From gangsta rapper to Islamist militant

[lostinblue 1,989]

From gangsta rapper to Islamist militant A German hip-hop artist joins the Islamic State, sparking fears of homegrown terror in his country

By Marc Young 16 hours ago Yahoo News

As war in Syria and Iraq attracts a growing number of Muslim extremists from Europe, intelligence officials in Germany believe a former gangsta rapper has joined the inner circle of Islamists fighting there.

Denis Cuspert was once a modestly successful member of Germany's hip-hop scene going by the stage name Deso Dogg. Now he calls himself Abu Talha the German and is a top propagandist for the so-called Islamic State (IS) caliphate, which is blamed for several wartime atrocities.

His ascent into the upper IS ranks is raising concerns that such "homegrown" Islamists could embolden Muslim extremists in Germany or that they might one day return themselves to target the country for terrorism.

"Cuspert won't come back since there's an arrest warrant waiting for him," Elke Altmüller, a spokeswoman for Germany's Verfassungsschutz domestic intelligence agency, told Yahoo News. "But there's a danger he could incite others."

And as the cross-border conflict in Syria and Iraq continues to rage, it is luring hundreds of would-be jihadis from Europe, including radicalized converts like the ex-rapper. Although the German authorities have said they see no indications an attack is imminent, they are attempting to track fighters returning from the war zone.

Currently, there are an estimated 400 Muslim extremists from Germany in Syria, either directly engaging in fighting or otherwise supporting the Islamists. Altmüller said roughly 10 percent of them were German converts to Islam. According to intelligence reports, some 40 have been killed in the conflict.

That was almost the fate of the 38-year-old Cuspert after he was seriously injured in an airstrike by Syrian forces in September 2013. But he survived, and being wounded apparently helped him win respect among the extremists. He eventually swore allegiance in an online video this spring to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has since declared himself caliph of the repressive Islamic State.

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An archive picture dated May 5, 2012 shows Salafis praying in Bonn, Germany. Amongst them is former Berlin rapper …

Born to a German mother and Ghanaian father, Cuspert grew up in a gritty Berlin neighborhood and got involved in petty crime and gangs while aspiring to become a rap star. He enjoyed some success, even touring in Germany with U.S. rapper DMX. His lyrics in his song "Who's Afraid of the Black Man" document his early disillusionment and violent tendencies:

Doing time in my skin like Tookie Williams in San Quentin/

No identity, where will this end?

In a white world full of hate and illusion/

The last option was only violence and emotion.

But he never managed to make it big rapping, and after a car accident he started to look to radical Islam for direction in life. Over the past four years, he abandoned his music career to become an Islamist poster boy in the German-speaking world, posting videos that encourage Muslims to join the caliphate's holy war.

"I was a sinner. I lived in sin before I turned to Islam. Surrounded by music, drugs, alcohol and women," he said in one recent propaganda video.

Another scene shows Cuspert hitting the head of a corpse with a rock at the site of a suspected IS massacre east of the Syrian city of Homs.

The Islamists clearly see the former rapper's potential in recruiting others in Germany, which has a thriving Salafist scene promulgating an especially dogmatic form of Sunni Islam. The Islamists clearly see the former rapper's potential in recruiting others in Germany.

After two policemen were stabbed during a Salafist protest in the city of Bonn in May 2012, Cuspert used his rap skills to glorify the attacker as "the German lion Murat K." in a poem. And despite renouncing his musical background, he regularly composes Islamic chants known as "anasheeds" in praise of jihad.

According to the German authorities, the man behind the only deadly Islamist attack in Germany, Arid Uka, watched a video of an anasheed by Cuspert before he shot dead two U.S. servicemen at Frankfurt Airport in 2011. Uka's Facebook account was also linked with Cuspert's profile on the social media website.

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Salafist preacher Pierre Vogel prays with supporters during a rally with aboout 300 participants in Hamburg, Germany, …

Two other prominent German converts to Islam, Pierre Vogel and Sven Lau, have chosen to remain in Germany, but they also actively encourage the spread of their Islamist ideology.

"Vogel and Lau went on tour in Germany in 2014 to promote their cause," Altmüller told Yahoo News. "They might not directly tell people to go to Syria, but it's at those kinds of events where young men are approached by others."

She said converts to radical Islam were often especially fervent and fundamentalist.

"It doesn't necessarily mean they would be involved in an attack, but they help create the conditions for one," Altmüller said.

Vogel and Lau have both had run-ins with the law over the years. Lau was even briefly arrested at the beginning of the year for allegedly sponsoring terrorist activities, but was released for lack of evidence. Neither was available immediately for comment.

Vogel is a burly ex-boxer who officially renounces violence in the name of Islam, but he has often drawn scrutiny from the German authorities for his virulent rhetoric at Salafist rallies. He also publicly praised Cuspert back in 2010 for abandoning his music career, and appeared interested in whether prominent Muslim rappers in Germany could be encouraged to help proselytize their fans.

"Pierre Vogel preaches in German. He uses language that appeals to younger people," Prof. Mouhanad Khorchide, a reformist Islamic theologian at the University of Münster, told Yahoo News. "The ideology being conveyed is dangerous. I regularly receive death threats from Salafists."

And Vogel's contemporary, Lau, caused widespread outrage in Germany earlier this month after he organized patrols through the center of the city of Wuppertal by radical Muslims wearing orange warning vests emblazoned with "Sharia Police" on their backs.

http://news.yahoo.com/ex-gangsta-rapper-sparks-fear-of--homegrown--islamist-threat-in-germany-21293781

[GandD 5,966]

Awesome. Lost, I'm genuinely glad that you found this article. Almost a slam dunk.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The guy sounds like a loser who joined ISIS to get some direction in his life.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/28/american-jihadis-douglas-mccain-and-troy-kastigar-from-loser-to-martyr.html

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/18/the-loser-who-wanted-to-be-the-isis-agent-next-door.html

Hint: this is why people say this isn't a religion thing...

[B_J 2,752]

Awesome. Lost, I'm genuinely glad that you found this article. Almost a slam dunk.

This is truly a special article. There is just so much wonderfulness here.

We have a violent black guy, of course. He's also a gangsta rapper. YES!!!!!

Look at his lyrics. He blames his problems on the white man. YES!!!!

Now he's a Muslim terrorist. YES!!!!

At first I was sad that he wasn't from Chicago, but then I realized....he's European. They're blacks are violent just like ours. YES!!!!!

What could make this article any more perfect? Obama

If only we could find out that he came to the US, hopefully by sneaking across the border, and then - with the help of ACORN - he illegally voted for Obama.

I'm going to be happy the rest of the day just thinking about this article.