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UK prosecutor: Islamic State like the Beatles, “the boys want to be like them and the girls want to be with them”

Apr 6, 2015 9:41 am By Robert Spencer

Photo of BEATLESNow wait a minute.The Islamic State is just a tiny minority of extremists that has nothing to do with Islam, right? And all Muslims — all of them — hate and despise them, right? John Kerry said it, it must be true! “Isil are like Beatles and British youngsters want to be them, warns prosecutor,” by Tom Whitehead, the Telegraph, April 6, 2015:

Isil jihadists are becoming like the Beatles and other pop idols with British boys wanting to be them and girls wanting to be with them, a senior prosecutor has warned.

Nazir Afzal said “jihadimania” is worse than previously thought and is luring youngsters conned by the image to Syria.

And those who do not managed to travel are a “ticking time bomb” for the security services and police here, he warned.

More than 600 Britons are feared to have travelled to Syria with many joining the terror group Isil.

They include young teenage boys and girls who have either gone to become soldiers or “jihadi brides”.

Isil’s alleged British executioner Mohammed Emwazi was already dubbed “Jihadi John” in reference to the “Beatles” nickname given to him and his fellow British captors by their hostages.

But Mr Afzal said the pop music image is more widespread and risks luring and radicalising many more young Britons.

“The boys want to be like them and the girls want to be with them,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.

“That’s what they used to say about the Beatles and more recently One Direction and Justin Bieber. The propaganda the terrorists put out is akin to marketing, and too many of our teenagers are falling for the image.”

“The extremists treat them in a similar way to sexual groomers – they manipulate them, distance them from their friends and families, and then take them.”

Last week Mr Afzal, who recently stepped down as head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the north-west, warned teachers were not doing enough to help stop pupils heading for Syria.

He said staff were not informing the police about pupils they have been told may try to join jihadists because they did not want them to be criminalised.

He also revealed some head teachers were worried that pupils would take advantage of the Easter holidays to head for the war torn country.

In his latest interview, he warned: “Each of them, if they go to Syria, is going to be more radicalised when they come back. And if they don’t go, they become a problem – a ticking time bomb.”

Mr Afzal said tactics to combat radicalisation needed to change because youngsters did not want to “hear from men with long beards, they don’t want to hear from faith leaders”.

He said Isil should not be pictured in a religious or political dimension.

“The reality is that they’re no more than narcissistic, murderous cowboys.

“We need to stand up and say that very, very clearly, rather than allow kids to be drawn to them like the equivalent of pop idols.”…

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Filed Under: "Tiny Minority of Extremists", Featured, United Kingdom Tagged With: Nazir Afzal, The Beatles


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Comments

  1. Billy Corr says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 9:49 am

    Hmmm ….

    Apart from a few loopy converts, we are talking about a certain ethno-cultural group, right?

    Almost without exception, we are talking about people of ‘Pakistani heritage’ as the expression has it.

    The capitalist class wanted cheap labor in the mills in Nelson and other places and the British ‘left’ loved them as brown-skinned inferiors who could be trained as a vote bank for the Labour Party.

    • Don McKellar says

      Apr 6, 2015 at 10:08 am

      One thing that the Jihadimania movement is not, is a specific ethnic group. Of what decent was Rigby’s killer? Nigerian. What ethnic group were the Boston Bombers? Chechen. Jihadimania has no race nor ethnicity. Native Brits, Turks, Pakistanis — it covers all ground.

      You are correct, however, in your assessment of the racism that runs rampant in the left, and their political motivations, mixed with the drive for cheap labour from the other end of the spectrum, which have driven mass immigration which never, ever should have happened. It’s a double barrel shotgun which has pushed this nightmare on modern, advanced countries around the world, which are suffering a horrible immigration meltdown today. Jihadimania is just ramping up.

    • pumbar says

      Apr 6, 2015 at 12:35 pm

      Plus the fact that modern cultural marxism wants to transplant a failed, indigineous proleteriat (that failed to rise up and create a collectivist state) with a new, immigrated one that will. The masters in Brussels are marxists and maoists. This has nothing to do with true capitalism.

      • gravenimage says

        Apr 6, 2015 at 6:34 pm

        Good posts, Don and Pumbar.

