News

By the Associated Press: LONDON. Experts say police and security services are using voice-recognition software and other technology, as well as human tips, as they scramble to identify the militant recorded on a video showing the killing of American journalist James Foley.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said the masked jihadi is likely British. Linguists say his accent suggests he is from the London area.

The Guardian Newspaper quoted an unnamed former captive who was held in Raqqa, Syria, as saying he appeared to be one of several British militants - nicknamed "The Beatles" by hostages - charged with guarding Islamic State prisoners.

John O'Regan, a linguist at London's Institute of Education, said Thursday that analysts would likely make a voice print of the speaker and compare it to recordings of known suspects.

Comment

I can't recall any video message that caused so much uproar in the media and by the politicians in the West as this video did while in reality this video is not unique in the sense that many videos with more or less the same content and message circulated the internet prior to this. What is the reason behind the acknowledgement of western countries to elevate this video message of a group to international levels?

In order to find the answer, maybe we have to look in to the kind of discussions these Western states and their intelligent services are holding about the video.

Even though the men in the video is the one who killed the journalist James Foley after he gave a warning message to the US.  It is clear that he is just an executer of a decree which was given to him. To draw a simple analogy; he cannot even be compared to the pilot who dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and killed thousand instead of just one person. Even then it was not the pilot who was the focus of discussion but the ones who were behind the decision to the drop the bomb. However the discussion about the video evolved around the executer himself; a dark skinned Muslim man with a British accent most likely from UK. So the British and American intelligent services put the attention to the identification of this mysterious masked man in the video.

So called voice-recognition technologies have put in to work to match the killer's voice to a pre-existing recording, such as an online video or intercepted phone call (So-called "voiceprinting") etc... So the question that arises is why are these services so eager to identify him? Knowing very well that he probably never will return to UK (if he is from UK) and if they were to find out his true identity then what can they do? Are they able to enforce any sentence on him? I don't think the reasons are lying in the answers about his identity or his person. The answers are given by Richard Barrett, a former head of counterterrorism for Britain's MI6 Intelligence Agency; when he said that the militant would likely be recognized by "the intelligence community ... but also the community from which this man comes." As a result, British Muslim leaders have condemned Foley's slaying and urged anyone who knows the killer to speak to the authorities.

Western governments are again making misuse of the situation in order to intimidate the Muslim community by pressuring them to take a stance in line with their vision with regards to Islam and the Muslims. This vision can be summarized with the words of Obama when he said, "They abduct women and children, subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They've murdered Muslims - Sunni and Shia - by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes and murdering them when they can."

The West is using these incidents to distort the image of the coming of the great Khilafah "Caliphate" state. The Muslims living in the West should be aware this crucial fact, and perceive this as an extension of the so called `war on terror` (read ´a war against Islam´). And even though the Muslims feel that their Islam has been hijacked by people who do not represent their believes and convictions they should never ever express this feeling by standing together with the Kuffar or their government agents. They should always stand for Islam and speak out and clarify in depth the true concept of an Islamic State to the Muslims and non-Muslims as well, but also they should challenge the evil plans and plots of the western governments who are the biggest source of problem the Muslims are facing today.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Okay Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands