Indian-origin person named Abu Rumaysah was designated as a global terrorist by the United States. He joins the list of other prominent terrorists like Syed Salahuddin and terrorist from Bhatkal, Mohammad Shafi Armar, who have been designated as global terrorists.
Abu Rumsyah – The new Jihadi John
Abu Rumsyah converted from Hinduism to Islam before joining terrorist groups. Before 2014, he was the leading member of a terror organisation named Al-Muhajiroun (now defunct). He had skipped his UK bail in 2014 to meet his wife and children in Syria. Rumsyah went on to becoming a senior commandant of ISIS. He was considered to have filled the position of Mohammad Emwazi (known as Jihadi John). The ‘global terrorist’ designation will make it more difficult for Rumsyah to access resources in order to carry on his terrorist activities.
Media uses his Hindu name to shield his Muslim identity
Mainstream media continued to use his old name Siddhartha Dhar. One wonders if this was done with an intention of shielding his new Islamic identity and insinuate the false narrative of ‘Hindu terror’ implicitly. Following are the screen grabs from portals like the Times of India, Scroll.in, and NDTV.
This reminds one of a previous case where LeT terrorist Adil was called by his previous name, Sandip Sharma, to insinuate the idea of a ‘Hindu terrorist’. Similar to the case of Rumsyah, he had already converted to Islam before taking up terrorist activities.
The “Hindu terror” bogey has fallen flat on it’s face many times. One wonders why then, would the Media actively further that agenda by deceitful headlines. The man who joined terror organisations was Abu Rumsyah and not Siddhartha Dhar. We can only hope that the media learns to stick to facts, rather than half truths.