Jihadists in Syria Can Be Found On the Internet
Jihadists fighting in the Syrian conflict may be hard to meet, but they maintain an increasing online presence, writes Aaron Zelin, a research fellow at the Washington Institute. The numbers of cyber warriors are growing among the opposition.
Unlike other actors in the current Syrian conflict, gaining access to Jihadists is fraught with security concerns on all sides.
Broadly, a “Jihadist” is a Sunni Muslim pan-Islamist who subscribes to a worldview that taking part in a violent, military holy war, or Jihad, in the name of Islam is the best means for bringing about the end to "apostate" regimes. The Jihadists then aim to replace these governments with ones that administer Islamic Shariah law based on their interpretation. While Jihadists have been most associated with al-Qaeda over the past decade, not all Jihadists are al-Qaeda and not all Jihadists agree with its global focus even if there is some ideological overlap.
