Abstract

This paper explores the Hizb ut Tahrir web forum by developing a coding and counting methodology that seeks to split opinions on the forum into categories and to rate them by their quality and by how much they were viewed. This methodology is innovative and enables the identification not just of the most aired topic, but of the one that is most likely to have an influence. It finds that the strongest type of posting (as defined by the methodology employed) comes from those with extremely anti-Western opinion and that terrorism and other violence also feature. Explicit mention of violence is dwarfed by the amount of anti-western posting that does not include a call to violent action. However, the forum probably provides a rich seed-bed in which such violent conversations can occur. Whilst the forum does contain some alternative opinions, these are very minor voices on an otherwise quite extreme forum. Although the paper does not make policy recommendations, there are potential policy implications of this, especially in terms of ongoing discussions in the western world over whether or not to ban the movement