A Turkish Kurdish woman sports a wrist band with the Kurdish colours as she gestures with others
A Turkish Kurdish woman sports a wrist band with the Kurdish colours as she gestures with others at the funeral of Kurdish fighters killed during clashes against Islamic State in Kobani, at a cemetery in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province October 21, 2014. Turkey has offered to help Kurds enter the fight for Kobani, parts of which have apparently been re-taken from Islamic State militants, while the U.S. has air-dropped arms for the first time to help the city's defenders. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

It is an Australian jihadist who flew to the Middle East to become the new "face" of the Islamic State. According to a terrorism expert, Sydney teenager Abdullah Elmir was groomed like a paedophile victim.

Elmir has become the face of the Islamic State after being a part of the propaganda video of the Middle Eastern extremist forces. According to reports, the teenager "disappeared" in June after he had left his Bankstown home to fish. The IS video shows the 17-year-old threatening Australia as well as any other country to stay off the group's way. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted terrorism expert Greg Barton who said that it was an Australian terrorist based in Syria that had recruited Elmir.

Mohammad Ali Baryalei groomed Elmir like a paedophile seducing their victims, said the expert from Monash University's Global Terrorism Research Centre. According to Barton, the process of alluring someone to join an extremist group is similar to "sexual predation." The process often takes place over social networking Web sites where terrorism recruiters made friends with their victims. "Somebody might strike up a friendship in an online chat forum and present themselves in a different fashion - to try to get them into their web,"

Barton said, "By the time they actually meet, the people they're speaking with, they may be in too deep to know better." Barton said that Elmir too appeared to be a "pawn in the machine" even though he might consider himself to be "the star" at the moment. On the contrary, the terrorism expert said that the 17-year-old had been gifted a "one-way ticket" by his "friends." Barton said that Elmir was being used as he was not in charge of his own destiny at all. According to him, younger men rather than younger women are more vulnerable to being allured to get radicalised.

Meanwhile, federal MPs described the IS propaganda video featuring Elmir as "horrible" and "chilling." ABC News reported that Australian Muslim organisations had condemned the video. The Islamic groups in the country expressed concerns that such videos would increase tensions among Australian communities. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the end of the week should see the legislation that would crack down foreign fighters.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au