'Iranian Hacker: I Did It on My Own'

NIS, Iranian Hacker: I Did It on My Own, 10 Sep 2011 "The Iranian hacker that hacked into IT security firm Diginotar says he acted alone in giving false security certificates to "certain people in Iran." He also says that the action was a protest against Geert Wilders."

Post-Sept. 11 Saudi Arabia Modernizing, Slowly

NPR, Post-Sept. 11 Saudi Arabia Modernizing, Slowly "Al Rabah is now a 23-year-old journalist with Shams newspaper in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. He wears T-shirts and ripped jeans, is Internet savvy, and like many Saudis his age wants his country to be globally connected and widely respected."

'Al-Azhar Blossoms in Arab Revolutions'

OnIslam.net, Al-Azhar Blossoms in Arab Revolutions, 4 Sep 2011 "Submitted to strongman leaders, Al-Azhar's role waned just as firebrand preachers with less religious learning began spreading their religious views on the Internet and satellite TV."

Seminar on dawa sites on the Internet

arabnews,com, Seminar on dawa sites on the Internet, 7 Sep 2011

"The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance will organize a two-day seminar in Riyadh in October on Saudi websites specializing in dawa.

"Assistant undersecretary of the ministry Abdul Mohsen Al-Asheikh said the seminar on Oct. 5-6 is aimed at evaluating dawa activities on the Internet, encourage people to join these sites and coordinate efforts in fighting extremism."

Xinjiang attacks: online announcement

BBC News, Islamic militant group 'behind Xinjiang attacks', 8 Sep 2011 "A militant Islamic group has released a video saying it was behind recent attacks in China's Xinjiang region which left dozens of people dead, a US internet monitoring group says."

op-ed: Political Repression 2.0

Evgeny Morozov, NYT, Political Repression 2.0, 8 Sep 2011 "Agents of the East German Stasi could only have dreamed of the sophisticated electronic equipment that powered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s extensive spying apparatus, which the Libyan transitional government uncovered earlier this week. The monitoring of text messages, e-mails and online chats — no communications seemed beyond the reach of the eccentric colonel."

Britain's Muslim Soldiers - Voiceless yet Victorious

Britain's Muslim Soldiers - Voiceless yet Victorious "The Shared War Project is a cross-community programme that retells the accounts of Muslim soldiers and also draws attention to African, African-Caribbean, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh and British efforts. For almost 4 years, we have witnessed the impact of telling these shared stories first-hand at schools, youth centres and community events. The Project encourages young people to view Britain as their home, to appreciate the contributions of their ancestors and to see themselves as stakeholders in Britain and not as voiceless subjects within a foreign land." [thanks to Yahya Birt for the link]

Eid ul-Fitr timing issues

Jerome Taylor, Independent, Saudi star-gazers accused of bungling dates of Ramadan, 6 Sep 2011 "When is a moon not a moon? That is the question vexing Islamic astronomers after accusations that Saudi Arabia had jumped the gun in declaring the festival of Eid ul-Fitr because they mistook Saturn for the Moon."

Jihadist videos

AP, Suspect admits killing US airmen at German airport, 31 Aug 2011  "Uka, dressed in jeans, sneakers and a crisp white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, smiled at his attorneys as he was brought in and his handcuffs were removed. But he wept repeatedly as he recounted the attack and watched the jihadist videos he said motivated him."

Syria: Amnesty International report

Guardian, Syria crackdown horror catalogued in Amnesty deaths in detention report, 30 Aug 2011 refers to YouTube videos

Amnesty International, Syria: Deadly detention: Deaths in custody amid popular protest in Syria (pdf)

PTA directs ISPs to ban EVPNs

Nadir Hassan, Express Tribune, Virtual watchdog: Internet users banned from browsing privately for ‘security reasons’
"In an effort to ramp up the monitoring of internet security, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all ISPs to prevent internet users from using technology that would allow them to privately browse the internet. This was stated in a PTA notice provided to The Express Tribune by a source at an Islamabad-based internet service provider (ISP)."

Islam and Science Fiction

Islam and Science Fiction I've been pointed towards this website, which looks like an interesting resource on books, comics, films, etc.

