Warning on jihadist Twitter war

JIHADIST executioners Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar are attracting online attacks from punters.

THE jihadist battlefront executioners Khaled Sharrouf and Moh­amed Elomar are attracting online attacks from people as ­diverse as a Jewish man in Israel and AFL fans — and actually engaging with their online attackers and debating the Koran.

Since The Australian revealed that the former Sydney men now fighting with the Islamic State had resumed posting graphic pictures and making death threats online last week, the pair have been ­defending their beliefs to Twitter users from around the world.

Several of the vitriolic debates, which often descend into name-calling and threats, have carried through several days already.

Despite their willingness to communicate with others who don’t share their extremist views, Monash University’s Global Terrorism Centre researcher Andrew Zammit said the pair were unlikely to change their beliefs.

“It’s extremely doubtful online dialogue would persuade active fighters to change their ways,” Mr Zammit said. “Judging from overseas examples, dialogue’s more likely to be persuasive with people who aren’t as far along, when it’s done face to face, when it also ­involves friends and family, and by interlocutors who have credibility with the extremists.”

In one post, in response to a claim by Elomar, a former boxer, that the Islamic State would “be at your doorstops either with a sword or jizya (disbeliever’s tax) payment”, an American tweeted his doubt that such a thing would occur in the US.

“We have something u don’t we have Allah swt (glorified and exalted),” Elomar replied.

“The kuffar (disbelievers) plot and plan and Allah plots and he is the best of plotters, we will take over the world.”

When an Australian man thanked Elomar for burning his passport and added that he would “enjoy hearing of your timely death”, Elomar replied: “It was the best day of my life.”

He has also posted photos of passages from the Koran in res­ponse to another Australian who said the Islamic State “hide in caves and kill defenceless Muslim brothers because u misinterpret the Koran”.

Elomar responded: “The Koran guides people but the sword brings victory.”

When a Swedish woman asked how Syria and Iraq could now ­belong to the Islamic State and suggested their fighters only read the Koran, Sharrouf reacted angrily. “Christian savages crusaders slaughter Muslims for century’s (sic) & rape 10 year old boys but that’s OK Muslim blood is water,” he said.

The University of Western Sydney’s Michael Kennedy, a former police detective researching the force’s deradicalisation strategy, said he believed the Twitter accounts should not be ignored.

“I’m sceptical about whether ignoring them is useful, because if you ignore them I think that means they need to step-up,” Dr Kennedy said yesterday.

“But if you give them a moderate amount of attention, you don’t deny them their rights … then they have very little to complain about and they don’t attract an audience.

“I think the Twitter stuff is ­important to look at, but I think — more importantly — it’s not about overreacting.”

He said “fundamentalists” all over the world rarely hide their ­beliefs. “The people who are radicalised, they’ve never made any secret of it. They’ve always been in your face and upfront,” he said.

“Whether you look at the Zionist movement in Israel, within the Christians — especially in the US or in the Balkans, or if you look at Muslims, there’s always been that fundamentalist approach. The fundamentalists have always been part of a loony group of people. They’re zealots.”–