Circulation of these images online has added to the issues surrounding the prison 'scandal(s)', which is summarised in this article: TIME.com: How the Prison Scandal Sabotages the U.S. in Iraq

Islamic Concern is a vegetarian-oriented 'Islamic' site, containing fatwas on meat-eating. I haven't read this in depth, but it contains an interesting variety of material on animals and Islam.Islamic Concern: Animals in Islam

DenverPost.com - Al Qaeda's Great Escape by Philip Smucker

INDOlink - US News - US Reprimands Six Soldiers For Iraq Abuses

"The pictures prompted a furious reaction in the region's press and internet sites.

"The Scandal", was the headline Egypt's Akhbar el-Yom newspaper splashed across its front page above photographs of smiling US soldiers posing by naked and hooded inmates.

Al-Wafd, an opposition paper, displayed similar photos beneath the words "The Shame!"

Individual sections of the Annual Report from Reporters sans frontieres have references to the internet: I have not read the entire report yet.Reporters sans frontieres - Worst record of press freedom

AP/Haaretz/FrontPage magazine.com :: Al-Qaida Targets Israel with Chemical Bomb by Associated Press "The [allegation] that there was a chemical bomb to kill thousands of people is a mere lie," the reported voice of al-Zarqawi says on a tape broadcast via an Islamic site on the Internet."

AP/The Houma Courier, France Targets Imams to Rein in Terrorism non-tech, but themes to (some) web content

Seatlle Post-Intelligencer, Idaho student's trial gets technical "Internet registration documents were introduced yesterday tying University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen to a number of Web sites that prosecutors claim were part of a network promoting terrorism."

ABCNEWS.com : War Game: Palestinian Kids' Intifada Cards "It's called the "Intifada Album," named after the three-year, Arab uprising in the occupied territories. Its producers say it is the only thing that Palestinian children can identify with now"

Jerusalem Post, Hamas expected to boost online activities "It was the globalization and free trafficking of ideas and information spread by the Internet that allowed Al-Qaida to learn Hamas Internet
techniques and Hamas to study Al-Qaida's ideology, according to ICT senior researcher col. (res.) Yoni Fighel." ICT = International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in
Israel.

Mirror.co.uk - 'THEY'RE NOT FIT TO WEAR QUEEN'S UNIFORM': "Adbel Barri-Atwan, editor of Arab newspaper Al Quds, said: 'It's the best PR campaign possible for organisations such as al-Qaeda.'

"Former RAF navigator John Nichol, who was held in jail during the first Gulf War, told ITV News: 'We went to Iraq to stop torture and here we see US soldiers taking pleasure in the humiliation and degradation of the Iraqi people we went to liberate. It's disgusting.'"

BBC NEWS | UK | Disgust over Iraq torture photos also see the graphic account in The Mirror , Shame of Abuse by Brit Troops

Islam-Online includes in its pages today, co-incidentally, a section about the treatment of prisoners and an interview wtih a would-be suicide bomber. It will be interesting to see how they react to the Iraqi prisoner photos (no coverage at the time of blogging).

There is also an announcement of a 'new' Qaradawi initiative:

"An all-inclusive world union of Muslim scholars across the globe is to be created soon, with the aim of preserving the Islamic identity, promoting religious awareness, confronting "destructive trends" and giving advice to leaders of Muslim countries."

TheStar.com - Arab TV shows images of humiliation

These pictures have also appeared on the internet, on al-Jazeera and other sites.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Bush 'disgusted' over Iraq abuse

Aljazeera.Net - Outrage at US abuse of Iraqi prisoners

kgw.com | News for Oregon and SW Washington | AP Wire, Al-Hussayen recommends donations to targeted charity more on Sami Omar Al-Hussayen's case:

"The government claims Al-Hussayen used his key role in the Islamic Assembly of North America, which created Help The Needy, to set up an Internet network that financed and recruited terrorists. "

Daily Times, US praises Pakistan’s anti-terror efforts refers to Lashkar-e-Taiba's use of net as a fundraising tool; also refers to other groups

AP/Indiana Printing & Publishing Co., al-Qaida Operative: Jordan Attack Planned: "A man identified as al-Qaida operative Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi conceded on an audiotape broadcast Friday that Jordanian authorities thwarted a plot to blow up their secret service building, but said his group didn't have a chemical weapon as police claimed." tape also broadcast via net.

