Muslim toddlers being taught to admire Jihad by practicing beheading on their dolls
Warning
over radicalisation of children as jihadi Twitter pictures show a young
boy ‘executing’ a doll dressed in orange in scenes that mock murder of
James Foley
- Images posted by Twitter account Time of the Caliphate to 3,500 followers
- It said: ‘Teach children to cut necks, tomorrow there will be rotten heads’
- Masked child holds doll in similar clothes to U.S. journalist before black flag
- It comes amid concerns over children being radicalised through social media
- Twitter and Youtube have vowed to crack down on spread of propaganda
- Propaganda expert called the footage ‘child abuse, pure and simple’
By Dan Bloom for MailOnline
Published: 10:00, 24 August 2014 |
A
masked child has ‘re-enacted’ James Foley’s murder in disturbing images
which show the youngster beheading a doll in an orange jumpsuit.
The
photos were posted online by a supporter of the Islamic State terror
group and came with the chilling message: ‘Teach your children to cut
necks, tomorrow there will be a lot of rotten heads’.
Along
with the photographs, which also show the doll after it has been
beheaded, the Time for the Caliphate account circulated graphic images
of the U.S. journalist’s murder to its 3,500 followers.
It
comes amid growing concerns over disaffected or vulnerable children
being radicalised through social media as major networks including
Twitter and Youtube vow to halt the spread of extremist propaganda.
Chilling:
Barefoot and wearing a black balaclava, a young child appears to
re-enact the brutal murder of the U.S. journalist James Foley by
beheading a doll in an orange jumpsuit. The images were circulated on
Twitter
Propaganda: A second image shows the doll decapitated and smeared with what appears to be fake blood.
The
sick child ‘execution’ images mirrored the murder of James Foley, with
the unknown child holding a knife and dressed all in black including a
balaclava.
In
the main image, the child holds the blond doll by its hair while
standing in front of the black flag which has become the symbol of the
terror group. In the second, the doll is decapitated on the floor.
For
some, the photographs add to concerns that children are being
radicalised with the help of the persuasive power of social media.
Earlier
this month Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott voiced condemnation
after images circulated of a young boy – allegedly the son of an
Australian ex-terror convict – apparently holding a severed Syrian man’s
head.
British
jihadists have been using teenagers’ everyday communication tools,
including smartphone apps and the question-and-answer website ask.fm, to persuade impressionable children as young as 15 to join them.
Former student Reyaad Khan, 20, from Cardiff, made headlines when he appeared in a recruitment video for the Islamic State.
His
case particularly concerned observers as he was remembered by most
school friends as a talented scholar who until recently held moderate
views and mixed with people from all backgrounds. He once said he wanted
to be Britain’s first Asian Prime Minister.
Threats:
The message next to one of the images read: ‘Teach your children to cut
necks, tomorrow there will be a lot of rotten heads’. It comes amid
fears over young people being radicalised through social media
Propaganda: Islamic State militants have swept through Iraq and Syria and spread fear through social media.
Professor
Nicholas O’Shaughnessy from Queen Mary University of London, who has
studied Islamist communications and wrote Politics and Propaganda:
Weapons of Mass Seduction, told MailOnline he believed the images were
not aimed to corrupt children in themselves.
But he said: ‘The images involve a child and therefore deliberately invoke the idea of contaminating the innocence of children.
‘They are a way of exploiting the original death imagery in a new, creative and utterly foul manner.’
‘It is so utterly sick and perverted and depraved that it guarantees global visibility: child abuse, pure and simple’
- Professor Nicholas O’Shaugnessy
He
added: ‘It is so utterly sick and perverted and depraved that it
guarantees global visibility: child abuse, pure and simple, it pushes
other stuff to one side in a world where so much else is competing for
our attention.
‘The
interesting question is why. This practice is so deeply alientating and
it is founded in a belief in the supreme effectiveness of the fear
appeal, forgetting of course that there are stronger motives than fear.
‘Anger,
for example, assassinates every other emotion and all ISIS are really
doing is arousing universal rage against them such that we no longer see
ISIS as human, but monsters to be slain, or cockroaches to be stamped
on.’
The photographs were posted on Friday after Twitter and Youtube vowed to launch a renewed crackdown on jihadi propaganda accounts.
Several
accounts circulating gruesome imagery were taken down almost as soon as
they were launched, with jihadis switching to other less well-known
social networks.
Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo wrote on Wednesday: ‘We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery. Thank you.’
Some accounts, however, continued to gain followers and spread messages of hate.
The Time for the Caliphate account was founded almost three years ago and showed no signs of halting its messages.
Respected: U.S. journalist Foley was abducted in Syria in 2012 and fell into the hands of the terrorist group
It
also received several messages of support in Arabic from other Islamic
State supporters, thanking militants for ‘defeating these traitors and
tyrants’ and putting ‘terror into the hearts of the infidels’.
It
also received several messages of support in Arabic from other Islamic
State supporters, thanking militants for ‘defeating these traitors and
tyrants’ and putting ‘terror into the hearts of the infidels’.
Posting
a photo of second U.S. journalist Steven Joel Sotloff – who appeared to
be threatened in the slick execution video – the account used the
hashtag #
On
another still from the James Foley murder video, the account insisted
that he was ‘armed to the teeth and trying to corrupt the media’.
That
was despite a second image being posted of the aftermath of the murder,
with the stark message: ‘We will cut off your head, O soldiers of Satan
like this.’
A Twitter spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons.’
Islamic
State militants have swept through large regions of Iraq and Syria
pledging to establish a ‘Caliphate’ which would enact a harsh
interpretation of Sharia law.
Extremists
have hunted down religious minorities, from Christians to Shia Muslims
and the little-known Yazidi group, and taken entire towns killing
thousands of people.
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