The Middle East Media Research Institute!

The Middle East Media Research Institute (M.E.M.R.I. - http://memri.org) is an organization that analyzes Middle Eastern media sites such as newspapers, radio and T.V. stations and Internet sites to report what is being said about Political events in the Muslim world.

In a briefing on Capitol Hill hosted by Rep. Gary Ackerman and Rep. Mike Pence, MEMRI's president Yigal Carmon spoke about Islamist/Jihadi websites.

The briefing was based on a study prepared by MEMRI which highlighted the fact that all Islamist/Jihadi websites are hosted directly or through subservers by Western - primarily American - Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

The study discussed the question of what can be done about ISPs that do not know what is in the content of the websites they are hosting. This due to the language gap, since most of these websites are in Arabic.

During the briefing, MEMRI announced that it is taking upon itself a public service by offering ISPs that want to know about the content of the sites they are hosting, information regarding those sites within 7-10 days. This is so they can make an informed decision on whether they want to continue hosting these sites.

ISPs can now access the MEMRI Public Service Guide through a dedicated webpage, www.MEMRIPSG.org and submit their questions.

The briefing included a video of material posted on these Islamist/Jihadi websites.

The following is some of the text of the presentation:

Introduction;

Extremist Islam makes extensive use of the Internet. One can hardly imagine the growth of radical Islam and its jihadi organizations in recent years without the immense reach, impact and capabilities of the Internet.

The threat posed by Islamist websites has recently been demonstrated by three cases: the case of the New Jersey group that planned a terrorist attack on Fort Dix; the planned terrorist attack on JFK; and the attempted car bombings in the UK. According to media reports, the terrorists in all three cases were inspired by jihadist websites.

There were also two recent court cases in Britain and Switzerland in which terrorists were convicted of using Internet sites to promote terrorist activities.

The National Intelligence Estimate recently published by the U.S. National Intelligence Council stressed the following, "We assess that the spread of radical - especially Salafi - Internet sites, increasingly aggressive anti-US rhetoric and actions, and the growing number of radical, self-generating cells in Western countries indicate that the radical and violent segment of the West’s Muslim population is expanding, including in the United States.

The arrest and prosecution by US law enforcement of a small number of violent Islamic extremists inside the United States - who are becoming more connected ideologically, virtually, and/or in a physical sense to the global extremist movement - points to the possibility that others may become sufficiently radicalized that they will view the use of violence here as legitimate..."

The jihadist terrorist organizations utilize the Internet for two main purposes: for operational needs, and for indoctrination and da'wa. (propagation of Islam).

1. Operational Purposes.

The Internet serves as a tool in the military training of jihad fighters by circulating military guidebooks on weaponry, battle tactics, explosives manufacture, and other topics.

An example is Al-Qaeda's online military magazine Mu'askar Al-Battar (The Al-Battar Training Camp), published by the Military Committee of the Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula.

2. Indoctrination and Da'wa Needs

The main use of the Internet by Islamist/Jihadi organizations is in the field of indoctrination and da'wa(propagation of Islam).

The organizations attach great significance to this Internet activity, as evident from the considerable efforts they invest in it.

Al-Qaeda, for example, has an "information department" and a very active production company, Al-Sahab.

Likewise, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) - which is an umbrella organization founded by Al-Qaeda, incorporating several terrorist groups in Iraq - has an "information ministry" and two media companies, Al-Furqan and Al-Fajr.

In addition, there are independent media companies serving the Islamist organizations, such as the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), which denies having ties with Al-Qaeda but has posted Al-Qaeda statements taking responsibility for terrorist acts. The GIMF has also established the Media Jihad Brigade (Katibat Al-Jihad Al-I'lami).

The online indoctrination and da'wa activities are regarded by the organizations as an integral part of jihad, and as another front of jihad in addition to its military, economic, and political fronts.

In fact, they characterize online media or informational activity as a type of jihad that can be carried out by those who cannot participate in the fighting on the battlefield. They call this kind of jihad "the media jihad" (al-jihad al-i'lami) or "the da'wa jihad." (al-jihad al-da'awi)

3. What Can Be Done?

The prevalent view in the West, even among officials in charge of counterterrorism, is that the primary way to fight the jihadist websites is to spread an alternative message, or a "counter-narrative," which is opposed to that of the Islamists.

Indeed, Islamist ideology should and can be countered by alternative messages and it is indeed increasingly challenged by reformists in the Arab and Muslim world.

However, such an ideological campaign is, by its very nature, a long-term effort with no immediate results.

More effective and immediate ways to fight the phenomenon are, firstly, to expose the extremist sites via the media, and thus to inform ISPs and the public at large of their content, and secondly, to bring legal measures against ISPs that continue to host extremist websites and forums.

Exposure.

Experience teaches that exposure is, in itself an effective measure against extremist sites.

In 2004, MEMRI published a comprehensive two-part review of Islamist websites and their hosts. Within a week of the publication of this review, most of the sites exposed in it were closed down by the ISPs that hosted them.

This suggests that an effective measure against the extremists' online activities would be to establish a database - governmental or non-governmental - which would regularly publish information about Islamist/Jihadi sites, and/or provide it to ISPs upon request.

This database would provide a service similar to that of government bodies that inform the public at large on various kinds of threats to its safety such as bodies that provide weather alerts and travel advisories; the Better Business Bureau, which provides businessmen with information about individuals and companies convicted of fraud; or the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control that provides information to banks, which are bound by the regulation of "know your customer."

It should also be stressed that the ISPs themselves have a legal authority to remove sites that violate the law (e.g. the copyright laws) or sites that abuse their own regulations as laid down by the ISPs.

Thus, with information on extremist sites at their disposal, the ISPs should have both the ability and the obligation to remove such sites from their servers.

AND ABOVE ALL ELSE REMEMBER THIS ONE VERY IMPORTANT FACT! EVEN THOUGH THESE GROUPS MIGHT HAVE STARTED OUT BEING "REACTIVE" AGAINST SITUATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM, THEY HAVE NOW TURNED TO BEING "PROACTIVE" AND THEREFORE INVITE ANY RETALIATION DEEMED NECESSARY!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com