British IS backers seek to justify Steven Sotloff’s murder

After a video of Steven Sotloff’s murder was released last night, a number of supporters of Islamic State in the UK posted messages to social media platforms that sought to minimise and justify the killing.

The Twitter users sought to portray the killing as a lesson for President Obama, and message to stop US air strikes that have targeted Islamic State militants.

The video, called “A Second Message to America”, showing Steven Sotloff’s beheading was released yesterday by the Islamic State. In the video a British hostage was also threatened.

“Whatever these murderers think they’ll achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed,” President Obama said today in Estonia.

Twitter attacks

A Twitter account thought to belong to a British woman under the name of Umm Salam posted: “How many executions will it take b4 obama learns to stop bombing IS?”, which was then retweeted by other UK based supporters of Islamic State.

And a woman formerly known as Sally Jones who left the UK with her son to move to Syria with her husband who is fighting with IS, compared the coverage of murder to that of the civilian deaths in Gaza, in particular an incident in which children on a beach were killed by shell fire.

“What about the murder of six little brothers on a Gaza beach last month who was happily playing football wasn’t that barbaric world?” she wrote.

Other British Twitter accounts retweeted a statement that reads: “No Journalist is innocent, remember that they are a weapon of mass destruction and war due to the lies they spread.”

One Islamic State supporter wrote: “Why is it so difficult for people to understand IS justification for deaths of Foley and Sotloff. Citizenship.” and “How exactly is it right for u to come preach to Muslims about retribution after yrs of killing us?”

Other IS supporters retweeted a link that said: “Steven Sotloff, killed by Islamic State, had deep roots in Israel.”

Heckling vigil

Another Twitter user condemned an inter-faith gathering at Westminster Abbey.

London-based Twitter user Abu Rumaysah said: “Muslims condemn the interfaith vigil organised by @MuslimCouncil outside Westminster today @ 12 noon. It is a clear violation of Islam.”

The gathering at the Innocent Victims Memorial sought to show solidarity with the people of Iraq with the message, “#WeAreAllHuman”, and was attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain and other faith leaders.

“Instead of deceiving non-Muslims with friendship, we should be urging them in the politest manner to save themselves from hellfire,” said Rumaysah.

“Perhaps I and a few of my friends should organise a Muslim Patrol to heckle this blasphemous gathering?”

But Sayed Razawi, an Imam from south London, called the killings a perversion of the Muslim faith.

He said: “The first reaction on hearing the news for many of us was shock and horror. It shouldn’t surprise us because of what IS has done in the past.
“But it is very shocking when someone like IS carries out such barbaric actions in your name.

“I have been in contact with Imams tonight and they are all saying ‘this isn’t in our name’ – it is not Islam.”

Most IS supporters have been careful to avoid uploading images of the beheading to Twitter for fear of the site blocking their accounts for breaching its terms of service, which prohibit uploading graphic images.

When there is a controversial video to post, to avoid suspension, setup a dummy twitter, post the video there and retweet from real account

— AbuUmar8246 (@AbuUmar_8246) September 2, 2014