Church website trashed by Islamic hackers

By Brett Cox
Updated November 5 2012 - 6:15pm, first published September 2 2008 - 2:39am
Unholy mess: One of the illustrations placed by hackers on the church website.
Unholy mess: One of the illustrations placed by hackers on the church website.

AN Islamic organisation warning of the return of an empire founded 700 years ago has hacked into the website of a Wollongong church and published disturbing images and messages.For several days, anyone who visited the website of Wollongong's Wesley Church was greeted by anti-war messages flanked by pictures of the Turkish flag, masked soldiers and an image of US President George W Bush with a cross over his face.While the text on the www.wollongongmission.unitingchurch.org.au website was not in English, other websites on the internet hacked by the same group, AdReNaLin, identified those responsible as "sons of the Ottoman Empire which had ruled over the entire world for 700 years"."Be feared (sic)... because we have come back to frighten you again."Ottoman Empire is still living. Our ancestors have conquered you in the past and we are doing the same thing as their sons."Ottoman Empire isn't forgotten and it will never be."There didn't appear to be much in common between the websites, across the world, that had been hacked.Cached pages of the Wollongong website show the page was hacked sometime after August 23.Normally, the home page reads: "We, the people of the Church on the Mall, believe in and desire to share the love of God as expressed by Jesus Christ."Regardless of race, age and status, all people are welcome."We desire to be a tolerant and inclusive faith community able to support each other."The website was repaired late last week after the Mercury contacted the church.One woman from the church said she was "disturbed" and "upset" by what had happened.Ron Samways, who updates the website with new information, said it had recently become popular with church members."The website has been there for a while but we haven't used it much until recently," he said.Website creator Ron Perry said the incident had been disturbing.The disturbing contents were replaced almost immediately after those who look after the website were notified, he said."We don't know who did it," he said."We left it for a while with the people who hosted it but they couldn't track them down."Mr Perry said he wasn't sure how many people had visited the website - which is a window to other websites including Wollongong Mission Community Care, Eagles Wing Bookshop and wedding information - while the messages were displayed.

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