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Istishad as an Ideological and Practical tool in the Hands of Al-Qaeda
by means of the Qatari television station Al-Jazeera. The preferred status that
Bin Laden granted Al-Jazeera and selected sympathetic journalists such as
Yusri Fouda (the journalist given the first exclusive with Khaled Sheikh
Muhammad and his close colleague Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh just before the first
anniversary of the September 11 th attacks) and Ahmed Zeidan (the Al-Jazeera
correspondent in Pakistan who was allowed to interview Bin Laden in
Afghanistan a number of times before the American invasion of the country)
was part of Bin Laden’s deliberate media policy. This policy was aimed at
increasing the prestige of the Arab communications media, which had always
been considered inferior and of little interest compared to the western media
(Zeidan, 2003, p. 15).
The focus of Al-Qaeda’s psychological warfare was divided between satellite
television stations and the internet. Whereas television stations throughout the Arab
world, and primarily the popular Al-Jazeera network, served Al-Qaeda by
publicizing its messages by broadcasting videos produced by the organization, the
past few years have witnessed increased use of the internet by Al-Qaeda and its
partners. Out of the approximately 4,000 Islamic websites that exist on the internet,
about 300 are connected to radical Islamic groups that support Al-Qaeda. These
websites disseminate the organization’s messages and encourage the recruitment of
new suicide volunteers to join the ranks of the global Jihad. Some even provide
their readers with instructions for carrying out attacks and making explosive
devices. Due to efforts by western forces to close or damage these sites, they
regularly change their internet addresses. Sometimes, new addresses appear as
messages for previous users, and in some cases addresses are maintained for chat
rooms only, where it is passed on by chat participants. All terrorist groups maintain
more than one website in more than one language. Two internet newsletters are
directly associated with Al-Qaeda: Saut al-Jihad and Mua`askar al-Batar. 9 These
two websites provide explanations on how to kidnap, poison, and murder people,
as well as a list of targets that should be attacked.
Both the terrorists who carried out the attack in Madrid in March 2004 and those
who participated in the attacks of September 11 th made regular use of the internet
for communication. The anonymity of the web facilitates communication on
controversial issues without being exposed and without yielding to the pressure of
governments. In Europe, the internet provides young Muslims with a virtual
community that serves primarily to ease the emotional strain on Muslim
immigrants experiencing the difficulties of adapting to a new environment and
feeling a need to maintain their religious identity. The internet provides support on
a psychological level, enabling them to overcome the alienation felt by Muslims
living in Europe in a foreign religious environment, and to dull the sense of crisis
that characterizes all acts of immigration. The internet actualizes the ideal of the
Islamic “Uma” by making it real and tangible and enabling Muslims to create
super-national, cross-border communities. With cyberspace, internet users can
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