This week's blog updates

This week's key stories in the Virtually Islamic 2.0 blog: 

Iran 'disinformation' report

'True Origins of ISIS'

Islamophobia Defined 

Building pictures of online activity

The Page 99 Test (my response)

Matthew Hedges Freed 

Spotify goes Palestinian 

Raed Fares 

Recent headlines

These and further stories on the new Virtually Islamic blog:

 Sufism in Uzbekistan

Sufism in Uzbekistan discussed in great BBC programme:

'Honour Killing' video

'Honour killing' video shocks Syrians

Abu Qatada discussion

Trump and Far-Right

Trump and the far-right article by JM Berger

Mona Haydar profile

Mona Haydar profiled

How the Syrian War Changed How War Crimes Are Documented

Cristina Roca, News Deeply, Long Read: How the Syrian War Changed How War Crimes Are Documented "Seven years of war have transformed Syrian monitoring groups into sophisticated investigation centers. But with few options to hold perpetrators of humanitarian law violations accountable, the number of Syrians supplying evidence of human rights violations is dwindling, along with their hope for justice." Recommended.

The myth of the Facebook revolution

Niklas Kossow and Ilyas Saliba, qantara.de, The myth of the Facebook revolution "Today, six years after the so-called Facebook revolutions of the Arab Spring, the hopes once placed in the social media have largely vanished. Authoritarian regimes in the region have long since succeeded in taking control of these channels and using them for their own ends."

British ‘recruiter’ jihadist allegedly killed in Iraq

British ‘recruiter’ jihadist allegedly killed in Iraq - Al Arabiya News: "A Scottish jihadist who appeared in an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) recruitment video last month urging young Western Muslims to perform their duty of Jihad in Iraq and Syria and to has been killed, it has been claimed."

French and Belgian Jihadists Boast About the Syrians They Slaughter

French and Belgian Jihadists Boast About the Syrians They Slaughter - The Daily Beast "A cable news station in Paris has aired shocking video of French-speaking jihadists at work in Syria. The footage broadcast Thursday night on BFMTV played like a macabre postcard home, only the latest reminder that hundreds of French and thousands of European jihadists are waging war against Bashar al-Assad. The news channel has called it evidence that France’s own are “direct actors in the atrocities committed in Syria.”"

Radicalisation online

Social media is new weapon in war on British jihadis - UK Politics - UK - The Independent "Diplomats have quietly opened a new front in efforts to stem the flow of Britons travelling to fight in Syria by spending nearly £200,000 on "social media activity" to deter would-be jihadis from leaving the UK, The Independent on Sunday can reveal."

Iran condemns Muslim shrine desecration in Syria

Trend.az, Iran condemns Muslim shrine desecration in Syria "Photos of the mosque posted on the Internet on Wednesday showed extensive damage to the exterior walls and roof of the building. The pictures also depicted concrete and twisted metal strewn on the street outside the mosque with an interior wall collapsed inward."

'Jihad by social media'

Sam Jones, FT.com, Jihad by social media " How thousands of young Muslims are being radicalised through social networks and propelled towards violence in Syria."

Syrian jihad, from Antwerp

Øyvind Strømmen, hate-speech.org, Syrian jihad, from Antwerp, 20 Mar 2014 "At least 100 people have left the Netherlands to fight in Syria. In neighbouring Belgium, the number is even higher. Family members and researchers point to the Belgian group Shariah4Belgium as part of the explanation." Strong social media emphasis in this report from Øyvind Strømmen. Recommended.

I'm a Social Media Jihadi From Syria

I'm a Social Media Jihadi From Syria, AMA | Vocativ: useful article (I am writing on this issue at present for my next book) "Abu Fulan al-Muhajir is the jihadi for millennials. In between guerilla raids in Syria, he's chatting with his tweeps on Ask.fm. YOLO"

UK 'suicide bomber' Abdul Waheed Majid video posted online

BBC News - UK 'suicide bomber' Abdul Waheed Majid video posted online, 14 Feb 2014

Syrian Malware Campaigns

Quantum of Surveillance: Familiar Actors and Possible False Flags in Syrian Malware Campaigns | Electronic Frontier Foundation "Citizen Lab security researchers Morgan Marquis-Boire and John Scott-Railton and EFF Global Policy Analyst Eva Galperin today published their latest technical paper, “Quantum of Surveillance: Familiar Actors and Possible False Flags in Syrian Malware Campaigns.” The report outlines how pro-government attackers have targeted the opposition, as well as NGO workers and journalists, with social engineering and “Remote Access Tools” (RAT)."

In Syria's Civil War, Facebook Has Become a Battlefield

In Syria's Civil War, Facebook Has Become a Battlefield | Threat Level | Wired.com: "For the last two years cyberwarriors loyal to Bashar al-Assad have made cyberspace a second front in the Syrian conflict. For nearly as long, Marquis-Boire and his colleagues Eva Galperin and John Scott-­Railton have been tracking and analyzing the arsenal of computer malware used against the Syrian opposition, journalists and NGOs. It’s a very different kind of forensic analysis than researchers usually perform — urgent, chaotic, and with human lives on the line."

Syria: Western fighters emerge via social media

The Daily Star, Previously invisible, Western fighters emerge via social media "Western Muslims fighting in Syria are emerging from the shadows and using social media to share their experiences of the conflict and encourage others to join them."

'‘My Afro Is Melting’: Syrian Rebels Want Hair Products and iPads'

Time.com, ‘My Afro Is Melting’: Syrian Rebels Want Hair Products and iPads "In comparison to the ascetic 1980s jihad in Afghanistan, sleeping quarters in Syria are provided with Internet connections, allowing fighters to chat to family members abroad and play online games."

Also see alarabiya.net, Changing the face of Jihad in Syria

British Kataa’ib

Daily Mail, The British Muslims waging 'five-star jihad' for Al Qaeda: At least 17 extremists post messages about experiences in war-torn Syria "The group is called the British Kataa’ib, meaning British Brigades.

"As well as operating social media accounts that detail their activities, some of the group also operate blogs and even participate in question-and-answer sessions with supporters, often urging others to join them ‘while the path is clear’."

'Stop Al-Qaida's Infitration on the Internet' - op-ed

Opinion piece; Ed Swan, IBTimes, Stop Al-Qaida's Infitration on the Internet - or More British Jihadists Will Die in Syria: Incoherence and hypocrisy of extremist narrative must be stopped - or more British lives will be lost. Note: Ed Swan is from the Quilliam Foundation. "The internet has been used effectively by al-Qaida and related groups to spread their narratives. Marginal religious scholars, often self-proclaimed, have been able to gain wide audiences online for takfiri proclamations, which declare certain individuals or groups to be non-Muslim for the purpose of legitimising their killing, which has happened in the case of Shia Muslims in Syria. There is now an urgent need for greater investment in challenging extremism online, as well as in the 'real world'."

'Syrian rebel beheaded in apparent case of mistaken identity'

LA Times, Syrian rebel beheaded in apparent case of mistaken identity, 15 Nov 2013, "Fares lost his life in an appalling case of mistaken identity, according to various opposition accounts circulating on the Internet, where the case has caused a minor sensation."

Syria: update

ABCNews, Grisly Execution Videos Show Growing Brutality in Syria "Both the execution and “cannibal” videos rocketed around the internet, creating a firestorm on social networking sites. Opposition activists argue they are isolated incidents not representative of the rebel forces fighting the Assad regime, while supporters of Assad argued that their true character is finally coming to light."