Islam and the Internet

There is a Muslim Cyberspace

One of the predominant myths about the Internet is that it's a global community which is one and indivisible. This myth is rooted deep within an American ethnocentrism that plagues most users, half of which, admittedly, are American. Everything from simple language to the concept of a "melting pot" (i.e., cyberspace) reinforces corresponding prejudices. Indeed, the "melting pot" concept entices people to believe that age, gender, race, religion, etc. all disappear, only to be subsumed by capitalist, Judeo-Christian ideals. Even net-critique is trapped within this paradigm, for "global" issues are approached from a predominantly western bias.

This apparent levelling effect on the Internet is quite dangerous. Already, the notion of "the death of distance" has led an entire continent (i.e., Africa) to simply fall off the map. Likewise, religious and cultural values have been dismissed as insignificant relics of a pre-digital age, insofar that "we could hardly find such a thing as a Hindu, Muslim, Bosnian or Pakistani cyberspace."[1] For a religion like Islam, such attitudes are not only deceptive but also intimidating.

Islam already has a host of problems as it is within traditional, mainstream media. Often regarded as the religion of terrorists and fanatics, demonizing rhetoric concerning Muslims has conveniently replaced that of communists - a bygone association of anarchists, liars, and spies, all of whom have somehow disappeared into the abyss of history. Hence, the worst terrorist act committed on American soil, the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, was immediately assumed to be the work Muslim fanatics, before it was discovered that white Americans were behind it all. More recently, Canadian cartoonist Terry Mosher (Aislin), in a commentary on the Luxor massacre last year, depicted a savage dog in a hijab (a religious head dress) accompanied by the words "in the name of Islamic extremism" and "apologies to dogs everywhere".[2] Although petitioned by letters, e-mail, and telephone calls, Mosher refused to apologise for the controversial editorial cartoon.

Yet it's not just in countries were Muslims are a minority that they suffer from various injustices. In many Arab countries, as well as non-Arab countries with a high proportion of Muslims, discrimination also persists, leaving many stuck between a rock and a hard place: on the one hand, their governments infringe and restrict their rights; on the other, western countries erroneously identify their religion with the repressive practices of their governments, many of whom don't even enjoy popular support.

An example of this is Egypt. Shaken by last November's atrocity in Luxor, Egypt's response has been to intensify police repression. As Eric Rouleau (1998) observed, the government doesn't differentiate between diverse streams of political Islam; it lumps the armed extremists together with the moderate - and entirely pacific - Muslim Brotherhood. In turn, by refusing to recognise the Muslim Brotherhood, coupled with the twin evils of the government's failure to address poverty and its heavy-handed authoritarianism, Rouleau sees that violence in the area will most likely continue, if not increase.[3]

Within the realms of "cyberspace", such discrimination and intimidation of Muslims and Islam is simply mirrored. For instance, at the beginning of August 1996 the National Science Foundation (NSF) blocked crucial international links to Iran, apparently in response to the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act that became law the same year. The move prevented people in the United States from connecting to Iranian computers by cutting off access at that time to the country's only permanent Internet connection - a single 9600 bps modem. Subsequently, many Iranians became outraged at losing access to friends, family, and educational links in Iran. Only after a wave of net protest and repeated phone calls was the connection then re-established.[4]

Muslim Cyberspace

In spite of these and various other problems, Islam maintains a certain presence on the Internet. Going beyond the myriad documents that can be found through a simple search engine, one can find the existence of a "Muslim Cyberspace", much to the detriment of the likes of Gerloczy et al who attest that "we could hardly find such a thing."

Of those sites that feature general information about Islam, the QSS (Quran Sunnah Society) of North America provides information to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike on a variety of Islamic issues, including Sufism. Also, PAS offers a networking homepage for various Islamic sites, with links to other Islamic homepages and resources including Cybermuslim, Islamcity, and the Japan Islamic Network. Among them, Kashif's Islamic Resources is a personal site that features information about Islam such as prayer times and the Islamic calendar, as well as English translations of the Quran. It also features an audio reference by former pop star Cat Stevens about the prophet Mohammed. In addition to all this, it contains links to various other Islamic websites.

