al-Awlaki

Opinion piece:

Theo Padnos, huffingtonpost.com, Love and Healing for Muslim 20-Somethings: Anwar al-Awlaki's Moment, 7 Dec 2010 "When I was a student in an Islamic school, the thing that most discouraged me about the system to which my fellow students were entrusting themselves was that it gave them terrible advice."

'Twenty Guidelines for Jihad'

Syed Saleem Shahzad, AsiaTimes, Broadside fired at al-Qaeda leaders, 10 Dec 2010

"A number of senior al-Qaeda members who had earlier opposed the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and some of whom were recently released from detention in Iran, have produced an electronic book critical of al-Qaeda's leadership vision and strategy ..."

" ... On November 15, some members of this group released Twenty Guidelines for Jihad on the Internet site www.mafa.asia. The author is cited as Suleman, saying he was "al-Qaeda's official spokesperson in 2001," indicating a distancing from al-Qaeda's organizational structure."

This is a very interesting article, with lots of detail. Syed Saleem Shahzad is author of Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban 9/11 and Beyond which is to be published by Pluto Press next year.

Perspective on WikiLeaks

Opinion piece: WikiLeaks Yoram Ettinger, YNet, Israel Opinion, Op-ed: WikiLeaks exposes Obama, Leaked documents refute US President Obama’s fundamental assumptions 9 Dec 2010

"The worldwide proliferation of Islamic terrorism is orchestrated and executed, also, by multi-lingual graduates of Western universities, who proficiently use the Internet, Blackberry, iPod, Twitter and Facebook. Contrary to Obama's assumption, modern-day Islamic terrorists do not reject modernity. In fact, they leverage modernity in order to advance Islam's historical values and goals."

opinion piece: WikiLeaks

A Pakistan perspective:

Burhanuddin Hasan, Random Thoughts, Pakistan Observer, The WikiLeaks bonanza "Some religious party leaders as well as TV anchors of Pakistan are claiming that the US government itself is behind the leaking of its secret embassy cables to malign some political leaders in Pakistan and in some other Muslim countries."

Islamic 'Pipeline to Extremism'

Francis NJubi Nesbitt, AlterNet, Islamic 'Pipeline to Extremism' Turns Out to Be Mostly FBI Set-Ups, 7 Dec 2010 "The recent rash of charges against Somali-Americans on “conspiracy to provide material support” to al-Shabaab, a Somali rebel group on the U.S. terrorism list, seems designed to send a clear message that any support for the militants will lead to criminal prosecution. It also demonstrates the ubiquitous presence of law enforcement in these communities."

Cut and paste khutbah

Cut and paste culture isn't just an education phenomenon:

Qantara.de - A Battle of the Fatwas, 8 Dec 2010: "Another scholar accused some clergy of copying and pasting Friday sermons from books or the Internet and reading them out loud without even understanding what they're saying. Yet others suggested that clerics needed to improve their writing skills. 'Some of them elaborate on the topic by repeating themselves and going around in circles,' Ahmad Mawrai, a Saudi professor, told the Gazette. 'In many cases they jump from one topic to another. This is why their sermons are tedious and boring.'"

Tajik Youth + Digital divide

Farangis Najibullah, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Tajik Youth Look To Mosque For Outlet, 8 Dec 2010: "Farhod Hasanov has never heard of e-mail, or Facebook, or other social-networking tools teenagers in other parts of the world take for granted in this digital age."

Islamic Studies Pathways - an Academic Guide to Islamic Studies Resources on the Internet

Islamic Studies Pathways - an Academic Guide to Islamic Studies Resources on the Internet: the old url is no more. Please point your browsers to Islamic Studies Pathways' more recent home (linked here). It is also linked directly into virtuallyislamic.com. Islamic Studies Pathways has been running since 1996, and was the foundation for much of my subsequent research. There will be a major update next year.

WikiLeaks on Hizbullah's fibre optics

Guardian, Lebanon told allies of Hezbollah's secret network, WikiLeaks shows, 5 Dec 2010 "Lebanon's western-backed government warned its friends that "Iran telecom" was taking over the country two years ago when it uncovered a secret communications network across the country used by Hezbollah, according to a US state department cable."

Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe - Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center, Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe, 6 Dec 2010: "On Sept. 15, 2010, a group of scholars discussed key findings of a new study, 'Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe,' published by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life.The study examines several of the oldest, largest and most influential Muslim groups operating in Western Europe today, many of which are virtually unknown to non-Muslims."

'How to get better Muslim preachers'

Tehmina Kazi, Comment is free, Guardian., How to get better Muslim preachers, 6 Dec 2010 discusses Facebook, Young Imam, Malaysia, and much more. "The scarcity of universal qualifications for Muslim religious leaders is part of the problem."

IslamPolicy.com

Islamic website tied to MP's stabbing resurfaces under new name - Telegraph: "Younus Abdullah Muhammad, a founder of both sites, told The Daily Telegraph that IslamPolicy.com was the direct successor to RevolutionMuslim.com which was closed amid the furore over its role in the attack on Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham."

