Zak Mallah: Syria trip changed thinking on violence

The first person to be charged under Australia's anti-terror laws says he understands the anger of an anti-Islamic film, but that a recent trip to the Syrian frontline has put him off violence.

By Chrstine Heard.

In 2005, 20-year-old Zak Mallah became the first person to be charged under Australia's anti-terrorism laws. Though he pleaded guilty to threatening to kill government officials, he was acquitted of planning a terror attack.

Now aged 29, Mr Mallah has just come back from spending two weeks in Syria, on the frontline with Free Syrian Army fighters. He says he narrowly avoided being shot when his guide was killed by a sniper.

While he understands the anger surrounding the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims, he says his experience in Syria has convinced him that violent protests in Australia, a democratic country that supports religious freedom, is unjustified.

'I say to myself if anybody wants to travel with me for two weeks to Syria and see the situation down there - no food, no water, no electricity, people being shot people being killed, little babies being slaughtered - you know, the very freedom that they're fighting for, we have. And they look at us and say why so much trouble?'

SBS reporter Christine Heard met Mr Mallah.