Female comedian outrages high profile mullah by lifting him off the ground | CP - Scene_1 refers to Mullah Krekar, who has been covered in this blog before in relation to al-Ansar al-Islam and alleged web activities

arabnews.com, Jeddah Group to Launch Biggest Islamic e-Library

This article refers to www.al-islamforall.com, whose site features the translation of the Qur'an by Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi, together with many of his other works. Other (related) writers are listed - such as Khurram Murad and Ahmad Von Denffer - but not all the hyperlinks of authors and titles lead to functional pages, which is frustrating. The site offers downloadable books too. Here's one of the gifs from the site, illustrating some of its authors:

Lincoln Journal Star, Canadians allow Islamic courts to decide disputes

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > World -- Shattered mosque walls, bloodied Quran reminders of Thailand's day of violence

useful summary on the current situation in Syria (no specific tech link): AP/Pioneer Press | 04/29/2004 | Syria attack may signal return of militant Islam

Hi Pakistan, Khatami admits to ‘signs of despotism’ in Islamic regime: "... Khatami did defend a recent move to increase the filtering of certain Internet sites to web users in Iran. Most of those blocked are pornographic or run by exiled opposition activists. 'Our society has moral foundations and the sites that are immoral are filtered,' he said. 'We do not block access to political sites, although we will not allow political sites seeking to overthrow us.' "

E-translators: the more you say, the better | csmonitor.com: "The US military is using a one-way translation device called Phraselator to communicate with Iraqis. It translates English phrases aloud."

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Al-Qaida warning by Saudi Arabia's most wanted man more on statement by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin (allegedly).

Aljazeera.Net - At least 100 dead in southern Thai clashes non-tech, but significant. Thai Muslim organisations have a web presence too, for example MuslimThai.com

Guardian Unlimited Film | News | Film mocking the mullahs is a hit in Iran: "The Lizard, which tells the story of a thief who escapes prison by posing as a cleric, has struck a chord in a society where satirising mullahs has long been strictly taboo. "

Yahoo! News - Kurds' success provides lesson for rest of Iraq: "Just over 45% of the university students are women. Males and females study side by side. Internet use is free to all students. There is no censorship or political influence on campus. "

Region's academia meet in Dubai on future technologies - AME Info Business News Microsoft Research Academy meeting

Scotsman.com News - International - 'Al-Qaeda' tape warns of attacks "The tape, purported to be by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, was broadcast through a link on the Dirasat Islamic website, which carries statements said to come from senior al-Qaeda and Taleban officials."

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | How email became a diplomatic incident this refers to the diplomats' letter published yesterday:

"The letter signed by the 52 former British diplomats originated a long way from the London dinner circuit, far from the Arab embassies, the Travellers Club in Pall Mall and other haunts of the ex-Foreign Office establishment. Instead, it can be traced to Tripoli, to an internet cafe near the Katib (Grand) Hotel. "

Tehran Times, Serious Measures Needed to Determine Imam Musa Sadr’s Fate: Nephew refers to Musa Sadr's disappearance: "Tabataba'i [Sadr's nephew] also mentioned that Sadr's family had established an internet site in order to familiarize the youth with Imam Musa Sadr."

IHT: Web master faces the Patriot Act more on the al-Hussayen case (below)

SITE Institute, Terrorism Headlines, Judge indicates he will limit government evidence against Al-Hussayen
: "A federal judge has taken under advisement a request by prosecutors to show jurors an Internet Web page they say was built by defendant Sami Omar Al-Hussayen and encourages suicide bombings."

MEMRI: Liberal Muslim Scholar: The Term 'Jihad' is Misunderstood by Islamist Clerics

"In an article in the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at the University of Qatar, stated that modern Islamic Fatwas (religious legal opinions) distort the meaning of Jihad to justify an aggressive ideology."

Not sure abut the application of the term 'liberal' here - there are some interesting media references.

