Dateline: Mar 25

Tonight on Dateline, a former Australian preacher, now a Jihadi leader, speaks out from Syria’s front line.

Nagieb Khaja travelled blindfolded to a secret location in the Middle East to gain exclusive access to Western fighters who have taken up the fight in Syria and Iraq.

During the filming of his report he gained access to Australian Abu Sulayman Muhajir, a former preacher from Sydney who is now a leading figure in al-Qaeda’s Syrian arm, Jabhat al-Nusra.

“The choice is simple… leave our lands, stop interfering in our affairs or face perpetual war,” he tells reporter, Nagieb Khaja.

Once allies, Abu Sulayman Muhajir believes there’s now a deadly rivalry between Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State, further complicating the country’s escalating crisis.

“All Islamic movements around the world want an Islamic State,” he says. “But the IS group have defined themselves as the exclusive bearers of Islam, delegitimising the rest of the Muslim community.”

Abu Sulayman Muhajir also shares his thoughts around Sharia Law with Nagieb Khaja:

“We want to restore the right of the Muslim people to choose their leaders independently, and establish just governance through an Islamic system that we know as rule we know as Sharia.”

Nagieb also meets 22-year-old Amer Deghayes – the last survivor of four young Jihadis from Brighton in southern England.

“I’m happy for them that they were killed in the path of Allah,” he says of his two dead brothers in a well-spoken English accent.

Amer is now on the international terrorist list.

“Why do they see me as a threat? Is it because they have a guilty conscience?” he asks.

An estimated 20,000 foreign fighters have joined the conflict in Syria and Iraq.

Tonight at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.