The Islamic State Thread

EUROPE RAMPS UP RESPONSE AGAINST IS AFTER APPARENT EXECUTION
by Richard CARTER

Europe's top powers Wednesday stepped up their response against Islamic State militants who claimed to have beheaded US journalist James Foley, as France warned the world faced the "most serious international situation" since 2001.

British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday and rushed back to London, calling an urgent meeting to discuss how to deal with IS after the man filmed carrying out the apparent execution had a British accent, prompting speculation he is a UK national.

In a highly significant move, Germany said it was ready to send weapons to support Iraqi Kurds in their battle against IS, while France vowed to hold a conference on the security of the region and the battle against the "barbaric" militants.

After other European nations said they would arm Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, "we are ready to do the same," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters.

France has already said it will dispatch arms to Kurdish fighters but sending weapons is unusual for Germany, which often shies away from foreign military engagements and as a rule does not export arms into live conflict zones, given its past aggression in two world wars.

Germany said it would first send more humanitarian aid and non-lethal equipment such as helmets, night-vision goggles and explosives detectors while it checked what weapons shipments would make sense, in coordination with EU partners.

French President Francois Hollande stressed the gravity of the crisis in Iraq, telling Le Monde daily in an interview: "I think we are in the most serious international situation since 2001."

He said he would "soon propose to our partners a conference on security in Iraq and the fight against Islamic State."

"We need a global strategy against this group which is well-structured, which is well-financed and has very sophisticated weapons and which is threatening countries like Iraq, Syria and Lebanon," he added.

At an emergency meeting on Friday, EU foreign ministers agreed in principle to back the arming of the overwhelmed Iraqi Kurdish fighters in the face of the IS onslaught.

Britain, a leading player in the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, has said it would "favourably consider" arming the Kurds if they received such a request.

And global outrage mounted over the IS video posted online late Tuesday showing a masked militant beheading a man resembling the American journalist, who has been missing since he was seized in Syria in November 2012.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that if confirmed, "the disgusting assassination would show the true face of this 'Caliphate of Barbarism'."

"There can be no impunity for those that carried out these barbaric acts," added the minister in a statement.

Steinmeier also termed IS's onslaught as "barbaric" and described the suffering of the refugees fleeing their charge as "unimaginable."

And Cameron said: "If true, the murder of James Foley is shocking and depraved."

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond voiced his "absolute horror" at the apparent beheading which he said was "one more example in a catalogue of brutality" by what he described as an "evil organisation."

A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that the video depicted "the barbaric, truly merciless murder of a person."

"It shows that this terror group has nothing to offer but cruelty and fanaticism," Steffen Seibert said, adding that the chancellor was "horrified."

The White House has said that President Barack Obama has been briefed on the contents of the video, as pressure mounted on Washington to consider expanding its military campaign against the jihadists.

Obama has ordered air strikes on IS forces in a bid to defend the Kurdish regional capital Arbil and protect civilians, military action that has enabled Kurdish and Iraqi forces to push the extremists back and recapture a strategic dam.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 20 Aug 2014 15:57
 
Just a matter of time that western governments will go after isis recruiters even harder and isis will respond with a terrorist attack
 
'Twice as Many' British Muslims Fighting for ISIS as UK Armed Forces

There are now more than twice as many British Muslims fighting for Islamic State than there are serving in the British armed forces, according to a British Member of Parliament (MP).

Khalid Mahmood, the MP for Perry Barr in Birmingham, estimates that at least 1,500 young British Muslims have been recruited by extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria in the last three years.

Mahmood told Newsweek that this figure had been building since the start of the Syrian conflict: "If you look across the whole of the country, and the various communities involved, 500 going over each year would be a conservative estimate.”

According to the Ministry of Defence, there are only around 600 British Muslims currently serving in the Armed Forces, making up approximately around 0.4% of total personnel. 4.3% of the British population are Muslim.

The UK Foreign Office said that they believe over 400 individuals have travelled to Syria since the uprising began, but said that they could not give exact numbers.

However Mahmood described such low estimates as “nonsense” and said that the British government was failing to deal with the problem of home-grown extremists. “We’ve not concentrated on the prevention work, we haven’t invested enough in de-radicalisation. It’s tragic, somebody’s got to wake up to it.”

The role of British jihadists fighting in the Middle East has been brought into sharp focus after Islamic State released a video showing the apparent beheading of US journalist James Foley by a masked jihadist who spoke with a British accent.

