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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. 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…

PAMF

Stands for Punk A$$ Mo Fo. I think a better term than hoodlums in this case. Martijn always has such interesting posts. However, on the issue of counter-identity, isn’t that essentially OBL’s point? He hates women, so he’s a man. He hates the “West,” so he’s an Arab. He hates Christians and Jews, so he’s a “Muslim.” A little more seriously, hasn’t he simply adopted Islam as an oppositional identity? Isn’t he more aligned with Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam than with the Hanbali school? For OBL, it seems Islam is what others are not, and his association with Taliban,…

The Changing World – Being Muslim

The Changing World. What does it mean to be a Muslim in the U.S. in the post-9/11 world, and why are so many new converts to Islam – women?