Although almost all Islamic-related information on the Internet written in English is created by Muslim students studying in western countries, mainly the US and UK, there are an increasing number of websites created by local Islamic organisations using local languages to cater to people who are not conversant in English. In a recent comprehensive survey on Internet usage in the Arab world, it was found that Arabic sites with Arabic text got significantly more visits than Arabic sites with English text. For example, Islam Links presents Islamic information and links to other sites featuring Islam in Malay while the Haqqani Foundation contains common information about Islam in a multitude of different languages including Arabic, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

In addition to different languages, many content-specific sites can also be found. In the area of theology, there is a site that deals with the controversial Gospel of Barnabas. There's also a student-run site at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) which contains not only information about the basic concepts of Islam, but also deals with the science of embryology and mathematics vis-à-vis the Quran.

Media and political content from a uniquely Islamic perspective is also available. The Islamic Party of Britain has their own site aimed not only at Muslims living in the UK but also the general British public. Likewise, Muslimedia International, a bimonthly news site in English, deals with news from within the Muslim world and covers issues that are of concern to the Islamic community. It provides a different view on world events that many non-Muslims would find interesting and thought-provoking. The Haqqani Foundation similarly includes special topics such as the concept of Jihad and the conflict in Chechnya.

Finally, there are a variety of sites that feature content by Muslims reverts. Translated into western, Judeo-Christian language, a revert is someone who converts to Islam. Muslims use the word revert because, since they consider all things Muslim, the act of someone realising their place in the nature of things (or cosmos) is seen as a process of coming back as opposed to the Judeo-Christian view of coming in from the outside.

My Journey to Islam is a site of famous Muslim reverts and the stories behind how and why they converted to Islam. This site includes the biographies of such people as Muhammad Ali, Jacques Cousteau, Malcolm X, Cat Stevens, Margaret Marcus, and others. Likewise, the UIUC site contains a short list of reverts and their opinions of Islam. Included among them is Dr. Murad Hoffman, a prominent figure who used to be the director of information at NATO, and was a former ambassador for Germany to Morocco and Algeria. He is now retired from the diplomatic service and has become a full time Islamic activist, travelling extensively.

Aside from biographies, there are also a number of essays by leading reverts which attempt to argue in favour of Islam on intellectual grounds. Roger Garaudy, a Muslim philosopher who used to be one of the top European Marxist thinkers for decades before his conversion to Islam, has written extensively on a wide variety of topics, such as the problems of Marxism, religion, morality, aesthetics, and the dialogue between civilisations. In his essay For an Islam of the 20th Century (1985), he writes about Islam from the perspective of the last decade of the Cold war era. Similarly, Gary Miller takes a scientific approach in his analysis of Islam, including the use of logic and psychology to demonstrate his points in his essay The Amazing Quran.

From all these and many more such sites, it can be seen that Islam has a pervading presence on the Internet. Still, many Muslims feel threatened by the new media. Foremost among them is the fear that Muslims who are not very strong in their faith of Islam will be easily influenced by western ideologies. Their main concern is with the news that daily spews forth from western media sources which tarnish both the image of Muslims and their religion. They complain that on the Internet it's hard to find fair and decent news coverage coming from western media sources about Islam and Muslims, or events affecting Muslims and Muslim countries. Many feel that the information is purposely designed to make people confused or to create tensions among Muslim nations.

Moreover, notwithstanding the fundamental differences that exist between Muslims and their Judeo-Christian counterparts, there are some concerns which they both share in common about the new media. These are mainly the issues of pornography and privacy on the Internet. As one Muslim user lamented, "the already critical social problems of Muslim youth at present will be further made worse by the emerging Internet technology."

In the end, the radiant future as painted by the digerati doesn't look so sunny and bright to everyone. If anything, perhaps herein lies the only and truly global aspect of the new media: that is, while it can be useful as a medium for information retrieval and entertainment, it can also be a dangerous tool for propaganda and subversion, and must therefore be used with caution.

http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2374/1.html