DAR AL HARB - CANADA: THE CHRONICLES OF THE DIGITAL JIHAD

Chronicling the digital jihad
Robert Fulford, National Post

Beyond question, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was the prince of the cyber-jihad. Until an American air strike killed him last June, he headed the al-Qaeda suicide killers who have spread chaos in Iraq for three years. But on the Internet he stood even taller. He used digital communication so well that it made him a household name in many millions of Muslim households, almost the equal of Osama bin Laden.

Zarqawi realized that the Internet made it possible for a relatively small sect to send propaganda to every corner of the earth. As a result, local jihadi teams everywhere are now joined in a loosely organized but terrifying global network. One of the great triumphs of Western science and capitalism has become the most effective tool of the West's most determined enemies.

In the early days, some jihad warriors saw the Internet as the work of Satan but that notion was soon brushed aside. Most of them wanted to get online, fast. Today, when a new al-Qaeda unit comes together, it must have a leader, a spiritual advisor and a specialist in information technology.

It was Zarqawi, as much as anyone, who made the holy war of the Islamists into history's first digital revolution. Under his direction, no al-Qaeda operation in Iraq went unvideotaped. In the summer of 2005, he put out a 46-minute propaganda video, a gory celebration of death called All Religion Will Be for Allah. Distribution was democratic: Those with broadband connections got the high-definition version, those with only dialup received a smaller file, and cellphone users could also download it.

This is the sort of information that will attract readers to The Secret History of Al- Qaeda (University of California), by Abdel Bari Atwan, the long-time editor of al-Quds al-Arabi, the London paper through which al-Qaeda frequently sends electronic bulletins and threats to the world. A self-described supporter of Western democracy, Atwan condemns attacks on innocent citizens but writes with great sympathy about the al-Qaeda leaders he's met, including bin Laden.

He visited the famous Tora Bora lair in Afghanistan for three days in 1996 and has been talking about it ever since without actually saying much; for instance, bin Laden played basketball and, because he was tallest, always captained his team. He depicts bin Laden as a gentle, understanding, soft-spoken mass murderer.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Chronicling the digital jihad