BBC NEWS | Wales | South East Wales | Muslim 'rock star' on terrorism

Are Jihadis Planning To Attack English Yahoo Groups And Other Sites? - Jeremy Reynalds refers to www.ikhwan.net/

TCS: Tech Central Station - Saudo-Masochism Understood: "Dissident Saudi subjects with whom I meet frequently, and who have bravely smuggled my book, The Two Faces of Islam, into the kingdom, also possess satellite dishes and have access to the internet. "

Times Online - Abu Hamza 'supports five terror groups': "The extremist Muslim preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri supports five international terror groups including al-Qaeda, a court heard today."

Times Online - E-mail from sister 'encouraged brother in Israel attack': "The sister of a would-be suicide bomber who targeted an Israeli bar actively encouraged him to carry out the attack, an Old Bailey court heard today."

Independent: "Rape, torture, and one million forced to flee as Sudan's crisis unfolds. Will we move to stop it?" inbetween the other headlines, I'm curious to see how much coverage this issue will receive online. This is not a tech story, but essential reading nevertheless.

Serious About News: Luton, Muslim disowned by his own more on Sayful Islam and al-Muhajiroun's Luton manifestation

The Star Online: Lifestyle This is a review of a new book: Edmund Terence Gomez (ed.), The State of Malaysia – Ethnicity, Equity and Reform (Routledge Curzon) which contains a chapter by Jason Abbot (“The Internet reformasi and democratisation in Malaysia”) . It is a subject I have referred to in my own work, so I'll be interested in reading something in more detail.

Wired News: Madrasas Slowly Warm to Computers I was interested to see this, especially as - several years ago - I did some research work at Jamia Ashrafia. The madrassah is referred to in the article.

thisislondon.co.uk, Hamza's suicide bombings call allegations regarding Abu Hamza, whose staements also appear online.

BBC NEWS | UK | UK extremism threat 'growing'

Sacked for photo Americans weren't meant to see - SpecialsWarOnIraq - www.smh.com.au the photo now has a wide net circulation

Energy blackout bomb: architect accused - SpecialsAustraliaonGuard - www.smh.com.au: "Central Local Court heard yesterday that ASIO had observed Lodhi, an architect, dumping documents in a bin. The retrieved material had included photographs downloaded from the internet showing the layout of the Sydney-based military facilities Holsworthy Army Base, Garden Island Naval Base, Victoria Barracks and the HMAS Penguin base in Balmoral. "

Forbes.com: In cyberwar game, US Army confronts enemies within: "The mission: to secure an entire computer network for the United States and its allies against a vague enemy force. "

Tracking the Threat, Al Haramain Brigades entry refers to stories below.

Hi Pakistan, Saudi group claims responsibility for Wednesday's attack
"A Saudi militant group, Al Haramain Brigades, has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's bombing in Riyadh. In a statement on the Internet, it said: "Al Haramain Brigades in the Arab peninsula succeeded in bombing the command headquarters of emergency and anti-terrorism forces of the Interior Ministry.""

CNN.com - Saudi crackdown: 5 militants dead - Apr 23, 2004 "The group, called The Brigade of the Two Holy Shrines, has claimed responsibility for two other attacks in Saudi Arabia, both of them assassinations of security forces.

"The claim for the bombing was posted Thursday on a Geocities Web site and on a number of Islamist Web sites, according to Paul Eedle, a specialist on al Qaeda's use of the Internet."

Daily Times - www.quienmeayudo.com discusses http://www.quienmeayudo.com, a support website for Madrid bomb victims.

More on the al-Hussayen case. I should point out that http://www.qoqaz.com remains an active site. I discuss it in Islam in the Digital Age:

kgw.com | News for Oregon and SW Washington | AP Wire: "Bobby Lee, an engineering manager for Yahoo!, submitted activity logs and message details that showed Al-Hussayen served as a moderator of the group http://www.qoqaz.com, an Arabic language Web site carrying information on the activities of Muslims in Chechnya and the rest of the Caucasus region. The site is organized by Yahoo! "

There's a review of 'Islam in the Digital Age' in The Muslim World Book Review 24:3, 2004, 34-37. More information on reviews can be found via my main pages.

On the subject of the photo-mosaic software featured in yesterday's blog, I think that the concept can be extended to a broad range of 'personalities' and individuals -- including some that are discussed in 'cyber Islamic environments'. Suggestions welcomed!

