Australian Islamic State Doctor Tareq Kamleh's Sudden Change after Mystery Trip in 2013

Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh in the IS propaganda video.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Australian jihadist doctor Tareq Kamleh morphed suddenly from a partying "playboy" doctor to a strict Muslim after a mysterious camping trip, former colleagues say.

Dr Kamleh, who up until recently was working in the health system in Perth, appeared in a propaganda video for Islamic State released this week where he spruiked its health services and asked other Muslim clinicians to join him.

But before this recent infamy, he was working as a pediatrician at a Mackay hospital in north-east Queensland and it is here that former colleagues say he underwent a seismic shift in his personality.

Known as a partying and drinking playboy who constantly cheated on his girlfriend, Dr Kamleh embraced a fundamental interpretation of the religion of his parents in a few short days in 2013, colleagues said.

"I didn't think we had too many radical fundamentalists up in Mackay."

They said Dr Kamleh stopped drinking alcohol, abstained from sex, grew his beard and withdrew from the friends he had made. » | Tammy Mills, Patrick Hatch and Rachel Olding | Monday, April 27, 2015

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‘Australian’ Islamist Video Deplored

Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh.

THE AUSTRALIAN: Security agencies will reassess their monitoring efforts amid growing outrage over an Australian doctor joining Islamic State.

Registered Adelaide doctor Tareq Khamleh has appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video calling for Muslim health professionals in the West to join him in the extremist group’s stronghold in Raqqa in Syria.

The 29-year-old flew to Kuala Lumpur on March 10, before appearing on the video on the weekend wearing scrubs and working in a neonatal unit describing his work as “part of my Jihad”.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says Mr Khamleh is the first known Australian medical professional to join the extremist organisation.

It proved Islamic State isn’t just recruiting fighters, and security agencies will be alert to the new threat, he said.

The acting attorney-general and foreign affairs minister said it was disturbing development that a highly-educated person had succumbed to “the death cult’s evil message”.

“For an Australian doctor to go, to sign up with this group of bandits, people who are murdering, raping, killing people in the Middle East, in the name of ISIL is just something that our country can’t tolerate,” he said.

Mr Dutton urged Australians to report family and friends if they had concerns they were considering joining the extremist group. There is a maximum 25 year jail term for anyone found to be aiding the group. » | AAP | Sunday, April 26, 2015

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Australian Doctor Appears In Islamic State Propaganda Video

NEWS.COM.AU: Perth doctor joins ISIS medical team in ‘jihad for Islam’ against the west: A PERTH doctor has appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video urging medicos to join his jihad. » | Saturday, April 25, 2015

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