"Blessed be your hands," Umm Issa tells Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, nicknamed "prince of cutthroats" on Islamist Web sites for his beheading of foreign hostages in Iraq.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who heads the Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, must be getting used to such messages of support from Muslim e-mailers.
PHOTO: EPA
He is on track to overtake al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the popularity stakes as militants make full use of the Internet in their war against "Crusaders."
DISPLAY OF HATRED
"O Sheikh Zarqawi, I implore you to quickly slaughter, with your right [hand], the British elj [infidel]," says a participant named Nimr, in a typical display of hatred for the West shown by participants in Islamist discussion groups.
Zarqawi's al-Qaeda-linked group, which is holding Briton Ken Bigley, has already beheaded the two Americans whom they snatched with him from their Baghdad home on Sept. 16.
Yet another contributor to the "debate" suggests cutting hostages' throats with a saw in order to terrorize the uluj (plural for infidel).
But "Abu Taymiya" disagrees.
"Prisoners must be treated well ... and a saw might cause them suffering," he argues.
Contributors use a variety of noms de guerre -- from "Servant of the Mujahedeen" to "Enamored of Terrorism" -- but their rallying cry is the same: "to terrorize the enemy," chiefly the US.
`CRUSADERS AND JEWS'
Islamist militants began venting their hatred of "the Crusaders and Jews" on the Internet after the Taliban regime was ousted from power in Afghanistan in late 2001 by a US-led military campaign launched in retaliation for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Islamist messages, electronic publications and videos have since proliferated as militants "prepare for jihad."
The "Center for Islamic Studies and Research," grouping Arab Islamists of the caliber of Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's second-in-command, was one of the cyberspace pioneers.
The center focused on written material, while the "Al-Sahab Institute" specialized in producing al-Qaeda videos.
The center's literature included a series of articles on guerrilla warfare, explosives and weapons favored by guerrillas, such as the AK-47 assault rifle and the RPG-7 anti-tank rocket.
Local groups linked to al-Qaeda soon came on line too, notably "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," whose mouthpiece, Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), was followed by a military bulletin, Muaskar al-Battar (Camp of the Cutting Sword).
More recently, a women's magazine, Al-Khansaa, was put online by an outfit calling itself the "Women's Information Office in the Arabian Peninsula."
Iraq's extremist Army of Ansar al-Sunna group, which is linked to al-Qaeda and has gained notoriety for executing hostages, has an online publication carrying its name, as well as its own Web site -- like many of the militant groups do.
`WE ARE TERRORISTS'
"Yes, we are terrorists. Terrorism is our path to frighten the enemies of Allah," the group wrote in an editorial in the magazine's 10th edition.
"Al-Qaeda now has a virtual university which teaches electronic jihad," Ahmad al-Watheq Billah recently commented in an article published by the Global Islamic Media Center on an Internet site.
"This university ... which knows no geographical boundaries and in which any Muslim can enrol, has several faculties, including some that specialize in techniques of manufacturing explosives and booby-trapping cars," he said.
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