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First reported by al-Jazeera yesterday, and picked up in the Wall Street Journal today, it appears that a spokesperson of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed that the suicide bomber at Forward Operating Base Chapman was Jordanian national Hammam Khalil Abu Milal, famous in the jihadi blogosphere as Abu Dujana al-Khurasani. If true, this news is sure to galvanize the online jihadi community, and would represent the most dramatic case to date of the potential for virtual-to-actual jihadi activism.
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He quickly rose to prominence – and eventually an adminstrator position – on the elite al-Hisba forum in 2007, and has long been widely regarded for a series of popular essays he wrote on the forums, especially on the course of the jihad in Iraq and in praise of al-Qa’ida in Iraq.

Via Thabet tweets.

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ABC News claims it has tracked down more than 100 posts that Abdulmutallab wrote.

One very sad post stands out:

He wrote of being lonely and sought friends on-line. “Can you be my friend?” he wrote. “I get lonely sometimes because I have never found a true Muslim friend.”

He still hasn’t found a ‘true Muslim friend.’

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Pervez Hoodhbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physics professor and writer on social and political issues, has seen the fury that drives men to take up violent causes during his meetings with members of the Pakistani community in the United States.

He says clamping down on militant networks on the Internet could be impossible for any government. But Hoodhbhoy emphasised that Pakistan’s policy of trying to modernise religious schools, some of which are seen as breeding grounds for extremism, may make the job more difficult.

‘The government put these computers and Internet into the madrasas as part of its reform package. The hope was that this would modernise the madrasas,’ said Hoodhbhoy, who has been called a traitor by militants on the Internet and received death threats.

‘In fact, it has given them means of networking with jihadist groups across the world.’

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Five young Americans detained in Pakistan, which is fighting a violent Taliban insurgency, wanted to join a holy war and were in contact with militants through the Internet, officials said on Thursday.

The case will likely again focus attention on nuclear-armed Pakistan’s performance in fighting militants as Washington presses Islamabad to root out Islamist fighters crossing the border to attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.
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The suspects were wary about being detected through sending emails so instead they shared a password so different members of their group could access the same email site and read messages saved there as drafts, he said. “This is the same method used by al Qaeda,” said the official.

The suspects also surfed the Internet to get access to Pakistan-based militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), he said.

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Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google’s search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.

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Surfing the Internet just might be a way to preserve your mental skills as you age.

Researchers found that older adults who started browsing the Web experienced improved brain function after only a few days.

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Is there a class divide online? Research suggests yes. A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook, while the less affluent are 37 percent more likely to connect on MySpace.
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MySpace users tend to be “in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods,” said Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, which used an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. “They’re on their way up, or perhaps not college educated.”

By contrast, Mancini said, “Facebook [use] goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs,” driven by a demographic that for Nielsen is represented by white or Asian married couples between the ages of 45-64 with kids and high levels of education.

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A major site used by millions of creatives around the world, the Corbis picture library is an important resource. Blocking it sets a worrying precedent – does this now mean that other picture libraries are going to be subject to blocking? And what does that mean for the UAE’s creative industries?

Creativity comes with freedom of expression, they’re old (ahem) bedfellows. Where there is creativity you find people pushing the envelope.

Also where there is creativity you will find economic development, success in global competition, national and cultural pride renewed in new accomplishments, etc.

Souks goes on:

I think you need to take a position – make an evaluation of the cultural value of a site vs a couple of things you don’t like. Not just smash in a block the second your software catches sight of a naughty bit.

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]]> http://talkislam.info/2009/10/11/etisalat-a-uae-based-telecommunications/feed/ 0 http://talkislam.info/2009/10/07/another-muslim-college-student-is-bloggi/ http://talkislam.info/2009/10/07/another-muslim-college-student-is-bloggi/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:43:22 +0000 johnpi http://talkislam.info/2009/10/07/another-muslim-college-student-is-bloggi/ This post: "Another Muslim college student is bloggi…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

]]> Another Muslim college student is blogging his marriage search. Last year, I recall reading a blog of a different young man who was blogging his marriage search. I found his blog through a Muslim woman’s blog who was posting about her experiences moving toward – and then away from – a potential.

I wonder how prevalent it is among young Muslim prospectives to blog the “single and looking” experience?

Anyway, here’s an excerpt:

The parents went for the initial meet and they said she was extremely impressive. Good marriage material.

They told me about the girl and the family and it all looked promising.

So, we arranged a date and we went to see the family. Initial impressions, the parents were extremely quiet and as the conversation progressed it seems they’ve lived an extremely sheltered life and imposed that lifestyle on their daughters.

The conversation progressed and a revelation was then made, the girl wasn’t even aware of the marriage. Okay . . They continued and told me she would obey everything I say or do. I sit, she sits – Great . . a doormat!

I couldn’t talk to her because her father thinks that daughters who speak to their potential husbands in front of their mahram are the bad girls. This comment threw me off.

Another day passed. Another experience gained.

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