Jihadi John

I think this is another example of the sort of reporting that happens when a perpetrator of a serious crime is identified and the neighbours are interviewed and say "I can't believe it, he was such a quiet man, kept himself to himself" etc.

Should we not want to learn what places people on the path such as this man has chosen?

What was very wrong about the tv coverage was filming the home of his parents

How wrong can anyone be? How do any of us know what goes on in our neighbours, colleagues or acquaintance's lives? After all we only see the little picture in the time they are around us. I did not see the interview Terribull but wonder how much time the spokesperson from CAGE actually spent with Mohammed Emwaz. How well did he/she really know him. They obviously didn't know him at all .

Exactly phoenix

Inevitably terrorists will present themselves as gentle - it is a front behind which they can make their plans for mayhem.

The journalistic ploy of the "the evil behind the facade" is classic and hackneyed.

I take your point Phoenix, but whilst not trying to trivialise any other serious crime, this is something else altogether. Listening to Matthew Wright's news section today, MW stated that he felt very uncomfortable hearing the spokesperson from CAGE eulogising in the manner he did about Emwazi. This was not the usual observations and asides by perplexed neighbours and acquaintances, but, I believe, an extract from an extremely lengthy interview with SKY where Emwazi is presented as an exceptionally fine human being. I can only imagine how I would feel as one of the bereaved relatives of the murdered hostages. To me in airing this interview came across as very insensitive and disrespectful to them.

I am glad to see your post gillybob. As you seem to have changed your mind since yesterday when talking about the 3 girls that went to Syria.

I am not sure that this is the best thread to put this on, but never mind.

I heard[yes on Fox News] that IS are deliberately provoking the west. That they want a fight. That they want to die. And they want the ordinary muslims as they put it to rise up and fight the west.
Has anyone else heard that?
Is it true?

It would explain why they do appear to be goading and provoking with all their videos, and horrors that they are committing.

I absolutely have not changed my mind at all soontobe !

Infact soontobe I think my comments on this thread actually backup my thoughts on the three young women who have gone to join ISIS !

I hope that he is captured by America where he will receive a punishment that suits the crime-death. If we capture him he will receive life in prison with no parole and he will have years to radicalise others inside.

In which way gb?
Because on here you seem to be saying we dont know much, so cant make a judgement. But on the other thread you seem to be saying that we know plenty and throw away the key.
Personally, I dont know enough about either.

I get the impression that America, or perhaps that should be President Obama, does not want much to do with the whole thing.

I think soontobe only read the first sentence of Phoenix's post of , the one that goes "How wrong can anyone be?" and continues to say that no-one knows what goes on in our neighbour's lives.

soontobe It is not as easy as you think to change someone's opinion with a few words - and it is a bit patronising to congratulate them on admitting that they were wrong all the time and you were right - particularly when they said no such thing.

You have obviously studied my previous posts in great depth soontobe However at the risk of becoming very, very boring.......

I stand by my comments that the three young women are quite probably not the innocent, naive girls some would have us believe. Perhaps (like me) the people describing them as such, do not really know them at all.

Likewise according to various news reports today JJ or ME is being described as gentle, decent, wouldn't hurt a fly etc.

HOW WRONG THESE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY ARE !

We dont know JJ. And we dont know the 3 girls.
But you appear to know the 3 girls, but not JJ.

Elegran. Where did I say that gb had admiited that she was wrong? Let alone congratulate her?

In your post "I am glad to see your post gillybob. As you seem to have changed your mind since yesterday when talking about the 3 girls that went to Syria."

I wouldn't believe much I heard on Fox News!

I dont get that from there Elegran. But never mind.

Ariadne. I know where you are coming from. But it did make some pieces add up.

Apart from the lack of sensitivity shown by Fox news in broadcasting things which must be upsetting for the families of the victims, it always surprises me when it is such a shock when someone is not what they seem. Jihadi John would have been a rather poor terrorist if he had broadcast his beliefs and intentions and walked about with placards advocating death to the west. Likewise, when parents of paedophile victims say 'oh, but he was such a nice man' well, of course he was or you wouldn't have let him near your children. Confidence tricksters have to be charming or they wouldn't be much get money out of people. These kind of statements make reporters look silly, we can work out for ourselves that to be a successful undercover terrorist you have to blend in and not be suspicious.

DH said he heard that the CAGE spokesman who described the murderer as kind and lovely has now himself been exposed as an extremist and a speech he made in New York has been found where he hopes all British Moslems will rise up etc. etc.

I know it isn't our way to lock up people before a crime has been committed but we used to intern IRA members before they blew things up. It was, I believe, an offence to be a member of the IRA, perhaps we need a new law.

It wasn't just the CAGE spokesman who made those comments, a former teacher did also.

It is perhaps more reassuring to believe that there are people who are, and have always been, "evil", rather than to contemplate the idea that even "decent" people can be induced to commit horrific acts. There are plenty of examples in history of people being carried along on a tide of hatred and doing terrible things.

The Irish situation wasn't improved by silencing individuals or organisations or throwing people into prison without trial, it was improved through negotiation.

That's right Gill and all this 'he's the gentlest person I ever met' rubbish is all a smoke screen. I wouldn't be surprised if that is correct ruby my first impression of the CAGE spokesman was that he was either a total prat or lying.

Eloethan I don't think people like JJ were always 'evil' but they are certainly weak and easily swayed to evil. Just as you say there are examples throughout history; the Germans who 'followed orders' in the death camps, the neighbours who turned against neighbour in Bosnia, and so on.