• Mohamed Hoblos suggested rape is a lesser sin than forgetting to pray in Islam
• He suggested being a terrorist, a paedophile and a murderer are also lesser sins
• The Australian preacher made the teachings to his followers in a lecture last year
• A video of the lecture was posted by Middle East Media Research Institute

A prominent Australian preacher has told his Muslim followers paedophiles and murderers who never miss a prayer are better, in the eyes of Allah, than good citizens who only miss one.

The teachings by Mohamed Hoblos fell onto the radar this month of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which aims to bridge the gap between Western culture and the Middle East.

The organisation posted a video to YouTube revealing the 2017 lecture from Mr Hoblos, in which he appears to suggest rape and murder are lesser sins than forgetting to pray in Islam.

Video link

In the video, he stresses the importance of prayer - known as Salah - in an impassioned two-minute speech.

He asks his followers if someone who sells drugs, murders someone and rapes a child is 'good or bad'.

'This person, one person who commits all these sins on a daily basis - but he prays - is better in the eyes of Allah than the one who doesn't commit any of these sins, but doesn't pray,' he says.

'So you and your brother say: "Yeah, I'm a good guy" - habibi (my friend), go and pack that up because it's not going to work on the day of judgement.

Any person who misses one Salah (prayer) for no reason - you are worse than a murderer, you are worse than a rapist, you are worse than a terrorist, you are worse than a paedophile in the eyes of Allah.'

Mr Hoblos tells his followers to understand his teaching as 'fact' and something which should be 'understood very clearly'.

But he also tells the congregation that all sin is still bad and should never be accepted.

Mr Hoblos boasts a large social media presence and has more than 50,000 Facebook followers.