He has been arrested and deported once, and is currently serving a prison sentence for trying to travel by boat from Australia to ISIS territory in the southern Philippines due for release in May 2023.
The City College had an informal atmosphere and was "a very liberal school, influenced by the politics of socialism," according to Cerantonio.
Instead of becoming firmer in his belief, "I began to question the role of the Pope in the Catholic Church…and saw people praying to a dead body.
[7] As a convert to Islam he lectured at conferences in Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and the Philippines.
His TV presentations became "increasingly political" as he gravitated toward advocating "the establishment of a caliphate controlled by a single absolute leader and run strictly according to Sharia.
[11] In February 2014, while in the Philippines, he married another convert to Islam, Joan Montayre, a 32 year old designer, and moved to an apartment in the Cebu province.
[citation needed] An April 2014 report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King's College London, identified Cerantonio as one of the two most popular and influential clerics urging Muslims to immigrate to the Islamic State and wage jihad.
While "ecstatic" over the announcement and urging his followers to obey the caliphate, (to the amusement of his critics), Cerantonio neither publicly pledged allegiance to Al-Baghdadi nor traveled to Syria.
[16] Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop denounced Cerantonio as a fraud stating, “He said he was fighting in Syria and Iraq, but he was holed up in the Philippines.”[citation needed] Despite his efforts to stay offline and off the phone, in July 2014 Cerantonio was arrested in the central Philippines city of Lapu-Lapu for overstaying his visa and deported to Australia.
[21] In 2016, acting detective Sgt Adam Foley said that according to worldwide intelligence services Cerantonio was the second or third most influential jihadist preacher in the world.
The group planned to sail 3500 km to the southern Philippines, "overthrow" the provincial government and "install Sharia Law".
[25] Police alleged that the group towed a seven-metre boat 3100 km from Melbourne, and had planned to travel by sea on it to West Papua, the Philippines, (despite having no sailing experience) and finally to Syria, intending to join Islamic State.
Journalist Graeme Wood mused I tried to envision the improbable scene of five hairy mujahideen desperate not to look suspicious while hauling a deep sea fishing boat across the Outback.
[29] [30] For his defense, his lawyer, Jarrod Williams, said that Musa "doesn’t always fit the profile of an Islamic extremist", as he enjoys music by the likes of AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Johnny Cash, Paul Simon and Rammstein.