C L O S E R

Webwereld | Luuk Koelman – De Wet van Koelman

Posted on September 11th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Luuk Koelman op Webwereld | Godwin Nieuwe Stijl

Iedere rechtgeaarde internetter kent de Wet van Godwin: ‘naarmate online discussies langer worden, nadert de waarschijnlijkheid van een vergelijking met nazi’s of Hitler tot één’. Zo is het maar net. Wie anno 2008 een discussie probeert te beslechten door de nazi’s en hun ideologie erbij te slepen, heeft ‘m ‘automatisch’ verloren.

Anno 2008 is de Godwin Nieuwe Stijl aan een onstuitbare opmars bezig. Met één belangrijk verschil. Werd de ‘oude’ Godwin voornamelijk gepraktiseerd door lieden ter linkerzijde van het politiek spectrum, de Godwin Nieuwe Stijl is daarentegen een dankbare discussietechniek in handen van rechts.

Een aantal voorbeelden, even voor het gevoel. Ik beperk me voor het gemak tot zomaar wat artikelen die de afgelopen tijd op Telegraaf.nl verschenen:

22 augustus. Een berichtje over de Spaanse huizenmarkt. De prijzen zijn gunstig, schrijft De Telegraaf. Dus wie een tweede huis in Spanje wil kopen, moet nu toeslaan. 150 reacties. De zevende reactie is een Godwin Nieuwe Stijl: Spanje? Goed idee want in Nederland “wonen strax alleen maar allochtonen met de hoofd religie Moslim, dankzij Balkenendee 1, 2 ,3 ,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, dictatuur”.

8 augustus. De Telegraaf meldt dat huisartsen, vooral ouderen, steeds vaker hun nachtdiensten uitbesteden. De zevende reaguurder (van de honderd) weet wel waarom: “veel allochtonen komen in het weekend met velen de huisarts post bezoeken.”

Afgelopen maandag: ‘Kleinzoon slaat oma halfblind’, luidt de kop. Strekking van het artikel: de 18-jarige Roberto, zwaar aan de coke, is niet lief geweest voor zijn grootmoeder. Reaguurder Arthur uit Groningen plaatst dit familiedrama graag in een breder maatschappelijk kader: “Ik vrees met grote vreze dat we richting moslimstaat gaan.”

De Godwin Nieuwe Stijl: het maakt niet uit waarover het nieuwsitem gaat – Moslims en de islam worden er hoe dan ook met de haren bij gesleept. Weer eens wat anders dan de nazi’s.Wie kan deze wetmatigheid in een mooie formule gieten? Graag posten in de comments. Ik sluit graag af met een welgemeend ‘wat zouden al die reaguurders hierboven hebben geschreven wanneer ze in Hitler Duitsland hadden geleefd en internet tachtig jaar geleden al had bestaan?’

0 comments.

Moslims beledigen

Posted on August 8th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, ISIM/RU Research, Public Islam, Some personal considerations.

Er is al enige tijd het nodige te doen over moslims die zich beledigd zouden voelen. U herinnert zich de cartoon-affaire nog wel en submission en fitna en zo kunnen we er nog wel een paar opnoemen. En dat doen mensen dus ook. Bij de meeste van die zaken vallen drie dingen op:

1. De rol van wetenschappers die door middel van pseudo-wetenschappelijke charlatanerie in boekjes en columns hun positie misbruiken.
2. De de rol van sommige weblogs en criticasters die niet noodzakelijkerwijze racistisch of islamofobisch zijn, maar wel leiden aan een islamiseringsneurose en daarbij gebruik maken van grove generalisaties.
3. En dit alles als onderdeel van de schijnbare noodzaak die er is om moslims te provoceren en hun afkeer daarvan te problematiseren of als die afkeer er niet is om deze te construeren en vervolgens te problematiseren; resulterend in een poging om moslims te onderwerpen door middel van vernedering.

(more…)

11 comments.

Dragan Dabic.com – la me nie lache

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

We kennen het verhaal zo langzamerhand dus dat ga ik niet meer uitleggen. Maar wat me verbaast is de sullige wijze waarop sommige media overal intrappen. Geenstijl.nl wist te melden dat Karadzic een eigen website had. Keurig gevolgd door de Telegraaf (of is het andersom?). En hey zelfs ‘s avonds bij het journaal. En wat te denken van de kritische websites zoals LWH en Aboutmedia die een en ander slaafs over nemen?

Wat doe je als je een website tegenkomt? Stap 1, ga naar de WhoIs informatie. En nee, pak niet de eerste beste hit in google lazy bastard, maar kijk eens wat verder dan je neus lang is (de essentie van deze post eigenlijk).Stap 2, check de namen, adressen en (in dit geval vooral) de registratiedatum: 22-7-2008. Als ik u nog moet uitleggen, waarom dat zo opmerkelijk is, check dan nog even de eerste link in dit stukje.

En zo bloggen we maar verder, de meesten onder ons zonder ook maar een klein beetje verstand van zaken maar wel heel veel grote meningen.

16 comments.

Tabsir.net – Transnational Civil Society, Institution-Building, and IT: Reflections from the Middle East

Posted on July 16th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Important Publications.

tabsir.net
Transnational Civil Society, Institution-Building, and IT: Reflections from the Middle East
Written by Jon Anderson

Abstract
The important connectives of information technology will come with institutions that successfully merge IT, transnationalism, and ‘civil’ society such that each conveys its properties to the other. How to conceptualize and understand these properties is a compelling need for social theory. Comparative study of the Internet in the Middle East, including its supporting and related technologies, points to the crucial role of alliance-building and coalitions that create new institutions. Some of the less-evident ones are the more transnational and ‘civil,’ providing points of comparison – even suggesting potential future directions – to others not so apparently transnational or civil. Some elements so far not brought into analysis include engineering cultures and the more general practices of thought they privilege, alumni networks that link these cultures with more material resources but also importantly with social capital, and how those pull or are pulled together in projects that are expanding the envelope for IT generally and for its most prominent proxy and gathering point in the region, the Internet.

0 comments.

Malika El Aroud – Oum Obeyda

Posted on May 27th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, ISIM/RU Research, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Religious Movements.

Belgian woman wages war for Al Qaeda on the Web – International Herald Tribune

Belgian woman wages war for Al Qaeda on the Web
Belgian’s online jihad reflects rise of female extremists

By Elaine Sciolino and Souad Mekhennet
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

BRUSSELS: On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes.

In her living room, El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY.

But it is on the Internet that El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name Oum Obeyda, she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe.

She calls herself a female holy warrior for Al Qaeda. She insists that she does not disseminate instructions on bomb-making and has no intention of taking up arms herself. Rather, she browbeats Muslim men to go and fight, and rallies women to join the cause.

“It’s not my role to set off bombs – that’s ridiculous,” she said in a rare interview. “I have a weapon. It’s to write. It’s to speak out. That’s my jihad. You can do many things with words. Writing is also a bomb.”

El Aroud has not only made a name for herself among devotees of radical forums where she broadcasts her message of hatred toward the West. She also is well known to intelligence officials throughout Europe as simply “Malika” – an Islamist who is at the forefront of the movement by women to take a larger role in the male-dominated global jihad.

The authorities have noted an increase in suicide bombings carried out by women – the American military reports that 18 women have conducted suicide missions in Iraq so far this year, compared with 8 all of last year – but they say there is also a less violent yet potentially more insidious army of women organizers, proselytizers, teachers, translators and fund-raisers, who either join their husbands in the fight or step into the breach as men are jailed or killed.

“Women are coming of age in jihad and are entering a world once reserved for men,” said Claude Moniquet, president of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. “Malika is a role model, an icon who is bold enough to use her own name. She plays a very important strategic role as a source of inspiration. She’s very clever – and extremely dangerous.”

El Aroud began her rise to prominence because of a man in her life. Two days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, her husband carried out a bombing in Afghanistan that killed the anti-Taliban warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud at the behest of Osama bin Laden. Her husband was killed, and she took to the Internet as the widow of a martyr.

She remarried, and she and her new husband were convicted in Switzerland for operating pro-Qaeda Web sites. Now, according to the Belgian authorities, she is a suspect in what the authorities say they believe is a plot to carry out an attack in Belgium.

“Vietnam is nothing compared to what awaits you in our lands,” she wrote to a supposed Western audience in March about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Ask your mothers, your wives to order your coffins.” To her followers she added: “Victory is appearing on the horizon, my brothers and sisters. Let’s intensify our prayers.”

Her prolific writing and presence in chat rooms, coupled with her background, makes her a magnet for praise and sympathy. “Sister Oum Obeyda is virtuous among the virtuous; her life is dedicated to the good on this earth,” a man named Juba wrote late last year.

The rise of women comes against a backdrop of discrimination that has permeated radical Islam. Mohamed Atta, the Sept. 11 hijacker, wrote in his will that “women must not be present at my funeral or go to my grave at any later date.” Last month, Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s second in command, said in an online question-and-answer session that women could not join Al Qaeda.

In response, a woman wrote on a password-protected radical Web site that “the answer that we heard was not what we had hoped,” according to the SITE monitoring group, adding, “I swear to God I will never leave the path and will not give up this course.”

The changing role of women in the movement is particularly apparent in Western countries, where Muslim women have been educated to demand their rights and Muslim men are more accustomed to treating them as equals.

El Aroud reflects that trend. “Normally in Islam the men are stronger than the women, but I prove that it is important to fear God – and no one else,” she said. “It is important that I am a woman. There are men who don’t want to speak out because they are afraid of getting into trouble. Even when I get into trouble, I speak out.”

After all, she said, she knows the rules. “I write in a legal way,” she said. “I know what I’m doing. I’m Belgian. I know the system.”

That system has often been lenient for her. She was detained last December with 13 others in a suspected plot to free a convicted terrorist from prison and to mount an attack in Brussels. But Belgian law required that they be released within 24 hours because no charges were brought and searches failed to turn up weapons, explosives or incriminating documents.

Now, even as El Aroud remains under constant surveillance, she is back home rallying militants on her Web site – and collecting more than $1,100 a month in government unemployment benefits.

“Her jihad is not to lead an operation but to inspire other people to wage jihad,” said Glenn Audenaert, the director of Belgium’s federal police force. “She enjoys the protection that Belgium offers. At the same time, she is a potential threat.”

Born in Morocco, raised from a young age in Belgium, El Aroud did not seem destined for the jihad.

Growing up, she rebelled against her Muslim upbringing, she wrote in a memoir. Her first marriage, at 18, was unhappy and brief; she later bore a daughter out of wedlock.

She was unable to read Arabic, but her discovery of the Koran in French led her to embrace a strict version of Islam and eventually to marry Abdessatar Dahmane, a Tunisian loyal to Osama bin Laden.

Eager to be a battlefield warrior, she hoped to fight alongside her husband in Chechnya. But the Chechens “wanted experienced men, super-well trained,” she said. “They wanted women even less.” In 2001, she followed her husband to Afghanistan. As he trained at a Qaeda camp, she was installed in a camp for foreign women in Jalalabad.

For her, the Taliban were a model Islamic government; reports of their mistreatment of women were untrue. “Women didn’t have problems under the Taliban,” she insisted. “They had security.”

Her only rebellion was against the burka, the restrictive garment the Taliban forced on women, which she called “a plastic bag.” As a foreigner, she was allowed to wear a long black veil instead.

After her husband’s mission, El Aroud was briefly detained by Massoud’s followers. Frightened, she was put in contact with the Belgian authorities, who arranged for her safe passage home.

“We got her out and thought she’d cooperate with us,” said one senior Belgian intelligence official. “We were deceived.”

Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who was France’s senior counterterrorism magistrate at the time, said he interviewed El Aroud because investigators suspected that she had shipped electronic equipment to her husband that was used in the killing. “She is very radical, very sly and very dangerous,” he said.

El Aroud was tried with 22 others in Belgium for complicity in the Massoud murder. A grieving widow in a black veil, she persuaded the court that she had been doing humanitarian work and knew nothing of her husband’s plans. She was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Her husband’s death, though, propelled her into a new life. “The widow of a martyr is very important for Muslims,” she said.

She used her enhanced status to meet her new “brothers and sisters” on the Web. One of them was Moez Garsalloui, a Tunisian several years her junior who had political refugee status in Switzerland. They married and moved to a small Swiss village. There, they ran several pro-Qaeda Web sites and Internet forums that were monitored by Swiss authorities as part of the country’s first Internet-related criminal case.

After the police raided their home and arrested them at dawn in April 2005, El Aroud described extensively what she called their abuse.

“See what this country that calls us neutral made us suffer,” she wrote, claiming that the Swiss police beat and blindfolded her husband and manhandled her while she was sleeping unveiled.

Convicted last June of promoting violence and supporting a criminal organization, she received a six-month suspended sentence; Garsalloui, who was convicted of more serious charges, was released after 23 days.

Despite El Aroud’s prominence, it is once again her husband whom authorities view as a bigger threat. They suspect he was recruiting for the feared Christmastime attacks last December and that he has connections to terror groups operating in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The authorities say that they lost track of him after he was released from jail last year in Switzerland. “He is on a trip,” El Aroud says cryptically when asked about her husband’s whereabouts. “On a trip.”

Meanwhile, her stature has risen with her claims of victimization by the Swiss. The Web site Voice of the Oppressed described her as “our female holy warrior of the 21st century.”

El Aroud’s latest tangle with the law hints at a deeper involvement of women in terror activities. When she was detained last December in the suspected plot to free Nizar Trabelsi, a convicted terrorist and a one-time professional soccer player, El Aroud was one of three women taken in for questioning.

Although the identities of those detained were not released, the Belgian authorities and others familiar with the case said that among those detained were Trabelsi’s wife and Fatima Aberkan, a friend of El Aroud and a 47-year-old mother of seven.

“Malika is a source of inspiration for women because she is telling women to stop sleeping and open their eyes,” Aberkan said.

El Aroud operates from her three-room apartment above a clothing shop in a working-class Brussels neighborhood where she spends her time communicating with supporters on her main forum, Minbar-SOS.

Although she insists she is not breaking the law, she knows the police are watching. And if the authorities find way to put her in prison, she said: “That would be great. They would make me a living martyr.”

Basil Katz contributed reporting from Paris.

0 comments.

Finding Freedom in Cyberspace – IslamOnline.net – Muslim Affairs

Posted on March 22nd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Finding Freedom in Cyberspace – IslamOnline.net – Muslim Affairs
“I am writing to let you know that in less than 2 hours the last turbine of the Gaza Strip’s only power plant will stop working. The fuel for the power plant … will run out in 2 hours,” blogs Mona El-Farra, a mother from Gaza.

0 comments.

The Anthropology of Islam « Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

Posted on March 22nd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, My Research.

The second book of Gabriel Marranci, The Anthropology of Islam, will be available at the end of this month. As a prelude he provides with a short excerpt from the introduction: an elenchos which is question–answer dialogue that aims to clarify a topic through deconstructing other arguments; in this case, how‘Islam’ may be understood within the field of anthropology:

ELENCHOS

STUDENT: What is Islam?

To find the anthropological answer to that question read his website:

The Anthropology of Islam « Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

0 comments.

Coming soon…Fitna I

Posted on March 7th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Public Islam.

Wilders movie Fitna is widely discussed on Dutch blogs. A Fist full of euros has made an interesting overview of it. One of the interesting links they have is to an Iranian Shia webforum where people discuss the freedom of expression in the Netherlands and in Iran. There are also several bloggers discussing the issue. I will leave out the usual suspects here and concentrate on few of the smaller blogs that I have found via Global Voices.

Indonesia Matters has a lot of attention for Dutch politics and Geert Wilders as well.

Where does the freedom of speech crosses the line and turns into discrimination thus violating article 1 of the Dutch Constitution where discrimination of people on their gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, political view or any other ground is prohibited? This is the same article Wilders is referring to by branding Al-Quran as fascist.

The questions asked seem to be leading in one way or the other on many of the other blogs. Consider for example Israpundit where an article of Spengle is published:

The erring spiritual leader of the Church of England persuades me that Europe’s Man of Destiny is the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who for two years has lived in hiding under constant police protection for the crime of criticizing Islam. It is a measure of the degradation of Europe’s body politic that is only one means to expose the motives of Williams and his ilk, namely to draw fire from Muslims who overtly threaten violence against any public figure who questions the authority of Islam.
Contrary to his critics, Wilders is not provoking violence. The violence is already there, a matter of workaday fact in Muslim enclaves throughout Europe. In an act of great personal courage, Wilders is enticing violent elements out of the tall grass in order to expose them to public opprobrium.

(Spengle refers to Williams’ comments on the shari’a. For a well informed take on that issue see Indigo Jo and Yahya Birt). Another article on Israpundit from Andrew Bostom shows a speech Wilders earlier held on Islam and violence and refers to a quote of Churchill:

While we await the release of Dutch MP Geert Wilders 15 minute documentary on the Koran and Violence, it is worth recalling (hat tip Daniel Pipes) that Winston Churchill on p. 50 of From War to War, the first part of the first volume of his 6-part Second World War, proclaimed Hitler’s Mein Kampf to be,

“…the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.”

Sanjar writes about the protests in Afghanistan against the re-publication of the Danish cartoons and the Fitna movie.

I think the publication of cartoon shows how reconcilable Islam is with western secular values. In the west its seen as gesture to reemphasize western commitment to freedom of expression. In the muslim world its not about freedom of expression. It’s about the way of life. Afghanistan’s Religious Affairs Ministry has called the reprinting of the cartoon as an attack against Islam. Several other Islamic countries have demanded that the film by the Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders must not be released.

It is clear that the two events (the film and the cartoons) each of their own trigger the hostile situations and debates and together make the issue of freedom of speech even stronger. The sometimes hostile reactions led View from Iran to the following commentIn the end, the best response to Wilders is the cold shoulder or humor.

If there is a violent response, doesn’t that just make his point? It’s like fuel for him and even for people who might not agree with him but who see his vindication in a violent response. Who am I to tell people what to do? But if you are a Muslim who is offended by Wilders, then the most effective protest you can offer is to ignore him completely .

I prefer Eutopia’s response to the mania. It’s generous and humorous.

They refer to Europia’s initiative Holland loves Muslims. Sour reactions by Dutch weblogs such as Geenstijl.nl resulted however in a stream of negative and sometimes hateful comments which led Eutopia to end their project.

Subzero is one of the websites we can find an entirely different reaction but still taking issue with the freedom of speech:

I personally think this has nothing to do with freedom of expression, I think it is staunch bigotry, very insulting and something that should be totally unacceptable from a state official.
I believe it should be illegal for anyone to threaten legal citizens to throw them out of their country for any reason, let alone their religious beliefs.
I think this bigot should be thrown out of office and prosecuted for his attacks and actions.

And regarding the possibility of a violent reaction in the Muslim world to the release of this movie; nobody should expect a ‘civilized’ reaction to such an uncivilized attack! Every action has an equal and opposite reaction!
But still, I really hope violence is avoided and that people show their protest and anger in a more effective way.

Subzero also refers what would happen if someone did the same with the Jews as Wilders is doing with Muslims. A similar take can be found on Islamophobia in Europe pointing to what seems to be a double standard:

Offending Islam and Islamophobia is considered in most of the European countries as free speech, but don’t try to raise any issue regarding the Jewish community because you might risk a ban and end up in jail.

I am not sure if I would agree with this issue of double standards although, as I have explained earlier, the issue of how far freedom of speech goes is something that is heavily debated. And Muslims are not the only groups trying to ban sacrilegeous items from the public domain.

3 comments.

The Journal » British students being recruited to jihadist Facebook groups

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

The Journal » British students being recruited to jihadist Facebook groups
British students being recruited to jihadist Facebook groups
Groups calling for armed Jihad active on Facebook Leader of banned organisation claims success in actively recruiting students Terror suspect on trial used networking site up until time of arrest (more…)

4 comments.

The Journal » Facebook: the darker side of social networking

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

The Journal » Facebook: the darker side of social networking

It is important that we understand social networking sites are not benign by design, rather by practice

Hollywood has spent the best part of a decade convincing us that the main danger posed by the internet comes from bank-robbing computer hackers. The tabloid press believes that paedophiles pose an exponentially greater threat than they did fifteen years ago as a result of instant messaging and email. Meanwhile entire software industries have been set up to tap into people’s collective fear of that mythical beast, the computer virus. However it is the Chinese who have the clearest understanding of the danger posed: the internet allows people to connect with others, regardless of geography, allowing them to communicate and share information in a way that is anonymous and largely free of enforceable state regulations.Barely a week goes by without the national media waxing lyrical about “social networking websites” in an attempt to bridge the largest inter-generational cultural gap since rock ‘n’ roll first appeared in the fifties. The fascination, in particular, with Facebook groups and the various political campaigns and social statements they make is repeatedly highlighted.

However, the “soft news” approach fails to tackle one of the key issues that such a phenomenon has given rise to. Social networking websites, and the ubiquitous Facebook more so than others, allow for the finding and near instantaneous assimilation of like-minded individuals into an online community.

1 comment.

Wikipedia and the prophet Muhammad

Posted on February 6th, 2008 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

A few netizens have created a petition to ban images from the Prophet Muhammad from the Wikipedia page about Muhammad. The text of this petition is:

In Islam picture of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other Humans are not allowed. But Wikipedia editors are showing illustrations with face illustrated and face is veiled or white washed. But still they are offensive to Muslims. I request all brothers and sisters to sign this petitions so we can tell Wikipedia to respect the religion and remove the illustrations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad
specially this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Maome.jpg

If you agree, then go here and sign the petition as did many of thousands before you. If you don’t agree, then sign the counter petition here. (And if you don’t care, just have a look and stay here 😉 ).

Because of the debat Wikipedia had to create another page for people requesting the images be removed instead: Talk:Muhammad/images#Image_solution. Wikipedia explains their policy on the Muhammed FAQ page. Wikipedia makes it very clear that they will not remove the images but they do provide a way for users to change their browser settings so that any pictures that offend them can be hidden from their view.

1 comment.

Feminist Law Professors » Michele White, “The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet Spectatorship”

Posted on January 28th, 2008 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, Important Publications.

On the blog Feminist Law Professors I found a reference to one of the most interesting books I read lately: “The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet Spectatorship” by Michele White. White goes further then just ‘simply’ analyze the content of websites but she engages in a very thorough analysis of how websites render and regulate their visitors by means of visual, textual and technical means. It is a must read for everyone who tries to understand a little bit about how people reconstitute themselves (and are disciplined into that in a particular way) online and therefore also to understand the transformative aspects of new media.

0 comments.

Arab Media & Society – Bettina Gräf on Islamonline.net

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Interesting paper from Bettina Gräf on Arab Media & Society about Islamonline.net

This paper gives an overview of the history and operations of IslamOnline.net, one of the most-visited Arabic/ English Islamic web portals which issue fatwas.[i] The body behind IslamOnline (IOL) is the Al-Balagh Cultural Society in Qatar, which was established in 1997 on the initiative of Qatari IT specialist Maryam Hasan al-Hajari and Dr. Hamid al-Ansari, a scholar at the Sharica Faculty of the University of Qatar. In its early stages the project was supported by the University of Qatar, especially by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the 1926-born, Azhar-educated Egyptian scholar and theorist of the Islamic Awakening movement who still chairs the Al-Balagh Society today.[ii] The headquarters and IT development of IOL are based in Doha, while most of the content is produced by more than 150 employees at the IOL offices in Cairo. IOL is mainly financed by donations and by selling its technical know-how to other Islamic institutions around the world. In promotional material for the site, Yusuf al-Qaradawi defined the site’s mission this way: “This project is neither nationalistic nor one aiming at a grouping or a group of people; it is a project for the entire Islamic community. It is the jihad of our era.”[iii]

0 comments.

