The first two parts of this series covered the two primary website types that jihadists create to radicalize individuals, namely blogs and web forums. The third part of this series will focus on jihadi social media and how jihdaists use Facebook.
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“Islam can dominate, over the world, only by jihad,” says the very plain jihadi website realjihad.tk. It reminds readers that jihad doesn’t have stages, and that “lame excuses” like making a living shouldn’t stand in the way.
RealJihad lacks the sharp graphics, interactive chat rooms, and other tools used by more sophisticated jihadi blogs and forums. Despite this, it has a leg up on its competitors: it is one of the primary links provided on the Facebook page of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistani terror organization.
Jihadi radicalization occurs on a number of sites and is not limited to the dedicated sites, blogs, and forums commonly used by terrorist supporters. Jihadists exploit popular Western social media sites, like Facebook, to radicalize, build contact networks, and pass information.
“All users, to learn all detailed rules related to JIHAD, read from this source,” says a user on Jaish-e-Mohammad’s Facebook page, directing readers to an English-language recruiting site. “All users, plz try to read and understand the rules and virtues of JIHAD, through this weblink,” he states on another post with another link. Likewise, Jaish-e-Mohammad’s reputation for daring attacks on the Indian army and even on India’s parliament provides a base around which social media users rally.
Other designated terrorist organizations ranging from Hamas to al-Shabaab have already taken advantage of Facebook, with their spokesman units and media groups establishing pages dedicated to terror. Popular jihadi forums like Ansar al-Mujahideen and its English counterpart also operate closed discussion groups on Facebook.
Facebook’s terms of use rejects violent content: “You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening … incites violence; or contains … graphic or gratuitous violence,” the guidelines state. Yet terrorist organizations bypass the rules by linking to third party sites and by posting in obscure foreign languages like Somali and Urdu.
Facebook is also inconsistent about applying standards against unofficial terrorist pages. Al-Shabaab, whose media page on Facebook was recently taken down after the Investigative Project on Terrorism wrote about it, can still influence Facebook users through an unofficial page run by the group’s supporters. More specific pages are dedicated to al-Shabaab’s followers in Kenya and elsewhere.
Self-appointed teachers — “ustadhs” — and other young radicals are also creating their own communities outside of mainstream mosques and social groups. “I don’t have sabr [patience] for the jahil [ignorant] Westernized Muslim,” says self-appointed teacher and internet extremist Khalifah al-Akili, in a posting praising Osama bin Laden and criticizing a young Muslim against extremism. “Osama [bin Laden] dedicated his life to Islam and I don’t see why his acts weren’t justified in Islam,” chimes in al-Akili’s friend, Amir Khan.
“Facebook is also inconsistent about applying standards against unofficial terrorist pages. Al-Shabaab, whose media page on Facebook was recently taken down after the Investigative Project on Terrorism wrote about it, can still influence Facebook users through an unofficial page run by the group’s supporters. More specific pages are dedicated to al-Shabaab’s followers in Kenya and elsewhere.”
Something tells me that, now this is only a wild stab in the dark, that any Facebook page dealing with al-Shabaab or its followers should be taken down. I know this may sound crazy, but why does Facebook, a private company, allow any of this stuff on its site? I’m sure that if they did a quick search on their web site for al-Shabaab, or al Qaeda, or the Muslim Brotherhood, or a bunch of other radical Islamic organizations, they would find them pretty quickly. So why don’t they just take those listings down on Facebook? And if those organizations use another language on Facebook, they should also be taken down. If Facebook made a rule to only use a common language, English, that would pretty much solve all of their problems. And, as a private company, Facebook can make any rules it wants regarding the use of its site. So what really is the problem here?
FACEBOOK only responds to reports by other users- if no one complains nothing happens. Since most of us dont join those pages, we can’t see what’s on them and cannot report them.
A guy named David (thejidf.org) has been at the forefront of having these pages removed from FACEBOOK. Instead Facebook banned him for not providing ID, a thing never asked from the other countless ficticiously named characters on FB or the terror groups. Muslims joined his pages and complained, and many Americans harassed him with accusations that “free speech” was being stifled.
Most Americans do not understand the right to free speech only protrects one from CONGREss infringing your speech or being criminalized, and and have not one clue that it does not apply to FAcebook which is a private server with rules against hate speech, and that yo have every right to control the posts on your own pages.
David is now on twitter fighting the same useful idiots, being called names for it and being banned from wiki and Facebook for trying to get terror groups off the internet. A friend took over his Facebook admin duties on his pages, as he can longer log in.
Facebook is indiffernt to these issues and will not self censor. If you see it, report it, that is the only way they will respond. Be prepared to be called a ZIONAZi and have your own pages spammed if you join or reply to any of these Jihadi sites. You may also be reported and banned.
http://www.thejidf.org/search/label/facebook%20issues
there is a cyber and PR war raging, I sure hope our govt is watching these sites. Most of the sites do violate the TOS (tersm of service) of the servers they are on- I got response by reporting a few neo nazi sites hosted on WordPress and other blog servers.
Conspicuously absent from this discussion is any reference to mosque or Muslim clerics. It purports to be about “online radicalization” – well enough – but behind the websites and the ideology of Islam always will lay MOSQUE and CLERIC. Several “new converts” to Islam are mentioned, as if they simply caught a cold one day and then got very sick. Muslims like to stress that the only thing necessary to become a Muslim is recitation of the phrase “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger”. But an individual arriving at such an intellectual and spiritual nadir does not just happen, but is orchestrated and nurtured by a Muslim community, and at the root of that Muslim community is a MOSQUE and a CLERIC.
So also conspicuously missing is mention of the Muslim community which nurtured and encouraged these “newly converted” poisonous mushrooms to sprout? Why no mention of the native Muslims and their Muslim community who helped this human filth become “radicalized”?
I think the author wishes to continue the evil lie that Islam itself is detached from the development of “radicals” in the Muslim community. The author wishes to isolate the Muslim community which spews forth these murderers, ind innoculate MOSQUE and CLERIC from implication in terror.