Daily Mail, The surprising truth about Rage Boy, America's hated poster-boy of Islamic radicalism, 11 Nov 07 is rather a sympathetic portrayal of Shakeel Ahmad Bhat by Patrick French: "Shakeel Ahmad Bhat is the product of poverty, lack of opportunity and state brutality. Islam is to him a way of life. He is illiterate and his only source of news is the street."

softpedia.com, Cyber Jihad? Fake Alert, Pal! - November 11th not as dangerous as we expected it to be, 12 Nov 07

Phone Tone Fatwa

Arab News, Qur’anic Ringtones Haram, 9 Nov 07 "The Islamic Jurisprudence Council banned the use of the verses of the Holy Qur’an as ringtones for mobile phones because it impinges on the sacred character of the Muslim Holy Book, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday.

""It is demeaning and degrading to the verses of the Holy Book to stop abruptly at the middle of a recitation or neglecting the recitation, as happens when they are used as ringtones in mobile phones. On the other hand, recording the verses from the Holy Qur’an in phone sets with the intention of recitation and listening is a virtuous act," the scholars attending the council said in a statement."

Update: Islam Online, Scholars Ban Qur'an Ringtones, 9 Nov 07 " The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily reported that the controversial issue of Qur'an ringtones was at the heart of "a turbulent debate" during the six-day meeting.

"It said the scholars were divided on the use of verses from the Qur'an as mobile ringtones.

"During the lively discussion, some scholars denounced Qur'an ringtones as a "frivolity".

"They have also hit out at adverts which promote the downloading of Qur'anic verses.

"The fatwa did not mention the use of Qur'an as text logos or audio recordings on cell phones."

Someone got there first: Gulf Times, New Fatwa Forbids Qur’an Verses as Ring Tones, 7 Feb 07, "Dubai’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Dr Ahmad Abdul Aziz al- Haddad issued a fatwa yesterday prohibiting the use of verses from the Holy Qur’an as mobile phone ring tones.

"Al-Haddad said that using the Qur’an on mobile phones was "a violation to its glory and sacredness." The verses should be reflected as "the words of God."""

This reflects a long-standing debate, which goes back several years: AFP, Muslim clerics ban Koranic ringtones, 8 Nov 07 "In recent years many clerics, especially from Egypt, have denounced the use of Koranic verses in mobile telephony, believing it to be a frivolity that impinges on the sacred character of the Muslim holy book."

See my discussion on this subject in "'Rip.Burn.Pray.' Islamic Expression Online", chap. in Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, Douglas E. Cowan & Lorne Dawson (editors),(New York & London: Routledge, 2004). The subject is also to feature in my next book.

Reuters/Vancouver Sun, Fatwa issued against camel beauty contests, 9 Nov 07 ""Everyone must repent of these acts from which no good can come because of its evils, and they should beg forgiveness from God," said a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued this week by Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak and a lesser-known sheikh." Haven't seen this one online yet.

Mail & Guardian Online, Fight against female circumcision goes to mosque, 7 Nov 07, "n certain parts of Africa, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been linked to religion, with Muslim communities mistakenly believing that the practice is a religious requirement. But in Côte d'Ivoire, religion is also being put at the service of fighting FGM.

"El Hadj Kassoum Traoré, an imam at a small mosque in Belleville -- one of the poorer areas in the commercial hub of Abidjan -- sets aside time during the Friday prayer for explaining the dangers of FGM to worshippers. The weekly prayer is an obligation for able Muslim men." This is non-tech, although the subject crops up online; it's one of those interesting stories which deserves a wider readership.

livemint.com,Muslims to get online trading portal on Diwali, 6 Nov 07 "Why did a brokerage firm, which caters to a Muslim client base, choose the Hindu festival of lights for its formal launch?" Find out in this article.

Lyrical Terrorist

The case of Samina Malik: BBC News, 'Lyrical Terrorist led double life', 8 Nov 07 "Calling herself the Lyrical Terrorist, they said she wrote and posted poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and describing gruesome subjects like beheading.

"Police also told the Old Bailey they found a "library" of extreme literature in her bedroom including The Al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook."

Also see BBC News, 'Lyrical Terrorist' found guilty, 8 Nov 07

Update: Channel 4, 'Lyrical terrorist' guilty, 8 Nov 07 video, including reference to Islamic Awakening et al.

The defence claimed that Malik's poems were in the same league as Wilfred Owen (see this analysis in the Standard: Sebastian Shakespeare, War is hell - and that's just reading the poetry, 30 Oct 07)

worldtribune.com, Al Qaida bombs hit Gaza cell phone stores, beauty salons, 6 Nov 07 " After a lull of several months, Palestinian sources said, Al Qaida has resumed bombings of Internet cafes and cellular phone stores. They said the campaign was being conducted with the help of the opposition Fatah movement.

""The aim is to destabilize the Hamas regime," a security source said."

worldtribune.com, U.S. reports decimating Al Qaida propaganda network, 7 Nov 07 " Officials said Al Qaida has lost most of its ability to generate propaganda, recruit and receive financing for its operations. They said many of these activities were conducted on the Internet.

