Moslems on the Internets

Paper presented at Harvard's Islam in the West Conference. Introduction only. Full reference information for citation purposes will be supplied on request, normal copyright reserved for this posting.

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Introduction

President Bush’s comment about the “internets” was derided for turning a singular, indivisible entity into a plural. While technically incorrect, the term does highlight an interesting point: While there is only one internet, the variety of reactions to the internet – because of its association with the world wide web – are manifold. Is the internet a space for free sharing of information and easy access to commercial goods or is it a place of viruses and worms, with criminals everywhere? The answer is both. While the extremes of the internet use are the ones that are most talked about, the truth is that the internet – here used synonymously with the world wide web – is a complex creation that is full of minor positives and negatives; it is comprised of small presences that contribute to contemporary culture.

Technorati Tags: Islam, Islam in the West

This paper is a survey of certain small presences of Muslims on the web, specifically of weblogs, or blogs. Blogs are websites that function like journals, usually with short entries, updated with varying degrees of frequency. The key differences between a journal and a blog is that blogs are public, they often times allow commenting, and authors of blogs can enter into a digital conversation by posting entries about posts on other blogs.^[1] Gary Bunt, one of the foremost researchers of Islam online, has recently suggested that research into Muslim blogs is an area that demands more attention.^[2]

While there are several works that address the presence of Islam online – many of them listed in the bibilography of this paper – none truly approaches the presence of Muslims online. By this I mean that there are state and organization sponsored websites that attempt to define what Islam is for the Muslim, as opposed to sites where Muslims are attempting to define what Islam is for themselves and their peers.^[3] The idea of Muslims online should not be confused with Muslims simply using the internet; it is not about recreating old debates in a new form, but using the new form to change the nature of old debates and to create new debates.^[4] Essentially, Muslims online is about Muslims interacting with one of the tools of modernity. I place blogs into the category of Muslims online as they are maintained by individuals, who then invite others to enter into a dialogue about understandings of Islam.

The lack of emphasis on Muslims online has several causes. Jon Anderson suggests that initially Muslims online were the dominant web presence as the World Wide Web (WWW) was emerging, but that it was then supplanted by Islam online as the technology matured and states and organizations recognized the potential in spreading their messages.^[5] In addition, several authors have pointed out that the presence of Islam online is related to the idea of terrorist networks, ideas of global jihad, and the search for a normative understanding of Islam.^[6] The lack of vocabulary to discuss religion online, and in particlar Islam, both online and off, have also made it easier to focus on larger normative sites than on smaller individual ones.^[7] However, I believe as the technology continues to evolve – into blogs for example – the presence of Muslims online will become an important area of research.

The dialectic between Islam online and Muslims online fits into the paradigm suggested by Stewart Hoover:^[8] there are popular and elite forms of discourse and the popular discourses favor new media.^[9] The popular discourse of blogs authored in the United States makes it part of the public sphere – working off of the definition used in The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies^[10] – where the other constituent elements of the sphere are the state and institutions which claim to represent Islam, such as The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Part of the debate that is formed by the Internet in general, and blogs specifically, is the access and interpretation of texts.^[11] The dialogue formed through interaction with previous forms of knowledge gives voice to the diversity of the Islamic tradition^[12] and allows the debates to enter into public consciousness in new ways.^[13] Much like print,^[14] recording technologies,^[15] and mass education^[16] did in an earlier time period, blogs give unfettered, unmediated voice to individual interactions with the Islamic tradition. Blogs are part of the new “information capitalism” that is moving debate of the meaning of Islam from discussions in the coffee house to much larger circles.^[17]

As these circles widen – irrespective of their perceived legitimacy outside of the US^[18] – questions concerning the legitimacy of the interpretation/interpreter become increasingly important.^[19] All of these elements, blog production, blog dialogue, and blog critique, begin to affect the Islamic narrative – the understanding of Islam by Muslims and non-Muslims of the tradition and the traditions place in the contemporary world. Blogs make the readers/consumers into co-authors/producers, increasing the sense of agency of Muslims who are online.^[20]

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[1]                The two most common ways of indicating an ongoing conversation amongst blogs are trackbacks (http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/beginners/) and tags (http://technorati.com/help/tags.html).