Arab Media & Society – Bettina Gräf on Islamonline.net

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

Interesting paper from Bettina Gräf on Arab Media & Society about Islamonline.net

This paper gives an overview of the history and operations of IslamOnline.net, one of the most-visited Arabic/ English Islamic web portals which issue fatwas.[i] The body behind IslamOnline (IOL) is the Al-Balagh Cultural Society in Qatar, which was established in 1997 on the initiative of Qatari IT specialist Maryam Hasan al-Hajari and Dr. Hamid al-Ansari, a scholar at the Sharica Faculty of the University of Qatar. In its early stages the project was supported by the University of Qatar, especially by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the 1926-born, Azhar-educated Egyptian scholar and theorist of the Islamic Awakening movement who still chairs the Al-Balagh Society today.[ii] The headquarters and IT development of IOL are based in Doha, while most of the content is produced by more than 150 employees at the IOL offices in Cairo. IOL is mainly financed by donations and by selling its technical know-how to other Islamic institutions around the world. In promotional material for the site, Yusuf al-Qaradawi defined the site’s mission this way: “This project is neither nationalistic nor one aiming at a grouping or a group of people; it is a project for the entire Islamic community. It is the jihad of our era.”[iii]

0 comments.

Jihadi software promises secure Web contacts | Technology | Internet | Reuters

Posted on January 20th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Jihadi software promises secure Web contacts | Technology | Internet | Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) – An Islamist Web site often used by al Qaeda supporters carried updated encryption software on Friday which it said would help Islamic militants communicate with greater security on the Internet.The Mujahideen Secrets 2 was promoted as “the first Islamic program for secure communications through networks with the highest technical level of encoding”.

The software, available free on the password-protected Ekhlaas.org site which often carries al Qaeda messages, is a newer version of Mujahideen Secrets issued in early 2007 by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al Qaeda-linked Web-based group.

“This special edition of the software was developed and issued by … Ekhlaas in order to support the mujahideen (holy war fighters) in general and the (al Qaeda-linked group) Islamic State in Iraq in particular,” the site said.

The efficacy of the new Arabic-language software to ensure secure e-mail and other communications could not be immediately gauged. But some security experts had warned that the wide distribution of its earlier version among Islamists and Arabic-speaking hackers could prove significant.

Al Qaeda supporters widely use the Internet to spread the group’s statements through hundreds of Islamist sites where anyone can post messages. Al Qaeda-linked groups also set up their own sites, which frequently have to move after being shut by Internet service providers.

Al Qaeda’s own media arm, As-Sahab, has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. It issued 97 audio and video Web messages in 2007 compared with just 6 in 2002, according to IntelCenter (intelcenter.com), a U.S.-based group that monitors Islamist sites.

Al Qaeda and other groups have increasingly turned to the Internet to win young Muslims over to their fight against Western countries and Western-backed governments.

(Reporting by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Giles Elgood)

0 comments.

Jihadi software promises secure Web contacts | Technology | Internet | Reuters

Posted on January 20th, 2008 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Jihadi software promises secure Web contacts | Technology | Internet | Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) – An Islamist Web site often used by al Qaeda supporters carried updated encryption software on Friday which it said would help Islamic militants communicate with greater security on the Internet.The Mujahideen Secrets 2 was promoted as “the first Islamic program for secure communications through networks with the highest technical level of encoding”.

The software, available free on the password-protected Ekhlaas.org site which often carries al Qaeda messages, is a newer version of Mujahideen Secrets issued in early 2007 by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al Qaeda-linked Web-based group.

“This special edition of the software was developed and issued by … Ekhlaas in order to support the mujahideen (holy war fighters) in general and the (al Qaeda-linked group) Islamic State in Iraq in particular,” the site said.

The efficacy of the new Arabic-language software to ensure secure e-mail and other communications could not be immediately gauged. But some security experts had warned that the wide distribution of its earlier version among Islamists and Arabic-speaking hackers could prove significant.

Al Qaeda supporters widely use the Internet to spread the group’s statements through hundreds of Islamist sites where anyone can post messages. Al Qaeda-linked groups also set up their own sites, which frequently have to move after being shut by Internet service providers.

Al Qaeda’s own media arm, As-Sahab, has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. It issued 97 audio and video Web messages in 2007 compared with just 6 in 2002, according to IntelCenter (intelcenter.com), a U.S.-based group that monitors Islamist sites.

Al Qaeda and other groups have increasingly turned to the Internet to win young Muslims over to their fight against Western countries and Western-backed governments.

(Reporting by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Protected: Googelend op zoek naar zingeving – Kerk & Godsdienst – Reformatorisch Dagblad

Posted on January 18th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, My Research, Religion Other, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Middle East Report 245: Young Brothers in Cyberspace by Marc Lynch

Posted on December 14th, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, ISIM/RU Research, Religious Movements.

