It's not every day that a book
about the internet emanates from a university's theology
department. While most people's attention has been focused on
e-commerce and dot.com millionaires, Gary Bunt, a lecturer in
Islamic studies at Lampeter, has been exploring what he terms
"cyber Islamic environments".
Virtually Islamic is the first
wide-ranging study of the way Muslims around the world are using
the net, and the impact this may have on Islam.
Muslims are often perceived as
ultra-conservative, and that is the case in some countries: the
book tells of a 37-year-old man in Sudan whose father threatened
to beat him if he ever caught him using the web. But elsewhere
they have adopted the internet with alacrity.
Most of the Islamic groups that
figure in the news - Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taleban, etc - now have
an internet presence, as does the grandson of the late Iranian
leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. There's even a gay site called Queer
Jihad.
One reason for this interest in
the internet, the book suggests, is "da'wa", the duty of
believers to spread the word of Islam. Setting up websites is a
simple and cheap way to fulfil that obligation. Another reason is
that various kinds of information which Muslims need can be found
much more quickly and easily via the internet. The Koran, the holy
book, is available in searchable form at several sites. The timing
of the five daily prayers changes from day to day and place to
place, but a quick search provides times for anywhere in the
world.
There's also software which
calculates the direction of Mecca (which Muslims must face when
praying) from any location. Several of the Muslims interviewed by
the author were excited by the possibility that the internet may
one day link up the billion-or-so believers around the world into
a single religious community (or "digital umma") of a
kind not seen since the early days of Islam 1,400 years ago. One
small example is the online mosque established in Belfast in 1995
to serve 3,000 Muslims scattered among the feuding Protestants and
Catholics, but now catering for a global audience.
The internet is also likely to
make Muslims more aware of the diversity of views held in
different parts of the world. Up to now, distance and strict
censorship by local establishments have prevented many Muslims
from learning about alternative interpretations - or, in some
cases, even knowing they existed.
This means that orthodox
viewpoints are more likely to be challenged in the future. Muslims
generally take a stern view of anything which they consider
defames Islam (which in some cases simply means their own
interpretation of it). That attitude is difficult to reconcile
with the free spirit of the internet.
The book discusses the case of
SuraLikeIt, a site which published satirical verses mimicking the
style of the Koran. Following complaints, AOL blew away the site.
Predictably, numerous other versions popped up elsewhere on the
net. Some governments, most notably Saudi Arabia, have set up
expensive filtering systems to keep unsuitable material out of
their countries.
But filtering systems have
difficulty in distinguishing between, say, a devout article and a
satirical one. In a test, one of the most popular filters blocked
an innocuous site entitled Welcome to Saudi Arabia: the Land of
Islam.
The book gets a little technical:
appreciating its arguments requires a basic knowledge of Islamic
concepts, but there is a glossary. There's also an address list
for major Islam-related websites.
Web addresses
Virtually Islamic website: www.virtuallyislamic.com
Belfast Islamic Centre: http://ireland.iol.ie/~afifi/
Hamas: www.hamas.org/
Hezbollah: www.hizbollah.org/
and www.hezbollah.org
Queer Jihad: www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/8977/
Taleban: www.taleban.com
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