October 23,
2008: Shia and Sunni radicals are
attacking each other's web sites for the past six weeks. It began with a Shia
attack on the two main web sites for Sunni radical religious propaganda
(including al Qaeda) on September 11, 2008. Sunni hackers retaliated shortly
thereafter by defacing 300 web sites belonging to Shia clergy and religious
organizations. Shia hackers then came back with more attacks on Sunni clergy,
media and religious sites. The two main Sunni radical propaganda sites,
Al-Ekhlaas.net and Alhesbah.net, have been down most of the time since
September 11.
Arab media
and religious leaders have been pleading for the hackers to stop. Some have
chastised the hackers for fighting fellow Moslems, rather than going after
infidels (particularly Israel.) Moslem hackers don't like tangling with the
Israelis, who have a much deeper bench in the hacking department.
This
particular Cyber War seems to have attracted Arab and Iranian hackers who do
not normally get involved in Islamic radicalism. The animosity between the Shia
and Sunni sects goes back nearly a thousand years, and has led to much
bloodshed in that time. While Sunni and Shia leaders try to play down this feud
(over who should have inherited the leadership of Islam over a thousand years
ago), grass roots hatred is tolerated. Thus lower ranking religious leaders in
Iran and the Arab world spew hatred for each other's religious beliefs. This
has little to do with the current plague of Sunni terrorism (al Qaeda and so
on), but is more of a deep seated cultural dispute.
Western
counter-terrorism organizations are sitting this one out.