Middle East Report 245: Young Brothers in Cyberspace by Marc Lynch

An older Muslim Brother blogger, Ahmad ‘Abd al-‘Ati, came out in favor of the fourth generation’s openness: “The blogs represent a sign of success despite the fears of others that they have crossed the line…. Exchanging ideas is not a divide between generations and differences of opinion are not divisions.”[28] This is an opinion from which young bloggers like Rashwan take heart. Yet Deputy Guide Muhammad Habib seems bent on squelching talk of “generations” or “trends” out of concern that it could be used to weaken the Brothers.[29]

Some skeptics dismiss the blogs as a public relations stratagem. That may have been partly true at the outset, particularly as regards the blogging campaigns in support of the al-Azhar students and to secure the release of the Brotherhood’s imprisoned leaders. But their emergence as an independent force among the Brothers is something altogether different. The bloggers of the Muslim Brothers represent a growing intellectual and political force within the movement that could, over time, help tip it in a reformist direction. But they face considerable challenges: a leadership wary of change, a regime increasingly prone to arresting troublesome Internet activists and a salafi counter-trend that could well take the Muslim Brothers in another direction entirely. How much impact the blogging Brothers can really have remains to be seen, but at the least they represent a new dynamic in the world of Islamism and Arab politics, and offer a striking new window upon the internal life of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Social Science Research Council: The Immanent Frame

Posted on November 10th, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

The Social Science Research Council has announced the launch of The Immanent Frame, a new SSRC blog on secularism, religion, and the public sphere.

The blog is opening with a series of posts on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, including recent contributions from Robert Bellah, Wendy Brown, Jose Casanova, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, and Colin Jager. Robert Bellah has called A Secular Age “one of the most important books to be written in my lifetime,” and there will be more to come on Taylor’s major work in the weeks ahead, with posts by Rajeev Bhargava, Akeel Bilgrami, Hent de Vries, Amy Hollywood, Tomoko Masuzawa, Joan Scott, and others. Meanwhile, Charles Taylor himself has just made his own contribution to the already ongoing conversations.

Later this fall The Immanent Frame will host a series of posts responding to Mark Lilla’s The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West. And there will be posts on a variety of other topics too—from pluralism and the “post-secular” to international relations theory, religious freedom, and the future of shari’a.

This new SSRC blog will draw on, and is closely linked to, the Council’s expanding work on religion and the public sphere.

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OpenNet Initiative Blog – Political satire, Internet surveillance, and user empowerment: A story of a remix clip from the Middle East

Posted on November 3rd, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

Users in the Middle East and North Africa not only mock the political authorities by producing and distributing such content, but they mock the surveillance efforts by using various techniques to defeat and protest censorship and surveillance. In some cases, the Internet has been used to multiply the effect of questionable content. In June 2006, when the Lebanese satellite channel LBC broadcast a satirical sketch of Hassan Nasrallah, the head Hizbullah, supporters of the militant group took to the streets protesting what they considered as outrageous and insensitive. The producer of the show had to apologize. However, Internet users posted the clip on a large number of video sharing sites including YouTube with English subtitles, to protest what they considered as an unacceptable form of censorship.

The story of the remix provides us with a brief look into the impact of the different modes of online surveillance and censorship on the users’ online behavior and how that behavior is influenced by the users’ awareness of obtrusive surveillance.

Read the article and after that, watch both videos.

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An Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers – New York Times

Posted on October 18th, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, ISIM/RU Research, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

The following article in the NYT is about Samir Khan, the writer of the weblog Inshallahshaheed that (among other things) features many videos and messages from Bin Laden and others and has gained some popularity and authority among Dutch audiences. One of the reasons for their interest is of course these political messages but also the fact that sometimes it is combined with ethical and spiritual issues, thereby covering a wide range of issues and showing the multi-layered and multiple modalities of so called ‘radical islam’. First blogging at WordPress (like me) he has now moved to Muslimpad. Samir Khan has announced that he will respond to the NYT article; a response that I will post on this blog as well in due course.[UPDATE: Done that, see below the article] (more…)

2 comments.

New website: Digital Islam

Posted on September 22nd, 2007 by .
Categories: [Online] Publications, Blogosphere.

Very interesting, new website:

Digital Islam

Digital Islam is a research project that focuses on the Middle East, Islam, and digital media. It aims to analyze the various ways in which Islam and Muslim identities are articulated through information and communication technologies and the Internet. Its research materials include websites, digital videoclips, and videogames. The webpage digitalislam.eu provides free access to full texts and bibliographical database of research resources.

• Home – full text papers, articles, and news
• Call for Papers – call for papers for conferences, workshops, and publications
• Bibliography – bibliographical database of books, articles, and papers
• Websites – bibliographical database of websites related to Islam and digital media. The database contains both academic research websites and major Islamic websites.
• Video and games – database of videogames which take place in the Middle East, represent Arabs and Muslims, have been produced by Middle Eastern developers, or have an Islamic emphasis. The latter are marked with asterisk (*) and can be also viewed in a separate list.

