False perceptions traded upon

Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am

The Guardian reports:

Teenage criminal gangs in south London are calling themselves the Muslim Boys and claiming to espouse Islam in an attempt to gain street credibility and trade on false perceptions about links to terrorists.

The gangs, who specialise in robbing local drug dealers, are alleged to have forced some members to convert at gunpoint and to pray before going out to commit crimes …

Police chiefs say most belong to existing gangs inspired by black American ghetto culture and are using the Muslim tag because they think it is a new way to strike fear in the community.

They also believe it will get them better treatment and nicer food in prison.

And strippers! Not to mention those 72 virgins in the afterlife.

1. They also believe it will get them better treatment and nicer food in prison.

   Then again, maybe not:

   Hook-handed Abu Hamza has been viciously attacked by a fellow jail inmate, it emerged last night.

   Posted by The Mongrel on 03/07 at 05:39 PM • #

1. Then there’s the harmless hog-nosed snake, found on the beaches of Long Island NY, that pretends to be an African Puff Adder when cornered, and then wonders why people kill him, Will Cuppy writes somewhere.

   Posted by rhhardin on 03/07 at 06:45 PM • #

1. Interesting.  I’ve heard it said that the Nation of Islam here in the US specializes in converting inmates.  Now it seems they’ve inspired others to get in on the ground floor of the youth market.  I wonder, is there a cool Joe Camel-type with a leather jacket and a Quran, getting the Youths of London hooked on that Muslim thing?  Should we get the trial lawyers out to sue Big Islam?

   Posted by Nightfly on 03/07 at 06:54 PM • #

1. African Puff Adder?  His last CD sucked.

   Posted by richard mcenroe on 03/07 at 08:30 PM • #

1. Militant Islam as teen fad.  Somehow, though, little crocheted skullcaps and dishdashas don’t seem to have the same cachet as hoodies and do-rags.

   Posted by RebeccaH on 03/07 at 09:16 PM • #

1. Militant Islam?  Who’d want to identify with that bunch of losers?

   Posted by rexie on 03/08 at 02:48 AM • #

1. How soon can the after life come for this lot.

   Posted by raider580 on 03/08 at 05:29 AM • #

1. Police chiefs say most belong to existing gangs inspired by black American ghetto culture and are using the Muslim tag because they think it is a new way to strike fear in the community.

   But as ABC viewers we all know that they are actually using the muslim tag to convey that they are saintly members of a religion of peace who are involved in a peaceful internal struggle to improve themselves.

   Why do I suddenly feel an overwhelming need to take an antiseptic bath after writing that?

   Posted by Jim Geones on 03/08 at 06:55 AM • #

1. We saw this is the US going back to the late ‘70’s.

   One of the most formidable and violent gangs in Chicago in the 1960’s was the P-Stone Rangers, led by Jeff Fort.

   By the ‘70’s, they had declared themselves a sect of Islam, renamed their headquarters a mosque, and the gang was now called the El Rukns. They were finally brought down by the FBI in the ‘80’s for trying to buy RPGs (!!!) from Libya.

   Today in Chicago, the various branches of the Vice Lords use Muslim iconography such as crescent moons and five pointed stars in their street graffitti.

   Posted by JDB on 03/08 at 03:49 PM • #

1. So long as they keep focussing on drug dealers, they can pray to anybody they want. I won’t lose much sleep over it.

   Posted by byrd on 03/08 at 04:46 PM • #