Holy War On the Web : Islamic militant groups turn to the Internet to promote their cause.(Laskar Jihad)(Brief Article)

The Muslim militants engaged in a blood feud with Christians in Indonesia's fabled Spice Islands arm themselves with spears and machetes. But their leaders are literate, media-savvy--and wired. The Laskar Jihad, a Java-based group that claims to have raised 15,000 fighters across Indonesia, has also put together an impressive media operation that includes daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly publications, as well as a radio network and Web site. Leaders claim that they receive up to 2,500 hits a day from surfers looking to chat with like-minded Muslims, send donations or download nifty mujahedin screensavers with a logo of two crossed scimitars and the motto ready to die.

Such details may sound amusing--more of the trivia that thrives in the undiscriminating chaos of the Web--but few people are laughing anymore. Many of the young men who make up the bulk of Islamic militants also fit into the demographic that tends to be the most wired globally. Most Laskar Jihad members are between 19 and 30 years old and are "intellectuals with a need for modern communications," says communications chief Hardi Ibnu Harun; one third of recruits have bachelor's degrees. The site links to other Web pages related to Chechen rebels, the Taliban and Hamas. Such sites are too public to be of much use in planning terrorist operations, of course. ("We are not terrorists," says a Laskar spokesman.) But they are a great aid to communications and logistics-- both within and across organizations--for groups with few other resources.

The Laskar Web site has been around as long as the group has been bearing arms. Webmaster Arif Rahman, now 24, was a medical student when he decided to take leave from Diponegoro University in April 2000 to help launch laskarjihad.or.id. The site carries Quranic readings, religious instructions and news from the Moluccas, where as many as 3,000 Laskar Jihad warriors have been battling Christian "mercenaries." More than 9,000 people have died in the area since communal clashes broke out in 1999.

It's easy to see how the Internet helps "holy warriors," even in remote battlefields, feel empowered--and united in outrage. The Laskar Web site's message board overflows with motivational exhortations ("Never surrender!"). Like sites managed by Muslim activists in Aceh, another Indonesian hot spot, the Laskar Web page carries gory accounts ("his body was cut, his penis was put in his mouth") and photos documenting anti-Muslim atrocities. A gallery of pictures from an alleged killing field on Sulawesi ...