Man being shamed on Facebook as member of IS; He fought against them

[lego 44,165]

This Facebook post has now been shared nearly 80,000 times.

 

However, as the BBC reported, the man in the pictures is not a member of ISIS. The broadcaster pointed out that he was profiled last month by the Associated Press.
His name is Laith Al Saleh. He used to be a plasterer in Aleppo.

And far from being a former member of ISIS, he used to be a member of the Free Syrian Army – he actually used to fight against ISIS.

He told the Associated Press:

About 70 percent of the city is destroyed … In Syria, Al Qaeda want me, Daesh (Islamic State), the government – I fought them all. I don’t care. Some people are afraid. I’m not.
He was interviewed by the agency on the Greek island of Kos. He was trying to get to the Netherlands.

Al Saleh told the AP he had got to Kos by crossing the Syrian border with Turkey, taking a bus to Bodrum, and then getting on a cramped boat operated by people-smugglers, which cost him $1,000.

He also said that the people on Kos “hate us”. “I don’t know why. We come here on our way, not to stay here… We slept on the ground in the parks, in the stadium, nobody helped us to get a place to sleep, water or food,” he added.

The man who uploaded the picture apologised for the mistake to the BBC. However, he said he had been locked out of his account. At the time of writing, the mega-viral post remains live.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/a-viral-facebook-post-claims-a-refugee-was-a-member-of-isis

 

this comment

Alex Panayotopoulos
So when the Syrian people don't take up arms and fight, right-wing commenters call them cowards. When they do, they're misidentified as being in IS. Great Catch-22 we've got going on here.

 

True.

 

 

[Red 99,108]

That's how media works, they take something and change its context the way they wish to fit their needs.

[Didymus 34,380]

Schools really need to start educating young people on how it's not ok to just look at a picture, read the text under it and assume it's true without any source/confirmation whatsoever.

It's like people want to be stupid sometimes.

Reminds me very much, on a less dramatic scale of course, of all the GGD members (willfully) believing obviously fake articles about Rihanna and Adele to name two recent ones

[Red 99,108]

Schools really need to start educating young people on how it's not ok to just look at a picture, read the text under it and assume it's true without any source/confirmation whatsoever.

It's like people want to be stupid sometimes.

Reminds me very much, on a less dramatic scale of course, of all the people (willfully) believing obviously fake articles about Rihanna and Adele to name two recent ones

Reminds me of that viral picture of the baby inside the womb "holding the hand of the doctor that was about to perform an abortion in a prayer for help his struggle to stay alive" when in reality it is a intra-uterine surgery to fix spina bifida

[Pop 4,541]

People are ignorant, racist and disgusting. 

[SychosSoChic 9,995]

Not these idiots getting paranoid and scared and giving ISIS EXACTLY WHAT IT WANTS  

I mean for the love of God can we please have a show of unity and courage for once?  

Must these idiots run to Facebook to slander a man who did much more against ISIS than they ever will, without making sure first?  
I mean Jesus H Christ, this is why Natural Selection is a thing