'Internet imams' the new recruiters for al-Qaida, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

'Internet imams' the new recruiters for al-Qaida

Eric Schmitt & Eric Lipton, NYT News Service 2 January 2010, 02:39am IST

WASHINGTON: The apparent ties between the Nigerian man charged with plotting to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day and a radical American-born

Yemeni imam have cast a spotlight on a world of charismatic clerics who wield their internet celebrity to indoctrinate young Muslims with extremist ideology and recruit them for al-Qaida, American officials and counterterrorism specialists said.

American military and law enforcement authorities said the man accused in the bombing attempt, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, most likely had contacts with the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, whom investigators have also named as having exchanged email messages with Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting rampage in November at Fort Hood, Texas.

Speaking in eloquent, often colloquial, English, Awlaki and other internet imams from the Middle East to Britain offer a televangelist’s persuasive message of faith, purpose and a way forward, for both the young and as yet uncommitted, as well as for the most devout worshipers ready to take the next step, to jihad.

“People across the spectrum of radicalism can gravitate to them, if they’re just dipping their toe in or they’re hard core,” said Jarret Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice”.

“Awlaki is, among other things, a talent spotter,” a US counterterrorism official said. “That’s part of his value to Qaida. If people are drawn to him, he can pass them along to trainers and operational planners.”

Sheikh Khalid bin Abdul Rahman al-Husainan of Kuwait mixes contemporary politics with talk of martyrdom. “Obama, in the same way that you raised the slogan, ‘Yes We Can,’ I too have a slogan,” Husainan wrote in August. “My slogan in this life is ‘Happiness is the day of my martyrdom.’”

http://newageislam.com/-internet-imams--the-new-recruiters-for-al-qaida/islamic-world-news/d/2315

Jihad is the most misunderstood word in Islam: DR. ZAKIR NAIK tells NDTV, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Jihad is the most misunderstood word in Islam: DR. ZAKIR NAIK tells NDTV

Dr. Zakir Naik sounds more sinned against than sinning

A.M. Jamsheed Basha

In the 'Walk the Talk' inerveiw with Dr. Zakir Naik on Varsova Beach early in the morning last week, he calrified a number of points relating to certain misconception about a number problems faced by Muslims in India. Gupta, who introduced Dr. Zakir Naik, at the start of the talk to NDTV viewers, said that Dr. Zakir Naik, was the modern Mullah wearing a suit and a tie much against the traditional cloaks the Mullahs ususally wear. He called him a tele-rock star or tele-evangalist, who not only enthralled audiences in India but all over the world as well with his thought provoking speeches on Islam and other major religions of the world.

In his charactristic style, Dr. Zakir Naik went on to speak on a number of problems and issues facing Muslim community in the country. He said that he believed that a Muslim should study and necessarily acquire knowledge not only in his mother tongue but also in English and Arabic. For he wanted all Muslims to learn besides their mother tongue or Urdu, English and Arabic compulsorily. This would give them an opportunity to study the Islamic literature from its original source and tell the world the truth associated with Islam, as it is the most misunderstood religion of the world.

On the question of his interpretation of Quran based on Hadith, Dr. Zakir Naik said that he goes to the original sources before commenting on anything. He cited a verse from Quran to justify that Allah has directed Muslims to first verify before you comment on anybody or anything concerning human life. While clarifying his stand on Osama bin Laden, he said that he did not know him but learnt about him only through newspapers and television channels. He said he could not say whether he was a saint or a terrorist, as he had no source to verify the facts. On the 9/11 attack by Al-Qaida, he denounced it as unislamic as Allah never approved of killing of innocent people whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims.

http://newageislam.com/jihad-is-the-most-misunderstood-word-in-islam--dr.-zakir-naik-tells-ndtv--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1240

Saying 'Islamic threat' doesn't make it real

Saying 'Islamic threat' doesn't make it real

By Soumaya Ghannoushi

I suspect many military experts must struggle to keep a straight face every time the subject of the "Islamic threat" is broached. They know that strategic threats are not founded on mere anxieties, imagination and illusions, but on concrete military and political facts. This is not to play down the seriousness of the dangers presented by al-Qaida and other violent groups. But these constitute a security problem to be dealt with through the intelligence and security services. Whatever its braggadocio, al-Qaida does not amount to a strategic military threat, let alone a menace to "western civilisation".

http://www.newageislam.com/saying--islamic-threat--doesn-t-make-it-real/islam-and-the-west/d/229