OCCRi - Oxford Cross Cultural Research Institute this is a new site, consequently many areas are in development. Main content at present is 'Hijab and Spin', which focuses on dress-code discussions.

Aftenposten Norway, Norwegian news in English: "Mullah Krekar, former leader of the militant Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam, presents his book 'Med egne ord' - In My Own Words - at a press conference on Thursday. The autobiography includes a series of shocking revelations, including the admission that Krekar tried to get funding from Osama bin Laden, newspaper VG reports."

pravda.ru, Chechens are promised Heaven for killing Russians - PRAVDA.Ru

The Sun, Mad Mullah Of Suburbia Focuses on the Luton branch of al-Muhajiroun - and the response of local Muslims. Particular attention is paid to Sayful Islam, al-Muhajiroun's local leader

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Sarfraz Manzoor: The benefits of being a British Muslim

The New York Times > International > Middle East > Basra Toll Is Lowered to 50, Including 20 Children

The New York Times > Technology > Many Started Web Logs for Fun, but Bloggers Need Money, Too some interesting basic info on blogging -- no specific Islamic link, although I have been writing recently about Muslim blogs for forthcoming publications.

Asia Times - Why Islam baffles America opinion-piece, that includes references to al-Sistani's website

Traitor. Hero. Fool. Whistleblower. (washingtonpost.com) Vanunu's release, and the restrictions placed on his activities (including no net chat).

KBCI 2 Boise, Idaho, Sami Al-Hussayen's Role In Web Site Questioned: "A manager for an Internet company told jurors today Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen was in the position to control content on a Web site prosecutors claim was used to foster terrorism."

Independent, The mosaic of war: faces of the fallen, portraits of their leaders; Protester made Bush image from US dead. 'The Independent' has done the same for Tony Blair refers to photo-mosaic appearing on the American Leftist site -- to locate it, scroll down to April 7 'War President' entry.. The Independent's Blair version doesn't seem to be online at present.

For information purposes, here's a copy of the Bush version:



American Leftist -- 'War President'

NPR : Terrorism And The Internet: "Gabriel Weimann discusses his study How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet. Weimann argues that cyberterrorism is an exaggerated threat. He says terrorist groups are enjoying much more success in recruiting and fundraising online." links to audio broadcast.

nzherald.co.nz, Saudi car bomb kills at least 10 internet link to story

Bloomberg.com, France Deports Lyon Islamic Cleric for Defending Wife-Beating:

Bloomberg.com, Rafsanjanis Are Iran's Power Brokers as Investors Seek Oil

HoustonChronicle.com - Malkin: No patience for 'hindsight hypocrites' opinion piece

washingtontimes.com, FBI said buried by security demands This is cited by the article by mensnewsdaily.com below:

"Even after warrants are approved, the FBI often doesn't have enough agents or other personnel with the expertise to conduct the surveillance. And the agency still is trying to build a cadre of translators who can understand conversations intercepted in such languages as Arabic, Pashto and Farsi."

mensnewsdaily.com, While Terror Site Goes Down, Another Yahoo Group Advises Muslims to Waste FBI Time, Resources

Hermitage Rooms, Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands - Islamic Art from The State Hermitage Museum and The Khalili Collection web site devoted to a new exhibition, which I am looking forward to seeing in due course.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Internet driving hate site surge refers to report from the Wiesenthal Centre

Salaam, Islam in the Digital Age review of my book by M. Afifi

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Mob mentality interview with Howard Rheingold, who discusses 'Smart Mobs'.

Guardian Unlimited | Hamas ready to cooperate, but only in Gaza: "Despite almost constant vows of revenge by mourners since the death of its leader, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, senior officials want to continue discussing with the Palestinian Authority how Hamas could take a political role when and if Israel evacuates 18 settlements in the strip and withdraws its troops.

Star-Ledger/AP, Islam scholars' Catch-22 Old Timbuktu texts have been digitised for preservation of their knowledge; they present an alternative West African perspective on Islam, but there are tens of thousands that require conservation and preservation for future generations.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - Saudi Islamic doctrine hard to controlt: "To gauge how conservative Saudi society is, look at the Internet chatter swirling around Education Minister Mohammed al-Rasheed. He's 'secular,' it is claimed. He 'took women to Beirut,' a city religious hard-liners see as a cesspit of Western liberal ways."

