Author: Andrew North
Publication: BBC News
Date: February 15, 2002
A website that has been prominent
in its support for Osama Bin Laden, is now urging Muslims in America to
leave the country.
Azzam.com is one of the most well-known
supporters of jihad, or holy war, on the internet.
The site also attacks what it calls
"apologetic and defeatist" Muslims for siding with the West.
The US Government has accused Azzam.com
of serving as a recruitment hub for Islamic extremists.
It denies the charge, but experts
say this and other so-called jihadi web sites are getting ever more popular,
especially among younger Muslims.
Advice to Muslims
Azzam.com posts a "farewell message"
on its site, a statement kept online in case the site is closed down.
"The war in Afghanistan is the beginning
of a long war that will last several years, perhaps decades and eventually
end with victory for the believers and a good outcome for the Muslim Ummah
[community]," the message reads.
It goes on to urge Muslims to maintain
their commitment to a jihad or holy struggle against the West.
The site also carries this suggestion:
"We advise practicing Muslims to begin to plan to leave America and withdraw
all their investment and cash recent events have shown the true bigoted
nature of the American government."
Millions of readers
Azzam.com has been online since
1994, and although it is partly produced from the UK, it has no actual
office or base. And those behind the site do not give interviews.
Imran Khan, a British journalist
who specializes in Islamic issues, believes the website has a massive readership.
"Azzam.com receives approximately
five million hits a day across the world, and if you were to add up all
the sister sites they have, you are possibly looking at 15 million hits
a day," Mr Kahan says.
Criticising moderates
The website also attacks organisations
such as the American Muslim Council and Britain's Muslim Council for supporting
Western action against Afghanistan.
Faiz Rahman, a spokesman for the
American Muslim Council, says the call for US Muslims to leave will have
no impact and says the site is run by a minority of extremists
"We have seen these people, these
groups in every faith in every community. I have been through the site,
and it is a very clear cut website. Basically they are trying to recruit
people and they seem to be desperate," Mr Rahman said.
Voice of frustration
Some experts on pro-jihad groups
disagree.
They say these ideas and calls for
a continuing struggle against the West are growing in popularity, at the
expense of more mainstream views.
"Among the youth in particular there
is an appeal to this message that nothing really works, that there is no
value in democracy," said Dr Azzam Tamimi, director of the London-based
Institute of Islamic Political Thought.
"They say we have told you this
before and look at what's happening, look how the Americans are treating
us in Afghanistan and elsewhere, look what the Europeans are doing etcetera,
this is basically attracting people who are frustrated and who have no
other way of expressing their anger."
It is clear that Azzam.com is aimed
at younger Muslims - at one point it talks of taking time out from university
as being a step that must be considered if a Muslim is committed to supporting
jihad.