Violent Extremism Online

New Perspectives on Terrorism and the Internet

Anne Aly, Stuart Macdonald, Lee Jarvis, Thomas Chen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138498556
• eBook ISBN: 9781317431879
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the interface between terrorism and the internet and presents contemporary approaches to understanding violent extremism online.

The volume focuses on four issues in particular: terrorist propaganda on the internet; radicalisation and the internet; counter campaigns and approaches to disrupting internet radicalisation; and approaches to researching and understanding the role of the internet in radicalisation. The book brings together expertise from a wide range of disciplines and geographical regions including Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. These contributions explore the various roles played by the Internet in radicalisation; the reasons why terroristic propaganda may or may not influence others to engage in violence; the role of political conflict in online radicalisation; and the future of research into terrorism and the internet. By covering this broad range of topics, the volume will make an important and timely addition to the current collections on a growing and international subject.

This book will be of much interest to students and researchers of cyber-security, internet politics, terrorism studies, media and communications studies, and International Relations.

1
“Electronic Jihad”

The Internet as al-Qaeda’s catalyst for global terror

Martin Rudner

Introduction

Al-Qaeda has deemed the Internet “a great medium for spreading the call of Jihad and following the news of the mujahideen (Islamic warriors)” (al-Alwaki 2009). Hence, the al-Qaeda (2015) operational manual titled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants describes one of its primary missions as “spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy.” Subsequently, al-Qaeda’s Twenty-Year Strategic Plan (2001–2020) outlined a seven-stage jihadist struggle for global supremacy, culminating in a Definitive Victory for a renewed Islamic caliphate by the year 2020.¹ Already at the second stage of this Strategy, spanning the years 2003–2006, the Internet had emerged as a key instrument in al-Qaeda’s effort to mobilize jihadist empathy among Muslims worldwide (Springer et al. 2009, p. 76). Radical Islamist leaders underlined their encouragement for what they defined as “Electronic Jihad,” insisting that “any attempt to ‘spite the enemy’ and endorse religion is legitimate” (Atayf 2012). By the current fifth stage of the Strategy, covering the years 2013–2016, Electronic Jihad has come to play an expanded role in pursuit of the declared objective of mobilizing Muslim support for the “Declaration of the Caliphate.” Indeed, the Internet has come to serve as a choice means of communications outreach on the part of al-Qaeda and its regional affiliates, for its pronounced, digitalized multiplier effects on jihadist consciousness-raising, recruitment, training, fund-raising, and operational activities (Weimann 2012; Gendron and Rudner 2012; Rudner 2013b).

The methodological approach utilized in this study of al-Qaeda’s and its jihadist associates’ use of the Internet for the promotion of global terror is empirically focused, and may be described as a “descriptive analysis.” This essentially empirical approach highlights al-Qaeda’s self-proclaimed doctrine, strategy, tactics, and goals as it has evolved in utilizing Internet technology in pursuit of its own declared objectives. These descriptive elements are then accompanied by a detailed analysis of the actual activities that ensured, including incitement for jihad, recruitment, training, fund-raising, and terror operations. Alas, in the author’s opinion, there exists no relevant theoretical framework, in the academic sense of the term, which can explain terrorist motivations and behavioristics in their use of the Internet, and from which one can draw simple “conclusions.” In the absence of appropriate theoretical applications, the empirical methodology to be used here describes, analyzes, and explains actual practices.

The study commences with an overview of the al-Qaeda conceptualization of its so-called Electronic Jihad. It reviews the formulation of this strategy and its perceived role as in the promotion of jihadist aims. This is followed by an examination of the operative elements of Electronic Jihad, including the provision of online library resources, serving as virtual platforms for radical preachers, and facilitating forums for extremist discourse. Consideration is furthermore given to the actual impact of these Internet-based polemics on shaping attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors on the part of Muslim communities worldwide. The study then proceeds to scrutinize how Internet connectivity has actually been deployed by al-Qaeda and its associates for terrorist-related purposes. Detailed attention is paid to their utilization of the Internet for such purposes as inciting prospective cadres to action, recruiting jihadist operatives and fighters, providing virtual training in tactical methods and manufacture of explosives, terrorism financing, and for operational planning and preparations for specific terror attacks. Reference is also made to cyberterrorism, but this will be addressed in lesser detail here since it has been dealt with fully elsewhere, including by the present author (Gendron and Rudner 2012; Rudner 2013b;).

