Ji-Hobbyists

Jihad hobbyists – those who seek out “jihadi” content online, becoming more radical as they do so.

Exploring “young, online obsessives who radicalize themselves by ingesting hardcore jihadist Web content, from YouTube videos to discussion forums,” ABC News interviewed terrorism expert Jarret Brachman:

“They make hating America, hating the West, their hobby,” said Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism” and former research director of the West Point-based Combating Terrorism Center.

Brachman said these “Ji-hobbyists,” as he dubbed them, nearly always confine their jihadism to the Web and that a “Ji-hobbyist” who becomes operational – who commits a violent act – is an anomaly.

In The Times, Scott Shane and James Dao reported on specualtion that the accused Fort Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, may have radicalized himself online:

Some experts on terrorism say Major Hasan may be the latest example of an increasingly common type of terrorist, one who has been self-radicalized with the help of the Internet and who wreaks havoc without support from overseas networks and without having to cross a border to reach his target.

Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University professor who studies terrorism, said such cases had appeared at a growing rate in the last year, most of them involving people with no direct ties to foreign terrorists. The trend of self-radicalization, which leaders and allies of Al Qaeda have encouraged with a steady stream of inflammatory messages on the Web, is gaining momentum, he said.