Sheik Mohammed Omran told followers at his Melbourne mosque that “out-of-control secular scientific values” have caused environmental disaster.

“The fear of Allah is not there,” he told a recent meeting. “So we now have a polluted earth, a polluted water, a wasteland. The prophet told you hundreds of years ago, ‘Look after the water’.”

Omran didn’t say whether, in addition to the western infidels he lives among, his remarks were also directed at the billionaire Middle Eastern oil producers who share his faith.