In June, three militants involved in an ISIS propaganda video were identified as Cardiff students Reyaad Khan, 20, Nasser Muthana, also 20, and his younger brother Aseel, 17.

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi last week told Channel 4 news that a Kurdish leader told him that Islamic State fighters in Iraq had been carrying a Liverpool FC season ticket and a gym card from Ealing in London. He estimated the number of Britons fighting for Islamic State at as many as 700.

Ghaffar Hussain of anti-radicalization charity the Quilliam Foundation argued that the number of British Muslims being drawn to Islamic State and other organisations meant that the UK was “definitely” losing the fight against radical extremism.

“There are an unacceptable number of Britons fighting for jihadist forces over the world,” Hussain told Newsweek.

“There are things the government can do to prevent this of course,” Hussain says. “There needs to be a greater effort in the way of civil society initiatives that discredit jihadist organisations in the UK and promote liberal democratic values.”

Islamic States militants’ recruitment campaign has overtaken Al-Qaeda in its effectiveness online, targeting primarily young muslims, the Quilliam Foundation told Newsweek.

“Their use of the internet is unlike anything we have seen before,” Charlie Cooper of the Quilliam Foundation said.

“Social media applications like Facebook and Twitter act as a facilitator to connect young radicalized Britons with jihadists in Syria and Iraq.”

Islamic State have so far run a very successful campaign of using public forums such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, whilst avoiding detection by authorities, with Quilliam reporting Islamic State supporters share resources on how to remain under the radar of the law.

Responding to the Islamic State video earlier today, UK-based radical Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary who is a vocal supporter of establishing a Caliphate under Islamic Sharia Law told digital radio station Fubar Radio that “it’s not important if it’s a British person carrying out the execution because you’re Muslim first and British second”.

A Home Office spokesperson told Newsweek that the British government is live to the threat of Islamic State recruitment campaigns in the UK, insisting “the police and security services are actively working to detect and disrupt terrorist threats. People seeking to travel to engage in terrorist activity in Syria or Iraq should be in no doubt we will take the strongest possible action to protect our national security, including prosecuting those who break the law.

"We also have a wide range of powers at our disposal to disrupt travel and manage the risk posed by returnees," Nicola insisted.

The Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
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Replay said:
His sister also pleaded that people must not watch her brother's death
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No ****. It's too brutal :sick: Everytime you watch such a sick video, it makes you lose something in you. It makes you feel sick and empty for the next 3 days or more :sick: FSUK HUMANITY! FSUK RELIGION! FSUK ISLAM! :mad:
 
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/08/20/Farage-Cites-Foreign-Enlistment-Act

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has called on Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron to take a stand on the Islamic State and strip UK nationals who are fighting abroad of their citizenship and cancel passports using the little-known Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870.
The move would bring the United Kingdom into line with close ally Australia, whose Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sworn “to do our damndest” to ensure “trained killer… returning Jihadists” would never be allowed to return to Australia.
UKIP leader Farage said in a press release today that; “in choosing to quit the UK to fight abroad, [UK National Islamic State Fighters] have rendered themselves effectively stateless by conforming to an ideology of wanting to create a terrifying caliphate. If they choose to leave the UK they simply should not be allowed to return. Where intelligence identifies UK nationals fighting for IS their repatriation absolutely should be blocked."
The statement said that those fighting abroad should be stripped of their British citizenship, passports of British only citizens should be withdrawn and foreign nationals with a ‘right to reside’ in the UK should have that terminated immediately.
Farage insists Parliament should be reconvened to amend the Foreign Enlistment act 1870, which presently only covers enlistment in the armies of foreign states. As ISIS or the Islamic state is technically considered a non-state actor or transnational terror group, British citizens taking up arms in their name are not covered by the act.
In controlling the movement of British Jihadists, time is absolutely of the essence. Farage's intervention comes the day after footage of American Journalist James Foley being beheaded by an ISIS fighter who communicated his death sentence with a clear British accent was released. The footage has sparked a debate about Britain’s role in the middle east, and the growing problem of British fighters abroad.
As reported by Breitbart London on Monday, jihadist fighters with considerable combat experience and backgrounds in organised crime is already a growing problem.
The former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has recently warned that as many as 300 battle-hardened Jihadists may have returned to the UK already and “the scale of the threat is placing an impossible burden on British intelligence”.
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I watched it to the point just before the beheading and I was gutted at how hard he tried to remain composed in light of what was coming. So incredibly brave of him and so fekking tragic. RIP James Foley. :(
 
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