What Kind Of Father Encourages Young Son’s Terrorist Behavior? A Mentally Ill Khaled Sharrouf

A horrifying image of a young 7-year-old Australian boy in Iraq holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier is being plastered throughout the media. One can’t help but wonder what kind of father would allow this behavior? And even worse, condone it by posting the picture on Twitter with a caption reading, “That’s my boy!”

Only one response comes to mind — a mentally ill terrorist kind of father by the name Khaled Sharrouf, according to CNN.

“Long before Khaled Sharrouf turned to radical Islam, doctors agreed he was a man who needed psychological help,” as reported by The Australian. The convicted terrorist, Sharrouf, pleaded guilty of conspiring with eight other Muslim men back in 2007 of stockpiling bomb-making materials. Sharrouf and the men were planning various terrorist attacks against Sydney and Melbourne, the largest cities in Australia, as reported by Fox News.

Sharrouf pleaded guilty to the charges of terrorism brought against him.

What’s interesting is that CNN reports that after he plead guilty in 2007, Sharrouf’s hearing was delayed because a court-appointed specialist claimed Sharrouf had an “acute exacerbation of the illness schizophrenia,” and was unfit to go to trial.

CNN continues to report that Sharrouf was immediately put on medication to treat his mental illness and in “early 2009, it was deemed he had made a remarkable recovery.” This lead to him receiving a sentence of just over five years in prison. But, because he had already served a good amount of that time as he was recovering from his schizophrenia and awaiting his trial, Sharrouf was released from prison after a mere three weeks.

Following his release, the Australian government banned Sharrouf from leaving the country because they still felt he was a terrorist threat.

That didn’t stop Sharrouf from escaping. By using his brother’s passport, he and his wife, along with their three sons, left Australia and made their way to Syria and Iraq to fight, according to Fox News. There are arrest warrants for Sharrouf and his friend, Mohamed Elomar, for “terrorism-related activity.”

Police are following his trail as he continues to post pictures on Twitter, such as the one posted recently of his terrorist comrade, Elomar, grinning as he held the heads of Syrian soldiers in each hand. The pictures include recognizable landmarks in the background revealing their current location. Pictures continue to surface of Sharrouf posing with massacred Iraqis, according to Fox News. Keep posting, Sharrouf!

CNN reveals that Sharrouf had a turbulent childhood which included a violent relationship with his father, and he was in and out of courts for years. During 2009, it was revealed by the New South Wales Supreme Court that Sharrouf was “regularly taking amphetamines, LSD and ecstasy. The drugs were likely to have been a ‘significant factor’ in the emergence of schizophrenia,” as reported by CNN.

Does this explain his terrorist behavior? Does this excuse him for his actions?

Peter Nettleton, the maternal grandfather of Sharrouf’s three sons, tells the Daily Telegraph that he was “devastated by the image of his grandson holding a head.” He went on to say,

“I’m scared for the children. What life are they going to have now?”

Nettleton has begged the Syrian government to help him bring home his 7-year-old grandson and his two brothers.

Sharrouf is a dangerous man as he kills and then posts on Twitter, “Allah says kill them wherever you find them.” And as the distraught grandfather, Nettleton begs the Syrian government to step in and take his grandsons from their father, how will these children turn out if that doesn’t happen?

Photo Credit: Twitter, The Australian.com. RealitiAbadi.BlogSpot.com