Andreas Fransson belongs to the Swedish chapter of the Bearded Villains, a brotherhood of bearded fellows who, according to Fransson, "strive to make the world better, by standing up to injustice, homophobia, oppression."  A jolly gathering of these facial-hair aficionados on Saturday took an odd turn. About 30 of them had assembled for a photo shoot at the Brahehus Castle ruins sporting formal wear, handlebar mustaches and trilby hats. But it didn't look that way to a passerby.  Two police officers arrived at the shoot and told the group that they had received a call from someone reporting that "they drove past and saw about 30 terrorists waving an ISIS flag," Fransson said, referring to the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS and ISIL.  "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," according to Fransson.  For some context, here's what the flag of the Islamic State looks like:  Fransson told The Washington Post that nothing like this has happened previously to the Swedish chapter of the Bearded Villains.  "We do charity work where we help less fortunate people and try to spread love wherever we go, with the help of beards of course!" Fransson wrote in a message to The Post. "The idea that we, a charitable organization would be mistaken for ISIS is so profound and laughable."  [Swedish far-right leader says Islamism is a bigger threat than Nazism]  The incident has drawn worldwide attention to the Bearded Villains organization, which is resisting another label: hipster.  "Style and class of a man shouldn't be called 'Hipster,'" the group insisted on its Instagram page. "The Media can be so dumb and people should understand that rocking a damn good beard and keeping class at 💯 means more than a stupid stereotype."  This isn't the first time that people have misidentified flags being waved in Europe as those of the Islamic State. In June, CNN reported that an Islamic State flag was spotted on the streets of London during the London Pride celebration. It turns out that the flag carried images of sex toys. And earlier this year, someone mistook balloons shaped like '21' to celebrate a Swedish woman's birthday as an abbreviation for the Islamic State and reported it to police.  Elahe Izadi is a general assignment national reporter for The Washington Post.
Police responded to a call about potential terrorists and arrived to find a group of jolly beard aficionados.