  2. Don McKellar says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 9:55 am

    Terms for the 21st Century and their correct definitions:

    Jihadimania — An actual phenomena we can observe and document that’s fast accelerating in modern, advanced countries — which leaves the compromised and politically correct “leaders” of those countries, and the legal authorities who are handcuffed and blindfolded under them, baffled.

    Islamophobia — An invented term used as a weapon by Islamic supremacists and their clueless fascist-left lackeys to try and silence critics who speak honestly about the Islamic texts which motivate and drive both the Islamic State and the above Jihadimania.

  3. Westman says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 10:01 am

    What? They’re singing, “I Wanna Hold Your Head”, “Day Ripper” and “Bagdadi’s Lonely Heart Heart Club Jihadi Band”

    • Beagle says

      Apr 6, 2015 at 12:42 pm

      Mean Mister Mujahid
      The Axeman
      Hey Jew
      We Can Chop It Off
      Nowhere Head
      And Nobody Can Sing

      Baby’s In Black – that works without changing it

      Ah, fun with jihad.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 6, 2015 at 7:04 pm

      Hilarious, Westman and Beagle!

  4. Jay Airahs says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 10:04 am

    Teenage and pre-pubescent girls “Scream and Shout” when ISIS is about.
    There may be a link.

    • jayell says

      Apr 6, 2015 at 1:23 pm

      Yes, but it’s going to be a ‘Hard Day’s Night’ for them, but no doubt we’ll ‘Help Them If We Can if They’re feeling Down’.

  5. RonaldB says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 10:12 am

    There’s actually some functionality for the jihad war brides: they might conjugate with a jihad fighter, but at least he’s not a first cousin, and is likely to be 35 or younger…a big advantage as far as the girl’s natural inclinations.

    I think the leftists are thinking in terms of “For who the bells Toll”, where the young, expatriate revolutionary goes to a foreign land to fight for an ideal, and mates with a beautiful, hot Spanish peasant girl. The coupling is so intense, the earth literally moves for them.

    Not so different from traveling to a foreign land dressed in a nightshirt, lopping off heads and sporting a flea-infested beard, is it? The principles they espouse are the mind-numbing inanities of the Koran, rather than the obtuse, illogical constructs of Marxism…but, why bother too strongly with irrelevant details?

    Ultimately, the government bureaucrats are not going to stem the flow of young jihadis, because although they are all incompetent, desk-bound slugs who probably couldn’t walk two blocks without puffing, in their imaginations, they are the young revolutionary traveling to glory and passionate, doomed love. And they identify with the jihadis.

  6. KrazyKafir says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 12:04 pm

    British youngsters? That’s a laugh. They’re part of England’s fifth column and citizens of the future autonomous regions of Britain.

  7. Jan Aage Jeppesen says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 5:51 pm

    Of course, Islamic State fighters are idols like the Beatles that made young people go ape and imitate their style and music in the good old days. Why haven’t any scholar seen the obvious connection between the two phenomena before now?
    Even a quick glimpse at the lyrics reveals hidden messages encouraging the revolutionary fight for liberation and the return of the caliphate:

    “Revolution” – “You say you want a revolution/Well, you know/We all want to change the world”.

    “Oh, I believe in yesterday.” (A salafi message).

    “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”

    “Across The Universe”

    “Young Blood”

    “Ticket To Ride”

    “The sheik of Araby” – “You rule this world with me/I’m the sheik of Araby”

    It is easy to see when you know what to look for! 😉

  8. Edgar Davidson says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 7:23 pm

    Since Islam bans all music and fun, it is a curious analogy to draw – especially as I don’t remember the Beatles going around beheading people. But it is instructive that a main stream and powerful British Muslim thinks that ISIS – by brutally murdering thousands of civilians – brings as much joy and excitement to millions of Muslims as the Beatles did to millions of non-Muslims – by producing great songs. I mean killing people and producing great music – what’s not to like in either case? Still, more obfuscation for the British media which, in the aftermath of the Kenyan massacre – has pulled out all the stops to still portray Muslims as victims. See http://edgar1981.blogspot.in/2015/04/uk-media-continue-to-ignore-elephants.html

  9. gravenimage says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 7:24 pm

    Isil jihadists are becoming like the Beatles and other pop idols with British boys wanting to be them and girls wanting to be with them, a senior prosecutor has warned.
    …………………………..

