anti-islamic shooting victim's detractors!

Plenty of detractors

Thursday night's shooting appears to be the culmination of simmering tension between Mr Abela and many people who had taken exception to his and his organisation's extremist views.

The Australian Defence League, based on the emergence in early 2009 of the English Defence League, says on its Facebook page that its aim is "standing up against Islam now, not when its [sic] too late".

Mr Abela has posted several YouTube clips in the past week that include the slogans "Love of country leads me" and "ban Islam".

His anti-Islamic have led to online threats, including that he should be "demolished", while his mobile phone number was also published online and people were urged to call him at any hour.

"I'm surprised this didn't come sooner," said Wissam Haddad, the owner of the former Al Risalah Bookstore in Bankstown, following Thursday night's shooting.

Mr Haddad said he had been trying to get Mr Abela's public pages closed down to avoid inflaming tensions.

"He's offended 2.8 billion Muslims by insulting our prophet;

Following Thursday night's shooting, Mr Abela uploaded a new YouTube clip in which he recounted how the bullets were fired into his loungeroom.

Speaking to the camera, Mr Abela says: "Hello fellow Australians. I've just been shot at. It's not good, but it means nothing, in that we are never going to be silenced for speaking the truth. So I'm bringing you exclusively in my house of what we as Australians now have to put up with for speaking the truth."

Mr Abela then describes how he was sitting in his computer room on the ground floor, while his mother and sister were in the upstairs bedrooms, when he heard a knock at the front door and someone yelling his name.

"It was highly suspicious, because people don't knock at the door, and when police do or whatever they don't knock on the door like that, so I knew it was a split-second decision. If I didn't answer it, they were going to shoot upstairs because that's where the bedrooms are and it was 11 o'clock," he said.

Mr Abela said he then walked to the front window, knowing that "they didn't want a friendly discussion, these blokes".

He claims the men yelled: "Nathan, is that you?"

Mr Abela said he responded that it was him, because he did not want the men to target the upstairs bedrooms.

In the video, Mr Abela then dramatically recounts how he leapt over the lounge chair and table as shots rang out.

"The minute I said 'Yes, it's me' I jumped from about here over the lounge, over the table, landed somewhere about here, rolled, was ready," he says.

"I could have either went here, went up, went there, went back here, crouched and ran in the dark," he explains, pointing the camera at his possible escape routes.

"Many options, but I won't tell them what option I was going to take, but I jumped from there to there. It was a pretty far jump, considering I had to jump high. It was an interesting jump."

He says the men fired seven or eight shots before driving off "like it was a circuit".

He then says he believes he was targeted for speaking publicly about his views.

Police said the investigation into the shooting was in its early stages, but they believed it was a targeted attack.

A NSW Police spokeswoman would not comment on whether police believed Mr Abela's involvement in the anti-Islamic group was linked to the shooting.

Police have urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or to use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/antiislamic-shooting-victim-nathan-abela-has-string-of-detractors-20140404-363f0.html