HILVERSUM, 17/01/07 - One hundred to 200 Dutch radical-Islamic websites are presently active. Up to the present, very little action has been taken against them, according to the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb) Tjibbe Joustra.

In February 2005, three months after the terrorist murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, the Lower House adopted a bill which assigned the government to track down jihad websites and close them down. According to Joustra, very little has yet been achieved. The NCTb yesterday published the study 'Jihadists and the Internet'.

More and more frequently, instruction films appear on the Internet demonstrating in detail how to make an explosive device or bomb belt. At present, the videos are still in Arabic and sometimes in English. Joustra believes it is only a matter of time, however, before they start appearing in Dutch.

Written bomb instructions were already to be found on Internet. Circulating the web now are videos showing exactly which materials are required, in which quantities and the steps somebody must take to make a bomb belt or ignition. As Joustra sees it, Internet is transforming itself into a type of virtual training camp.

Action has been taken against the content of several sites, "but the number can be counted on the fingers of one hand", as the coordinator stated. Many radical Dutch language sites have been moved to the servers of foreign providers, he added.

Radical Muslims frequently make use of the web for training purposes, possible preparatory activities and propaganda. Muslim women are particularly vulnerable to indoctrination, according to NCTb. "They have less freedom of movement. Internet offers them a window to the world and moreover, a possibility to communicate with that world with unprecedented freedom".