{"id":64049,"date":"2015-09-21T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=64049"},"modified":"2015-09-20T11:48:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T10:48:13","slug":"isis-flag-picture-that-claims-to-show-refugees-attacking-police-goes-viral-and-is-a-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/09\/isis-flag-picture-that-claims-to-show-refugees-attacking-police-goes-viral-and-is-a-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Isis Flag’ Picture That Claims to Show Refugees Attacking Police Goes Viral \u2014 And Is a Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s old, probably not an Isis flag and has nothing to do with refugees.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Isisflagpic<\/a><\/p>\n

15 Sep 2015 – <\/em>A picture that purports to be of refugees carrying Isis flags and attacking police has been shared widely on social media this week \u2014 but the picture is old, probably doesn’t show an Isis flag, and has nothing to do with refugees.<\/p>\n

The image has been picked up by a range of right-wing outlets, including the Conservative Post, and has been shared tens of thousands of times since. That site said that it was a “new leaked picture” that “confirmed” its claims about Isis smuggling in agents among refugees.<\/p>\n

The images confirm a theory that has taken hold among many right-wing sites \u2014 that Isis is using the Syrian refugee crisis to bring thousands of terrorists into Europe, among people who are fleeing the group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The picture appears to have come from protests in Bonn in May 2012<\/a>. The protest began as one by a then ascendant far-right political party in the country, and the Muslims in the picture were part of a counter-protest.<\/p>\n

Other uploads were around at the same time, confirming that the picture is just over three years old.<\/p>\n

Video of what appears to be the same protest \u2014 at an anti-Islam rally in Bonn \u2014 can be seen on YouTube. The footage was uploaded on 2012, and appear to come from the same year \u2014 long before the flag took off as a widely-understood symbol of Isis.<\/p>\n

Those people aren\u2019t necessarily waving the flag in any way connected with Isis. As many analysts have pointed out, the organisation took on the symbol partly because it was already a well-established icon, and had been used by other groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to align themselves with other movements and place themselves in a jihadist context,\u201d Charlie Winter, a researcher at the Quilliam Foundation, told The Independent earlier this summer<\/a>. \u201cThe shahada and the Prophet\u2019s seal are important symbols that all Muslims share.<\/p>\n

“So, by co-opting words which have nothing to do with jihadism, they [Isis] broaden themselves and try to claim ideological territory that they wouldn\u2019t be able to if they had something specific.\u201d<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

Andrew Griffin is a technology reporter at<\/em> The Independent.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 independent.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s old, probably not an Isis flag and has nothing to do with refugees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}