Iranian blogger jailed for 15 years

eurasiareview.com, 15 Years In Prison Confirmed For Iranian Blogger, 3 Dec 2010

"Iranian blogger, Hossein Ronaqi Maleki’s 15-year prison term has been approved by an Islamic Republic appellate court. RAHANA website that covers human rights news in Iran reports that Ronaqi has been kept in solitary confinement for over 11 months and was given 15 years in prison by a preliminary court.

"The blogger known as “Babak Khoramdin” is charged with “membership in Iran Proxy, an internet group, propaganda against the regime, insulting the leader and the president.”"

Impact of Mobile Phones in Pakistan

Asmaa Malik, The Gazette, Mobile phones help transform Pakistan, 3 Dec 2010 "Alongside the swift arrival of KFC and McDonald's logos to Lahore's dusty, cluttered cityscape, billboards for Pakistan's emerging telecommunications and technology companies have kept pace.

"In big cities, the Internet has become ubiquitous. You can get unlimited broadband access for as little as 500 rupees (about $6) monthly in this country, where a comfortably middle-class household runs on about 50,000 rupees ($600) a month.

"Like their counterparts around the world, Pakistani teens spend hours in front of their laptops checking out their friends' profiles on Facebook and watching videos on YouTube."

review: Zahid Hussain's The Scorpion's Tail

Joshua Foust, foreignpolicy.com, O&G Book Review: Zahid Hussain's The Scorpion's Tail "In The Scorpion's Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan-And How It Threatens America, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Zahid Hussain charts a sobering history of the Pakistani state's relationship to Islam, Islamism, and Islamic radicalism. While the radicalist form of Islam -- the kind America really cares about -- didn't take root in Pakistan until the 1980s during the war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, it was, Hussain argues, the result of decades of Pakistan's elites politicizing Islam to shore up their rule of the country. Starting with the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and moving through the tumultuous history of coups, countercoups, and new constitutions, Hussain walks the reader through Pakistan's steady Islamization."

Sounds like a useful book...

Portland bombing issues

Thom Jensen, KATU News, Terrorism expert: Radicalization can begin on Internet, 1 Dec 2010 "While it’s not clear why the man accused of plotting to bomb Pioneer Courthouse Square may have turned to terrorism, research shows that for many it usually begins on the Internet, according to an expert on terrorism."

Call for chapters: Muslim Women's Digital Geographies

Here's a call for chapters from Anna Piela. Please send responses to Dr Piela, and not to myself:

CALL FOR CHAPTERS: MUSLIM WOMEN’S DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES (edited collection)


"I would like to announce a call for chapters for an edited collection "Muslim Women's Digital Geographies". The collection aims to bring together research on Muslim women's diverse activity on the Internet that may span personal writing, debates in discussion groups, political activism, networking and other forms of interaction with other people and audiences. The collection is interdisciplinary, and welcomes perspectives from all disciplines, be they Islamic studies, social sciences, technology studies, gender studies, fashion studies, linguistics, art, politics and many others.

Context of the book:

"As I synthesised and analysed existing research relevant to my PhD topic, which was, incidentally, "Muslim Women's Online Discussions" and which focused on religious interpretations produced by Muslim women in online discussion groups, I came across interesting bits of research related to Muslim women’s online activities and creative work. With the PhD now done and dusted, I realised that it would be a good idea to create an edited book that would bring together current research in what I have called “Muslim Women’s Digital Geographies” a definitely growing subject area ...

"I would like to ask anyone interested to send me a 150-word abstract of their proposed chapter by 30 March 2011."

Contact details:

Dr Anna Piela

annapiela@googlemail.com

http://westminster.academia.edu/AnnaPiela/

Wired on the hajj

The new print edition of Wired (UK edition) has an interesting article on crowd-control for the hajj. I don't recall very much coverage on Islam-related issues in Wired (I've been reading it since the early days).

Unfortunately, the article is not online yet - Wired UK's print edition is ahead of its online equivalent. I'll link into it when it becomes available.

Zachary Adam Chesser

New article: Christopher Anzalon, Perspectives on Terrorism - Zachary Chesser: an American, Grassroots Jihadist Strategist on Raising the Next Generation of Al-Qaeda Supporters: "Zachary Chesser, the 20-year-old Virginia man best known for issuing thinly-veiled threats to the creators of the Comedy Central TV show South Park earlier this year, was a prolific writer and self-styled grassroots jihadist strategist. He was a regular poster on several major jihadistInternet forums, including Al-Qimmah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Summit), a Somali-English-Arabic forum dedicated to covering the activities of the Somali jihadistgroup Al-Shabab. It is this group that Chesser was accused by US authorities of attempting to join. He signed his online writings with his nom de guerre Abu Talhah al-Amrikee, which combines the name of a prominent historical companion of the Prophet Muhammad with the geographical marker “American.”"

Useful overview.

Portland's bomb plot and the net

KATU.com, Did the Internet incite Portland's bomb plot?, 3 Nov 2010: "In the year before the bomb plot, authorities say Mohamed O. Mohamud reached out to websites promoting violent jihad. And they were easy to find."

Also see

Nancy Haught, The Oregonian, Muslims respond to criticism of Islam stirred up by Portland bomb plot, 30 Nov 2010 ""There's no part of the Quran that says killing people is okay," says Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, professor of Islam at Reed College in Southeast Portland. But it's also not that simple."

Helpful article