Www.Jihadusa.com: Al Qaeda, the Internet, and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States

Abstract

The purpose of my paper is to examine the growing trend of al Qaeda and its affiliates, particularly al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) embrace of recruitment and radicalization of Muslims within the United States. Many experts have discounted the threat of homegrown radicalization and embrace of jihad taking place in the United States given greater assimilation, low poverty rates, and high educational attainment levels in many U.S. Muslim communities relative to those in Europe. However, al Qaeda and AQAP’s recruitment strategy has evolved. The Internet has now become the most important element and allows anyone anywhere access to intermediaries, like-minded individuals via blogs, chatrooms, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as audio and video sermons, messages, and publications. The recruitment strategy has become “bottom-up” comprising messages that compel would be jihadists to view the West as naturally at odds and at war with Islam. The ultimate goal is to force U.S. Muslims to choose sides, according to al Qaeda, you cannot be a good Muslim and embrace the West at the same time. Once you have chosen the path to Islam, the only logical and righteous path is the embrace of violent jihad against the enemies of Islam, the United States. Al Qaeda and AQAP’s recruitment also emphasizes the individual duty of every Muslim to join the global struggle or Ummah, and carry out jihad. By utilizing the Internet, al Qaeda and AQAP hope to allow Muslims in America to identify with and feel the same sense of subjugation and oppression felt by Muslims in Europe and other parts of the world where these factors had left Muslims more susceptible to recruitment. The paper also addresses other like-minded groups that have also embraced these al Qaeda Internet strategies, namely Al-Shabaab. In order to attract recruits from the U.S., the group also markets itself as part of the global universal Muslim struggle, and entices potential recruits via the Internet to embrace the “Ummah consciousness” and thus necessarily jihad against America. The paper will also address counterterrorist strategies aimed at preventing attacks perpetrated by those radicalized and recruited in the Unites States.