A teenager admits he had every intention of setting off a homemade bomb at an Elton John concert.
Haroon Syed, 19, was planning to ignite the bomb last year on the anniversary of 9/11.
Syed, from West London’s Houndslow, created the device using a remote timer by following instructions published online by Jihadis.
Related: Gay Club Promoters Sexualize Terrorist Group ISIS In Deeply Disturbing New Ads
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
According to officials, he had his eye on several potential attack sites, meticulously researching details of an Elton John concert in Hyde Park.
Pink News reports the plot was uncovered after Syed was caught online talking to undercover security agents.
The concert took place that weekend without incident.
During his hearing at the Old Bailey, Syed openly admitted he’d prepared a terrorist attack between April and September 2016.
The court heard how’d he’d carefully researched heavily populated areas of London, and tried buying explosives and a bomb vest online.
Prosecutor Thomas Halpin discussed how Syed was learning how “to make an incendiary explosive device”.
“His internet searches show he is searching busy places in London. Oxford Street, upcoming events in London,” Halpin said.
“He is looking at internet searches. Where are soldiers in the UK, London’s top ten most crowded boroughs, Buckingham Palace, Royal Marines Reserve, City of London.”
When police demanded his phone’s password, Syed responded: “Yeah, ISIS — you like that?”
Syed was caught talking to an official posing as a radical Islamist, asking him for “gear” for his “opp.”
Related: Weirdly enough, Elton John doesn’t think Eminem is homophobic
“After some damage with machine gun do martyrdom,” he said. “That’s what I’m planning to do”.
Syed met up with an undercover police officer in a Costa Coffee in Slugh, believing he was his contact.
His defense statement describes Syed as “highly vulnerable due to family history, lack of education, addiction to violent online games, and the arrest and imprisonment of his brother.”
His lawyers are arguing these online conversations were merely a “fantasy to see how far it would go,” and that he never planned carrying out the attack. He’s but a dreamer…?
Metro reports his lawyer said:
“The proper response of the State should have been to engage Prevent to help this young man, to steer him away from the path it was feared he was going down, rather than guiding him down it.”
Syed is pleading guilty now that defense unsuccessfully attempted to have evidence excluded from the case.
He’ll be sentenced in June.
Prax07
He wanted to be a martyr? The courts should grant his wish and do a public hanging.
KaiserVonScheiss
Islamist. Shocker.
Juanjo
Kaiser Von Douche bag has an opinion. Shocker
ChrisK
This kid should never see the light of day again. The Jihadist want to send a message. Well, send one back.
ChrisK
You got to wonder what message the kid want to send anyways. Eltons pretty much loved by everyone. The only he’s going to succeed at is getting a muslim ban in the UK too.
MediaGuy
Wow. I’m rubbing my eyes. Are gays making anti-Islamist remarks? Are you joking? Maybe the days of gays being Islamist ass-kissing Hillary supporters are coming to an end. Maybe gays are getting the message that Islam is coming for us.
Xzamilloh
Newsflash: Islam is already here. What we’ve been seeing from my fellow liberals is this penchant for looking at Muslims as this monolithic brown group of poor defenseless people being discriminated against, and while that is true in parts of the world, and when people in America are profiled and attacked simply for being Muslim or “looking Muslim” (Hindus and Sikhs), the majority of the time, regressive leftists are coming across as defending jihadists and terrorists because of their lack of passion in defending the same archaic practices done in the Islamic world that they scream bloody murder over if a hint of it were detected here in America, ushered in by the Christians.
Don’t forget, Christian = White, hetero male patriarchy and Muslim = brown and oppressed.
Even though both religions are asinine, archaic, and should have died in the desert they came from.
Xzamilloh
So the defense is trying to blame video games as being part of his “radicalization”??? Gurl, I cannot with this.
Prax07
If video games cause this type of insanity in kids then I’d be a thousand times more bonkers after growing up on all the GTA, Resident Evil, and thousands of other games I’ve played in my life. From Colecovision to my Xbone…
natekerchel
Gay men are not exempt from Islamophobia, racism, sexism or even homophobia – just look around here. It is one thing to support the forces of law and order in their task of stopping acts of terrorism – quite another to be resorting to the language of hate and stereotyping. As for ‘do a public hanging’ – we left that kind of behaviour behind centuries ago. And no I am not defending this boy – I am saying we should avoid hypocrisy and stereotyping – things that we dont like being done to us – and start trying to find a real solution to the problem.