British student's video urges others to join him in 'golden era of jihad'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/28/hamzah-parvez-video-golden-era

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A British student has boasted of joining the "golden era of jihad" and fighting for Islamic State in a new video.

Londoner Hamzah Parvez, 21, claims he has been fighting for the violent extremists for five months and calls on other Muslim Britons to come to the land of jihad and shout Allah".

His face hidden behind a black scarf, showing only his eyes and speaking in a thick London accent, he tells the camera: "This is the golden era of jihad.

"What are we doing sitting in the UK? Sitting in the land which kills Muslims everyday. What are we doing in their lands? It is not the lands for us."

In the clip – believed to be the first footage of a Briton fighting for the militants in Iraq rather than Syria – he urges others to take up arms and join the growing ranks of foreign fighters.

He said there were "jobs for doctors, nurses, architects, builders, even for street cleaners in the Islamic State".

He added: "Are we content with eating Nando's every week? Come to the land of jihad and shout Allah."

Parvez, 21, comes from a stable home in west London, but earlier this year he lied to his family, claiming he was travelling to Germany to study. He convinced them to pay for his trip, slipped out of Europe and travelled to the Middle East where he joined an estimated 2,000 foreign fighters.

In an interview with ITV News, one of Parvez's family told of their devastation at his decision to abandon his home and join Isis – the same Islamic militants who beheaded American journalist James Foley.

He said the swaggering militant in the clip bore little resemblance to the young man he knew as his brother and best friend.

"That's not my brother. My brother doesn't act like that. My brother doesn't call people to do violence against others," he said.

"I don't recognise him. That's just the same body, it's not the characteristic of my brother, it's not the way he speaks. It's not the way he acts. It's not the way he addresses people. That's not my brother.

"My brother, I don't know what my brother is anymore. He's my best friend. He was my best friend."

Parvez called his family this week and admitted he was abroad fighting, but his brother said the young militant laughed when confronted about his lies.

He asked Parvez: "Can you admit that you lied to us can you say it to us that you are sorry? And he said I'm sorry and the way he said it, he laughed. I felt like he didn't mean it."

Mohammad Nasser, a friend of Parvez, has died fighting with Isis jihadists – but, despite that, the young Londoner has vowed to continue fighting.

His appalled family are speaking out to warn against the dangers of radicalisation among young British Muslims. And they are starting to accept the possibility they may never see him alive again.

"He said, 'I have no plans to come home'. My sister asked the question what if your mum or dad died, he said 'I would pray for them'.

"That's when I lost it. I started shouting at him, I started swearing at him – these are your parents, these are the people since day one have been there for you, and you say you wouldn't attend their funeral and why?

"Because you want to serve this stupid leader, this self-proclaimed leader, over my parents."