

Junaid Thorne, 27, has close links to two 16 year-olds arrested in Bankstown last month moments before they were allegedly going to carry out a terrorist attack. He is also linked to the arrests of two men, aged 17 and 24, on terror charges last week.

“Being a Muslim, my loyalty is to my faith and to my religion and to Muslims,” he told the ABC’s 7.30 program.

“And because I was born here, I don’t see myself under any obligation to have any loyalty. I don’t see myself under any obligation to respect a law that is treating me as a slave or as an enemy.”

Asked why two teenagers would want to carry out an attack in Australia, Mr Thorne, a part-Aboriginal man born in Perth and raised in Saudi Arabia, said Muslims can feel targeted by foreign military intervention in predominantly Muslim countries.

“As long as a Government is actively involved in invading Muslim lands overseas — actively involved in invading Muslim lands overseas, it’s only natural Muslims will get upset and Muslims will feel like they’re targeted and oppressed,” he said.

That’s pretty clear. Let’s import more people who think like this — oh wait, who is doing that?