Jihad and Facebook

| 25/12/2015 | 2 Comments More

Introduction:

ISIS on Facebook

State power is insecure today. Why? There are no interstate conflicts. We have new transnational actors who are becoming the threat number one for all countries. That are terrorists or criminal organizations around the world and have something more important than western states have. They have religious fatalism, fundamentalism and strong will to defeat their enemy. The most dangerous terrorist organizations are those one who are Islamic – oriented because their followers believe in Allah and they are ready to kill in the name of Allah, to be killed in the name of Allah. Because of the Qur’an, they are ready to commit suicide and suicidal attacks. They do not need diplomacy, they do not need money, and they do not need peace. All they need is DIN VA DAVLA – Islamic empire. Without Islamic states, there is no Islam. Therefore, Muslims worldwide have their own approach to the theory of international relations. The world is divided into two parts: DAR AL ISLAM – the state of peace (Islamic states) and DAR AL HARB – the state of war (non-Islamic states). Every Muslim is obligated to spread the Islamic religion and to eliminate all those who are against the Islamic mission. The story about jihad is not so simple. One who reads the chapters Al – Ma’ida („Dining table”) and At–Tawba (Penitence) in the Qur’an, will understand the background of jihad. It is a holy war against the unbelievers and also against the Islamic believers who are not so strong in their beliefs. It is a kind of asymmetric war between Islamic oriented terrorism and western universalism

The face of Evil online

After the events of 9/11, Al–Qaida put itself on the top of all terrorist organizations. It was helped by many others small terrorist organizations and also supported by some terrorist – centered states. We are facing now the same kind of terrorist mentality. For Muslims around the planet, Osama Bin Laden became like hero who is fighting for freedom, for better world for all Muslims, for Islam. It is clear to conclude that many Muslims will be more than pleased to help the Al–Qaida mission. Someone who has money – he gives money for ISLAMIC GOAL. Someone who has no money but has sons – he gives sons to serve in Allah’s name. However, the Islamic goal is unique and Muslims are ready to obtain it as soon as possible.

Rising of Facebook and Allah’s will:

Jihad on Social Media

Within the new communication technology and the great rising of Internet, the large numbers of radical Muslim groups, has intension to use it for their bad purposes, to make good links among themselves and to put their communication on the top.

Now, we have modern way of intercommunication via Internet world: FACEBOOK. At the beginning, it was made as social network to connect relatives and friends among themselves. Not for too long, it became more than social network, it became political network and most of the people start sharing their political ideas and visions. In the shadow of this opened and democratic oriented group of people, there is also a group of radical people who are operating via Facebook and keep going for their selfish and dirty political and ideological values and goals. They are Islamic terrorists or radical Muslims who are interested in getting status of Islamic fighters.

What are they doing? How are they communicating among themselves? What do they want? These three questions are the most important for understanding the problem of abuse of Facebook by terrorist actors.

1) What are they doing?

They are communicating among themselves using Facebook accounts and profiles they have made. They use to have one real profile with their right name and surname and one fake profile on Facebook, with some imagined name and surname. For example: if man’s true name is Muhammed S., his fake name is Allah’s Slave. Noone will recognize him. He will contact with those who are same to him. He will put some typical Islamic photo on the profile, with Qur’an or with some other Islamic symbol. In that way, he will attract the attention of his followers. In a short time, he will have 1.000 friends and most of them will be also with fake profiles. They will have their own line for communication.

2) How are they communicating among Themselves?

As I said, this Allah’s Slave will contact with the people who are similar to him, who have similar ideas and who follow the similar or almost the same ideology. He will build the groups on Facebook, which defend some Muslim things or which present some Muslim goals to the others. Their targets are moderate Muslims who are still not sure who to follow and where to take part in. But, their targets are also non-Muslims who should be convinced to change their belief and to join to Islam, which is presented as salvation for all. Our Allah’s Slave and his friends with magical names like Islamic Warrior or Chechen Lion will make a good circle for intercommunication. Each of them will search for others and that fanatics circle will be spread, step by step, friend by friend. They are not united in peace, they are united in war. They will remind everyone to join to their mission and to show he or she is a right Muslim who deserves Allah’s grace. They will also put interesting clips, news and topics on their walls and make people give their own opinions or they just will put the inviting status like the next one is: Brothers and sisters, it is the shame what our enemies have done to us. We should fight for Islam and for Allah’s name and no matter how many victims we have, we will defeat them.

