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 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]

[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.