‘ISIS is coming’: Suspected teen jihadi’s brother poses in controversial images
Disturbing images have surfaced of a Sydney teen standing in front of a war memorial with a friend making obscene gestures that included a one-finger jihadi symbol.
The teen is reportedly a student at Granville Boys High School and also younger brother of a Sydney teen terror suspect News Corp reports.
The boy in the disturbing image was reportedly banned from playing junior rugby league last year following an alleged altercation with a referee.
It was following the incident that the teen reportedly converted to Islam.
He also reportedly posted a series of threatening photos earlier in the year.
One of the images includes the teen making the jihadi salute, while another shows graffiti of the words “ISIS is coming”.
The teen however cannot be identified for legal reasons.
It’s feared the seemingly vulnerable teen is one of hundreds of school aged children who are risk of being radicalized by terror recruiters.
ISIS recruiters have routinely used social media as a method of identification and recruitment for potential targets.
According to News Corp the teen has since returned to his Christian faith.
It’s also understood the teen is believed to have deactivated his social media accounts earlier in the year however has since reactivated them with the disturbing post “Big daddy is back”.
According to online reports the teen is not believed to be a participant in NSW Police’s deradicalisation program, however News Corp reports that he is closely monitored by police and meets with them regularly.
Mum tells of fleeing ISIS ‘hell’ in Syria
A former student of Granville Boys High, Abu Ahmad, was reportedly found trying to recruit boys after he left to join Islamic State in Syria.
Since 2014 in the US ISIS-related arrests by the FBI have increased more than four-fold which suggests their message is “resonating to a larger population set than we've ever seen before,” said Michael Steinbach, FBI’s assistant director of counter-terrorism.
And social media, he says, is helping ISIS recruit faster than ever.
“With push notifications and smartphones, you literally have radicalization 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
Instead of it taking months before recruits are traveling to Syria or plotting homegrown attacks, Steinbach says now it’s only a matter of days or weeks.
“ISIL has used social media better than any terrorist group before or currently,” said Steinbach.
“They have mastered the use of it … as a propaganda tool, as a recruitment tool and as a targeting tool.”
Steinbach says the message from ISIS — or ISIL as the group is also known — is clear: “Come join the caliphate, and if you can't join the caliphate, conduct an attack in the U.S.”
News break – July 22
