"One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it." - Denis Diderot

Friday 12 November 2010

Move to Wordpress: http://charcoalandink.wordpress.com/

After having been advised on the various pros and cons of online blogging sites, I have decided to move my blog over to wordpress.com under the new name of "Charcoal and Ink" - a title I feel better reflects the personal and creative aspects of my blogging style. The new URL is: http://charcoalandink.wordpress.com/

Thursday 4 November 2010

YouTube and Extremism


Image from telegraph.co.uk 



Roshanara Choudhry, the Muslim student who stabbed MP Stephen Timms for his views on the war in Iraq has revealed that she was motivated to violent action after having been exposed to radical lectures and videos by the notorious Islamist Anwar Al-Awlaki on YouTube

During her police interview of May 14, excerpts of which were published yesterday by The Guardian she tells her interlocutor that she wanted to die for her actions:


"Choudhry: I wanted to be a martyr.

Q Why's that then?


A 'Cos, erm, that's the best way to die.


Q Who told you that?

A It's an Islamic teaching.


Q Where did you learn that?


A It's … it's in the Koran and I learnt it from listening to lectures as well.


Q OK, what lectures are that?


A By Anwar al-Awlaki.


Q al-Awlaki?


A Yeah.


Q OK, well, how did you find out about him?


A On the internet ... if you go on YouTube there's a lot of his videos there and if you do a search they just come up ... I wasn't searching for him, I just came across him ... I used to watch videos that people used to put up about like how they became Muslim."


(full interview available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/03/roshonara-choudhry-police-interview)


This disturbing revelation has raised all sorts of questions about the relative accessibility of radical and extremist views on mainstream websites. It is a well known fact that the internet is one of the main tools used by terrorist groups the world over to influence and recruit impressionable young idealists, this is an unavoidable part of having such a vast network of readily accessibly information. What is so disturbing in this case is that the website in question is not some obscure platform for terrorist recruitment, but one of the most well-loved and popular sites visited the world over.

YouTube has responded by removing many of Al-Awlaki's videos from its site, but the question remains as to what else might be out there; if videos posted by this prominent Islamist were able to slip through the security net so easily, there may well be a whole host of lesser-known radicals who are currently exploiting mainstream internet sites and using them as platforms to promote their own radicalised views.

The problem in policing this phenomenon, however, is ethically as well as practically difficult: freedom of speech is one of the most cherished values of our modern Western society, and any action that has the potential to compromise this value - no matter how good the intention - is necessarily going to raise all sorts of difficult moral issues. Where do we draw the line between giving people the freedom to express their views and forcibly obstructing them from doing so? This is a difficult question, and not one to which I am able to offer an easy answer. However, I do commend YouTube's decision in this case. Even in a free society, there are certain limits and rules that all citizens must follow in order for that society to function, and promoting and glorifying violence - in any form and under any guise - is in direct breach of those rules and cannot be tolerated. Sometimes it is necessary to curb certain freedoms in order that we may have more freedom in other areas - if Al-Awlaki had been prohibited from uploading content to YouTube, for example, Miss Choudhry may never have become radicalised in the first place. This fact alone is enough to make anyone think twice about the price we should put on freedom.



I am a professional journalist with a keen interest in the Middle East

Claim Token: UCQ938AHE775

UCQ938AHE775
professional journalist with key interest in Middle East