A Sydney teenager who ran away to join jihadists in Syria is the pawn of terrorists who 'groomed' him just like paedophiles groom victims, a terror expert says.
Abdullah Elmir has turned up in a propaganda video for terror group Islamic State - also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - after disappearing from his Bankstown home in June, saying he was going fishing.
In the clip, the 17-year-old threatens Australia and any nation that would try to stand in the group's way.
Professor Greg Barton, from Monash University's Global Terrorism Research Centre, said Elmir was recruited by wanted terrorist Mohammad Ali
Baryalei, an Australian based in Syria.
He said terror recruiters lured targets by making friends through social media, like many sexual predators.
'It's like sexual predation,' Prof Barton told AAP.
'Somebody might strike up a friendship in an online chat forum and present themselves in a different fashion - to try to get them into their web.
'By the time they actually meet the people they're speaking with, they may be in too deep to know better.'
He said the boy appeared as a 'pawn in the machine' in the chilling video.
'He thinks he's the star ... but the reality is, his new friends have got him a one-way ticket,' he said.
'He's not in charge of his own destiny at all, he's being used.'
Prof Barton said young people were the easiest to radicalise.
'Teenagers, 20-somethings, particularly young men more than young women, are vulnerable to making rash judgments,' he said.
'They tend to be more rebellious toward [older] generations and sceptical of establishment figures.'
It is believed former Kings Cross bouncer Baryalei, 33, recruited Elmir through western Sydney street preaching group Parramatta Street Dawah.
'He's said to have recruited 30 plus young people - mostly in western Sydney through Street Dawah,' Prof Barton said.
The terror expert's comments come as the ginger-haired teenager's family have condemned his involvement in the video in which he declares ISIS will not stop their murderous campaign 'until the black flag is flying high in every single land'.
Elmir and his friend Feiz are believed to have made their way to Syria and Iraq after crossing the border from Turkey, where they were last known to have contacted family members.
They travelled via Perth, with stops in Malaysia and Thailand, to join the likes of Australia's most notorious terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar.
'What a stupid idiot,' an unnamed relative told the Daily Telegraph.
'We never associated with him, that guy was brainwashed, I don't know what these kids get into.
'They don't know how to fight... they should be getting an education and building this country up.'
(dailymail.co.uk)
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