Christian Internet Terror Watchdog Undaunted by Islamist Threats
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
February 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - A New Mexico homeless shelter director, who also writes for a Christian news service, claims he has been targeted for death by users of a radical Islamist website.Jeremy Reynalds is executive director of Joy Junction, a Christian emergency homeless shelter in Albuquerque. Also, as a freelance writer and private citizen who helps to monitor Internet terrorism, he has identified and helped shut down several websites operated by radical Muslim groups that advocate terrorist activity. That fact has secured him a "persona non grata" label among Islamic extremists -- perhaps one in particular.
Christian Wire Service (CWS) reports that just hours prior to the January 30 elections in Iraq, a jihadist terror site -- "www.mawsuat.com" -- was taken off-line by its U.S. Internet service provider after Reynalds alerted the ISP to the site's contents. Through the Federal Bureau of Investigations and other sources, the freelancer has since learned that his role in that site's demise has angered a number of jihadist radicals.
And now, a recent posting on a Houston, Texas-based website called Ansarnet has publicly blamed Reynalds for the shutdown of the site. A discussion on Ansarnet, started by the person who ran the now defunct "mawsuat.com," included the Christian writer's home address so that he could be "visited," a picture of him, a wish for his ribs to be broken, and prayers to Allah that his "fatty neck" be delivered to his enemies -- an apparent reference to decapitation.
But Joy Junction's director insists he will not be intimidated. "We don't hate Islam. We don't hate Muslims," he explains, "but we do hate the doctrine and the philosophy of radical Islam, which hates Americans, hates Jews, hates the Bible -- hates everybody except themselves."
Another problem with radical Islam, Reynalds points out, is the uncompromising jihadist mindset that characterizes so many Muslim extremists. "They appear to be totally unwilling to accept any form of democratic philosophy at all," he says, "and totally unwilling to go along with anybody other than the people that they want to force to abide by their rules."
But Reynalds is determined that the Muslim extremist posting will not cause him to back down from the truth. "While it is a matter of concern to me, I just think that it really serves to show the sort of mindset that is behind radical Islamic sites," he says.
"It also serves to show me," Reynalds adds, "that I and the others who work with me are on the right track in what we're doing." For that reason, the Christian freelancer says he will continue speaking out, and he encourages more web users to report any instances of Internet terrorism they discover.
CWS reports that the entire Ansarnet website has recently been suspended. And, as a CNN.com writer notes in a February 8 article on tracking Internet terrorism, Jeremy Reynalds is "still at it."
