Advertisements for suicide bombers, promotion of violence and shoot-em-up games have proliferated on the Internet since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"Extremist groups are undoubtedly spending more of their efforts on-line," Rabbi Abraham Cooper told a news conference convened for the release of the center's annual report on the spread of racism and violent hatred on the Internet, "Digital Hate 2002."
The Jewish organization, which is named after a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor and has grown to monitor global racist activity against a range of groups, said its researchers, who examined 25,000 Web sites per month, had identified 3,300 as "problematic," up from 2,600 a year ago.
"The biggest difference now is that we're seeing more Web sites enlisting suicide bombers and those that validate or encourage terrorism and more games targeting minorities," said Mr. Cooper, an associate dean of the Los-Angeles based Center.
Mr. Cooper said his team was particularly disturbed by a game called "Kaboom!" in which the computer user plays a suicide bomber running up and down a street in search of crowds in which to cause maximum bloodshed.
Racist games included "KZ Manager," an Austrian game adapted from an earlier concentration camp (or "KZ") theme, now featuring Austria's Turkish minority as the victims; "Ethnic Cleansing" a shooting game produced by America's National Alliance white supremacists; and Sweden's "Area Alpy," where stereotyped images of black people are the targets.
Mr. Cooper said the cross-border nature of the Internet was also creating strange alliances, such as between white supremacists and Islamic extremists over a perceived common Jewish enemy.
Many groups had used images of the burning World Trade Center towers to criticize U.S policy and condemn Jews or to oppose Muslims.
Mr. Cooper said the findings confirmed a change in Internet tactics from racist and violent groups. Whereas they used to try to recruit directly, they now focus on spreading their messages and enticing youths with games and music.
"They look for leaderless resistance or the lone wolf," he said.
Some groups were also rerouting unsuspecting users from respectable sites.