Female Al Qaeda Warrior Uses Internet to Rally Women

[[R-DEV]bosco]

By ELAINE SCIOLINO and SOUAD MEKHENNET
Published: May 28, 2008


BRUSSELS — On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes.

In her living room, Ms. El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY.

But it is on the Internet where Ms. El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe.

She calls herself a female holy warrior for Al Quaeda. She insists that she does not disseminate instructions on bomb-making and has no intention of taking up arms herself. Rather, she bullies Muslim men to go and fight and rallies women to join the cause.

“It’s not my role to set off bombs — that’s ridiculous,” she said in a rare interview. “I have a weapon. It’s to write. It’s to speak out. That’s my jihad. You can do many things with words. Writing is also a bomb.”

Ms. El Aroud has not only made a name for herself among devotees of radical forums where she broadcasts her message of hatred toward the West. She also is well known to intelligence officials throughout Europe as simply “Malika” — an Islamist who is at the forefront of the movement by women to take a larger role in the male-dominated global jihad.

The authorities have noted an increase in suicide bombings carried out by women — the American military reports that 18 women have conducted suicide missions in Iraq so far this year, compared with 8 all of last year — but they say there is also a less violent yet potentially more insidious army of women organizers, proselytizers, teachers, translators and fund-raisers, who either join their husbands in the fight or step into the breach as men are jailed or killed.

“Women are coming of age in jihad and are entering a world once reserved for men,” said Claude Moniquet, president of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. “Malika is a role model, an icon who is bold enough to identify herself. She plays a very important strategic role as a source of inspiration. She’s very clever — and extremely dangerous.”

Ms. El Aroud began her rise to prominence because of a man in her life. Two days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, her husband carried out a bombing in Afghanistan that killed the anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud at the behest of Osama Bin Laden. Her husband was killed, and she took to the Internet as the widow of a martyr.

She remarried, and in 2007 she and her new husband were convicted in Switzerland for operating pro-Qaeda Web sites. Now, according to the Belgium authorities, she is a suspect in what the authorities say they believe is a plot to carry out attacks in Belgium.

“Vietnam is nothing compared to what awaits you on our lands,” she wrote to a supposed Western audience in March about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Ask your mothers, your wives to order your coffins.” To her followers she added: “Victory is appearing on the horizon, my brothers and sisters. Let’s intensify our prayers.”

Her prolific writing and presence in chat rooms, coupled with her background, makes her a magnet for praise and sympathy. “Sister Oum Obeyda is virtuous among the virtuous; her life is dedicated to the good on this earth,” a man named Juba wrote late last year.


Rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/wo...yt&oref=slogin

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Hmmm....

[Howitzer]

We kill all the insugents but its not enought for them... They need a lesson

-quick sight at the loaded M777-

[Dr2B Rudd]

Interesting article, worth pondering.

The odd thing is that she seems to want equality, but many people fighting for the same causes she claims to support would not share that view.

The changing role of women in the movement is particularly apparent in Western countries, where Muslim women have been educated to demand their rights and Muslim men are more accustomed to treating them as equals.

Ironic no?

[[R-MOD]dunehunter]

Apparently there has also been some trouble with muslim women demanding the right to blow themselves up. Weird world we live in.

[Begbie]

Pff.. She just needs a good fock.

[Morgan]

Rudd you've got a good point about the irony in that article. Funny really...

I know freedom of speech is important, but how can you be allowed to preach hate? Is it just me that finds this wrong?

[HughJass]

noooo not the internetz

[[PR]CATA.Mobius]

Preach hate? She's encouraging people to kill Western soldiers and civilians, and rightly deserves to be convicted and sentenced to live in the Muslim world herself.

[Morgan]

Originally Posted by [PR]CATA.Mobius

Preach hate? She's encouraging people to kill Western soldiers and civilians, and rightly deserves to be convicted and sentenced to live in the Muslim world herself.

Yes, is that not what she is doing? She has the right to do this and express her views, I like many people find this a bit extreme allowing freedom of speech to this extent. Also it seems as though you view living in "the Muslim world" a punishment, interesting.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

Hopefully she will suffer from some deadly " natural " cause and go on to her eternal reward.