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Lindt cafe siege inquest: Man Haron Monis wanted to be a Rebels bikie

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Nick Ralston

Crime Editor

Man Monis dressed in garb from a chapter of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Club.

Man Monis dressed in garb from a chapter of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Club. Photo: Department of Justice

Martin Place gunman Man Haron Monis tried to join two Sydney chapters of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang but was rejected on the grounds that  "no one liked him" and they found him "weird".

The life and times of Monis has on Monday been the focus of the coronial inquiry into last December's Martin Place siege including his move to Australia in 1996, his time as a predatory clairvoyant in western Sydney and his political activism as a self-described sheikh.

Man Monis with a Rebels member.

Man Monis with a Rebels member. Photo: Department of Justice

The inquest heard that in 2013 Monis tried to become a member of the Rebels bikie gang, buying a motorbike and changing his appearance in an attempt to join their Mount Druitt and Ingleburn chapters.

No one in the Rebels gang is willing to attend the inquest to give evidence however junior counsel assisting the inquiry Sophie Callan said one bikie had informed the inquest "no one really liked him and he was weird'. Other club members said Monis was "strange and weird".

"He would say he had a lot of money, but then he didn't have any," Ms Callan read.

He was kicked out of the gang because he was "weird" and Rebels took his motorbike.

The inquest earlier heard that Monis had a dramatic change in his behaviour in 2008 and he became more obsessed with his Islamic heritage.

He told his then wife, Noleen Hayson Pal, who was not Muslim, to comply with Islamic requirements to cover her hair, the inquest was told. 

In 2009 he gave a lecture at Granville, in Sydney's west, in Farsi, telling his audience: "Your intelligence service is not working. There's criminal activity in your country"

He attended a conference hosted by controversial Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir in July 2011.

But in 2012, Monis enrolled in the Salvation Army's Booth College because he wanted to learn "more about Christian studies".

However Monis's studies were cut short because he "ultimately was unable to demonstrate he had sufficient English proficiency".

Counsel assisting the coronial inquest, Jeremy Gormly SC said Monis only attended one lecture at Booth College and he was "reportedly disruptive and difficult on that occasion".

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