"Hizbollah has a page on Facebook. So does Tanzeem-e-Islami and the Muslim Brotherhood. Hizb ut-Tahrir has at least three pages on Facebook and another four on Orkut—And those are just the official pages. There are many more pages to browse that were assembled as paeans by devotees of these Islamist groups and others.
Facebook, Orkut, and other online social networks, are designed to provide a way for people to maintain existing relationships and to make new relationships with others who share common interests in one tidy cyber environment. The social networks promote a sense of belonging that might not be available in the physical world. This is particularly true for members or sympathizers of Islamist groups who live in countries where participation is banned, such as in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Jordan. Through the social networks they can join communities specific to their interests or affiliations and befriend others who share their views.
The virtual social network can also help maintain continuity of group activity in places where public demonstrations have been suspended, like Bangladesh, or in regions where Islamist group membership and support is relatively small. Even when there are not opportunities to meet publicly the social networks offer a sense of cohesion, and even provide applications for global participants to chat privately through instant messaging.
One of the better examples of a successful social network community is Hizb ut Tahrir’s Facebook group “Stand for Islam,” which has more than one thousand members, including Muslims from Palestine, United Kingdom, the United States, Pakistan, Denmark, Australia, and more than a dozen other countries. Hizb ut-Tahrir is well known for utilizing the newest communications platforms and popular culture trends to deliver its message. Signing up for the “Stand for Islam” group does not necessarily indicate full membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir but it does suggest support for Hizb ut-Tahrir’s agenda, and confirms Hizb ut-Tahrir’s ever-successful delivery of that agenda. Hizb ut-Tahrir provides the “Stand for Islam” members with a continual output of fresh interactive activities to keep them plugged into the community; such as online classes, discussions, photo albums, and videos."***
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