CAIRO - For millions of Muslims, the
invitation to martyrdom is just a mouse click away, as
so-called "jihad sites" have begun springing up all over
the Internet offering the latest news, images and
slogans of Islamic holy war.
"There are hundreds
of these websites, and new ones appear every day," said
Egyptian political analyst Hassan Abu Taleb, who worries
about what sites like this could mean for the future of
Islam. "They spread a very negative and incorrect image
of Islam," he said.
Most jihad sites operate as
Islamic news portals or mouthpieces for terrorist
organizations. They purport to expose the persecution of
Muslims and highlight actions taken by Muslims against
those seen as their oppressors.
The sites often
contain "photos and movies for propaganda and training,
including 'how to' instructions on everything from bomb
making to firing weapons of all types, to hand-to-hand
combat," said Brian Marcus of the New York-based Jewish
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which works to fight
anti-Semitism.
"They can also post messages and
videos claiming responsibility for attacks and/or show
the attacks," Marcus said.
One jihad site
recently posted an al-Qaeda strategy paper that calls on
Islamic militants worldwide to "burn the lands of the
infidels into hell". The document identifies Jews and
Christians as its primary targets, describing itself as
"diplomacy written in blood, decorated with body parts
and perfumed with gunpowder".
The Palestinian
terror group Islamic Jihad has its own website at
www.qudsway.net. The site operates primarily as a news
portal, but also features profiles and interviews with
suicide bombers. "God will see you as a knight of
martyrdom," reads the Arabic caption on a photograph of
a suicide bomber.
This site, like many others,
has moved from server to server over the past year. Each
time the site appears, activists petition to shut it
down.
Free-speech advocates argue that the
Internet should be free of any form of censorship, and
Marcus stresses that the ADL makes no effort to censor
jihad sites. Instead, it monitors content and shares
relevant information with law officials and Internet
service providers (ISPs).
"Most ISPs have
well-drawn rules of use, and if a site breaks those
rules by posting something that is prohibited, then a
company has every right to remove the site/content,"
said Marcus. "When these groups are forced to
continually find new places to host their sites, they
are forced to expend time and effort in this quest."
At the forefront of the crusade against these
jihad sites is Internet Haganah. Founder Aaron Weisburd
claims to have facilitated the closure of more than 420
jihad sites using a name-and-shame strategy "to make the
Internet an unfriendly environment for jihadists".
Haganah tracks websites that are linked to
Islamic terrorist groups and their leaders, provide
instructions to would-be terrorists, or promote the
culture of violent jihad. The non-governmental
organization then identifies the site's host,
administrators and participants and informs the site's
ISP about the nature of the website.
Most ISPs
quickly remove the site when they learn it belongs to a
terrorist organization or has content that violates
their terms of service, Weisburd said. "Unlike porn,
jihad sites are not big revenue generators."
But
not all ISPs are responsive. Weisburd recalled the
reluctance of Swedish ISP Telia to remove
www.palestine-info.com, the mouthpiece of the
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
"Attempts to
get Telia to respond led nowhere," said Weisburd. "At
that point, we simply let the information we had posted
about the sites in Sweden 'ripen' until people in Sweden
decided on their own to make an issue of it."
When the local press learned of Telia's
terrorist clientele, it began a public-awareness
campaign that embarrassed the ISP into removing the
site.
"Information is, in this sense, viral,"
Weisburd said. "You put it out there and it has this way
of spreading in interesting ways."
Haganah's
dogged persistence has made it the bane of Islamic
websites, discussion forums and chat rooms. In forums on
Islamic sites, posters urge Muslim hackers to attack the
Haganah website.
"Anything that can be done to
attack a site has been done to attack us," said
Weisburd. "Not that it's done much good. At this point,
efforts to organize e-jihad against us simply become
another avenue for gathering information on the
jihadists themselves."
Weisburd currently is
pursuing www.al-fateh.net, a website that seeks to
educate Arab children on the history and merits of
self-sacrifice. Run by Hamas, the site uses cartoons and
bedtime stories to stress the glory of death while
fighting in the intifada. "The children of stones are
the heroes of today and tomorrow," reads one caption.
The site moves often as ISPs learn the meaning
of its Arabic content and drop it from their servers. It
recently joined the growing number of jihad sites that
have taken refuge on servers in Russia, where ISP
administrators are less likely to drop a paying client.
The official al-Qaeda site, www.alneda.com, made
similar moves until a US vigilante hacker hijacked its
domain name. Anyone accessing the site is now greeted by
the message "hacked, tracked and NOW owned by the USA".
Al-Qaeda's training videos, however, are still
available at www.maktab-al-jihad.com. The slick-looking
site is linked to Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri of the
Finsbury Park mosque in London, whom US officials accuse
of recruiting for al-Qaeda, and whose fiery sermons
feature prominently on the site.
Activists also
are targeting another Abu Hamza site, Supporters of
Shareeah (SOS).
"We are constantly under attack
from irrational organizations like Haganah," SOS
spokesman Ahmed al-Muraabit said in a statement. "We
have faced site closure many times [and] even our right
to use a mailing list has come at a big price."
SOS recently closed its discussion forums
because of constant harassment by "Zionists who
attempted to tarnish our image by making us seem as
bloodthirsty people who want to go on a rampage
attacking the innocent inhabitants of the UK and other
European countries, which don't have much to do with the
war against Islam."
But activists say the SOS
forums were used to promote hatred and coordinate plans
to topple governments with the aim of installing an
Islamic theocracy.
"It seems that one has the
right [to freedom of speech] only if he is pro-democracy
and pro-man-made law systems," said al-Muraabit. "As for
those who seek reform by totally changing the governing
system on Earth, they are labeled as terrorists and evil
people."
(Inter Press Service)
Apr 16, 2004
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