The thrust of the present study thus emphasizes the actionable intentions of al-Qaeda and its partners in availing themselves of the Internet as a catalyst for militant jihadism. By describing and analyzing the doctrines, strategies, tactics, and objectives of al-Qaeda and its jihadist partners, the threat arising from jihadi terrorist use of the Internet could be contextualized. Understanding adversarial intentions should help to facilitate further research and analysis relating to the impact of Electronic Jihad on targeted individuals and communities, and furthermore on ways and means of counteracting its harmful effects in the interests of public safety and national security.

The strategy of Electronic Jihad

To capitalize on the intrinsic capabilities of the Internet, prominent al-Qaeda stalwarts like the late, notorious preacher Anwar al-Awlaki urged followers to become “Internet mujahideen” by setting up dedicated websites to cover specific areas of jihad, such as news about jihadist activities and operations or jihadist literature, what he termed “WWW Jihad” (al-Alwaki 2009). Jihadist websites have come to play a prominent part in propagandizing on behalf of militant Islam, mobilizing prospective adherents, and inciting terrorist actions. Thus, a 2009 judgment by a Canadian court found that an extremist website posted by the Global Islamic Media Front purveyed messaging characteristic of militant jihadism, which was tantamount to a terrorist threat, by way of:

• publicizing and expounding upon the speeches of al-Qaeda leaders;
• inciting people to carry out violent jihad;
• urging people to support jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and its affiliates and al-Shabaab in Somalia;
• disseminating al-Qaeda textual propaganda;
• glorifying jihadist “martyrs”;
• providing advice on computer security, and instructions about hacking into computer networks;
• engaging in psychological warfare by threatening targeted societies and communities;
• delivering military training to carry out violent jihad, including tactics for urban and gang warfare, concealing explosives, executing ambushes, arrests, and explosions;
• webcasting news reports from jihadist battlefronts;
• publishing online magazines like Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad) and Inspire;
• translating its propaganda material into various languages to reach out to a wide audience especially in the West.

Accordingly, the Court held that jihadist websites like the Global Islamic Media Front contribute directly or indirectly to actual terrorist activities.²

The Internet and other related digital and electronic technologies like YouTube and Twitter offer certain unique advantages for radical preachers, jihadist proponents, and militant operatives, as compared to other traditional media. A key feature of the Internet is its digitalization of information, which enables the material to be infinitely copied without loss of fidelity and be disseminated endlessly. The scope and reach of these Internet discussion forums create, in effect, a near-global digital ummah (Muslim realm), linking up potential jihadist fellow travelers from various communities across the Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, and the Americas. The emergence of what some have called a “digitalized ummah” contributes to a homogenization of political attitudes and religious sentiments shaped by a relentless flow of identical messages and images (verbal and graphic) across cyberspace (Kaya 2010). These cyberspace communities, unbounded by territory or civic loyalty, can spawn a virtual radicalism among prospective recruits and neophytes, thereby fostering a jihadist counterculture that challenges the traditional authority of established religious scholars in Muslim communities as well as in the diaspora.

Proponents of Electronic Jihad seek to exploit the strategic capabilities of the Internet and related technologies for promoting the spread of radical Islamist principles and fomenting jihadist militancy among Muslim communities, especially in the Western diaspora. In that regard, al-Qaeda and proxy jihadist websites seem to have had a both direct and more diffuse impact on actual terrorist operations. The direct impact relates to their influence in indoctrinating and inspiring terrorist operatives to mount attacks on specific targets. In addition, these websites can and do have a more diffuse effect by way of motivating jihadist recruitment and training efforts. At a broader community level, these and similar Internet domains may play their part in inciting wider Muslim identification with and support for the militant jihadist cause (Lennings et al. 2010).

