“We look for people who are isolated,” he said.
June 27, 2015 3:26 PM   Subscribe

 


Yes, but that's not a topic the NYT is interested in.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:44 PM on June 27, 2015


Her disability makes this so doubly wretched and sad. This girl was waiting for some kind of cult to take her away from there.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:54 PM on June 27, 2015 [2 favorites]




So Faisal Mostafa has been arrested three times, for weapons, for explosives, and for running a bombmaking factory, uncovered as grooming people to join ISIS, and he's still not been deported from the UK? Wow. How are British citizens supposed to feel safe when such a dangerous man is free to live in their midst?
posted by Thing at 4:17 PM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


When I was just out of school, I lost two friends to cults (Moonies). This was pre commercial Internet, but the recruitment methods were very similar. The grandmother seems very poorly equipped to help her stop the contact-- especially since the real temptation is coming from the young woman's own loneliness.
posted by frumiousb at 4:18 PM on June 27, 2015


I hope we have more discussion about the ways some organizations work like cults; I think a lot of people still think of ISIS as an army of people Over There with mysterious unknowable motives.
posted by emjaybee at 4:34 PM on June 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


Yes, but that's not a topic the NYT is interested in.

They have covered it in the recent past - a few examples:

Newburgh Terrorism Case May Establish a Line for Entrapment [6/15/10]

In U.S. Sting Operations, Questions of Entrapment [11/29/10]

Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I. [op ed, 4/28/12]
posted by ryanshepard at 4:46 PM on June 27, 2015 [9 favorites]


“We look for people who are isolated,”

That seems to be starting recruitment point for every extremist group or cult , right or left, that exists. We need to find a way to get to that demographic before the wingnuts do.
posted by jonmc at 4:48 PM on June 27, 2015 [5 favorites]


The only person who knew of her conversion was her cousin, who was starting to flirt with the idea herself. Together they went to the Dollar Store and bought two toilet plungers. In a park, they put on their head scarves and used the handles to spar in an imaginary sword fight.
posted by frumiousb at 4:51 PM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


So Faisal Mostafa has been arrested three times, for weapons, for explosives, and for running a bombmaking factory, uncovered as grooming people to join ISIS, and he's still not been deported from the UK? Wow.

That part jumped out at me, too. I wonder if there is more to that story, because based on the very brief summary in the article it is a mystery why he is not in prison (or perhaps deported, depending on citizenship).

Alex just sounded vulnerable and lonely; the unusual part is being preyed upon by distant extremists rather than local creeps.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:07 PM on June 27, 2015


About a year and a half ago I transcribed an interview with Khalifah Al-Akili, filmed shortly before his arrest, and the shocking thing, beyond just how clearly this man was no sort of threat and that the FBI was just relentlessly trying to nail a guy for being a converted Muslim, was the fact that he always knew when his new sudden "friends" were informants, but he went along with them anyway (hanging out with them, not plotting anything) just because he was so in need of friendship.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:36 PM on June 27, 2015 [7 favorites]


So Faisal Mostafa has been arrested three times, for weapons, for explosives, and for running a bombmaking factory, uncovered as grooming people to join ISIS, and he's still not been deported from the UK?

Why is he still above ground? Presumably, if the security services truly wanted him really dead, he'd be dead in a day. So perhaps they get useful intel from letting him stay around and be a node in the Islamic terrorist network rather than assassinating or deporting him.
posted by theorique at 6:03 PM on June 27, 2015


This is also how Opus Dei recruits people, although they focus their recruiting on college campuses.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:56 PM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


A Detailed Look At How ISIS Recruits Young Americans Canadians Online

ISIS promotional videos, if you're the Harper Conservative Party pushing an anti-Trudeau campaign message, apparently. No, seriously, our version of the Tea Party just did that.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:14 PM on June 27, 2015


Why is a British citizen allowed to be in Britain just because he's served the sentence for a 1995 crime, and acquitted of another crime, when he blatantly has a foreign-sounding name? Don't worry, the tabloids, the Conservative party and the security services are working just as hard as they can to abolish those pesky "rights".
posted by TheophileEscargot at 10:47 PM on June 27, 2015 [9 favorites]


I'm not sure the hill I'd want to die on would be championing an ISIS recruiter.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 10:50 PM on June 27, 2015 [4 favorites]


Opus Dei is also promoted with artifacts and ritual.
posted by clavdivs at 10:55 PM on June 27, 2015


Why is a British citizen allowed to be in Britain just because he's served the sentence for a 1995 crime, and acquitted of another crime, when he blatantly has a foreign-sounding name? Don't worry, the tabloids, the Conservative party and the security services are working just as hard as they can to abolish those pesky "rights".

