A popular Internet meme asserting to show an ISIS fighter fleeing Syria to Birmingham but actually depicts popular US rapper and actor Ice Cube is doing the social media rounds, and apparently fooling more people than you would think.
The image features the actor on a kayak with the caption “fleeing Syria” and an image overlaid directly below features him with an AK-47, apparently in the UK city of Birmingham, with the caption “Ready for War”.
The text that goes along with the image (below) reads –
This Muslim convert ISIS Soldier is pictured here on a boat crossing from Syria into Greece on 23/08/15. The second picture is the same Muslim convert ISIS Soldier pictured in a block of high rise flats in Balsall Heath, Birmingham on 13/09/15. They’re here. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
The meme image itself –
Of course the image is meant as a joke as opposed to a deliberate attempt to fool those who see it. There have been so many incorrect or inaccurate nonsense floating across the Internet with an anti-refugee, extremist right wing agenda, that this meme is simply an amusing parody.
But it seems many are a little too eager to believe the propaganda, and as a result have made themselves look a little foolish (if they hadn’t done so already) by sharing it on their social media accounts along with worried comments.
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“A warning for those living nr Balsall Heath” wrote one worried commentator on Twitter, and another wrote “Yet another here already, its begun.”
The person who posted the image on Facebook, Micky Williams, claimed in a Facebook post that while many Muslims got the joke, many Britain First supporters (a right wing organisation in the UK) were outraged. Williams estimated that around 10% of people reposted the image in disgust.
It’s another example of how willing people are to share unverified nonsense providing it fits in with their pre-conceived ideologies. Many of us tend to express significant scepticism when presented with content that challenges our beliefs, yet the opposite is true when the content supports them.
At least in this case we hope there are a few racists out there feeling pretty stupid right now because of this.
