INTERNET JIHAD

PART 5 CLICK HERE TO READ ALL

Islam in America Series: Internet Jihad
March 23, 2009
Part Five: Internet Jihad
By Kathy Shaidle
RightSideNews Copyright 2009

During the Islamic terror attack in Mumbai, India last year, tech-savvy terrorists used BlackBerries and Google Earth satellite-imaging to plan and carry out their atrocities.

Once again, the West's enemies were employing 21st century technology to spread its dangerous 8th century ideology. Since September 11, 2001, experts have been increasingly concerned about the rapid growth of the "internet jihad." (also see the homepage for the Islam in America Series) The SITE Intelligence Group monitors YouTube, which has become a favorite platform for the disseminate Islamist propaganda and terrorist how-to videos.

For example, a password-protected forum run by Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra ("Knights in Support of the Invasion") offered step-by-step instructions to radical Muslim sympathizers on how to post videos to YouTube. The same radical group has called for an "invasion of Facebook", the hugely popular social networking site.
Facebook and YouTube have strict terms of use allowing them to remove videos and sites that advocate violence, racism and the like. However, given that Facebook's membership is over 175 million and rising, constant monitoring is simply impossible. Banned users can set up replacement websites under false names. By stripping out trigger words like "terrorism" that will get their sites banned, they can outrun the YouTube and Facebook monitors a little longer.

The web's international reach means that online jihad has no boundaries, making it even harder to police. A recent study by the UK's Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC), called "Virtual Caliphate," revealed that British Muslim radicals are using Internet tools for recruitment, training and propaganda.

Particularly revealing was the revelation that well-known spokesman Asghar Bukhari of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a regular media guest and "moderate" Muslim, was using Facebook to "openly glorify terrorism" and post anti-semitic screeds.

Other experts warn of Hezbollah's use of Israeli soldiers' Facebook account information as a source of intelligence, and a possible way to trick soldier's into meeting a Facebook "friend" in person who turns out to be a Hezbollah terrorist.
Meanwhile, a pro-Israel Facebook group page called "I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel," was hacked and defaced by a pro-Hizballah group calling itself "Lebanese Shee'a Hackers."

Because Facebook is so ubiquitous, it has actually been used by investigators to track down jihadists. Earlier this month, the FBI looking for a group of Somali immigrants to who left Minneapolis to join an overseas terrorist group were tracked down through their Facebook pages.

As one expert told FoxNews.com, sites like Facebook can help spread radicalism, but that shouldn't "overshadow all the ways it has helped to stop radicalism. The benefits far outweigh the risks, and we are doing all we can to [mitigate] the risks."
Marc Lynch agrees. The author of Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today) blogs at Foreign Policy Magazine online, and is an expert on the use of modern information technology by Islamic terrorists.

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