Britannia Radio

  Islam group urges forest fire jihad

* Josh Gordon
* September 7, 2008

AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of
Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a
weapon of terror.

US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on
Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires",
claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels'
forests when they do the same to our lands".

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues
in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in
Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.

The posting - which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer
months - says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security
agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt
them for an extended period of time".

"Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist
organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website
says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take
hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia."

With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian
intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be
used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Federal Government remained
"vigilant against such threats", warning that anyone caught lighting a fire
as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.

"Any information that suggests a threat to Australia's interests is
investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate," Mr McClelland said.

Adam Dolnik, director of research at the University of Wollongong's Centre
for Transnational Crime Prevention, said that bushfires (unlike suicide
bombing) were generally not considered a glorious type of attack by jihadis,
in keeping with a recent decline in the sophistication of terrorist
operations.

"With attacks like bushfires, yes, it would be easy. It would be very
damaging and we do see a decreasing sophistication as a part of terrorist
attacks," Dr Dolnik said.

"In recent years, there have been quite a few attacks averted and it has
become more and more difficult for groups to do something effective."

Dr Dolnik said he had observed an increase in traffic on jihadi websites
calling for a simplification of terrorist attacks because the more complex
operations had been failing. But starting bushfires was still often regarded
as less effective than other operations because governments could easily
deny terrorism as the cause.

The internet posting by the little-known group claimed the idea of forest
fires had been attributed to imprisoned Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Suri.
It said Al-Suri had urged terrorists to use sulphuric acid and petrol to
start forest fires.

*ANNO DOMINI 2008*

* "THE SON OF GOD BECAME A MAN TO ENABLE MEN TO BECOME SONS OF GOD". - C.S.
LEWIS

http://www.bethlehemstar.net/