Ample - Various attacks being planned against London - Islamic group:

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'The Hamas way has emerged victorious' media round-up with URLs

independent.co.uk, Grieving Palestinians pledge bloody revenge for killing of Hamas leader: "The green flags of the Hamas supporters mingled in a show of unity with the yellow and black banners of Islamic Jihad, the yellow ones of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the occasional red one of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Ahmed Jebril, secretary general of the PFLP-GC (General Command), based in Damascus, warned of an 'open war against the Zionist-American enemy and Arabs ... who side with them'."

Reuters AlertNet - FEATURE-Religion, tradition contrast in Saudi Arabia

Yesterday, I was reading about the (relatively) high levels of net access and low cost in Libya (in The Independent's travel section). I imagine there will be some unhappy surfers in Tripoli today, with the net now disappearing (in part) due to a dispute in the curious case of ...:

Dr Hosni Tayeb and the case of the disappearing Internet | The Register

Brookings.edu, Warriors for Hire in Iraq includes links to military 'logistics' companies operating in Iraq.

And whilst thinking about Iraq, please visit iraqbodycount.net and lunaville.org. The former offers a counter for installation on websites.

The French Experience of Counter-terrorism Links to PDF

Seeing Osama Plain - Washington's focus on al-Qaida misses the larger Islamist picture. By Lee Smith: "When Tenet says that al-Qaida's influence is only recently spreading, he is telling us that no one in his office has briefed him on Sayyid Qutb's writings, the bible for a very widespread and potent ideological trend that declared war on Jews, Crusaders, and infidel Muslim rulers long before Osama Bin Laden first sprouted whiskers." Essential reading.

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Net ninjas' take on web censorship

This one is about research on 'hacktivism' and associated issues, undertaken by The Citizen Lab, Toronto:

"A small group of 'net commandos' at the University of Toronto are looking to help people get around government controls on the internet"

There's some Islam-related references too:

"The Citizen Lab also actively develops circumvention technologies designed to help citizens in say, Saudi Arabia, get around government imposed blocks that restrict internet content.

"Saudi Arabia says explicitly that they censor the internet to preserve their Islamic culture and heritage, which is a pretty valid claim to make," explained the lab's Graeme Bunton.

"For us to start looking at ways to circumvent that is a difficult challenge for us. We do think that information should be free, but we do need to find a balance for respect for sovereign states to preserve their own culture."

The Citizen Lab has some interesting material on it. It led me to this:

Kandahar Chronicles

This is a blog from a "Médecins Sans Frontières Field Logistician based in Kandahar Afghanistan".

The site also led me to this paper by W. Sean McLaughlin, which I haven't had an opportunity to study in depth yet:

First Monday, The use of the Internet for political action by non-state dissident actors in the Middle East Paper focuses on The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA).

Wired 12.04: Apocalypse Now I was wondering at first if this was an April 1st story about plans to project holograms over the Dome of the Rock in order to encourage the Mahdi/Messiah to emerge. It certainly made for interesting reading, and has a rather cool illustration.

BBC NEWS | Business | Bangladesh mobile costs 'to fall'

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Saudis arrest religious reformist

"Mr Zaeer is an academic in mass communications and a religious reformist who has called for greater transparency within the closely state-monitored Saudi clergy.

"Two days earlier, al-Jazeera interviewed him about an audio tape purportedly released by Osama Bin Laden, in which he offered European nations a truce if they withdrew their troops from Muslim countries."

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Saudi presenter shows beaten face non-tech, but significant

Forbes.com: Internet "spyware" emerges as new online threat

Times Online - Sunday Times, Eton appoints an imam also to offer Arabic

Times Online - Sunday Times, Muslim peer deserves to die, say Islamic zealots article by Gareth Watts about al-Muhajiroun, who have featured in this blog and also in my books.

www.terror.net : Special Reports: Publications: U.S. Institute of Peace

Daily Times - Site Edition: "There are hundreds of sites on the Internet serving terrorist groups and their supporters, according to a study done by the US Institute of Peace (USIP)." study was undertaken in Haifa University by Professor Gabriel Weimann.

The Globe and Mail: "Momin Khawaja sits in solitary confinement, the first person charged under Canada's new anti-terrorism law" strong computer link here too