Security has been stepped up around a prominent Australian Muslim leader after Twitter threats from a Sydney-based militant seen in recent photos clutching severed heads in Syria.
In a tweet that's since been deleted, a man believed to be Mohamed Elomar offered $1,000 for information on the whereabouts of Dr. Jamal Rifi and his five children.
"Anyone in Sydney who can give me the details of Habashi dog Dr Jamal Rifi, anything, house details, wat area am willing to pay $1000," the tweet said.
Rifi is a general practitioner and outspoken community leader who this week condemned shocking images posted on social media by convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf of his seven-year-old child holding a mutilated head.
In 2009, Sharrouf was jailed for his role in a planned terror attack in Australia led by Mohamed Ali Elomar, the uncle of the man believed to have offered the bounty.
The senior Mohamed is currently serving a minimum 21-year sentence for the plot, which involved the manufacture of explosives for a "potentially catastrophic" attack.
Australian Federal Police issued arrest warrants for the younger Elomar and Sharrouf in late July after they posted gruesome images to Twitter of themselves posing with the severed heads of Syrian fighters. It's believed the photos were taken in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
The latest tweets attributed to Elomar came from the now suspended Twitter handle @abu hafs ozzie.
"Any details were he works or knows if his got kids which school they attend. Like I said I am willing to pay $1000 just for details," another tweet said.
"It was shocking to be honest," Rifi told CNN. "I've taken it extremely seriously because they labeled me as a habashi dog -- even though I've never been a habashi and I'm not a habashi. What it means in their twisted mentally (is that) attacking me, killing me is permissible for followers of their ideology."
Police are also taking the threat seriously. Rifi said the New South Wales Police Commissioner phoned him before sending officers to his house for a security audit.
Patrols have been stepped up in the area and his son's school principal has suggested he stay at home.
However, Rifi said he refused to be silenced.
"I'm not going into hiding. I know I'm fortunate enough to life in a country where law and order prevail and people can't take matters into their own hands, and affords me the freedom to speak. And I want to use that privilege to defend what we have in Australia and to keep it."
In a direct message to Elomar, Rifi tweeted: "to know my address just ask your dad, we were in the same soccer team then and we still Best mates and he knows I am and never been a HABASHI."
(CNN)
