Shermon Burgess,one of Australia’s most outspoken anti-Islam activists, has reverted to Islam, claiming the West has lost its way to alcohol, porn and drugs.
Burgess became a controversial national figure for his role in the far-right groups United Patriots Front (UPF), Reclaim Australia and the Australian Defence League over the past decade. He once compared Islam and Muslims to cancer and organised dozens of protests along with self-proclaimed neo-Nazis Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson.He was involved in anti-Muslim protests in 2015 against the construction of a mosque in Bendigo, Victoria.
Burgess regularly posted videos criticising Islam to his 30,000 followers on the Australian Patriot’s Facebook page. However, Burgess’ meeting with Muslim Freedom Movement leader Youssra Rose has given him a “clearer view of Islam.” The former far-right figure has since reverted to Islam, claiming it is the only religion capable of countering the West’s so-called “awake” agenda.
“The west has lost its way, people are depressed and trying to solve all life’s problems with alcohol, drugs, porn, sleep,” he wrote on Facebook on March 5.‘Islam frees you from all this and gives you meaning again.’
Various reports say that Burgess has confirmed that he had taken his Shahadah, Arabic term for an Islamic oath, and had been welcomed by his local mosque.“The Muslim community is so nice and wonderful; if you need help, they are there,” he is reported as saying.
He has spoken out about his belief that Islam is the only religion capable of combating the sins of the West. He recently posted on Facebook: “It’s not the Muslims you fear, it’s saying goodbye to Western degeneracy you fear. Islam is here to bring the west back to purity, bring back family values and healthy male brave male youth, female humble and beautiful female youth.”
On his Instagram account, he has posted a video saying that Christianity has failed the West while Islam still stands up for traditional values.
He said: “The reason I came to Islam is because I’ve seen the degeneracy in the West. I don’t like the rampant alcoholism, the drug taking, the sleeping around. I believe the West has lost its values big time.
“I think Christianity has failed the West like a lot of other Muslims have said. It’s not strong enough to defend the West and this is because of its inability to act and protect its people, protect its congregation, protect its clergy … it just really angered me that there’s so many of these Christians and they are seeing what is happening to traditional values and morals in society and instead of stamping it out in the early stages when they have the ability to do so, they’re just sitting back and they’re not doing anything.
“And I’ve noticed in the Muslim communities here in Australia, especially in West Sydney, they get on top of it and if something, especially with what the LGBTQ community is doing at the moment … the Muslims were onto it and they chase these people out of the suburbs and they don’t just sit back in the mosque and talk about it. They know that if this gets hold in the Muslim areas like it did in the Anglo Christian areas it will be all over for them too.”
He added: “Muslims are the most protective of traditional family values which has really made me respect them and has made me become a Muslim myself… I like the fact that Islam has spiritual grounding, Islam has peace of mind, Islam has all these great things that the West originally used to have under Christianity. But Christianity just completely lost its way and completely went off the beaten path because of its extreme pacifist approach to everything… it sugar-coats all of its teachings to accommodate the modern world which has made me very sick seeing that, and I noticed Islam isn’t doing this.
“And I started researching into Islam because of this and I fell in love with the faith because of how strong and connected it is and how it looks after their own and how it stands up for things, whereas so many religions just don’t anymore. It’s like they’ve just adopted the degeneracy of the modern world… it’s sickening.”
In the past, Burgess, a former council worker from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, was a member of the metal band Eureka Brigade, who wrote the violently anti-Muslim song Border Patrol, according to ABC News.The lyrics called for burning mosques and called the Cronulla riots ‘Australia’s Islamic holocaust’. The band also had a song entitled ‘S*** on a Mosque’.