Research on "Center for Islamic Studies and Research"
Here are the relevant points:
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Al-Qaeda is using websites affiliated with the "Center for Islamic Studies and Research" to move messages around in cyberspace. These messages include news of battle casualties, messages from OBL and friends and to supposedly move instructions to operatives.
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Its sites hop around but seem to be funded from Malaysia.
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The Center for Islamic Studies and Research seems to have Iranian connections noted in a meeting at the University of Balamand (Lebanon),
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The Center for Islamic Studies and Research is referenced in a lengthy academic resume with the Supreme Council of Research, the Center for Islamic Studies and Research, Qom, Iran and to a faculty member named Sadegh Ayinehvand or Sadegh Ayinehvand at Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran, Iran.
1. Al-Qaeda wages cyber war against US
http://www.nst.com.my/z/Current_News/NST/Friday/World/20020628110122DUBAI, June 27. — Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda is making full use of the Internet in its all-out war against the United States, forcing Washington to chase "Islamist" websites thought to serve as a platform for the terror network.
Al-Qaeda's latest warning to the US to "fasten its seat belt" in preparation for more attacks of the Sept 11 variety was issued through an audiotape recording by spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith on the drasat.com site which was aired by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel on Sunday.
Pundits believe drasat.com, run by an "Islamic Studies and Research Center", is the most credible of dozens of Islamist sites which have claimed to post al-Qaeda news since the organisation and its Taliban hosts went underground when the US military campaign was unleashed on Afghanistan in October.
The same centre had reported alQaeda and Taliban news and statements on a site called alneda.com for about five months, until the US managed to wipe it off the cyber map.
The daily USA Today reported on Saturday that US officials were scouring the Internet for any reappearance of alneda.com, which they believe was used by al-Qaeda to send messages to followers, including possible instructions for forthcoming attacks. ......
2. Islamic militant Web site bounces around Net, spreading al-Qaida doctrine
http://www.redding.com/news/aptop/stories/20020627aptop090.shtml
Dafna Linzer The nature of the Web hosting business allowed the Arabic-language site's operators to keep it alive and on the run—despite an FBI investigation—while disguising themselves, online and off. Much as a fugitive lingers little in any one place, the militant pro-al-Qaida site has moved over six months among computer hosts based in Malaysia, Texas and Michigan.
Associated Press Writer June 27, 2002 — 3:46 p.m.
A bogus street address in Venezuela, a free e-mail account and a wire transfer to a bank in Malaysia were all that was needed to publish a militant Islamic Web site that promotes al-Qaida and asks readers to pray for America's destruction.
3. Center for Islamic Studies and Research linked to University of Balamand
http://www.mecchurches.org/newsreport/vol11/iraniandelegation.asp
An Iranian delegation visits Cyprus and LebanonMarch 3-10, 1999At the invitation of the MECC, a delegation of three from the Iranian Secretariat for Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Organization for Islamic Culture and Communications visited Cyprus and Lebanon in the Spring of 1999. It was led by H. E. Hujjat-ul-Islâm Shaykh Muhammad Sa'îdan - Nu'mânî, vice-president of the association. The announced purpose of the visit was for the Iranian delegation to get to know spiritual leaders in the region and to discuss Muslim-Christian relations as these might develop in a framework of dialogue.  The Iranian delegation visits H.H. Patriarch mar Ignatius Zakka in fortuitous stop between scheduled apointments. The delegation arrived in Beirut on the evening of Wednesday, March 3rd. They were in for a busy four days of meetings and touring. Thursday saw a heavy schedule which began with a courtesy call on the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut, H. E. Bishop Eliâs ‘Awdeh. The group then went on to the University of Balamand to visit the Center for Islamic Studies and Research. There they were the guests at lunch of the university’s president, Dr. Elie Sâlim. In their discussions, Sâlim noted that, from its founding, Balamand University has made Muslim-Christian dialogue a priority, and developed the Center for Islamic Studies and Research in order to "address in a disciplined academic fashion the demands of rapprochement between the two religious groups in Lebanon." It is the universtiy’s goal to deepen mutual understanding among its students before they enter professional life, and to this end it has made cultural studies part of its core curriculum for all students. Christian-Muslim rapprochement, Sâlim concluded, is important "in light of the cultural invasion which threatens our traditions and cultures." ... |
4. Center for Islamic Studies and Research Linked to Supreme Council of Research in Qom, Iran.
This reference is cited in an extensive resume for an Iranian academic SADEGH AYINEHVAND.
"Member of the Supreme Council of Research, the Center for Islamic Studies and Research, Qom."
http://www.modares.ac.ir/hum/aeneh_sa/
Sadegh Ayinehvand is also referenced in the Academic Staff of the Dept. of History of Tarbiat Modarres University, P.O. Box 14115-139, Tehran , Iranas as
| - S. Aienevand, PhD, | Email: aeneh_sa@modares.ac.ir |
Here is another link with slightly different spelling for the same man:
| - S. Aienevand, PhD, History of Islam, (Lebanon, 1988) | |
5. Use of websites run by Center for Islamic Studies and Research endorsed by terrorists as a 'reliable' source of information.
27th February 2002
http://www.miraserve.com/pressrev/EN27feb02.htm
Washington Post
On Web, Afghan Dispatches And Bin Laden Propaganda
Nora Boustany
Whatever the fate of Osama bin Laden, the Arabic-language Web site Alneda.com is being cited by some as a credible new source of information on the fugitive Saudi and his deputies. It also provides detailed news from the Afghan front, offers word on the fate of al Qaeda detainees and propagates bin Laden's ideology.
For days, the site, run by the Center for Islamic Studies and Research, has carried a letter of condolence signed by bin Laden, his Egyptian-born deputy Ayman Zawahiri and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar following the death of an Afghan cleric.
In addition, it is running a long list of names of young men who were captured by Pakistani authorities near the Afghan border and handed over to the United States, with their nationalities and parents' telephone numbers. The site also provides what it says is the story behind their capture, involving border tribes and Pakistani intelligence officers loyal toGen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president. The site labels the Pakistani government as a "collaborator" with the "Crusader aggression" of the United States against Afghanistan.
A whole section on the site is devoted to what it calls the duty of Muslims to pray for and free Muslim prisoners. References to 9th century Islamic scholars serve to underscore what is portrayed as the sacred dimension of working toward their release, even at the cost of "human life."
Hani Sibai, a lawyer by training and self-described Islamic historian who was convicted in absentia of terrorism in Egypt, said in a telephone interview from London yesterday that Alneda is the latest of a number of Web sites he has relied upon in recent months for detailed reports from the Afghan front. Sibai, director of the London-based Al Maqrese Center and a former leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, first informed the world through the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al Hayat about the November capture near Kabul of Ahmed Abdel Rahman and other so-called Afghan Arabs -- foreigners fighting alongside the Taliban. Rahman is the son of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. Sibai says his primary source was the Center for Islamic Studies and Research, which he accessed at the time through various Internet links.
"Now they have created their own Web site and it has gained credibility because it has consistently warned against other groups disseminating disinformation and rumors on the Web which could compromise fighters and followers, and they come up with such intricate details on certain battles that could only come from their own people in the field," he said.
The site calls on Muslims to pray that God "shred the property of Americans, defeat their soldiers, blow up their weapons on their soil, bring down their planes and sink their ships." ...