""We've taken out a significant part of their leadership," U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, said. "We also have gone after, very heavily, their propaganda network."" Still plenty of material out there, though...

presstv.ir. Saudi King slams extremist muftis, 7 Nov 07

Scare Stories?

channelregister.co.uk, Program automating online jihad found in the wild, 8 Nov 07 "The "Electronic Program of Jihad," as its creators have dubbed it, asks for a username and password once it's installed, according to this entry on the McAfee Avert Labs Blog. The program, quoted as version 3.0, then tries to join a cyber jihadist website that coordinates the attack. Loyal users can even score bonus points by referring newcomers." As yet, I am not convinced by this one, but guess we will have to wait and see on this previously blogged story. The article points to this release by McFee Avert Labs Blog, Cyber Jihad - I’ll say good and quiet November 11 to you, 7 Nov 07 which has some tech details. That in turn points to Internet Anthropologist. There is plenty of other data out there to follow through if required. Putting it all in perspective is Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld, The e-Jihadists are coming, the e-Jihadists are coming!, 7 Nov 07 "Despite the software's silly name, I was curious whether this might be something worth worrying about. So I did a little more digging. The software is real -- in fact, I downloaded a copy of it yesterday off an archived copy of al-jinan.org. But if this is a serious terror threat, I'm Arnold Schwarzennegger." This in turn refers to Terrorism Focus, Forum Users Improve Electronic Jihad Technology, 26 June 2007

Times, First Sunni-Shia 'fatwa against violence' to be signed in Iraq, 8 Nov 07 "Senior religious leaders in Iraq are preparing to sign an unprecedented “fatwa against violence” that will help reconcile the rival Sunni and Shia branches of Islam and herald new hopes for peace in the war-torn country."

VOA, Experts: Terrorists Exploit Internet to Recruit, Spread Ideology, 8 Nov 07 includes audio report. "Several experts testified this week before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security about how the Internet has become the weapon of choice for terrorists and other radicals. Their testimony comes in the wake of the passage in the House of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. The centerpiece of that legislation is the creation of a National Commission to study violent radicalization and to determine the best way to combat it." Here is the text of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 brought to you by GovTrack.us. Congress found "(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens."

The new issue of ISIM Review is out (20, Autumn 2007) [full issue: PDF]. As always, there is material relevant to this blog, in particular Islamophonic: New Styles in Reporting by Nandagopal R. Menon [section PDF]. I happen to have been writing something about Islamophonic for my next book, and have blogged about it in the past, so this was interesting to read.

Times, I know creator of threatening video says imam, 7 Nov 07 "Moynel Islam, imam of Stevenage Central Mosque said that Mohammad Abdullah, 24, was behind the YouTube profile showing the video ‘obituary’ of Councillor Alan Craig that is currently being investigated by the police."

Muslim Observer/New America Media, Pres. Bush Must Apologize to Holy Land Foundation, 7 Nov 07 "The United States, in essence, has just lost its largest and most expensive case against an organization accused of financing terrorism. The mistrial does not prohibit the U.S. government from retrying the Holy Land Foundation. What is apparent, however, is that the HLF had long been under U.S. government scrutiny, years before Pres. Bush announced the organization's shutdown only a few months after Sept. 11, 2001. The recent verdict received relatively muted media coverage."

AFP, Blacked out Pakistani TV channels turn to Internet, 6 Nov 07 " "News is a contraband item in Pakistan now and it is being sold on the black market," Imran Aslam, the president of Geo Television, the country's most widely watched cable news channel, told AFP.

"Geo sent an SMS to cellphone users on Sunday telling them to log onto its website (www.geo.tv) to get live transmission. Another channel, ARY One, sent out a similar email (www.arydigital.tv)." The report also mentions Dawn TV, which can be accessed in various ways via the Dawn newspaper's front page.

Medill Reports, Extremist Migration West: Iraq and the Internet, 1 Nov 07 Just picked this one up: "A new study of almost a dozen terrorist-related cases by the New York City Police Department analyzed the radicalization process of young Muslims and found four stages, starting with pre-radicalization and ending in jihadization. It also acknowledged that the extreme (jihadi-Salafi) view of solving global political grievances through violence is a very small minority of Muslim youth worldwide." This would link to NYT, New York City Police Report Explores Homegrown Terrorism, 16 Aug 07. A link to the report is here [pdf] via Seth Godin's blog

Newsbusters, MSM Doesn’t Care About Google’s Pro-Jihadi Censorship, Nov 6, 2007 Opinion piece/allegations: "As Islamic scholar Robert Spencer can tell you, the mainstream media has barely noticed that Google, the Internet search engine giant, is now deciding for its users which ideas are acceptable and which are not. It’s never been a secret that Google leans left and won’t tolerate ideas it doesn’t agree with." This sounds like it might run for some time.

Telegraph, YouTube 'obituary' for anti-mosque councillor, 7 Nov 07 "Until yesterday there was a web link from the Abbey Mills mosque website to abdullah1425's YouTube mini website, where he identifies himself as Muhammad, 23, from Stevenage, Herts. Yesterday Mr Craig said he refused to be intimidated by the clip, which he described as "an open invitation to take me out"." Also see Waltham Forest Guardian, Anti mega-mosque councillor slams internet "death threat", 6 Nov 07 "Newham councillor and Christian People's Alliance (CPA) leader Alan Craig has repeatedly called for a public inquiry into Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic group that wants to build a £100m mosque at Abbey Mills, Stratford, following alleged terror links."

I have posted on plans for Abbeymills Mosque before. The Mosque's website presents their perspectives on this current controversy. Here is Abdullah1425's video "The Mosque will be built" [there are plenty of responses from various perspectives on YouTube too, which can be accessed via this link]: