March 05, 2009
Internet a Key to Understanding Home Grown Jihadism
What makes the children of Muslim immigrants -- who fled Islamic countries for the opportunities afforded them by American freedoms -- become traitors plotting to harm their homeland? One key is that they consume a lot of propaganda. And how is that propaganda consumed? Through the internet.
For example, today a federal judge rejected the appeals of the five homegrown jihadis found guilty in the Fort Dix plot. The author of the story notes this about the men:
The five defendants did not speak during the hearing. After Kugler announced his decision, they traded shouts of "Allah Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- with some of their supporters in the court room.It is through the internet that Muslims in America become part of a worldwide community of Salafist jihadis. A world where videos, sermons, nasheeds (music), and books are exchanged and consumed. And in this world, an image is painted of an America out to destroy Islam at all costs, controlled by Jews, and of jihad --- and even acts of terror like 9/11 directed specifically at civilians --- is painted as defensive war.During the eight-week trial, prosecutors cast the men as homegrown terrorists. They said the men, who grew up in America, had become so hardened by their religious beliefs that they studied jihadist videos and lectures, trained with guns, and scouted Fort Dix and other nearby bases for a possible attack.
For instance, recently a document has been circulated among the online jihadi community about the acceptability of killing civilians used as human shields. Sit down for what I am about to tell you. Are you sitting?
The scholar writing the document argues that America was to blame for the civilians killed on 9/11 since the World Trade Center was a military target. You see, those employees killed in the building on that day were "human shields".
This is the kind of warped worldview you get from the eJihadis.
A worldview, I might add, not helped by the Left's very similar narrative about the US being at the root of global problems.
