Do-It-Yourself Terrorism. How Do Terrorist Organizations Inspire, Support and Teach Their European Supporters via Internet?

Abstract

The following paper is a review article. It is an attempt to analyze the most widely available publications of Salafi terrorist organizations addressed to European supporters. This article concentrates primarily on publications describing tactics related to committing acts of terror on civilian population. Organizations like AQ and ISIS suggest launching attacks using the most available resources (attack using a knife or a sharp tool, arson, ramming with a vehicle), constructing various kinds of IED (pipe bomb, pressure cooker bomb), encourage to attack in public and poorly protected places or advise on how to organize a shooting and hostage-taking situation. Moreover, they state bluntly that theft, vandalism or causing major traffic accidents are also actions which can help in the war with infidels. The substantive value of the instructions is questionable – the authors of many of them (e.g. the attack using a knife) have vague idea about equipment and combat. The content of these publications suggests that they are prepared for people relatively young, with no general experience in life and combat training. Terrorist organizations skillfully select passages from Quran and hadiths to find a pseudo religious justification for barbarism and cruelty. Finally, they treat all victims indiscriminately – all infidels deserve to die and killing them is a glorious achievement.