"The online world of Islamic extremists, like all the other worlds of the Internet, operates on a subtly psychological level that does a brilliant job at keeping people like Abumubarak clicking and posting away -- and amassing all the rankings, scores, badges, and levels to prove it. Like virtually every other popular online social space, the social space of online jihadists has become "gamified," a term used to describe game-like attributes applied to non-game activities. It turns out that what drives online jihadists is pretty much exactly what drives Internet trolls, airline ticket consumers, and World of Warcraft players: competition." [more inside]
posted by vidur on Jan 14, 2012 - 22 comments

Why Development Aid won't solve Radicalism "The data revealed four findings that undermine common wisdom about support for militancy in Pakistan...Overall, the findings suggest that arguments tying support for militancy to individuals’ socioeconomic status -- and the policy recommendations that often flow from this assumption -- require substantial revision."
posted by stroke_count on Jul 20, 2011 - 6 comments

Rage on the Right. The Year in Hate and Extremism. Hate groups are growing. Protecting the US president has presented the secret service with the greatest challenge in its history. A brief review of Terror From the Right 1995 - 2009
posted by adamvasco on Mar 8, 2010 - 204 comments

Newsfilter: Members of Iraq's tennis team shot "for wearing shorts." Being an Iraqi athlete is no easier than before. Just ask members of the Iraqi Taekwondo squad. More.
posted by bardic on May 28, 2006 - 48 comments

Life without Theo - one year on. It's not that Holland's cherished troublemaker wasn't aware of the possibility - he had been threatened more than once. He just sincerely believed that no-one would harm the "village idiot", as he liked to call himself (salon link). Today, the skilled polemicist who regarded it his constitutional right to insult anyone but would at the same time engage anyone in reasonable, friendly debate is remembered in various ways. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Nov 2, 2005 - 33 comments

"I don't feel your pain." Mohammed Bouyeri, the man who confessed to killing Dutch filmmaker and writer Theo van Gogh, surprised judges and television viewers alike yesterday by breaking his silence for only the second time since the start of his trial. On monday, when asked about his hate for the same Western society that gave his parents work and asylum, he gave only this short answer in Arabic: "I pray that God protect me that I should ever think differently than I do now." (WaPo link, reg. req'd) [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jul 13, 2005 - 65 comments

The Likudization of the World "....he has cast the United States in the very same role in which Israel casts itself, facing the very same threat. In this narrative, the U.S. is fighting a never ending battle for its very survival against utterly irrational forces that seek nothing less than its total extermination. "
posted by troutfishing on Sep 12, 2004 - 42 comments

"Any further strikes against Americans will thus be a painful reminder that the war has not been won. Sadly, a main reason will be America's reluctance to focus on the political roots of the terrorist atrocity of Sept. 11." opinions on this piece from the original sponsor of the Mujahideen? username: metafilter46 password: metafilter
posted by specialk420 on Sep 1, 2002 - 23 comments

The good news is that there is no religious war, the bad news is that a time bomb blast killed 7 in a Russian market; 14 Christians were killed in Indonesia; a 5 year old killed and three other under 15 injured in Israel. All in one day.
posted by semmi on Apr 28, 2002 - 10 comments

General Musharraf of Pakistan gave an important address re: terrorism and Kashmir yesterday He also banned 5 extremist groups. It seems have been fairly well received in both India and Pakistan. Though the extremist sections of Pakistani polity attacked the speech, one hopes that the biggest deployment of troops on the Indo-Pakistan border since the 1971 war days will start to ease up now. (More inside)
posted by justlooking on Jan 13, 2002 - 8 comments

Text of Osama's Fatwah: "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilian and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam..."
posted by semmi on Sep 21, 2001 - 0 comments