It's not really a novel excuse. Though it's evidence that the 90s are making a comeback. But it's a bit of a novel excuse for a Muslim terrorist since the usual excuses for Muslim terrorists are...
1. Mental illness
2. Failure to integrate due to Western racism
3. Mental illness brought on by Western racism
So violent video games is a kind of progress. And sure. You're a Muslim terrorist plotting a 9/11 anniversary attacks. It must be the fault of Call of Duty.
Haroon Syed, 19, pleaded guilty to the preparation of terrorist acts Thursday in London’s Central Criminal Court, opening the door for the possibility of life imprisonment when he’s sentenced at a date to be determined.
Prosecutors said Syed had considered conducting terrorist attacks on British soil last year, and the government argued he had been “researching, planning and attempting to source” materials for homemade bombs prior to being taken into custody.
An Elton John concert scheduled for the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attack in Hyde Park and Oxford Circus, a London subway station, were both considered potential targets, according to prosecutors.
In one instance, for example, prosecutors alleged Syed said he needed to acquire a machine gun and an explosive vest for “martyrdom.”
Martyrdom. Sure it's the fault of Battlefield. Not the Koran.
Syed’s defense team described him in court documents as “highly vulnerable,” due to factors including family history, lack of education, addiction to violent online games and the arrest and imprisonment of his brother, a convicted ISIS supporter.
Whose fault was it that his brother was a terrorist? Comic books? Dime novels? Angry Birds? We know it can't be Islam.
“The proper response of the state should have been to engage,” said Syed’s attorney, Mark Summers QC. “[T]o steer him away from the path it was feared he was going down, rather than guiding him down it,” he told the court, Metro reported.
They should have told him he was being a naughty boy and then waited for him to kill a dozen people. It's worked out well before.