On a secret app, sick threats of new attacks
‘Shed blood of non-believers’
ISLAMIC State followers yesterday urged thousands of would-be jihadis to ‘shed the blood of the non-believers’ on a messaging app repeatedly linked to terrorism.
The Telegram site – which is used by 100million people each month – has failed to remove IS groups despite repeated complaints.
Users who sign up to the free service can read and post anonymously in secure encrypted groups known as ‘channels’, which have been hijacked by jihadis.
Yesterday, in sickening conversations seen by the Daily Mail, extremists defended the murder of children at Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester, claiming they had instead been ‘sent to Jannah’ – the Islamic concept of heaven – ‘with Allah’. As police revealed Britishborn Manchester bomber Salman Abedi was part of a UK terror ‘network’, Telegram users warned of further attacks.
In one channel boasting 169 members, an anonymous poster said: ‘We will continue to terrorize you and ruin your lives.’ Links to an IS magazine article justifying the killing of innocent civilians were also shared.
An image of an unsuspecting flower seller from Cheshire, taken from the internet by the terror group last year, was accompanied by text reading: ‘Muslims currently living in Dar al-Kufr [the land of disbelief] must be reminded that the blood of the disbelievers is halal and killing them is a form of worship to Allah.’
Another excerpt said ‘shedding the blood’ of non-believers ‘is permissible without exception’. A Telegram channel made up of more than 6,000 IS fanatics hosted comments under the hashtags #MANCHESTER and #MANCHESTERARENA, insisting the attack was in retaliation for bombings on Mosul, Iraq. An image purportedly of a suicide vest was posted in response to IS claiming responsibility.
A caption read: ‘The sword has been swung and in shaa Allah [God willing] it will keep swinging until the head of every crusader is chopped.’
Terrorists have been disseminating information over Telegram since 2015, when the app’s founders were forced to block 78 IS-related channels in 12 different languages. But ‘thousands’ of new channels simply pop up in their place.
Launched in 2013, Telegram aims to be the most secure private messaging service in the world. The app revels in the fact texts between users are encrypted so they can only be accessed from the two devices involved and leave no trace on the company’s servers. This means they cannot be read by security services or even the Berlin-based app’s staff – with firm even offering a $300,000 (£234,000) reward to any hacker who can crack its encryption.
The claims have made it very popular with jihadis, but under its libertarian founder Pavel Durov, Telegram refuses to crack down on extremism.
It has also hosted vile threads urging other terror attacks, including after March’s Westminster atrocity.
Steve Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute in Washington DC, said he had alerted Telegraph to the problem but ‘they are simply not interested in addressing it’.
He added: ‘Groups such as IS can thrive on Telegram and know nothing is going to happen and it’s a safe place for them.’ Last night, Telegram, which did not respond to request to for comment, removed a number of pro-IS channels after they were reported as ‘abusive’, but new channels pop up all the time.