If he's a British citizen but holds a second nationality he can be deprived of his citizenship and deported if it is conducive to the public good. That's been the law for at least ten years. I do not see how Faisal Mostafa's presence in the UK is in any way conducive to the public good, being a convicted criminal with known links to a proscribed terrorist organization. You need to look beyond your kneejerk response and understand the facts.

I know there is a strand in political discourse in the UK which takes an automatic and diehard pro-immigrant position, but this man is not the poster boy you're looking for. Or if he is, and you believe that even criminals with terrorist links have the right to enter and live in the country, than it is no wonder that you're losing the argument in the country as a whole. Skilled migrants and refugees must shudder to think what kind of "allies" they have in you.
posted by Thing at 3:14 AM on June 28, 2015 [2 favorites]


If he's a British citizen but holds a second nationality he can be deprived of his citizenship and deported if it is conducive to the public good.

He should be in British jail. Pushing him off to be someone else's terrorist problem would be a dick move, and really does not solve the root problem at all.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:38 AM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


Given that this grooming is being done via Twitter and Skype, how would deportation help? What an odd solution to propose.
posted by heatherann at 10:00 AM on June 28, 2015


Why is a British citizen allowed to be in Britain just because he's served the sentence for a 1995 crime, and acquitted of another crime, when he blatantly has a foreign-sounding name?

There are a lot of such people who are specifically not harassed by the police and security services because they are good law-abiding citizens. And there are many people with native British names who are scrutinized by those same arms of the law because of their involvement in movements (e.g. EDL, Britain First) that the authorities deem "subversive" or "potentially violent". You have to squint pretty hard to see racist motivations here - this particular terrorist has certainly earned his special attention from the authorities.

I know there is a strand in political discourse in the UK which takes an automatic and diehard pro-immigrant position, but this man is not the poster boy you're looking for. Or if he is, and you believe that even criminals with terrorist links have the right to enter and live in the country, than it is no wonder that you're losing the argument in the country as a whole. Skilled migrants and refugees must shudder to think what kind of "allies" they have in you.

Exactly!
posted by theorique at 10:21 AM on June 28, 2015


He should be in British jail. Pushing him off to be someone else's terrorist problem would be a dick move, and really does not solve the root problem at all.

Given that this grooming is being done via Twitter and Skype, how would deportation help? What an odd solution to propose.

Well, for me, the root problem is that this man lives only an hour or two away from me, just a drive down the motorway. My sister and her family live just a few miles away from him. He has demonstrated his willingness to stockpile weapons and explosives, and to support a group with the most incredibly violent political and religious beliefs. Were these two things to come together anytime in his life I would rather--much rather--he be in Bangladesh than Heaton Mersey. I consider my right to life to outweigh his right to stay in a country whose laws he has seriously and multiply broken.

The UK does not owe Faisal Mostafa a thing, as he has squandered what goodwill a country might offer to a migrant, but it does owe its innocent citizens the right to live in peace.
posted by Thing at 11:26 AM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


Well isn't that a compassionate stance. Let innocent Bangledashi folk get harmed, because you can't be arsed to put him in your jails.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:38 AM on June 28, 2015


I consider my right to life to outweigh his right to stay in a country whose laws he has seriously and multiply broken.

The media say that he has broken multiple laws. The British juries that tried him said that he's innocent of anything since the 1990s. That still counts for something. Don't worry though, when the Human Rights Act is replaced by this British Bill of Rights that may well not be true. Meanwhile as someone else once said:
Throughout the web of the English Criminal Law one golden thread is always to be seen that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt... If, at the end of and on the whole of the case, there is a reasonable doubt, created by the evidence given by either the prosecution or the prisoner... the prosecution has not made out the case and the prisoner is entitled to an acquittal. No matter what the charge or where the trial, the principle that the prosecution must prove the guilt of the prisoner is part of the common law of England and no attempt to whittle it down can be entertained.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:57 PM on June 28, 2015


“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
- Voltaire
posted by prepmonkey at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2015




Her Majesty’s Jihadists - "More British Muslims have joined Islamist militant groups than serve in the country’s armed forces. How to understand the pull of jihad."
via Omnivore: Why Join Islamic State? which takes its title from Patrick Cockburn's essay in the LRB.

