Al-Qaeda recruiter addressed Sydney mosque youngsters from Yemen in 2009

SYDNEY - An Al Qaeda recruiter, who was earlier described as America’s number one terrorist threat, is reported to have been engaged by a Sydney youth group to address hundreds of young people in one of Australia’s largest mosques from Yemen last year.

According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been charged with masterminding the killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, was approached by the Sydney Muslim Youth group, to deliver a sermon to young Australians.

“Anwar al-Awlaki is like a virus produced by the body wanting to fight a microbe,” said Taj el-Din al-Hilaly, condemning the sermon, which was delivered at his mosque by phone link from Yemen.

Last week, Awlaki became the first US citizen added to the CIA kill list.

He is considered a military enemy of the US and faces assassination by the US Special Forces.

Reporters of the Sydney Morning Herald attended the sermon at the Lakemba mosque in February last year, but were ejected by its organizers.

Yesterday, no one involved with the mosque would take responsibility for securing Awlaki as a speaker.

The director of the mosque, Ziad Ghamraoui, Shady Alsuleiman refused to comment.

He also refused to say whether Awlaki was paid for the reported speech. (ANI)