On December 17, 2007, the English section of the Islamist Al-Ekhlaas forum (www.ek-ls.org), hosted by NOC4Hosts Inc., Tampa, FL, USA, posted a message revealing further security measures being taken by Islamist forums in light of the intensifying campaign in the West against Islamist websites.[1] The message indicates that Islamists have created exclusive, invitation-only forums because of the fear of infiltration by non-Muslim Western agencies and organizations. For example, a discussion in the Al-Ekhlaas forum showed that new members are individually invited to participate in the English-language Al-Firdaws forum (www.al-firdaws.net/vbe) based on the quantity and quality of their written contributions on other Islamist forums and on their commitment to jihad. According to the threaded discussion, the Al-Firdaws forum administration decided that if "spies and bad people" are exposed in the forum, both they and the members who invited them will be banned from the site Below are images from the Al-Ekhlaas forum, showing a discussion about how to join the Al-Firdaws forum.[2] Following them is an image from Al-Firdaws stating that registration is by invitation only 
[1] See, e.g., MEMRI's campaign to shut down Islamist websites hosted by Western ISPs. MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 374, "The Enemy Within: Where Are the Islamist/Jihadist Websites Hosted, and What Can Be Done about It?" July 19, 2007, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA37407. |