How did Da'esh get started? Just a subset of how the West has fostered radical Islam and actively keeps it alive. Camp Bucca: The US prison that became the birthplace of Isis. How The US Created The Islamic State - and other clickbait. Neighbors played an important role too: The Red Line and the Rat Line. An Ever-Bleaker Syria, From All Vantage Points.
Want to know more? Howmicrosites are coving global news.

From Freedom Fighters To The Islamic States: The Mutation Of Jihad

So how can we understand ISIL/ISIS/Da'esh? Maybe by watching VICE? Definately by understanding the history of Wahabbism in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi monarchy as family firm.
What ISIS Really Wants - "The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it."
Why Cults Work: The Power Games Of The Islamic State and the Lord's Resistance Army.
What’s in a terrorist’s name? A step to understanding the Islamic State and their claim to legitimacy by establishing a caliphate, putting them at the center.
Leaked Calls Give a Look at How the US Military Is Trying to Understand the Islamic State
Anthropology, not demagoguery, is the way to understand ISIS. Gone Girl: An Interview With An American In ISIS. She, like many others, is the child of immigrants,was radicalized online, and burned her passport upon making it to IS territory. Six things you need toknow about IS and women. What is The Allure Of ISIS? More Than 25,000 foreigners fight with terrorists, including my friend the jihadi. Sophisticated messaging targets women in Gulf countries and teens in the United States.

Brand ISIS - A Case Of Extremism As Cultural Innovation
Little surprise, then, that ISIS is obsessed with branding. Has any major global organization ever gone through as many changes to its name – the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the State of the Islamic Caliphate, the Islamic State, and so on? It has threatened to cut the tongues out of those who refer to it as Daesh, the Arabic acronym that is commonly used for it in the Arab world, and which has derogatory connotations. To recognize the extent of its success in penetrating the global media consider all kinds of organizations known as ‘ISIS' who have been forced to change their names due to negative brand perceptions, ranging from Western companies to French rockers.
So how do we get people out (as Da'esh fails at being a state)? Muslim NGOs could help counter violent extremism. Leaving ISIS.

Ignored and Unreported, Muslim Cartoonists Are Poking Fun at ISIS

Why Islamist insurgents are so difficult to coerce - they get external support, like weapons, vehicles, cash, recruits and Twitter. Da'esh has embraced the new ways of war: Cyber Caliphate: ISIS Plays Offense on the Web,ISIS’ magazine Dabiq & what it tells us, ISIS may use terrorist tactics, but it is not a terrorist group (it's an ordinary insurgency), and is bent on controlling the past by destroying art and antiquities. Read up on the thinking of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar

Why are we concerned? Is there a jihadi threat to international order as Islamic State fast becoming a 'legitimate' state, says leading military voice? ISIS & the Shia Revival in Iraq. Inside Baghdad's Brutal Battle Against ISIS. What will happen to Iraq after the Islamic State? Iraq forces not friven from Ramadi,they drove out of Ramadi. As Palmyra Falls to ISIS, What Are the Syrian Government’s Prospects? - other than justifying continues violence agianst its own citizens as they do the math on Alawite casuality numbers after a year changes the military situation in Syria. How freaked out should you be about the Islamic State in America? Why Congress Shouldn’t Authorize the War on ISIS, even toprevent Iraq from unravelling

What can be done?
What I learned about destroying ISIS — from being kidnapped by its predecessors.Strikes by US Blunt ISIS But Anger Civilians. US special forces kill Isis commander and capture wife in Syria raid.Is it time to change the strategy against ISIS? The U.S. Slide Into Open-Ended Conflict in Iraq as we provide more people and weapons. At least there's a glorious vistory, for once when Syrian Kurdish fighters allied with Syrian rebels have reportedly captured nearly all of a strategic Syrian town along the Turkish border.The Hazards of a relentless web presence

Is ISIS Islamic? Why it matters for the study of Islam. Is ISIS Authentically Muslim? Ask Better Questions. Enough about Islam: Why religion is not the most useful way to understand ISIS. The History of Centralized Islamic Religious Authority

Read An Open Letter To al-Baghdadi[English PDF]
Islam is mercy and its attributes are merciful. The Prophet, who was sent as a mercy for all the worlds, summarized a Muslim’s dealings with others by saying: ‘He who shows no mercy, will not be shown mercy’; and: ‘Have mercy and you will be shown mercy.’ But, as can be seen from everything mentioned, you have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder. As elucidated, this is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to
Muslims and to the entire world. Reconsider all your actions; desist from them; repent from them; cease harming others and return to the religion of mercy
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:02 AM on July 3, 2015 [3 favorites]




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