Australia / Israel Review

Australian preacher Sufyaan Khalifa does not seem to understand humour. And like other Australian Islamist extremists, he also doesn’t like Christmas.

Khalifa was born in Algeria and now lives in Perth. He has thousands of loyal followers on social media and other platforms online, and to them, he has been diligently pushing some notorious conspiracy theories about coronavirus, historical events, the illuminati, the Freemasons and whatnot. Khalifa also excels at spewing extreme antisemitic tropes about the Jews and Israel.

His messages are sometimes simply bizarre. For example, he claimed that the children’s song “Baby shark” is dangerous because it “leaves a psychological residue” on children’s minds. He also attacked the popular Korean pop band BTS because their songs allegedly promote “homosexuality, sodomy, and a culture that erases the human nature of Man.”

In a recent example, Khalifa warned in an online video (Sept. 30) about “The Great Reset” – a conspiracy popular among anti-vaxxers and people of similar beliefs, about an evil plan being prepared by a global cabal. It is based on a rather vague economic recovery plan by that name discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his video, Khalifa told everyone watching that the “big reset”, as he calls it, is about to happen, and hence they must take out their life savings from the banks and buy gold “as soon as possible, because when the reset happens, you will lose everything.”

‘Santa is Satan’

Now, Khalifa is asserting that a joke in the Disney Plus TV series “The Santa Clauses”, wherein kids misspell Santa’s name as ‘Satan’, is proof that Santa is indeed Satan.

“Every year our children are exposed to Pagan religion, to Santa Claus religion,” says Khalifa in his video (Dec. 2022), “the fatty man who comes every year to our children presenting them gifts.”

Turning serious, Khalifa declares “But this year he came with a special message, which has been put forward intentionally by Disney Plus, saying to our children that I – Santa Claus – I am Satan.”

With an ominous piano tune in the background, Khalifa then goes on to present a short segment from the TV series. In it, children hold letter posters that together create the sentence: “We love you Satan” to Santa and others. After Santa laughs, the kids correct the mistake, and change the name to Santa.

Khalifa looks at the camera, and cautions: “See how tricky this Sheitan (Satan) is. They are coming to the subconscious of our children to teach them: You can love Satan in a funny way.”

“That’s the first step,” Khalifa explains. “[In] the next step you will be worshipping Satan himself. Because a day will come where Santa Claus will remove the real mask, and you will see Satan himself in your homes, sleep[ing] in your beds with your kids… This is a dire warning.”

He finishes with a rejection of Christmas – even for Christians. “This message is for the Muslims. The Christians. The Jews. Anyone who believes in Allah and the day of judgment: do not celebrate Christmas. This is a pagan religion. This is not from God. Do not let your kids love Satan, but teach them to love Allah, the creator, God.”

The video ends with a screen grab from the TV series, with the picture slowly closing in on the smile of one of the children holding one of the “Satan” letters, and a text at the bottom saying: “PROTECT [sic] your children from Satanism.”

‘Masonic crone’ Queen Elizabeth

Earlier, the passing of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in Sept. 2022 had been a cause for celebration for Khalifa. In a series of two short video reels, he used the occasion to vilify the late monarch, spread antisemitism and regurgitate fake news and conspiracies.

“The crone Queen Elizabeth II passed away and moved to meet her god,” Khalifa said in the first video (Sept. 27). But this encounter with the Lord would end up with retribution for the deceased Queen’s actions on earth: “I do not say that she moved to God’s mercy as some of the hypocrites say, rather that she moved, God willing, to the punishment of God.”

A day later (Sept. 28), Khalifa clarified exactly why he thinks Elizabeth II will be punished in the afterlife. In the second video titled “The Crone, the sponsor of the Masonic”, Khalifa cries: “And who gave the right to the virus people, the people of the enemy of God and the enemies of his prophets, [who] gave them [the Jews] the right to settle in Palestine? Didn’t they [the British]? Isn’t the Balfour Declaration [behind this]?”. Apart from the antisemitism, Khalifa seems unconcerned by the fact that the Balfour Declaration was published before Elizabeth was born, and Israel already existed when she took the British throne, so he is saying God will punish her for matters she personally had nothing to do with.

Then he goes into poetic mode with more poison against Israel and the Jews: “I mean, why do we hide the sun with a sieve? Why don’t we tell people the truth that this was not a snake in our party like the many snakes in the countries of the world? But these are the biggest snakes and they [were exposed], praise be to God, [as] Lord of the worlds.”

Khalifa adds that current British King, Charles III, who inherited his position from his mother, “will never be better than her” and “He is bankrupt and the whole family is a cursed Masonic family. All the British royal family is a cursed Masonic family.”

He concludes with bringing back the conspiracy that Diana, King Charles’ first wife, did not die in 1997 in a car accident, but was instead murdered by the royal family to hush her up. “When Princess Diana wanted to go out on the line, they killed her,” says Khalifa. “This is the truth – whoever wants to destroy them [the royal family], they kill [him/her].”

Sufyaan Khalifa clearly does not have much of a sense of humour, but he is so wildly extreme it is almost funny. Yet if he is allowed to continue to spread his hate, lies and antisemitism with impunity, the joke is on us.

Dr. Ran Porat is an AIJAC Research Associate. He is also a Research Associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University and a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Reichman University in Herzliya.