Scientific American: Virtual Jihad

Scientific American: Virtual Jihad

Submitted by frlarry on

Scientific American has a short piece on the use of the Internet by jihadists. "Scientific American: Virtual Jihad" discusses ways of combatting the phenomenon, including using so-called data mining techniques in intelligence gathering, setting up phoney sites to confuse recruits and entering chat rooms armed with a positive message.

This is yet another example of how Marshall McLuhan's "global village" is not a "global tribe," but a jumble of disparate tribes. One of the particularly illuminating comments in the piece was this:

Atran, who has interviewed several radical jihadists, says that the Internet has spread a homogenized, flat notion of Islam, one that has little to do with Islamic tradition. The militants express a message of martyrdom for the sake of global jihad as life's noblest cause. "I was very surprised to find, from the suburbs of Paris to the jungles of Indonesia, that people gave to me basically the same stuff, in the same words," Atran says.

"The same stuff, in the same words," is exactly how I would have characterized the approach to interpreting scripture that I encountered in a one-week bible workshop years ago, sponsored by a group that originated in Korea. It goes beyond mere brain-washing. It sets up a tightly knit virtual tribe -- a tribe of people from all walks of life and living in widely scattered locations, yet united by the same formulaic perspective and the same heroes. When such tribes conflict, there is internecine warfare. The best known example of this is described by St. Paul in the third chapter of his 1st epistle to the Corinthians.

Copywrite

The postings on this Blog are © 2003-2024, Fr. Larry Gearhart.

Individual comments are the property of the contributors.

The views expressed on this website are mine alone (or the contributors of comments)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Church or any of my superiors.