Editors

Vit Sisler, editor-in-chief, is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Information Studies of Charles University in Prague, where he is finishing his doctoral thesis about Islam and Islamic law on the Internet. He is also engaged in the research of social and political aspects of videogames, with emphasis given on the Middle Eastern games. Vit Sisler is a chair of workshop Religious Norms in Cyberspace which is annually held at the Cyberspace international conference in Brno, Czech Republic.
Vit Sisler’s homepage: http://uisk.jinonice.cuni.cz/sisler/

Tomas Tomanek, editor, is a master’s student at New Media Studies of Charles University in Prague.

Katerina Cechova, editor, is a master’s student at New Media Studies of Charles University in Prague, where she is finishing her thesis about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Internet.

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Prinsjesdag…

Posted on September 19th, 2007 by .
Categories: Arts & culture, Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues.

(foto: Telegraaf)

Naast de Troonrede is, denk ik, het allerbelangrijkste van prinsjesdag, de kleding. In het bijzonder van de vrouwen en dan weer in het bijzonder in hoedjes. Maar niet alleen. Als het erom gaat wie dit jaar het meest opvallendst was, denk ik dat mevrouw Vogelaar gewonnen heeft. Diverse weblogs (en in hun comments) weten in ieder geval melding te maken van haar outfit: hier, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier en hier. Haar kledingstuk wordt gezien als ‘islamitisch’ dan wel ‘islamiserend’ of ‘Marokkaans’ en vergeleken met een kaftan.

Ook Wilders en Verdonk reageren erop. Wilders die het ‘half-marokkaans’ noemt en Verdonk die het ‘kaftanachtig’ noemt en het vergelijkt met de kleding van imams en dat eigenlijk maar een slecht voorbeeld noemt voor de integratie.

Uiteindelijk is het niet Marokkaans, ook niet echt islamitisch volgens mij en ook geen kaftan (een lange jurk oorspronkelijk afkomstig uit Turkije die overigens ook door Marokkanen wordt gedragen, maar ook al lang haar intrede heeft gedaan in de ‘westerse‘ mode en net als andere kledingitems), maar een soort hybride creatie. Nu is hybriditeit eigenlijk de normaalste zaak van de wereld. Mensen en culturele repertoires mixen en daardoor ontstaan nieuwe culturele repertoires (zonder dat de oude helemaal verdwijnen). Hier gaat het ook om een doelbewust proces. Vogelaar wilde laten er zien dat allochtonen ook een belangrijke bijdrage kunnen leveren en dat er velen zijn die het goed doen in de maatschappij. De ontwerpster Houda el Fechka wilde een jurk maken op basis van een mix tussen twee culturen.

Op deze manier probeert zij een brug te slaan en een eenheid te creëeren. Wilders en Verdonk, zo blijkt uit hun reacties (en ook van sommige bloggers en hun commenters) creëeren juist bewust of onbewust een verschil door het als Marokkaans, islamitisch of als slecht voorbeeld voor integratie te benoemen. Hybriditeit kan dus door politieke groeperingen, andere machtsgroeperingen en individuen gebruikt worden om eenheid te creëreren waar die niet is, eenheid in stand te houden of juist om verdeeldheid te creëeren of in stand te houden. Zie hier het politieke gebruik van cultuur en identiteit.

Kennelijk hebben politieke groeperingen of andere machtsgroepen er belang bij dat hybriditeit bestaat. Deze wordt dus bewustmatig gecreëerd om een eenheid te vormen, van een volk die eigenlijk geen eenheid heeft.

1 comment.

San Jose Mercury News – Jumping ahead of Al-Qaida on video

Posted on September 14th, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, International Terrorism.

San Jose Mercury News – Jumping ahead of Al-Qaida on video

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post
Article Launched: 09/12/2007 01:31:41 AM PDT

WASHINGTON – Early Tuesday morning, a South Carolina Web designer who works at home managed to scoop Al-Qaida by publicly unveiling its new video, a feat she has accomplished numerous times since 2002. Within hours, cable news stations were broadcasting images of Osama bin Laden commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and crediting the 50-year-old woman, who uses the pseudonym Laura Mansfield.

(more…)

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Blog dag 2007

Posted on September 1st, 2007 by .
Categories: Blogosphere.

Gisteren was het blog-dag. Wat dat is?

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.
With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

Zoals vaker loop ik achter de feiten aan, dus ik kom op 1 september met mijn aanbevelingen. Hier gaan we:

1. What Am I Reading: Een blog alleen over boeken…een goudmijntje.
2. Anasheedgroep Rayahien: Anasheed, een onderwerp waar ik me eigenlijk helemaal niet mee bezig houd, maar wel erg interessant en voor de liefhebbers zeker de moeite waard even te kijken (en te luisteren).
3. A Fistful of Euros: Interessant Europees nieuws en prikkelende meningen.
4. Feministing: De naam lijkt me duidelijk, altijd de moeite waard en met de nodige betrokkenheid (en soms woede) geschreven.
5. New Statesman – Simon Munnerey: Eén van de New Statesman blogs en zeker één van de grappigste, scherpste blogs.

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