were believed to have already traveled to syria to become members of the terrorist groupimagecreditlukas cochaustralian associated press via reutersmr zahab was charged with foreign incursion offenses which are antiterrorism statutes that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison after mr zahabs arrest police officers spent days searching his 10acre property using metal detectors and digging up the yard in search of evidencemr zahab is no stranger to law enforcement having pleaded guilty previously to drugs and firearms charges he is linked to a business called oz survival gear which is registered to the address that was raided by the police the company sells items such as swiss army knives and flashlights and it proclaims that a knifeless man is a lifeless manmr zahab was known as something of an outsider who rarely interacted with the local lebanese muslim community but his arrest has sent some muslim residents of young into hiding people in the community saidyoungs council administrator wendy tuckerman said that mr zahabs arrest should not taint the rest of the community which has a rich multicultural historyit is important that we acknowledge that the scope of the arrest is limited to the actions of one individual mrs tuckerman saidmuslim families first moved to the area more than two decades ago to work on cherry farms john barton who was a real estate agent when some of the first muslim families came to young remembers them buying several properties with orchards and he has since watched those families grow and settle intheyve got shops in town coffee shops a new kitchen shop and the younger ones work in the big stores like woolworths mr barton said local muslim residents turned a former drivein movie theater into a mosque and they opened an islamic school last year theyve added to the culture of the town mr barton said its a very friendly communitydavid mccabe a local lawyer who has represented muslim slaughterhouse workers in the area said some of the families who relocated to young did not want their children to grow up with the gang mentality fostered in parts of sydneyonce they got to 15 to 17 they thought theyd lost control of them in western sydney mr mccabe said and they thought theyd have a better chance of controlling them in the countryimagecreditmatthew abbott for the new york timesbut clarke jones an expert at australian national university on terrorism and radicalization said that youngs remoteness may have made it an attractive spot for hiding efforts to support foreign terrorist groupsyoung was probably chosen as a destination because its out of the radar of the usual police attention of melbourne and sydney dr jones saiddr jamal rifi a muslim community leader in sydney called it unfortunate that the actions of one man could taint australias muslimsthat is symptomatic of what exactlys been happening in the last couple of years when the actions of a small number like this young man discredit the australian muslim community at large