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In 2006, I founded ZapBoom Consulting, which specializes in the analysis of how digital
tools like cell phones and the Internet can be used in social change campaigns in developing countries. I have
researched and written reports on topics ranging from 
image from a terror-promoting web site celebrating the attack in Kenya in 1998
I'm wary of even discussing this topic. I need to begin by saying that this post in no way advocates terrorism or violence of any kind. Terrorism and war and hatred make me sick and sad. Rather, this article is an analysis of how Islamic terrorists are incredibly effective at using the Internet to active their strategic aims while traditional NGOs lag behind. It is about implications.
An article in the New York Times today, An Internet Jihad Aims at US Viewers, inspired me to finally write about this topic. The article includes a video interview with Abu Omar, a bomb-maker who makes detailed digital videos of how the bombs are made that are then distributed over the Internet. The Times reports that as many as one video is made every day. Are any traditional social change movements this pro-active about disseminating their techniques?
These videos aren't only seen online. The are broadcast on global television stations like Al Jazeera hours after they are created, exposing the message to millions more people. What social change organization in the US is able to command international media attention this effectively? (It is not only the lurid subject matter that makes these videos successful.)
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia who was killed in June 2006 by the US, brought the Internet to Al Qaeda. He learned the power of the Internet when he was in prison in the 1990's and wanted to publish a newsletter. The hand-written missives were typed and sent to sympathizers across Europe who posted them on militant web sites. Have American NGOs been so successful in spreading the messages of imprisoned rights activists, such as Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma and Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman in Egypt? Why have the messengers of war been more successful than the messengers of peace?
It is very sad to me that terrorists are leading the field in digital activism. We, the people who support a world, of freedom, justice, peace, and human dignity must work harder. We must be more innovative, more tireless in our efforts. We must use the Internet as an instrument of our humanist ideals. Those who disagree with us have already taken up the challenge.
I remember our discussion about the subject in Boston. I totally agree with you about the efficiency of those groups in using the Internet. Terrorists, freedom fighters, political activists involved in what ther called “revolutionary violence” were always proficient in using information technologies and attracting the attention of mainstream media. And this is before the Internet and cyberactivims. Since the 70th, the Palestinian activists, the European anarchists and extreme leftists were masters in the field. From Abou Jihad to Carlos The Jackal, and from the Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse) in Italy to l’Action Directe in France and Bader-Meinhoff Gang in germany; this is an old phenomenon, the new aspect is the magic of the WWW
cheers