Operative elements of Electronic Jihad

The Centre for Social Cohesion, a British research institution, has identified three core Internet-based functions performed by jihadist websites, chatrooms, and social media (Brandon 2008):

Online Libraries: Jihadist websites perform a key role as repositories of archival writings by preeminent figures in the jihadi pantheon like Abdullah Azzam, founder of al-Qaeda, and jihadist e-magazines like al-Qaeda’s Inspire;

Platform for Extremist Preachers: Jihadist websites offer posting of sermons and tracts by prominent radical Islamist preachers and expositors of jihadism like Anwar al-Awlaki, which can be readily accessed through the Internet;

Forums for Radical Discourse: Jihadist websites usually host newsgroups, chatrooms, discussion forums, and newsgroups which serve to facilitate e-conversations among like-minded followers, and represent networking hubs for addressing key issues, planning and coordinating activities, and promoting group dynamics.

(Brandon 2008, Chapter 5; Simon Wiesenthal Center 2010)³

Jihadists and other Islamist extremists make extensive use of the Internet and social media for the dissemination of propaganda, as well as for the recruitment and training of operatives (Brandon 2008; Europol 2009, pp. 13–14, 20). The Internet and social media, for their part, offer radical preachers, strategists, and enthusiasts especially advantageous capabilities for reaching out and influencing, inciting, and motivating jihadist activism at a global level (Taylor and Ramsay 2010, p. 106). Arguably the preeminent Jihadist preacher on the Internet to date was the late Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born and later a high-profile spokesman for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, where he was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike in 2011 (Koplowitz 2013). Anwar al-Awlaki utilized the Internet to purvey al-Qaeda’s militant Islamist doctrine to a targeted audience of educated, English-speaking Muslim youth (including converts), in particular, with a view to fomenting a jihadist struggle “from within” the democratic societies of Europe and North America, a homegrown “Western Jihad” (al-Awlaki 2010). Indeed, his Internet-based guide on “44 Ways to Support Jihad” insisted that “Jihad today is obligatory on every capable Muslim” (al-Alwaki 2009; Moon 2010).

Preliminary inquiries into the recruitment of “homegrown” terrorists in Western societies suggest the particular importance of “religious teaching” as a precursor and trend-setter, more so than, for example, “strategy” documents (Lia 2007, pp. 226–227; Springer et al. 2009, pp. 132–133, 143–146).An assessment by the British Security Service (MI5) discerned that the Internet had come to serve as a more pronounced instrument for the promotion of Islamist radicalization, especially among youth, than more conventional meeting spaces (Andrew 2009, pp. 827–828; U.K. House of Commons 2012).

Jihadist messaging across the Internet, and through other digital formats, may be assessed according to the extent to which they instigate, promote, or enable activities that directly or indirectly facilitate terrorist acts. The actual thrust of Electronic Jihadi messaging may be rated, in ascending order of severity, in terms of their impact on:

• subverting Muslim communities in Western democracies while deceiving and distracting their governments from reacting to the threat at hand (Phares 2005, p. 263);
• cultivating supportive attitudes toward acts of terrorism;
• offering theological justification to acts of political violence and terror;
• providing technical instructions and operational guidelines for terrorist acts;
• promoting direct involvement in preparatory activities that expedite terrorist operations;
• encouraging personal engagement in committing acts of terrorism (Taylor and Ramsay 2010, p.100).

For proponents of Electronic Jihad, probably the most pertinent attribute of the Internet is its potential to affect the mindset and behavior of followers in various ways that help to transform hitherto placid individuals into jihadist militants (Taylor and Ramsay 2010, p. 107). It is indicated that jihadist terrorists are increasingly utilizing Internet-based social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, for messaging and communications (Gertz 2013). Virtual interaction between militant elements through the Internet and social media has fostered widespread radicalization across countries and regions along with the emergence of new jihadist networks (The Netherlands General Intelligence...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 “Electronic Jihad”: the Internet as al-Qaeda’s catalyst for global terror
• 2 The call to Jihad: charismatic preachers and the Internet
• 3 Why do terrorists migrate to social media?
• 4 #Westgate: a case study – How al-Shabaab used Twitter during an ongoing attack
• 5 Violent extremism online and the criminal trial
• 6 Brothers, believers, brave mujahideen: focusing attention on the audience of violent jihadist preachers
• 7 Determining the role of the Internet in violent extremism and terrorism: six suggestions for progressing research
• 8 Grasping at thin air: countering terrorist narratives online
• 9 Narratives and counter-narratives of Islamist extremism
• Index