Recent headlines:

More details on these and other stories can now be found on the new Virtually Islamic blog:

OpenDemocracy.net, “I’d prefer to die in Poland”: Chechnya’s most famous YouTuber in exile faces deportation to Russia 

Said Temsamani, Eurasia Review, Morocco: Interactive Radio, TV And Social Media To Enhance True Values Of Islam – OpEd  

Hadith centred programme promoted by Moroccan King Mohammed VI.  

Jamie Prentis, The National, Russian trolls stoked UK hatred of Islam after terrorist attacks, 1 Nov 2018 

amaliah, #ProtectYoungHijabis the Hashtag Formed to Protect Over 900 Young Muslim Women From One Sexual Predator 

albawaba.com, Do Arab Governments Control Arabic-Language Twitter?

C.J. Werleman, alaraby.com, How do white Muslims experience Islamophobia? Social media linkage to this interesting article/opinion piece.
 

"I'm white and English. I've never faced racism in my life. I became a Muslim, then people would hurl abuse as I was no longer white," tweeted Christopher John George. "I never knew how bad it felt until I was on the other side… it is DISGUSTING."

"His tweet illuminates not only how Islamophobia is a virulent form of racism, but also narrates an untold story of the Muslim experience in western societies today - the story of how white converts to Islam are now considered by some racists as traitors to their race."  

University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UWTSD Academic focusses on Islam in cyberspace with new book release

"An international publication focussing on how cyber-Islamic environments are transforming religious authority has been released by a UWTSD Lampeter based academic."

Tatar Muslims

CJ Werleman, Middle East Eye, How Russia is trying to erase Tatar Muslims Analysis/opinion.

'How ISIS and Russia Won Friends and Manufactured Crowds'

Renee DiResta, Wired, How ISIS and Russia Won Friends and Manufactured Crowds

"The Islamic State built a global brand using the power of social media. Now, Russia is following a similar playbook—and it’s all too easy."

For Russian ‘Trolls,’ Instagram’s Pictures Can Spread Wider Than Words

NYT, For Russian ‘Trolls,’ Instagram’s Pictures Can Spread Wider Than Words "The photograph in the post, of a smiling woman wearing a black hijab, seems innocent. But the text around it was crafted to push buttons. This is a woman, readers are warned, who hates everything from Jews and Christians to lesbians and wine — yet she “complains about Islamophobia.”"

How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine

Guardian, How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine "The Guardian has uncovered how this counter-narrative is propagated online by a network of anti-imperialist activists, conspiracy theorists and trolls with the support of the Russian government (which provides military support to the Syrian regime)."

New report on Russian-speaking Foreign Fighters

Crest Research, New report on Russian-speaking Foreign Fighters "Existing data on Russian-speaking groups and individuals linked to the Islamic State is often inaccurate, according to CREST Researcher Cerwyn Moore and ESRC-funded PhD Student Mark Youngman. They have released a substantive report on Russian-speaking foreign fighters and Islamic State’s influence in the North Caucasus."

Russian ambassador killing

BBC News, Russian ambassador killing: Photographer who captured the scene, 20 Dec 2016

Telegraph, Turkey claims followers of US-exiled cleric killed Russian ambassador

FSB busts internet ring recruiting terrorists for ISIS

RT, FSB busts internet ring recruiting terrorists for ISIS, 11 Aug 2016 " Russia’s Federal Security Service has uncovered and closed an internet community recruiting fighters for Islamic State and propagating terrorism on the web. It also seized weapons and explosives from the suspects during searches in three Russian regions."

iMulla: Tatarstan citizens were offered to invite imam by one click

realnoevremya.com, iMulla: Tatarstan citizens were offered to invite imam by one click, 29 June 2016 online access for Tatarstan imams discussed here: "In general, iMulla is very simple to use. On the home page of the website there are two big buttons — 'Invite a mullah' and 'Find a mullah'. Clicking on the 'Find a mullah', we found a list of 21 profiles, where it is specified what rites and where they are ready to hold them, their work schedule, age, place of work and place of study, additional data. In the case if a user decides to invite a mullah, he or she can order a call or fill in the form on the website with information about themselves, the rite they want, place and time of the meeting. If a person does not know whom to choose, the system can do it for him. The majority of profiles belongs to the Moscow clergy, and the project is mostly focused on the Muscovites yet."

IS Bombards Social Media With Propaganda in Russian

VOA, IS Bombards Social Media With Propaganda in Russian "The Islamic State (IS) is bombarding social media with Russian language propaganda aimed at attracting new recruits from targeted audiences."

