Facebook bans Jihadist group's page

Washington, Dec 20 (ANI): Facebook has shut down a fast growing jihadist group, after it received an alert that the group was using the site to spread its radical message.

The group called the Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra, which is Arabic for "Knights in Support of the Invasion", was blocked on December 18 evening after its membership grew to about 120 in just more than one week.

The group's motto or teaching to its members was to wage "Jihad to aid the religion of Allah and his Prophet."

The discovery was made by FoxNews.com, which after working closely with a former radical Muslim, who is presently dedicated to exposing cyberterror activity, gained access to the group and its content.

The group had written that its purpose was "to support Jihad and Mujihadeen", and that it started the Facebook group "to invade this Web site" and to ask "Allah to grant us Jihad and martyrdom."

Adding that there would be future action: "Today we invade your sites, tomorrow your lands and homes, o you cross worshippers."

The members of the group brazenly posted profile photos to identify themselves, and they included well-known members of Al Qaeda's leadership as well as prominent Saudi clerics.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said that the group had been disabled, and that the company was investigating the group's "friends" and might take further action.

He said that Facebook had taken steps to increase monitoring for content supporting terrorism, but he said such actions were difficult.

"Facebook is a start-up of 800 people with a user base of over 140 million," Fox News quoted Schnitt as saying.

"Certainly anything that supports violence is at the top of our monitoring list," he added. (ANI)