British muslims are being recruited to fight for Islamic State by playing video game Call of Duty, a heartbroken father has claimed. Ahmed Muthana, 57, claims his children were recruited to fight for the Jihadists by playing the violent game. He refused to buy sons Nasser, 20, and Aseel, 17, copies of the first person shooter game while they were growing up in Cardiff.But he believes the men who radicalised his sons may have given them the game to prepare them for war.
Retired electrical engineer Mr Muthana said: “They used to play games on their computers but only football, boxing and wrestling. “They asked for Call of Duty but I couldn’t afford it – but I know they played it away from home. You can’t watch over them all the time. “Maybe the game was bought for them by the same people who encouraged them to go to Syria. I don’t know.” Mr Muthana, a father-of-four from Cardiff, said he fears the boys may have been ‘instructed’ by playing the game which features soldiers shooting, stabbing and blowing up their enemy.
But he said: “The games are fantasies – my boys are caught up in a real situation. It goes against everything I have taught them and the way they were brought up. “I don’t trust my own sons any more and I don’t think I will ever see them again.” Nasser appeared in a chilling recruitment video alongside another Cardiff man Riyaad Khan, 20. Medical student Nasser left Cardiff last November after borrowing £100 from his father and saying he was going to a Muslim conference in Shrewsbury. But he flew to Syria to join ISIS rebels and his family have not heard from him since.
His younger brother Aseel quit his studies at Cardiff Fitzalan High School earlier this yearHe is fighting in Syyria while his older brother is in Iraq where American journalist James Foley was beheaded last week. South Wales Police have removed two computers from the home of Yemeni-born Mr Muthana and his Samira, 53, but say they have not heard from their sons since they left Cardiff. Mr Muthana, who is suffering from a severe kidney illness, believes his sons were radicalised at meetings in the Welsh capital. He said: “Both my sons have been influenced by outsiders, I don’t know by who. I wish they would come back, that’s all I would say to them – come back.”