Russian researchers develop internet ‘bot’ to hunt ISIS recruiters

RT, Russian researchers develop internet ‘bot’ to hunt ISIS recruiters, 13 Oct 2015 "Venediktov explains the “demon” searches for accounts with possible connections to Islamic State (IS, previously known as ISIL and ISIS) and transfers the contacts to the center’s specialists in Islam and Arabic studies. According to developers the program looks for distorted quotes from the Koran and statements and comments in Arabic typical of extremists.

"The center’s specialists can then send messages in Arabic to account holders and analyze the replies to determine if their correspondents are real terrorists. The center also has a special program that collects all the information about a suspected recruiter’s hardware and software and potentially allows full access of his or her computer."

'IS Babies'

rfefl.org, 'IS Babies' -- The Chilling New Trend Among Islamic State Militants  "Artyom is not the only Russian-speaking IS militant to post pictures of "IS babies" on social media recently. The sharing of baby and toddler photos has become a disturbing new trend among IS recruits who've come from the Russian Federation and Central Asia."

Russia Bans Wayback Machine

Moscow Times, Russia Bans Wayback Machine Internet Archive Over Islamic State Video "The Russian government has blacklisted the California-based Wayback Machine, a comprehensive archive of the Internet, over an Islamist video available on the website.

"The video, called "The Clang of Swords," by the notorious terrorist group Islamic State, was declared extremist by a court in Russia's southern Stavropol region in July."

Chechen Police Declare Meme Encyclopedia 'Extremist'

Chechen Police Declare Meme Encyclopedia 'Extremist' | Russia | RIA Novosti: "In a show of disregard for the Internet’s postmodern irony, Chechen police demanded on Tuesday to block access nationwide to a humorous Russian encyclopedia of online culture accused of “extremism.”

"Police lumped Lurkmore.to together with an online resource on Islamic insurgency, ImamTV, saying in a statement that both are guilty of hatemongering and promoting suicide and drug abuse."

'Forest Jihad' (?)

Al-Qaeda blamed for Europe-wide forest fires - Telegraph  "In linking al-Qaeda to the deadly wildfires, Mr Bortnikov pointed to calls to launch a "forest jihad" by various extremist websites which he said also publish detailed instructions about how and where to best carry out arson."

SalamWorld.com

AFP/alarabiya.net, Businessmen unveil plans for ‘Muslim Facebook’, 1 Dec 2011 "Based in Istanbul, with offices in Moscow and Cairo and coordinators in 30 countries, the site hopes to attract 50 million users within three years, Azimov told about 150 journalists from Muslim countries at the company’s luxurious Istanbul offices.

"“The heart of the project is to create a network without any content that is prohibited by religion,” said [Akhmed] Azimov, a Dagestan native. “To achieve this, we will have a big team of moderators and there will be filters.”"

"Internet clubs of Muslim women"

abna.ir, New Vol. of Muslim woman Journal Published in Moscow, 20 Oct 2011 announcing a magazine: "Introduction of the models for Muslim women, Hazrat Zeynab (SA), interview with a Russian Muslim female activist, Quranic school, teachings of Haj, reality of piety, internet clubs of Muslim woman and Persian miniature are some of the articles of the issue."

Russia

Reuters, Russia concerned about militants' use of Internet, 6 Jul 2011 "Federal Security Service (FSB) director Alexander Bortnikov emphasised the importance of countering the use of the Internet to lure people into extremist groups, remarks that could deepen concerns of a possible crackdown on the Internet in Russia."

Russian-language study of net

Paul Goble, georgiandaily.com - Internet Helping to Define Identity of Russia’s Muslims, New Study Says, 9 Nov 2010 "Aynur Sibgatullin, the author of the widely-respected study on the role of the Internet in the development of the Tatar national movement, has now published a virtual guidebook to the Muslim segment of the Russian-language Internet, “The Islamic Internet” (in Russian; Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod: Medina Publishers, 2010)."

This points to Larissa Usmanov's review in islamrf.ru, Лариса Усманова о книге Айнура Сибгатуллина «Исламский Интернет», Nov 2010 - I used Google Translate to take a look

Obviously, this one is of interest to me and there are some familiar themes - although I am not a Russian speaker. I'd be interested to see any further reviews, etc.

I've found the publisher's page and description here: idmedia.ru, Вышло в свет исследование Айнура Сибгатуллина «Исламский интернет»

Paul Goble's blog is here: Window on Eurasia

Update: I now have a copy of this book, which I am started to look at (using translation software)

"Iranian Cyber Army"

Dan Kaplan, scmagazineus.com, "Iranian Cyber Army" cons fellow crooks with honeypot, 4 Nov 2010 "Maybe the "Iranian Cyber Army" hasn't created a botnet as potent as first believed and simply is trying to put one over on white hats and fellow criminals."