Monday 15 June 2009

Sun claims dead Taliban fighter is Villa fan

The Sun's Aston Villain - Taliban corpse has Aston Villa club tattoo is one of those headlines that just doesn't sound right. And once you start reading the story, the doubts increase.

So it is a definite Aston Villa tattoo in the headline and in the first sentence (indeed, in the latter it's 'an ASTON VILLA tattoo'). But by the next line, it says the man in question was 'sporting the Premier League side's lion emblem'.

Now the club badge is pictured here. If the man had 'AVFC' tattooed on him, then the story is probably correct after all. But if the tattoo was just the 'lion emblem' part of it, that really could mean anything at all. Has the Sun never heard of the phrase 'lions of Islam'?

Given that there are no pictures of said tattoo, and the main quotes in the story come from an anonymous 'military source', it all sounds very doubtful, even a bit Glen Jenvey. But hey, it 'proves' the radicalism of British Muslims, and that's all that matters...

2 comments:

  1. Fishy one this, which has also been picked up by the 'I utterly refute that we do churnalism' Daily Mail as well.

    Googling for 'muslim tattoo haram' shows that tattoos are probably forbidden in Islam. Not very likely that a radical would break that - although they may have got one before they became radical. Still, this story smells awful to me.

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  2. Thanks for the comment - glad I am not the only one who thinks this seems dodgy! I note the Mail claims he is an 'unidentified Muslim insurgent'. Do you think we will ever find out his identity? I'm guessing: no.

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