Internet Jihad Update from AFP, with thanks to DP:
PARIS — They neither carry weapons nor lay ambushes for soldiers in Iraq or in Afghanistan. But thousands of radical Islamists are waging a different kind of war from behind their computers, called “electronic jihad.”
These radical Islamic sites have sprung up over the past few years, specializing in the organization and the coordination of concerted cyber-attacks against Israeli, American, Catholic, and Danish Web sites.
All you need to join this anonymous cyberworld is an address registered in Iraq or in tribal zones in Pakistan, and basic computer savvy to carry out concerted attacks in which internauts from the four corners of the world take part.
Among their most high-profile attacks to date was that on the Danish Internet site of daily Jyllands-Posten, which outraged Muslims – and sparked violence worldwide – by publishing controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in September 2005.
“It is the Internet version of jihad: you can telecharge viruses which will be activated at the planned date … I downloaded one which was called ‘Jihad reminder’,” said Anne Giudicelli, a French specialist who runs a “terrorism” consultancy monitoring radical Islamic Web sites.