[2]                Bunt, Gary R. "Defining Islamic Interconnectivity." In Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop, edited by Miriam Cooke, and Bruce B. Lawrence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 247.

[3]                I would not place discussion sections of “official” websites into a category of Muslims attempting to define their own Islam as I would argue that their presence on the site already places them in response mode to the site’s understanding of Islam.

[4]                Mandaville, Peter G. "Communication and Diasporic Islam: A Virtual Ummah?" In The Media of Diaspora, edited by Karim H. Karim. London; New York: Routledge, 2003, 143.

[5]                Anderson, Jon W. "Wiring Up: The Internet Difference for Muslim Networks." In Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop, edited by Miriam Cooke, and Bruce B. Lawrence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 259.

[6]                Gilmartin, David. "A Networked Civilization?" In Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop, edited by Miriam Cooke, and Bruce B. Lawrence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005; Bunt, Gary R. Virtually Islamic : Computer-Mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000; Bunt, Gary R. Islam in the Digital Age : E-Jihad, Online Fatwas and Cyber Islamic Environments. London ; Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press, 2003.

[7]                Bunt, Gary R. "Defining Islamic Interconnectivity." In Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop, edited by Miriam Cooke, and Bruce B. Lawrence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 236.

[8]                Hoover, Stewart M. "Introduction: The Cultural Construction of Religion in the Media Age." In Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media: Explorations in Media, Religion, and Culture, edited by Stewart M. Hoover, and Lynn Schofield Clark. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 5.

[9]                While further discussion is currently outside the scope of this paper, this dichotomy echoes the one put forth by Bakhtin (see Bakhtin, M. M., and Michael Holquist. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.) that leads to the formation of a hybrid identity that eventually becomes the norm. Some have argued that the creole (used as a synonym for hybrid) identity has already arrived (see Anderson, Jon W. "Wiring Up: The Internet Difference for Muslim Networks." In Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop, edited by Miriam Cooke, and Bruce B. Lawrence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 262.), but at least with respect to blogs it seems too early to come to such a conclusion.

[10]             Hoexter, Miriam, and Nehemia Levtzion. "Introduction." In The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies, edited by Miriam Hoexter, S. N. Eisenstadt, and Nehemia Levtzion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002, 9.. See also Husband, Charles. "Media and the Public Sphere in Multi-Ethnic Societies." In Ethnic Minorities and the Media: Changing Cultural Boundaries, edited by Simon Cottle. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2000, 201.

[11]             Mandaville, Peter G. "Communication and Diasporic Islam: A Virtual Ummah?" In The Media of Diaspora, edited by Karim H. Karim. London; New York: Routledge, 2003, 138-139.

[12]             Lawrence, Bruce B. "Allah on-Line: The Practice of Global Islam in the Information Age." In Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media: Explorations in Media, Religion, and Culture, edited by Stewart M. Hoover, and Lynn Schofield Clark. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 239; Cooke, Miriam, and Bruce B. Lawrence. "Introduction." In Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop, edited by Miriam Cooke, and Bruce B. Lawrence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 14.

[13]             Eickelman, Dale F., and Jon W. Anderson. "Redefining Muslim Publics." In New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, edited by Dale F. Eickelman, and Jon W. Anderson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999, 6.

[14]             Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London ; New York: Verso, 1991.

[15]             Manuel, Peter Lamarche. Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993; Gaffney, Patrick D. The Prophet's Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in Contemporary Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

[16]             Anderson, Jon W. "The Internet and Islam's New Interpreters." In New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, edited by Dale F. Eickelman, and Jon W. Anderson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999, 43.

[17]             Ibid, 42.

[18]             Mandaville, Peter G. "Communication and Diasporic Islam: A Virtual Ummah?" In The Media of Diaspora, edited by Karim H. Karim. London; New York: Routledge, 2003, 146-147.

[19]             Eickelman, Dale F., and Jon W. Anderson. "Redefining Muslim Publics." In New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, edited by Dale F. Eickelman, and Jon W. Anderson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999, 1.

[20]             Ryan, Marie-Laure. "Will New Media Produce New Narratives?" In Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling, edited by Marie-Laure Ryan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004, 337.

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