Internet Jihad

Internet Map

Charting the pathway to radicalization?

(Image from Wikipedia)

One of the students in my Islamism class is looking into the role that the internet plays in spreading radical Islam, so this issue has been on my mind lately.

I therefore noted what Philip Bobbitt writes concerning this point in his recent book, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008):

E-mail is heavily relied upon by market state terrorist groups, using cybercafes and discarding e-mail accounts after only a single use to avoid detection. Doctrine and strategy are debated through online discussion groups and chat rooms. A Saudi interior ministry spokesman estimated that the Internet is responsible for 80 percent of the recruitment of youths for the jihad.[116] Photographs are shared -- the Abu Ghraib prison pictures were instantaneously provided worldwide -- and responsibility for attacks may be claimed. Most of all, perhaps, the diverse rage of many hundreds of thousands is channeled rather than dissipated. Often overlooked is the participatory dimension of the Web: it's not just that the Internet allows remote leaders to reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of otherwise inaccessible persons, it's that it allows these alienated, often isolated people to speak back, to receive encouragement and reassurance as they separate themselves from society. "Islamists view themselves as fighting a global war to create or restore the big Islamic nation without borders or nationalism, and the Internet is the best tool for building their virtual ummah."[117] (pp. 56-57)

The important factor here is "not just that the Internet allows remote leaders to reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of otherwise inaccessible persons, it's that it allows these alienated, often isolated people to speak back, to receive encouragement and reassurance as they separate themselves from society." In other words, the internet does not serve simply as a medium of communication; it serves as a means of radicalization. It contributes to the creation of an Islamist identity among multitudes of young, alienated Muslims by encouraging their radicalization and a sense of belonging to a powerful, global movement destined to conquer the world.

Each of us who uses the internet has discovered this fact, namely, that it enables us to 'find ourselves' in ways that we previously could not, for we locate communities of like-minded individuals and 'radicalize' one another by obsessing upon issues that have grabbed us.

Not that every internet user gets trapped in a Mobius loop of increasing radicalization till utterly enclosed within the Klein bottle of an alternate universe of discourse . . . but some do.

Notes:

[116] Abdul-Rahman al-Hadlaq, supervisor of the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry's Good Counsel Committee, quoted in Asharq al-Aswat (2 May 2007), cited in "Saudis Claim Internet Responsible for 80 percent of Jihadi Recruitment," Terrorism Focus 4, no. 13 (8 May 2007).

[117] Reuven Paz, quoted in Corine Hegland, "Global Jihad," National Journal 36, no. 19 (2004), 1402.