Cyber Army: An Intolerant Force
Facebook is among the platforms where “the anonymous brothers of the Imam of the Age” have been displaying themselves in recent years. This group, through two methods—friendly or opposing—has attempted to tarnish the image of Persian-speaking Christians.
Cyber Army is a name that unidentified individuals have given to their cyber activities on the internet. There is not much information available about this group. However, what is clear is that the destructive objectives of this group are in conflict with freedom of expression and opinion. This group has attacked several American and Chinese websites as well as websites opposing the Iranian government. The intolerance of opposition by Iran’s rulers has been a painful experience for the Iranian people over many years.
The plan to form Iran’s cyber army was established from 2005 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with the budget of the ninth government and the Office of the Supreme Leader in Iran. Farsnews Agency announced on the thirteenth of Ordibehesht 1388 (April 2, 2009) on its official website the affiliation of this group under the name “Anonymous Soldiers of the Imam of the Age.”
In Ordibehesht 1388 (March/April 2009), the U.S. intelligence agency ranked Iran as one of five countries with the strongest cyber forces. This institution, emphasizing that Iran’s cyber army is a subset of the cyber surveillance team of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, declared its budget to be 76 million dollars and estimated the number of forces in this army to be over 2,400 personnel with 12,000 reserves.
Part of the objectives of Iran’s cyber army group includes transmitting interference over satellite networks, accessing personal information of opposition activists in cyberspace, hacking opposing and non-aligned websites, and contaminating and making the internet unsafe for system opponents. Persian-speaking Christian networks and news and public websites of Iranian Christians have repeatedly been targeted by attacks from this army in recent years.
However, this is not all the activities of Iran’s cyber army to neutralize the activities of its opponents. This group, in coordination with the Quds Force, has carried out character assassination of political and human rights activists in other “friendly and brotherly” countries of the Islamic Republic. In this aspect of the cyber army’s activities, Persian-speaking Christian virtual communities have also not been spared from the hostility of this group.
Facebook is among the platforms where in recent years the “anonymous brothers of the Imam of the Age” have been displaying themselves. This group, through two methods—friendly or opposing—has attempted to tarnish the image of Persian-speaking Christians.
The cyber army group, through a friendly account or a Christian sympathizer, has worked to obtain information and identify Christian compatriots, or by spreading false information and rumors, they attempt to damage the reputation of Christian servants and activists.
Another group within the cyber army, through open opposition, has distributed false, distorted, and malicious information against Christians. Another action by this group is identifying Christian converts through their personal information on Facebook and introducing them to their extremist brothers in host countries. Leveling accusations, making cyberspace unsafe, and creating fear have been among the objectives of this group and have achieved some success.
For some time, the cyber army’s cross-border activities in coordination with the Quds Force have also affected Afghan Christians. In one of these actions, several Facebook pages with different titles are searching for identifying Afghan Christian converts and introducing them as apostates and those who have abandoned religion. Friends and allies of the Afghan cyber army, by attacking Afghan Christian accounts and with threats and intimidation, level many unethical accusations against Afghan Christians. They carelessly manipulate personal images of Afghan Christians with Photoshop to shape them according to their preferences and post them with fanfare on user accounts. It should be noted that religious prejudices prevalent among the Afghan people facilitate the success of these actions. The result has been the closure of several Facebook accounts. It should not be overlooked that hacking Afghan Christians’ accounts is at the top of the cyber army’s work agenda.
Although we are not surprised by the oppressive efforts of zealous Islamists, and we are aware of their intolerance toward any opposing view, our media mission requires us to raise awareness against such actions and not remain silent in order to end the unethical activities of the cyber army. Exposing their names and user accounts is the first thing that can be done. Sympathy with Afghan Christians and declaring support for these brothers will be an encouragement and reassurance for continuing to spread the good news of salvation among the people of Afghanistan.
We promise that:
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Revelation 14:6-7
