French writer and arabist Gilles Kepel wrote an interesting piece in the Figaro last week where he argues that the failure of al-Qaeda to mobilize the Muslim masses should have ended at least some of the appeal of bin-Laden’s group. Yet, the violence continues unabated and Kepel believes that the use of the internet has played a pivotal role in disseminating the right message for recruitment. Excerpt:

If you interpret the Islamic scripture – or that of any other religion – literally, then it contains an abundance of laws, but in the fourteen centuries of Islamic civilization prior to the introduction of the internet, the critical interpretation of these texts was the exclusive domain of the ulamas. Thanks to the internet we now have bearded cyber-salafists who have taken the place of the ulamas and they know only one interpretation: the literal one. To them everything that is digital is transcendental which creates a blur between the virtual and the afterlife in one separate world, disconnected entirely from the real world with its own laws. At the juncture of these two universes we can find a double death: the suicide of the martyr which relieves him from the tension - which is considered schizophrenic – between those two worlds and the slaughter of infidels.

This goes to show you why the likes of Mohammed Bouyeri inhabit a world that is not only pretty much disconnected from mainstream Islam, it’s completely separate from anything that you and I or anyone else for that matter would consider ‘wordly’. It also explains why seemingly clever and drastic measures like deporting radical imams are not terribly effective. They are window dressing with which some western governments get a free pass for the time being. The real solution is far more complicated and Kepel too – like Leon de Winter and Irshad Manji – point to the serious responsibility of Muslims in western countries to participate and work with their adopted nations together to help defeat jihadism, ensuring their own future and the survival of the societies in which they life.

NOTE: If cyber jihad spreads as rapidly as blogs we may have a long battle ahead of us.

UPDATE: Placed in the context of cyber warfare, al-Zawahiri’s message today is pretty weak stuff.