Comments on: In search of ‘Richard Tims’ (aka ‘abuislam’)

By: mikkimoose

mikkimoose — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:28:09 +0000

[This comment has been temporarily withdrawn as a goodwill gesture to Mr Jenvey. It may return in edited form later. Tim @ 21:25 03/03/09]

By: mikkimoose

mikkimoose — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:28:09 +0000

[This comment has been temporarily withdrawn as a goodwill gesture to Mr Jenvey. It may return in edited form later. Tim @ 21:25 03/03/09]

By: Manic

Manic — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:08:05 +0000

Phew! We're neck and neck:http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2009/01/glen... *I agree on almost everything (I'm wary of the word 'nutter', especially after so many Tory memes about mental health) especially this:"Glen Jenvey has gone to The Sun with this fabricated story about 'targets', using his own sockpuppet posts."He was probably encouraged by the reaction to this earlier success and wanted more:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article...[*edit: link fixed now the damn thing has rebuilt properly.]

By: Manic

Manic — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:58:20 +0000

I meant to show much more graitude for the time you spent on that, mikkimoose. My apologies. It's rush rush rush here, and all too often I let manners slip when busy. New post to follow with these details… and a name.

By: Manic

Manic — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:40:00 +0000

You've picked up most of the trail I have so far, mikkimoose (I have all of this, plus a name that I hope to use here shortly), and I currently suspect you're right in terms of the Sun's involvement…. but I stand by the description of the 'abuislam' posts as bait.

By: mikkimoose

mikkimoose — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:31:46 +0000

I think you've missed the point somewhat, which is that The Sun article is misrepresented, whether or not abuislam is genuine or not.Post 1:"Asalamalykum, it seems that the time is right to compile a list of british people who support IsraelIt would be beneficial to start compiling a list so that we can write polite letters reminding them of the injustices of israel and to stop supporting israel"(genuine member)A few days later from 'abuislam':"Have we got list of top jews and supporters yet we can target? can someone start posting names and addresses. "It's not bait at all, it's just a comment deliberately taken out of context (and presumably posted that way so it could be). The 'abuislam' comment asking for names and addresses to be 'targeted' is targeting in the sense that you 'target' a letter-writing campaign. There's no suggestion of a hit list at all. The only basis for the Sun's story is this apparent sockpuppet.Regarding 'Richard Tims', here's his only post:http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?p=27488...That site appears to be dead, despite only being setup in July, with anonymous registration.He's posted here asking for SEO help:http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_...And spammed here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.ht...Neither ID goes anywhere though.It appears unlikely that The Sun were involved in this, it looks like this 'Richard Tims' is a freelancer with a crappy website who made a fake story and sold it to The Sun. If he worked for The Sun, it's very unlikely he would have setup such a site (and less likely still that it is down now).He does appear to have an interest in this subject, see spam here:http://lionheartuk.blogspot.com/2008/08/islam-uk….And here:http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mypetjawa/193722...http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mypetjawa/193223...This story has been picked up by a fair few newspapers including The Guardian, but it does appear to be laziness on all sides, plus one dishonest individual, rather than anything to do with The Sun itself.Anyway, I daresay he could probably be imprisoned for inciting religious hatred, or one of the many categories of thoughtcrime created recently.

By: AdamB

AdamB — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:37:19 +0000

Amazing story if we can pin it down to a real person. When I saw this story I thought it was pretty weak even for the Sun, but this is of a different order if it does turn out to be a verifiable sock-puppet.