They communicate among themselves by messages, by posts, by chat. They are online most of the time and following what is happening on the other side. They have comment on every event “outside”, they have solution for everything and they are controlling each others. The truth is that all of them are under the leader feet. Every group of radical Muslims, who are cooperating among themselves, has his own Sheppard. He is always some very well educated person, especially educated in Islamic religion. He has an authority to interpret Holy Qur’an and his opinion is on the top, his suggestions are considered very seriously and his final conclusion is accepted by all of others.

3) What they want?

The main question is: what is their final outcome of this inter-communication via Facebook? What they really want by making parallel virtual world and inviting people to start cyber Jihad? First of all we should know what is Jihad and what permissible reasons are for Jihad. Jihad is special Muslim term for holy war, which could be internal – when man is trying to defeat his own passions and external when the whole Muslim society and civilization is fighting against the outer enemies and for Islam.

Some of thesr Facebook users are trying to start external Jihad rather than internal. They think they are endangered by western society rules, they are not integrated and they are stuck in the crack of globalization. For them, only Jihad is a solution for everything, only Jihad is enough capable to replace these moral dirty systems by some global society based on Islamic principles.

They are inviting other Muslims to follow them. If they do not want to join to them, they marked them as traitors, they threaten them and they could also sometimes find them and hurt them. Islam does not allow the refusal of God’s will and everything comes from God and everything is for God.

It is not a small Facebook community of Islamic fanatics. It is spreading all the time and what is the most interesting, many Christians decided to become Muslims because they are attracted by strong belief and strong religious ideas. Therefore, Muslims on the Facebook very often added to their friend lists people who are not Muslims by their origins but they are without strong conviction of who they are and what they want. It is easy for manipulating and when Muslim fanatics check them (routine checks if they are not spies), they are starting with their propaganda. They have very aggressive campaign of Islamic values and goals so most of the people believe in that. They are celebrating every Islamic victory together; they are reminding people where they will go after death if they do not choose Islam. They are cursing together everything which is against their belief.

They hate the Western world but they use Western products and the fact is: they will start to destroy us with our own technologies/.

Conclusion:

Therefore, I suggest that all of us should be more aware of this security challenges, risks and threats.They will make more and more Facebook accounts for spreading their ideology; they will found more and more Facebook groups for their own Jihad propaganda. Soon, they will organize some conventional terrorist attack by non-conventional instruments.

They believe in Allah but they also believe in good religious propaganda. They know that Western part of the world is not so strong in the religious feeling and they will use or abuse it. Facebook should be more controlled by specific security educated managers. They should monitor every communication under the doubt it calls for Holy War or against the rest of the world. Also, the future FB security managers should mark every person or the group that participate in semi-terrorist campaign. Then follow their activities with the help of security organs of every country where those are located. Only united counter terrorism work will make positive efforts and gives the final good result.

Facebook is the part of the cyber world which has no enough high level of security. Because of it, Facebook is no longer listed as social network; it became a place where lonely fanatics or united groups of radical people are discussing about life and death, referring to God’s (Allah) will.

By Sandra Maksimovic,

MA in Counter Terrorism Studies,

PhD Candidate

Tags: , , , , , ,

Category: ISIS, TERRORISM

Comments (2)

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  1. Pete says:

    Does Sandra know you are copying and pasting her work directly?

    • mikebuss says:

      Seeing as Sarah and I are friends that would be a given! Seeing that her name is credited as author. More of Sarahs work will be added to this website in the future. Along with other authors in multiple subject matters.

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