Understanding Online Radicalization: The Jihadi Blogs
In the first part of our series, “Understanding Online Radicalization,” we examined the one-stop shop of jihadi forums.
In the next part of the series, we will examine jihadi blog Revolution Muslim and its successor, Islam Policy. Unlike jihadi forums, which are online warehouses of information, blogs take a more limited amount of data and weave a narrative from the chosen items.
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Revolution Muslim / Islam Policy
Few websites, even in the jihadi world, can claim to have singlehandedly created terrorists. One American blog, the now-defunct Revolution Muslim [RM] site, and its successor, Islam Policy [IP], illustrate the power that jihadi blogs can wield.
If jihadi forums represent a one-stop shop for jihad material, jihadi blogs are the ideological factories that put the pieces together. Although lacking the sophisticated graphics of professional jihadi sites, Revolution Muslim and Islam Policy provided a narrative that justifies jihad.
The group also strived to exploit freedom of speech to encourage al-Qaeda’s mission of destroying the West, although they would eventually step over the line and into the waiting hands of law enforcement.
RM’s message was so powerful that it motivated a secular British woman to become an extremist, and then an attempted murderer. Roshonara Choudhry, an aspiring teacher studying at King’s College in London, underwent a total change after watching Anwar al-Awlaki videos and participating in RM’s forums.
Choudhry’s plot targeted her local member of parliament at a meet-and-greet. While pretending to shake hands with him she stabbed him twice in the stomach. She later told the judge that she wanted to be a “martyr,” and refused to defend herself in a secular court she didn’t recognize.
The key to the blog and the organization’s success comes from its humble origins. RM started as a small collection of misfits in 2007, when founders Yousef al-Khattab and Younes Abdullah Muhammad gathered together a handful of like-minded Islamists to promote the teachings of radical cleric Abdullah el-Faisal. El-Faisal guided the group through online classes taught in video chat rooms, as the group’s small and fringe street dawah (proselytizing) team recruited stray Islamists.
The group’s vocal presence in New York City’s Times Square and outside of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York encompassed more than shouting slogans and passing out pamphlets; RM’s blunt support for the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda, and its affiliate organizations gave it a recruiting edge over similar Islamist organizations.
That’s not to say that RM’s message was much different than that found on many jihadi forums. Revolution Muslim preached the common message that the West is at war with Islam, and that means Islam must defend itself.
But RM’s distinguishing factor was its ability to reinforce these sentiments with Western and jihadi news sources and to connect terrorists to relevant videos by catchy preachers like Anwar al-Awlaki. RM drilled its message home with protests, online speeches by el-Faisal, and chat room sessions discussing jihad. By catching young converts early, RM shaped the worldview of these new Muslims and molded them into supporters of al-Qaeda.
RM was so successful at its mission that it absorbed other jihadi startup blogs, as described in the criminal complaint against Abdel Hameed Shehadeh. Although he was charged with making false statements in a matter involving international terrorism, agents alleged that Shehadeh had additional connections to terror, including RM. Shehadeh created a jihadi blog called civiljihad.com, which quickly became a mirror site of RM.
Seems like any blog or web site that promotes violence, let alone explains how to attack and kill people, should be hacked and forced off the Internet. I’m sure the State Department or the Department of Justice or the NSA can find a few people in their vast organizations to hack into these sites and pull them down. As far as radical “talk” or discussions are concerned, well, that can get tricky. People have a right to say what’s on their mind. As long as you don’t actively call for people to be killed or form an insurrection or a revolt over the Internet, I guess people have a right to say what they want to say. However, that does NOT mean you can’t get other people to go on those blogs or web sites to try and challenge them. Even if they delete your comments, there are probably ways to get right back on to the blog. There is a free speech issue here, but people do NOT have a right to try and get other people killed using the Internet.
Nope.
You do see the slippery slope, right? If they can force such blogs off the Internet, how long before they come for PJ Media, PJTV, Breitbart’s “Big” sites, and Free Republic?
I’d contend that there are already well-entrenched elements in our government that see sites like PJM and individuals like Breitbart as bigger and more elemental threats than blogs encouraging the jihadist mindset.
Why else would a disgruntled Barack Obama tell graduating college seniors last year that they needed to get balance in their news reporting, like…the Huffington Post ? Next thing you know, Barack will be telling you that “cute” little Debbie Wasserman Schultz is smarter than Rush Limbaugh.
Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are the enemies of this régime.
(of course, the panty bomber, the ft. hood bomber & the times square bomber all reportedly had email exchanges with that US born solicitor of prostitutes, Anwar al-Awlaki)
Given that a basic component of the jihadist mindset is a revolt against “modernity”, it is hugely ironic that the movement itself, for recruiting, organizing & dissemination, is utterly reliant on the internet, cell phones et al. and etc.
These guys get a little paranoid, Osama would only use a given cellphone one time and then throw it away, but, nevertheless, all the things cellphones do (including enable remote detonation) have been exploited by these insanely ignorant random slaughterers of human beings ( excuse me, “the jihadists”)
There’s Osama hiding out in the compound allegedly without internet connection, relying on his runner to get his latest egomaniacal statement over to the internet café for dissemination as he clicked away at that rather primitive tee vee, wrapped in a dirty blanket, watching himself in endless loops.
Any ideology that cannot stand criticism or disagreement is totalitarian in nature. Islam is one of those belief systems. Anyone who uses the phrase “religion of peace” without bursting into unqualified laughter needs a psych eval, IMHO.