A British preacher considered so extreme in his home country that he has been banned from mosques and spurned by his own Islamic community has turned his gaze to Australia and is quickly building a support base in Sydney and Melbourne. 
Abu Haleema, who had his passport cancelled in Britain and was arrested on terrorism offences last year, has produced YouTube videos attacking moderate Sydney sheikhs Shady Alsuleiman and Wesam Charkawi.
He has also attacked Liverpool imam Sheikh Abu Adnan for allowing a Bankstown police officer, Danny Miqati, to give a talk in the mosque about domestic violence.
Melbourne-born Islamic State recruiter Neil Prakash was also in close contact with Abu Haleema.
Abu Haleema was allegedly instrumental in radicalising the 14-year-old British boy who contacted Melbourne teenager Sevdet Besim and urged him to launch a terrorist "massacre" at the Anzac Day parade.
Prakash was a former attendee of the Al-Furqan islamic centre, which has been linked to the radicalisation of extremists from Melbourne's outer south-east.
Ahmed Moussa, of the Hume Islamic Youth Centre, Coolaroo, which has also been linked to extremism, said he had never heard of Abu Haleema. The centre had been attended by Jake Bilardi, who died in an Islamic State suicide mission last year.
Australian authorities are powerless to stop Abu Haleema from spreading his hardline sermons on YouTube and Facebook, where he is gathering a strong following among young Australians including some of those on the periphery of the murder of police accountant Curtis Cheng.
Counter-terrorism police said they were aware of Abu Haleema's influence but could do little other than monitor his online interactions. "This is the problem, a lot of the influence is coming from overseas via the internet," said one high-ranking officer.
On Tuesday, Britain's Channel 4 aired a documentary, The Jihadis Next Door, in which a filmmaker spent two years with Abu Haleema and his small group of extremists.
It shows them being kicked out of mosques and preaching on the streets, where ordinary British Muslims yell abuse at them for brainwashing teenagers and supporting Islamic State.
Abu Haleema doesn't speak Arabic and has no formal qualifications. His videos resemble rap videos, filmed in front of graffiti walls or underground train tunnels and spoken in a fast, repetitive style.
It's not known why Abu Haleema has turned his focus to Australia however he is receiving a warm reception among some extremist quarters.
"He's definitely playing to the audience here," said one Sydney Muslim leader. "People follow him because he's so staunch and he's attacking the leaders who are trying to do the right thing."
Abu Haleema had up to 5000 Facebook followers until his page was shut down in mid-  December. His fans included several men targeted in the Operation Appleby raids in Sydney and in the tight-knit group that were behind the murder of Curtis Cheng.
On his newly created fan page, a Gold Coast man said, "love your shirk shady video akhi its good to know you stand behind us".
With Nino Bucci