Fact Check

Katy Perry's Plea for Coexistence Inspires ISIS to Surrender?

A satirical article seized on comments by the singer, which were taken out of context.

Published May 30, 2017

Claim:
Katy Perry's call for people to "coexist" after the Manchester bombing has inspired ISIS to lay down its arms.

On 24 May 2017, the Babylon Bee web site published an article falsely claiming that the Islamic State had officially given up its campaign of terrorism in response to the singer Katy Perry's pleas for peaceful co-existence, in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bomb attack:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, released a statement Wednesday confirming that ISIS would be immediately surrendering its fight to establish a powerful caliphate after viewing an interview in which pop singer Katy Perry said, “The greatest thing we can do just unite and love on each other and like, no barriers, no borders, like, we all need to just co-exist.”

The article, which is intended to be humorous, alludes to comments made by Perry on the Elvis Duran Morning Show on 23 May 2017, the day after a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena killed 22 people.

In that interview, the singer said:

I think the greatest thing that we can do now is just unite as people, as fanbases, all of it, you know? Whatever we say behind people's backs - because the internet can be a little bit ruthless as far as fanbases go - but I think that the greatest thing we can do is just unite and love on each other. And no barriers, no borders - we all need to just coexist.

Perry's comments attracted ridicule in some quarters, with the conservative web site The Blaze's Carlos Garcia writing:

Social media mocked pop singer Katy Perry for politicizing the terror attack Monday night in Manchester, England, and using the horrific event to promote a liberal agenda.

FoxNews commentator Michelle Malkin also criticised Perry's comments as an example of a "limousine, Gulfstream liberal mindset."

Perry's remarks hardly amounted to astute or detailed geopolitical analysis, but they also weren't intended as such. Perry was primarily addressing online conflicts between sets of celebrity fans, rather than offering a comprehensive solution to global terrorism -- a point the singer herself made on Twitter.

However you interpret Katy Perry's comments, though, they certainly didn't inspire the leaders of ISIS to lay down their arms. That story - like everything published by the Babylon Bee - is satire.

Sources

Nwanevu, Osita.  "Today in Conservative Media: Katy Perry's 'Sinister' Reaction to Manchester."   Slate.com.  24 May 2017.

Dan Mac Guill is a former writer for Snopes.

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