Like sexual predators they prey on vulnerable young people, quickly brainwashing them with Al Qaeda propaganda and very quickly turning them into potential terrorists.
New BBC2 series Generation Jihad claims that growing numbers of bright young men dubbed ‘entrepreneurs of jihad’ are using the internet as a tool to foster extremism.
Many prey on younger men and women curious to learn more about Islam but instead bombard them with anti-Western and vengeful rhetoric – leading to a generation of online recruits for jihad.
As with paedophiles approaching children in chat rooms, many parents have no idea who their children are talking to in online forums and what is being discussed.
These extremist predators – many of whom are under 25 and highly computer literate – are setting up blogs, websites and forums in which to find and indoctrinate teens.
The documentary claims these men are at the vanguard of a new type of terrorism because of the ease at which the internet is enabling people to make contacts, plan and communicate plots and learn the art of guerrilla warfare.
Highlighting the case of 22-year-old Aabid Hussain Khan who was imprisoned for 12 years in 2008 on 23 counts of possessing articles for terrorism, the programme reveals that he built a website from his home in Bradford aimed at recruiting ‘jihadis from across the English speaking world’.
Khan, who had downloaded information targeting the Royal Family, was told by Judge Timothy Pontius he had shown a 'dedicated and unswerving devotion to the pursuit of fanaticism.. Daily Mail summary o
HT: Jawa Report Video "Generation Jihad": How Radical Islamic Websites Create Terrorists in the West