Browsing down the threat
Thanks to the wonders of modern communications, there is a place you can go for a refresher course on the finer points of the Mujahideen's jihad. Entitled "What can I do to help Jihad and the Mujahideen" the page provides a series of quotes from the Koran, and Hadith - or reported utterances from Mohammed - which justify armed struggle aimed at the implementation of Sharia law throughout the world. A series of links also refer to country specific sites in those countries where the Mujahideen has a presence.
More general information regarding the armed Jihad can be obtained at a site called Jihaadulkuffaarin.jeeran.com which makes its intentions clear with the opening quote: "Jihaad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences, and no dialogues".
In a similar vein Kahane provides extensive arguments for the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from what's left of their land, and provides ample justification for violence against Islam. This group also has close ties with the Kahane Chai which has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Palestinian targets in the West Bank, and Jerusalem. It has also been linked to the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Claiming to be saving America and Israel from Islamic terrorism, and anti-Semitic black rappers the Jewish Task Force promises to channel any donations to the defence of human rights for right-wing dissidents in Israel.
But you don't need to go to the middle east to find Web sites calling for violence and extremism. The Australian Nationalist Movement provides a bit of home grown vitriol, claiming that democracy and freedom can never coincide, and hero-worshipping the "extremist" - as one who will "march through hell for a heavenly cause".
However, it is hard to measure to the extent of the effect such Web sites have. Given also that there has been a sharp increase in attacks against Mosques and Muslims in Australia since September 11, it would appear that a range of sources of propaganda have been successful in inciting violence and misdirected retribution.
Meanwhile Web sites such as that of Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party which makes totally unfounded claims linking refugees with terrorism and the New Australian serve as fuel in a climate already fraught by racial tension.
In a recent interview with ZDNet Australia, the minister for Information Technology and Communication pointed out that the government was unable to react to politically driven Web sites, unless they represented groups which had been specifically designated as a criminal organisation.
"Well the current regime caters for the possibility of these things being regarded as highly offensive, I mean if they're criminal then they qualify automatically - it's really then a complaints-driven regime," explained senator Alston. "If someone wants to say that a particular Web site is offensive or illegal, they bring it to the attention of the ABA and things start to happen. I think we'd be reluctant to go down the path of trying to introduce some specific regime for racial intolerance, simply because things vary so much depending on the individual content."
Similarly Irene Graham, executive director of Electronic Frontiers Australia questions the need for any changes to the current legal approach.
"We don't see why there needs to be special laws relevant to the use of the Internet as a medium, terrorists also use the roads and the post and fax machines," Graham says. "As far as a real terrorist organisation is concerned, it is the same problem as any other Web site, there is very little an individual government can do to stop a site being published on the Web, they need to go to where the people are and prosecute them for their activities, not for the publication itself."
While there can be no doubt that the Internet has become an important source of information for all manner of groups which advocate violence, it is also being used to disseminate information by groups calling for a peaceful resolution to global conflict, and an end to racial and religious intolerance. And thankfully the sites calling for peace and tolerance remain in the majority.
This "Shite Movement" mail is just another Nigerian 419 scam. I recieved a similar one. First from a "Christian Preacher" then "Mrs. Mobutu" then from an "Islamic Militant".