Muslim sheikh Jamil El-Biza accuses Scott Morrison of shedding crocodile tears over Christchurch

A hardline Muslim sheikh has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of shedding crocodile tears for the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.

Jamil El-Biza, a Salafist imam from the Saudi-funded Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association, was participating in a Sydney fundraising panel with fellow Sunni preachers when he took aim at Australian politicians.

‘Don’t give us these crocodile tears,’ the Wollongong-based sheikh said on Friday night, hours after the carnage in New Zealand.

‘Don’t offer us these condolences that don’t go further than the camera you were looking at.’

Mr El-Biza reserved his strongest criticism for Mr Morrison, who had only hours earlier had confirmed in a media conference that Grafton-raised Australian Brenton Tarrant had been arrested in Christchurch.

‘He tried to cry as he’s doing the press conference,’ he said.

‘He tried because that’s what a politician does. But even with all of his political power and experience, he could not shed a tear for over 60 people killed in Christchurch.’

Jamil El-Biza (far right), a Salafist imam from the Saudi-funded Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association, was participating in a Sydney fundraising panel with fellow Sunni preachers when he took aim at Australian politicians

The death toll from the Christchurch massacre stands at 50, not 60, making it the English-speaking world’s second worst mass shooting by a lone gunman. 

Mr El-Biza also took aim at controversial independent Queensland senator Fraser Anning, who on Friday released a statement blaming the massacre on ‘the growing fear within our community, both in Australia and New Zealand, of the increasing Muslim presence’.

He equated Senator Anning’s previous calls to ban Muslim immigration with the violence in New Zealand. 

Jamil El-Biza (right) equated Senator Fraser Anning’s (left) previous call to ban Muslim immigration with the Christchurch massacre

Mr El-Biza argued that free speech had contributed to the massacre by a white supremacist, who allegedly gunned down Muslim men, women and children at two mosques in Christchurch during weekly prayers on Friday afternoon (victim arriving at hospital on Friday)

‘Politicians from their head to their toe, from the Prime Minister to the smallest politician, their defence of free speech, we knew that this day was going to occur,’ he said.

Mr El-Biza argued that free speech had contributed to the massacre by a white supremacist, who allegedly gunned down Muslim men, women and children at two mosques in Christchurch during their weekly prayers on Friday afternoon.

‘When they say rhetoric which puts the blame on you, because you’re a Muslim, and lifts the blame of others because of freedom of speech, this was only natural that this was going to happen,’ he said.