Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says an Australian doctor's decision to join Islamic State and appear in a propaganda video is deeply disturbing and demonstrates the pervasive threat posed by the group.
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He appeals for other Western medical professionals to join him in working in the health system and says he "saw this as part of my jihad for Islam, to help the Muslim ummah [community] in the area I could, the medical field".
Fairfax Media has confirmed the man is Tareq Kamleh, a registered doctor who is believed to have worked up until recently in the health system in Perth after also working in Adelaide and Mackay, Queensland.
Mr Dutton said authorities were investigating a 29-year-old male who had departed Australia for Kuala Lumpur on March 10.
"Any doctor in this country takes an oath to protect patients, to save lives and for an Australian doctor to go and sign up with this group of bandits, people who are murdering, raping, killing people in the Middle East in the name of ISIL [Islamic State] is just something that our country can't tolerate," he said.
"This sends a very clear message to all Australians that the threat of ISIL is pervasive, it is coming down the screens of computers into the minds of young people, and we need to do all that we can to make sure that stop this evil message.
"This says to us as a country that this threat remains with us and it will be with us for a long time. ISIL, people who want to do the work of ISIL, want to see the end of our life as we know it."
He said the federal government had already boosted funding for intelligence agencies, had stopped a number of people at the border and warned that travelling to that region, fighting for or assisting Islamic State carried a penalty of up to 25 years in jail.
Mr Dutton said it was particularly concerning that a medical professional had signed up as "it shows just how sophisticated their operation is and it shows why Western countries are determined to destroy ISIL, to disrupt their activities".
"For a highly educated doctor to succumb to the message of this evil death cult is concerning for all Australians," he said.
Mr Dutton would not say if Dr Kamleh had travelled on his own passport, or if he had been on a terror watch list prior to his departure.
