For those that know me or have spoken to me about the origins of this website, the original purpose was to assist graduate students in accessing jihadi primary source material. I started the site in May 2010, but the idea had been germinating with me through the process of writing my M.A. thesis beginning in the fall of 2009. At the time, jihadis released their content on password-protected forums and many did not know how to access them, as well as many individuals were worried about viruses or malware. There were also not many university courses on jihadism at the time and there were no professors (or very few) teaching how to access this content for research. Therefore, through the process of writing my M.A. thesis I had issues getting primary sources and figured, if I was having troubles, I’m sure other graduate students were as well. This was why I created this site. Through the process of doing my M.A. thesis I had a better grasp of attaining this content for research and continued to improve my understanding over the first six months or so of this website being created.
Times have changed, however. Now, there are many courses on jihadism and many professors have risen up the ranks and also now teach students how to access this content. Therefore, the added-value of the site remaining open to anyone has passed its expiration date. That being said, the website is not dying. Rather, to gain access to the primary sources you will need to register. I will still remain the sole administrator of the website. The website is open to those with academic/research, governmental, journalistic, or humanitarian email addresses. Third-party researchers can request special permission to access the password-protected part of the site on a case-by-case basis. The original analysis, guest posts, and side features like my ‘Articles of the Week,’ ‘Eyes on Jihadis in Libya,’ or whatever comes up in the future will remain open to anyone.
I am sure some will be disappointed by this, but it has not been an easy decision. It is something I have mulled over for some time. I would like to thank the folks at GIFCT and Tech Against Terrorism for assisting in this process over the past year. I look forward to Jihadology continuing to be a vital resource for many interested in doing research and better understanding this phenomenon.
For those that register, if you find any issues with any of the primary sources on the site due to potential errors during the transferring of the site to a new server, please email me so it can be fixed it.
Aaron Y. Zelin
Founder of Jihadology
