By Ariel Bogle From Mashable

An Australian doctor who recently appeared in a propaganda video for the Islamic State (ISIS) denies he was brainwashed and vows never to return home in a letter sent to a nationwide health agency that is investigating his medical registration.

In the May 8 letter sent to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Dr. Tareq Kamleh — who now calls himself Abu Yousef Al-Australie — denied ISIS was a “death cult.” The 29-year-old also published the letter on his Facebook profile.

“The only death that I have had to deal with since being here has been from either pathology or Coalition drone strikes,” he wrote. “Interestingly the 2 drone strikes that have occurred since I have been here have not claimed the life of a single male, let alone a soldier…..good work “Team Australia”!!….from what I’ve seen you have more blood on your hands that ISIS has on their knives…”

Dr. Kamleh made headlines in April when a video of him appearing to work in a paediatric hospital in Raqqa, Syria was uploaded to ISIS-linked social media accounts.

In the clip, he tells the camera he wishes he had not delayed his decision to travel to territory controlled by the Islamic State, and urges other medical professionals to join him.

“I saw this as part of my jihad for Islam, to help the muslims ummah in the area that I could, which is the medical field,” he said.

Dr. Kamleh, who worked in hospitals in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, also wrote in the letter that he had not been brainwashed into joining ISIS, adding his choice to travel to Syria has been a “very well educated and calculated decision.”

Dubbed a “party boy” by some of the Australian press, reports in Fairfax Media and other outlets suggested Dr. Kamleh, who studied at Adelaide University, had been known by former colleagues and fellow students for his promiscuity and alcohol consumption.

“I think he is just caught up in a wild ride and is enjoying the attention without really thinking about the path he is taking,” a former co-worker of Dr. Kamleh told The Advertiser. “Even in the video you can see he is smug with the attention — he was always an attention-seeking loose cannon.”

The doctor took the opportunity to address these stories in his letter, adding: “If you truly have concerns of “womanizing” or “alcoholic” behaviors, maybe you should look into every Australian medical school.”

Dr. Kamleh says he will never come back to Australia. “I have finally returned home,” he wrote.

ISIS is known for creating propaganda films showing Westerners supposedly living and working comfortably in territories under its control. In January, John Cantlie, a British photojournalist who was kidnapped two years ago in Syria appeared in a travel show-style video attempting to show it was “business as usual” in the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, Iraq.

IMAGES:
Dr. Tareq Kamleh as seen in a video uploaded to ISIS-linked social media accounts in April.
Dr. Tareq Kamleh in a Facebook picture dated December 11, 2009. IMAGE: FACEBOOK
Dr. Tareq Kamleh is seen working in a paediatric word in Raqqa, Syria.

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