Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone slams The Project’s Waleed Aly over ISIS brides

A western Sydney mayor has slammed The Project’s Waleed Aly after the Melbourne-based TV host’s comments that ISIS brides repatriated to NSW had more rights than refugees Islamic State tormented overseas.

A Sydney mayor has compared the resettlement of ISIS brides into a highly-populated migrant community as putting “Hitler’s wife in the middle of a Jewish settlement” after slamming the government’s decision to rehome repatriated wives to NSW.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone has fired back at The Project’s Waleed Aly after speaking out against the government’s decision to rehouse Australian ISIS brides and their children in his community.

Cr Carbone criticised the Melbourne TV host for being out-of-touch by commenting on an issue that didn’t directly affect his neighbourhood.

“He (Waleed Aly) cannot tell me to suck it up, especially when he’s in a Melbourne studio. He doesn’t walk in our shoes and he doesn’t understand how hard it is,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s our city that’s always taken the burden of resettled migrants.”

A heated exchange erupted between Waleed Aly (left) and Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone (right).

Mr Carbone condemned the government’s decision to rehome four brides and 13 children of ISIS militants into his community where several locals had fled war-torn Syria to get away from the terrorist group.

“They should have the opportunity to grow but not together,” he said.

The day after the show, Mr Carbone said that Aly’s comments were out of touch.

“You wouldn’t put Hitler’s wife in the middle of a Jewish settlement.

“Perhaps it would be good to relocate them in the eastern suburbs so they could be better-educated when it comes to resettling migrants and the challenges these communities face.

“Or perhaps they could be in Waleed’s suburb so he could better understand and appreciate a place like Fairfield that has resettled 12,000 refugees.”

Cr Carbone added that “everyone just seem to wants to tell us what’s good for us … always pointing their finger and using us as a dumping ground.”

The mayor thought there were “double standards” when it came to retrieving ISIS brides while Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remained in asylum.

It comes after a war of words erupted between Cr Carbone and Aly on The Project on Wednesday night over the issue.

Waleed Aly disagreed with Mr Carbone on The Project on Wednesday night.

Cr Carbone expressed that their repatriation to western Sydney – an area he represents – had raised concerns among several locals who had fled Syria and resettled into Australia to escape the terrorist group.

“I don’t think he (the prime minister) has taken into account the tens of thousands of refugees that fled their home, had their homes burnt back in Syria, have lost their loved ones, have watched a lot of their families be beheaded and burnt, and have come and resettled in western Sydney,” he said on the program.

The mayor went on to argue Syrians who had aided the Australian military in their efforts to battle ISIS were “more of an Australian citizen than anyone else”.

In that moment, Aly interjected and said “legally they’re not. Australian citizens are a different category. We have obligations to Australian citizens that we don’t have to refugees.”

Mr Carbone said western Sydney always takes responsibility “for the nation’s problems”.

Cr Carbone held his ground and claimed the brides were at risk of committing treason under section 80 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code where citizenship can be revoked.

“Treason is when you leave your country and you aid and abet,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re baking a cake or scones and assisting ISIS, you’re committing treason.”

Aly fired back by saying the brides would have to be convicted which “hasn’t happened”, adding that the matter was “mostly about kids”.

“Would you leave kids in camps overseas when they are Australian citizens?,” he said to Cr Carbone.

The mayor maintained his position that the repatriated families “don’t necessarily have to be in western Sydney” and urged the prime minister to visit his area and address the issue.

ISIS BRIDES BACK IN AUSTRALIA

The fiery exchange comes after 17 Australian women and children, who left a camp for Islamic State families in Syria, were taken out of al-Roj detention camp in Syria at the end of October.

The four mothers and 13 children arrived in Sydney accompanied by DFAT and Home Affairs officials, and about a week later, they were released from their ­secure accommodation and returned to their extended families.

AFP officers were at Sydney airport when ISIS brides flew back into Australia on a flight from Dubai. Picture: Julian Andrews

As the wives, widows and children of dead or detained ISIS members, they have been held in the camps without charge for three years and seven months.

The families, who are all from NSW, will live in suburban Sydney. None of the family members have been charged by the Australian Federal Police.

Another 43 Australian women and children remain in the Syrian detention camp, about 30 kilometres from the Iraqi border, are scheduled to be repatriated in the next few months after DNA testing confirms the children are born to Australian citizens.

Kamalle Dabboussy with his daughter Mariam Dabboussy (right) and her daughters Aisha (left) and Fatema. Picture: Supplied

AFP INVESTIGATING ISIS BRIDES

The repatriated women and children are being investigated by police after passing an initial risk assessment.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has moved to allay community fears about the four mothers and 13 children, confirming the cohort were being monitored and investigated for potential breaches of Australian law.

“We have active investigations right now on these matters,” Mr Kershaw told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday.

“Some of these may or may not be charged.”

Mr Kershaw said the returned Australian citizens had co-operated with police, and so far none had passed the threshold to be subjected to a terror control order from the courts.

Originally published as Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone slams The Project’s Waleed Aly over ISIS brides