Assalamu'alaikum & Selamat Sejahtera,

Until now, all that have happened in the overblown "arms heist" episodes do not click my mind. My logics could not accept the whole flow of the events. It is not because I am cynical, but my intelligence and professionalism could not simply accept fundamental flaws in its storyboard. But yes, I am critical in analyzing the whole issue, in relation to what has happened earlier in our country.

Suddenly, this "cult group" has their official website on the Net. All of you could go to the following URL:

http://al_maunah.tripod.com

Being critical, I have carried out a quick analysis on the website content, putting myself as a webmaster with my own development team. The sole purpose is to search for truth on limited facts that are available. This is only my personal opinion and any of you could accept or deny it with no string attached.

Website Start Date

On the bottom-most of it's main page, there is a statement "Copyright =A9 1998 Al-Maunah All Rights Reserved". What we would normally expect is that the site will contain content (text, images, audio, video and animation files) from 1998 to now (2000). If the organization does exist since 1998, it would be normal for it's static content (content which will not change over time, like introduction to the organization, organization structure etc) being created at the early stage of their inception. We could check on this by analyzing the last modification date/time of the files forming a web page. In addition, any of you could do the same, using either Microsoft or Netscape browser. The subsequent analysis however does not reflect the expectation.

File & Content Structure

The file structure for the whole website is so simple. In the Tripod.com directory, there are only 2 directories namely "images" and "s_jawab". To do so, you could download and use a software which could download the whole website into your PC. I am using Offline Explorer.

Simple file structure reflect one thing - the website does not expand it's content over time. A supposedly "populist and international" organization will normally develop website expansion plan to expose their activism, announce regular programs and activities. Apparently, if you visit "Berita & Iklan" section, you would find that their announced activities mainly started from April 2000!

The website contain 148 files with total size of 2.62MB. Again, it is categorically small comparing to their claim of more than 1000 members spanning 4 countries.

The graphic files showing their martial art sessions are big and were not trimmed as normally done by a trained website graphic designer.

The internal content and file structure does not also reflect their webmaster's plan to allow for content upload and download from other external source, eg., from their members in other countries. In a website maintained by a group of people, there would normally be temporary directories like "download", "staging" or "temp". I would conclude that this site is maintained by ONLY ONE amateur web designer.

Files Modification Date

This is another "mind-boggling" findings. I have checked and analyzed available meta data (information about information) of almost all the graphic files. You could check meta data of a file from the website. Downloading the file onto your PC will change the modification date to the date of the download.

Please find attached a summary results (in MS Excel format) for almost all graphic files residing in the website. Some highlights:

The photos of their martial art sessions were mainly captured on 5 September 1999 and 16 October 1999. It was about 1 year after their inception. Where are photos and graphics of activities from previous years? Graphic files showing their martial art sessions are last modified and downloaded onto the website between 10 April 2000 to 6 June 2000. It's only beyond April 2000 that the organization really popularize their existence. Large photos of martial art sessions were last uploaded into the website on 25 May 2000 and their thumbnails on 6 June 2000.

Graphic files related to table of content and organizational logo were last modified and uploaded on 28 June 2000, about 7-8 days ago! We would expect that the logo would be the earliest to be designed and uploaded into the website. It's meta data on modification should go back as early as September 1998 (the date of their inception) but it is not the case.

Whatever that I have presented here are all factual information being captured by current technology. I believe, many of you are experts in studying images through various ways and tools. Quite some time ago, a similar image files analysis were technically carried out on alleged pornographic images of local singers from well known pop groups.

What I want to really stress is that we make conclusion and judgement on issues with principles and factual backup. Our media, they have their agenda to play. Allah s.w.t. has given us an ability to compare, analyze, conclude and make judgement. It is really an intelligent insult to blatantly accept anything that has been carefully worded, manipulated and tactically presented to us.

Wassalamu'alaikum & Selamat Sejahtera,

Haji Ahmad Jamali bin Haji Sepihie