    Of course, these aren’t “British” boys and girls at all—just Muslims using Britain as a base from which to wage violent Jihad.

    More:

    Nazir Afzal said “jihadimania” is worse than previously thought and is luring youngsters conned by the image to Syria.
    …………………………..

    And the prosecutor making this cutesy comparison is, of course, *himself* a Mohammedan.

    More:

    “That’s what they used to say about the Beatles and more recently One Direction and Justin Bieber. The propaganda the terrorists put out is akin to marketing, and too many of our teenagers are falling for the image.”
    …………………………..

    Justin Bieber might be an annoying twerp, but I wouldn’t even compare him to bloody Jihad terrorists.

    More:

    “The extremists treat them in a similar way to sexual groomers – they manipulate them, distance them from their friends and families, and then take them.”
    …………………………..

    Not always. For a lot of these Jihadi wanna-bes, their family and friends also support violent Jihad.

    More:

    Last week Mr Afzal, who recently stepped down as head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the north-west, warned teachers were not doing enough to help stop pupils heading for Syria.

    He said staff were not informing the police about pupils they have been told may try to join jihadists because they did not want them to be criminalised.
    …………………………..

    Yes, this out-of-control PC/MC is a huge problem. But these Muslim’s Infidel teachers likely have less influence on them than do their parents and Mosque leaders. To blame the Kuffar for their going off to wage violent Jihad seems pretty iffy, and mostly just intended to elicit more unearned Western guilt.

    More:

    He also revealed some head teachers were worried that pupils would take advantage of the Easter holidays to head for the war torn country.

    In his latest interview, he warned: “Each of them, if they go to Syria, is going to be more radicalised when they come back. And if they don’t go, they become a problem – a ticking time bomb.”
    …………………………..

    In other words, all too many Muslim “youth” are a growing danger whether they decamp for the Islamic State or not…

    More:

    Mr Afzal said tactics to combat radicalisation needed to change because youngsters did not want to “hear from men with long beards, they don’t want to hear from faith leaders”.

    He said Isil should not be pictured in a religious or political dimension.
    …………………………..

    Even though religious and political is exactly what they are…

    More:

    “The reality is that they’re no more than narcissistic, murderous cowboys.

    “We need to stand up and say that very, very clearly, rather than allow kids to be drawn to them like the equivalent of pop idols.”…
    …………………………..

    Cowboys? Pop idols? More deflection…

  10. JamesonRocks says

    Apr 6, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    Terribly insulting to the Beatles! It would be nice if Paul and Ringo would address this comparison…

    • abad says

      Apr 6, 2015 at 8:24 pm

      I’m no Beatles fan but yeah this is a rather poor comparison – would love to see the surviving band members address it

    • Peggy says

      Apr 8, 2015 at 8:45 pm

      They don’t need the trouble. They would be called racist and islamophobic.

  11. duh_swami says

    Apr 7, 2015 at 7:27 am

    In the old days girls used to swoon to Frank Sinatra and Johnny Ray,…but none of them ran out and joined the jihad…Only the Beatles stimulate jihad…So it would be in the best public interest to ban the Beatles from the UK…Mz May and Mr Cameron would probably sign on to that…They did it to Spencer and he doesn’t even sing…

  12. Ric says

    Apr 7, 2015 at 5:03 pm

    This inane, insane utterance by nutters like this prosecutor that confirms, there is no hope for Britain.

    • bernie says

      Apr 8, 2015 at 2:13 am

      Exactly. John Lennon was a devoutr atheist who sang, “Imagine there’s no countries/It isn’t hard to do/Nothing to kill or die for/And no religion too” in his song “Imagine.”

    • Michael Copeland says

      Apr 8, 2015 at 6:48 am

      Not insane: a careful piece of taqiyya, deception. The speaker is a muslim, concerned to take the spotlight away from his role model.
      What was that about “they’re no more than narcissistic, murderous cowboys”?
      Oh yes, they follow their model.

  13. Keith Jordan says

    Apr 7, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    I’ve just been listening to Ringo’s new album, released today, and it says absolutely nothing about Islam or Jihad.

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