《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 IS threat revealed to be online prank

TELLTALE: The post featured a mirrored image of the IS flag that bears a declaration of the Islamic faith, which no actual member of the group would alter, an official said

By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday dismissed a Facebook message allegedly linked to the Islamic State （IS） group that threatened to launch an attack against Taiwan next week.

The ministry said they reached the conclusion that the threat was not genuine one day after a Facebook user, identified as “Elias Allah Fifa,” posted a picture on the Anonymous Asia Facebook page, with the message: “You wait for it, Allah will achieve 12/28 Taiwan/Taipei.”

The picture featured the flag of the IS — which the user also used as their profile picture — and a Republic of China （ROC） flag. The user’s Facebook account was already closed by the time Anonymous Asia alerted the authorities, the ministry said.

“It is difficult to trace the account as it has been closed. Nevertheless, people are urged to avoid crowded places on that day” Anonymous Asia said on Wednesday.

It added that it would forward any further evidence to the Ministry of National Defense and local police stations should they become available.

The ministry’s Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Chen Chun-shen （陳俊賢） told a news conference in Taipei that a preliminary investigation concluded that the account was most likely fake, since the pseudonym it adopted bore similarity to a foreign soccer player’s name.

“Most importantly, the IS flag posted by the user was mirrored. As the group’s flag bears a declaration of the Islamic faith that reads: ‘There is no god but Allah. And Mohammad is his Prophet,” no member of the extremist group would ever place the flag in reverse,” Chen said.

Chen said the ministry would still handle the matter with caution and vigilance, and strive to maintain public safety.

He urged people to refrain from breaking the law by fabricating rumors about terrorist attacks by the IS over the Internet, since the group has been issuing actual threats against numerous nations.

Fear of an attack by the IS has been growing in Taiwan since the nation’s flag was featured in a video last month, believed to be produced by the IS, alongside the flags of 59 other members of the US-led coalition against the militant group.

The video threatened to let the “flame of war” burn the coalition members in the “hills of death.”

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES