--- title: Bearded Swedish Men Get Mistaken for ISIS Members description: A group of beard enthusiasts say that a concerned citizen in Sweden mistook them for ISIS militants canonical: https://time.com/4070261/swedish-beard-isis/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-12T18:36:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:54.315Z og:title: Swedish Beard aficionados Get Mistaken for ISIS Members og:description: Cops quickly realized that they were bearded hipsters, not terrorists og:url: https://time.com/4070261/swedish-beard-isis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1aeff592b20fa57/698867e9196cf48af00387c1/swedish-bikers.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: swedish-bikers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Swedish Beard aficionados Get Mistaken for ISIS Members twitter:description: Cops quickly realized that they were bearded hipsters, not terrorists twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1aeff592b20fa57/698867e9196cf48af00387c1/swedish-bikers.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Swedish Beard Aficionados Get Mistaken for ISIS Members by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 12, 2015 6:36 PM UTC  Andreas Fransson waves the Bearded Villains flag. Andreas Fransson waves the Bearded Villains flag.Marcus Eriksson by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 12, 2015 6:36 PM UTC A group of beard enthusiasts say that a concerned citizen in Sweden mistook them for militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) when they gathered for an event Saturday. A member of the Swedish chapter of the “Bearded Villains” club, detailed the incident in a Facebook post. The dapper gang was posing for a group photo at the ruins of Brahehus Castle, holding a flag that resembles the one used by ISIS—two crossed, white swords on a black background. However, when the police showed up they realized that this was just a group of well-dressed hipsters, not “30 terrorists waving a ISIS flag” as Andreas Fransson describes in the post. “We had a good laugh with the cops, who had to respond to the call, but quickly saw that we weren’t terrorists, out in the middle of nowhere, dressed in formal wear, hugging and laughing,” wrote Fransson.  The Bearded Villains Jason Mellström—Studio Mellström ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4070261/swedish-beard-isis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4070261/swedish-beard-isis/"},"headline":"Swedish Beard Aficionados Get Mistaken for ISIS Members","datePublished":"2015-10-12T18:36:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:54.315Z","description":"Cops quickly realized that they were bearded hipsters, not terrorists","url":"https://time.com/4070261/swedish-beard-isis/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","ISIS","World"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1aeff592b20fa57/698867e9196cf48af00387c1/swedish-bikers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1aeff592b20fa57/698867e9196cf48af00387c1/swedish-bikers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"swedish-bikers","caption":"Andreas Fransson waves the Bearded Villains flag.","creditText":"Marcus Eriksson","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4070261/swedish-beard-isis/","name":"Swedish Beard Aficionados Get Mistaken for ISIS Members"}}]}] ```