Is Islam Yaken for real? He sounds like a parody of Islamists. Are we sure this is not a hoax? That someone isnt pulling our leg here? Ive read reports written about him, including @Zeinobias piece and the community post on Al Arabiya by a lady, Rajia Aboulkheir, who claims she went to school with Islam, and tells his story. There are pictures cropping up here and there, and of course theres his Twitter account. Sure, I hear that many from across the Arab world and all walks of life have joined the jihad in Syria, Iraq, etc. So its not unbelievable. The scenario, in fact, is very plausible. But ... Im just pointing out that, as it stands, the story of the boy is unverifiable. No authorities, as far as I know, have confirmed this is the case; his family didnt come forward to defend him, also as far as I know. Should we just taken Rajias word for it? Or treat his twitter account like its scripture, although we dont even know who actually runs it? Most of the material shared there btw, videos and pictures, are not original; not taken by him, and they carry the watermarks of their respective owners; different TV channels and media venues, and some of them carry an ISIS tag. And the rest are retweets from other alleged jihadis. Even his picture with the slaughtered man (a horrible one, pretty graphic so click at your own risk) https://twitter/i_yaken/status/493860886461702144/photo/1 could be photoshopped for all we know. For someone who was (allegedly) moments before this picture was taken knee deep in fire fights, he looks awfully clean, even his white shoes are untainted by blood or dirt. And this is just off the top of my head. Hes very prolific for someone who should be busy fighting, or doing whatever it is that Jihadis do. To me, he sounds a bit like an attention whore, someone who wants to be noticed. Is he really the Middle class boy who turned dark. Or are these just a bunch of kids, or just one person, creating an intricate prank, mocking social media and the culture of unverified news, and all of us really? An undercover journalist running a dangerous social experiment perhaps? Or maybe it is Islam Yaken, a boy we lost to extremism. The possibilities are many. Just thinking out loud here.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 15:50:12 +0000
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