Egypt Calls For ‘Electronic Jihad’ Effort Against Islamic State

JAFFA, Israel – An adviser to the Grand Mufti of Egypt warned against the availability of the Islamic State’s propaganda radio network one week after the terrorist group launched an Android application to access the online radio stream.

The Mufti’s adviser, Ibrahim Nijem, called the terror group’s radio stream “a platform for IS to engage in electronic Jihad.”

“IS is already more present online and in social media than any other radical group,” he said.

The Asharq Al-Awsat pan-Arab newspaper reported that Egypt’s Fatwa council launched a new Facebook page in a bid to “fend off the claims that IS’s new station will make,” calling for a concerted effort to combat IS propaganda that would include the government and the mainstream media.

IS operates at least 100,000 Twitter accounts and 80 percent of its members have been recruited online, the paper wrote.

In addition to propaganda, recruitment, and calls for action, IS invests significant resources in fending off online opposition. The organization hires hackers who attack critical sites and accounts, the paper said.

IS launched a program called “Hacking is the weapon of the Muslim,” in which it instructs young adherents on how to take part in “electronic jihad.”

Last week, the Vocativ website reported its deep web analysts discovered the Android app for the terror group’s al-Bayan radio network. Unlike most apps, the IS radio app is not available for download from the Google store, but can only be accessed through internal files spread on IS Internet forums.

“The launching of an app for al-Bayan radio is an amazing project,” Vocativ quoted one loyalist writing on Twitter. “We (used to) chase links for the radio but now it’s in our hands at every moment.”