'Shooting suspect admits killing US airmen'

David McHugh, AP, Shooting suspect admits killing US airmen, 31 Aug 2011

"A 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian confessed Wednesday to killing two U.S. airmen at the Frankfurt airport, saying in emotional testimony at the opening of his trial that he had been influenced by radical Islamic propaganda online."

'How Mobile Devices Help Indonesians Return To Hometowns for Eid'

Ratri Adityarani, penn-olson.com, How Mobile Devices Help Indonesians Return To Hometowns for Eid "We reckon Indonesia to be a mobile centric nation, thus it is not a surprise to see how apps and mobile devices in general become a crucial tool at Ramadan and Eid."

'High Internet activity over Ramadan period in Saudi Arabia'

AMEInfo, High Internet activity over Ramadan period in Saudi Arabia, says Effective Measure, 25 Aug 2011, "On 15 August 2011, the number of unique browsers in Saudi Arabia peaked between 3AM to 6AM, with the highest number of unique browsers for the day recorded at 4AM. During this time, a quarter of a million unique browsers accessed over 1.2 million pages within the hour.

"After unusually high online activity in the hours leading up to Suhoor, Saudis start getting active again only from 8pm onwards."

'Islam in the new Egypt'

H.A. Hellyer, On Faith blog, washingtonpost.com, Islam in the new Egypt, 26 Aug 2011

" ... social media, the impact of which has been so widely publicized, is unlikely to be pivotal in the elections. World Bank figures show one-fifth of Egyptians use the Internet overall, let alone access sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Despite claims to the contrary, January 25 itself was not a ”social media revolution;” only eight percent of Egyptians say they used Facebook or Twitter to get their news about the protests, according to Gallup’s data. Social media was not then, nor is it now, the core information medium for the average Egyptian. There are no shortcuts in reaching out to that ”man on the street”, and all parties must be perceived as trying to do just that."

Opinion piece

Worldwide Eid al-Fitr celebrations

Time, Worldwide Eid al-Fitr celebrations, 31 Aug 2011 great selection of photos

Libya: Eid al-Fitr

aljazeera.net, Libyans celebrate Eid in Tripoli "Thousands of Libyans have gathered in Tripoli to mark the end of Ramadan and celebrate Eid al-Fitr, kneeling in prayer in Martyrs' Square as they rejoiced in the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime."

'Survey of US Muslim Attitudes Finds Little Support for Extremism'

Jerome Socolovsky, VOA, Survey of US Muslim Attitudes Finds Little Support for Extremism "Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, many Americans have worried about the potential for home grown militancy among Muslims living in the United States. A new survey of American Muslims suggests that a decade after the attacks, there is very little support for extremism."

Here's the link: Pew Forum, Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism "Based on interviews with 1,033 Muslim Americans conducted this year (April 14-July 22) in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, the wide-ranging report looks at Muslim Americans’ political and social attitudes; religious views and practices; experiences and difficulties faced after 9/11; views of Islamic extremism; views of U.S. efforts at combating terrorism; and views of national conditions. In addition to updating trends from earlier Pew Research surveys, the report includes comparisons of Muslim Americans with the general public and with Muslims in other countries, as well as detailed demographic information."

I haven't read this report yet.

"Radical Islam in Indonesia and its Middle Eastern Connections"

Merlyna Lim, Gloria Center (Israel), Radical Islam in Indonesia and its Middle Eastern Connections, 29 Aug 2011 "This article offers a three-prong approach to investigating the emergence of contemporary Indonesian radical Islamism in the post-Suharto era (from 1998 onward). First, it places it within the historical context of radical Islamism in Indonesia, its past connection to colonialism, as well as a more contemporary one to Middle Eastern Islamism. Second, it puts this resurgence within the larger context of global jihad movements; it traces the origins of the ideology of radicalism itself, which is the global jihad meta-narrative that dominates much of the discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Arab countries. Third, it discusses the dissemination of radicalism in society, including how the media, particularly the internet, plays an important role in spreading the jihad meta-narrative and its stylized version of contemporary history."

Looks like a useful article. Merlyna Lim has written extensively elsewhere about internet issues in Indonesia.