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Where most Southeast Asian websites seem to differ most from traditional
Arabic-language jihadist websites is in their actual structures. Whereas the
majority of Arabic jihadist online activity occurs by way of web forums,
Southeast Asian sites tend to function more as hosted webpages, some even of
commercial media organizations. Others appear as ad hoc blogs or amateurish
attempts at homepages. This seems to suggest that there is a lower level of
integration, coordination, and institutionalization among the respective websites
and their administrators than is seen in Arabic-language websites. It also
suggests that forums simply do not work in this region for structural reasons.
With lower levels of technology integration and high popularity of internet cafes,
many of the readers on these websites may be seeking news without the kind of
time commitment or intellectual investment that a web forum takes. Indeed, on
jihadist web forums, participants have to register their email addresses and set a
password. If they post, they probably want to observe reactions to their post and
possibly reply quickly to those responses. There are numerous sub-forums, each
with tens if not hundreds of new posts per day. Tracking global jihadist forums,
much less being an active member on these forums, takes significant amounts of
time, commitment, and internet access. Finally, whereas the most elite Southeast
Asian websites, like the Indonesian Ar-Rahmah, may have an organizational
backer, most of the jihadist website administrators in the region have neither the
professional staff nor organizational resources to grow their websites. In short, it
is hard to say whether the aversion to web forum structure, which is the
dominant website structure of Arabic-language global jihadist websites, is due to
the fact that forum structures are simply not as popular in the Southeast Asian
context or if the technical demand in hosting them and the labor it takes to
participate on them has made them nonviable.
Global Jihad Online: Indonesia
Despite the technological diffusion rates discussed above, across Indonesia, there
is a growing and vibrant jihadist discussion online. A number of Indonesian
websites and media production houses focus local attention on a variety of issues
that are of both domestic and global importance.
Ar-Rahmah
Indonesia’s leading jihadist website, Ar-Rahmah, has 12,123 registered members
and features 10,914 posts.
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In this sense, Ar-Rahmah rivals the leading Arabic-
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Forum statistics gained from http://www.arrahmah.com/index.php/forum (accessed 23 April
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