United Motorcycle Council of Qld blames Middle Eastern-linked bikies for violence

[jack404]

OUTLAW bikies in Australia should not have allowed people of Middle Eastern origin into their clubs because they have a different "moral code", the spokesman for Queensland bikies' peak body says.

Russell "Camel" Wattie, spokesman for the United Motorcycle Council of Queensland, which represents 16 "patch" clubs, including the Hells Angels, Bandidos and Nomads, told The Courier-Mail there was now a "larger influence" from people of Middle Eastern origin on some clubs and they had "made a mistake letting them in".

Some observers have linked the outbreak of bikie violence in southeast Queensland with rivalries among NSW-based chapters of clubs, which have seen a recent influx of members with Middle Eastern heritage.

Mr Wattie goes further and draws a connection between the violent activities of some of these people and terrorism.

"They have an agenda," he said. "They have a completely different moral system.

Mr Wattie said he had personal experience of "what happens when you let too many of them in".

"I spent a couple of years in Holland and I've seen what people of Middle Eastern origin have done to that country," he said.

Mr Wattie, a former member of the Outcasts motorcycle club who once stood for the Senate, did jail time in the Netherlands for prohibited importation and kidnapping offences.

He blamed "outsiders" for the recent spate of violence associated with bikie clubs in Queensland. "They are not club members," he said. "We don't know who they are."

In the course of its reporting on Queensland chapters of bikie clubs The Courier-Mail has identified several club members and associates of Middle Eastern origin.

Mr Wattie said the UMCQ strongly opposed the anti-bikie laws introduced by the Labor Government that Premier Campbell Newman has promised to reassess. "You can't send people to jail unless they've broken the law," he said.