Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments

Virtually Islamic

Religion, Culture and Society

Series Editors:

Oliver Davies and Gavin Flood,

Department of Theology and Religious Studies,

University of Wales, Lampeter

Religion, Culture and Society is a series presented by leading scholars on a wide range of contemporary religious issues. The emphasis throughout is generally multicultural, and the approach is often interdisciplinary. The clarity and accessibility of the series, as well as its authoritative scholarship, will recommend it to students and a non-specialist readership alike.

Virtually Islamic

Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments

GARY R. BUNT

© Gary R. Bunt, 2000

Reprinted 2002, 2022

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-7083-1611-5

eISBN 978-1-83772-016-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without clearance from the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NS.

uwp.co.uk

The right of Gary R. Bunt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Cover design by Olwen Fowler

Typeset at the University of Wales Press

Printed in Great Britain by Dinefwr Press, Llandybïe

‘For Yvonne, Kane and Tony’

Contents

Acknowledgements

Notes on the system of transliteration

Notes on Internet references

1   Introduction

2   Primary forms of Islamic expression online

3   Muslim diversity online

4   Politics, Islam and the Net

5   Digital minbar: Islamic obligations and authority online

6   Cyber Islamic futures

Notes

Bibliography

Glossary

Acknowledgements

The completion of this book would not have been possible, without the support of many individuals and institutions.

Encouragement in this book’s development from colleagues at the Department of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, University of Wales has been most welcome. The reader’s comments and suggestions were also appreciated. This book is an extension of my doctoral work on decision-making processes in Islamic environments, and I am therefore (still) grateful to all those individuals and institutions who supported me on that project. These included the British Academy and the Spalding Trust.

I first introduced the ‘Virtually Islamic’ title for a plenary presentation at the 1998 British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Annual Conference at Selly Oak College, Birmingham. The title appeared again when I provided a paper for the 1998 British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR) Annual Conference, held at Lampeter. The assistance of the conference organizers, who permitted me to introduce early versions of this research, is acknowledged.

Finally, the assistance of my family helped in the completion of this book: in particular, my parents provided their invaluable dimensions of support; Tony supplied useful angles in Star Wars’ Cyberspace; and my wife Yvonne, who now converses in HTML, gave inspiration and encouragement. Kane Richard arrived and provided his unique form of support during the writing of this book.

Despite the valuable input of the above, the contents and any shortcomings of this book remain wholly the writer’s responsibility.

Gary R. Bunt

Lampeter

Notes on the system of transliteration

Qur’ā n-ic/Islamic Arabic words can have several shades of meaning and interpretation. Similarly, many Islamic-Arabic words have different levels of meaning within different historical, intellectual, social, and/or colloquial contexts for Arabic speakers. The meaning of these words in other languages and contexts has led, in some cases, to further, varied understandings of a word or term, as can be seen on the Internet.

There are several different systems of transliteration available: for the purposes of this book, in order to provide an accessible method of transliteration, the model contained in Ian Richard Netton’s book A Popular Dictionary of Islam (London: Curzon Press, 1991) has generally been adopted. Exceptions to this system have utilized and adapted the transliteration system contained within the Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition system of transliteration of Arabic characters (Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition, I (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960), p. xiii).

In the text of this book, the following exceptions to this system may apply:

(1) Anglicized Islamic-Arabic terminology i.e. ‘mosque’ for masjid.

(2) Proper names or terms of Islamic-Arabic origin following locally used or personal spellings or transliterations, where appropriate, i.e. ‘Mohamed’ for Muḥammad.

(3) Quotations from textual sources, which maintain their original transliterations.

Note on Internet references

Website titles are in lower-case type in the Bibliography, together with Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). Unless otherwise stated, all Internet references were correct and links were functioning at the time of going to press. Given the fluid nature of the Internet, there is a likelihood of certain web pages ‘relocating’ or ‘disappearing’. To counter this, references for this book will be continually updated on the Virtually Islamic webpage, which contains hyperlinks to all Internet sites referred to in this book.

Virtually Islamic

http://www.virtuallyislamic.com

1

Introduction

A ‘virtual world’ is one created by digital illusion to provide a spatial sense of time and place containing phenomena that may or may not have a connection with ‘reality’. In a virtual world, I can take off from a major airport in the aircraft of my choice, happily at the controls despite having no aeronautical training. I am safe in the knowledge that when my Boeing 747 enters a spin (which it inevitably does) the aircraft’s fragmentation is virtual: I have been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator.1

To an extent, the Cyber Islamic Environments I visit are simulations too, representations of the real and also representations of the ideal. Some contain depictions of physical objects: mosques, sacred texts and images of Muslims. They also contain hard information and data, pure text without tangible mass. The Qur’ān in cyberspace does not physically resemble the Qur’ān on my desk. The difference between Cyber Islamic Environments and Flight Simulator is that the ‘fragmentation’ can impact on the real lives of individuals, at significant and at mundane levels.

The title Virtually Islamic could refer to an abstract world in which the illusory virtual contents are simply bits of data. Are the creators of this transcendent electronic space casting Islam in an idealized light? To what extent do Cyber Islamic Environments contain an edge of reality, which impact upon and represent actual people and issues? This book seeks to explore this issue.

Virtually Islamic can also refer to notions of identity. Is it possible to be ‘digital’ and ‘Islamic’, or is this, as some commentators would believe, an inherent contradiction? The intention of this book is to assess the impact of the many Islam-related sites on the Internet, and to explore how material on these sites represents and (potentially) influences Muslim and non-Muslim perspectives on Islam and Islamic issues. The Internet is a global provider of information, becoming more accessible to an increasing number of users. The process by which Islam-related material is filtered and presented has become a significant area of concern for many, including: those promoting specific understandings of Islam; those seeking to target and inform a young, educated audience; and academics and others seeking to monitor contemporary Islamic developments. The Internet can provide users with documentation, news, analysis and images that are conveyed rapidly, avoiding previously conventional channels.

Internet surfers have potential global access to millions of pages of information, of varying degrees of quality and utility, which can be located through the application of user-friendly technology. Given the appropriate equipment and pathways, information on any subject can, in theory, take only seconds to find. The Internet landscape, or ‘cyberspace’, contains a wide range of sites and perspectives on tens of thousands of subjects.2 Many of these sites can be located through the use of search-engines and directories, which seek out specific information based on the input of parameters keyed in by the Internet user.3 Football teams, cyber-shopping ‘malls’ and the stars of television ‘soaps’ coexist alongside governments, scientists and academics: the obscure nestles alongside the multinational, and diverse interests, platforms and belief-systems can be found. High-profile Internet profiles include: Buckingham Palace, the White House, the Vatican and 10 Downing Street. These all provide ‘electronic tours’, speeches and information, with the intention of receiving the appropriate public relations benefits in return!

The Internet is not just the domain of high-profile platforms. Any individual who has access to the appropriate computer hardware, software and telephone connection can create a personal Internet page (or webpage), the content of which may range from profound insights on the meaning of life through to a listing of favourite pets. The extent to which these enter the domain of vanity publishing, or indeed represent individuals who are ‘shouting, but not being heard’, is perhaps open to question. Even when a website is visited, its contents are not necessarily read throughout, and a surfer may only peruse the contents for a few seconds. To a website’s owner, this still counts as a visit, which can be logged, monitored and tracked through the application of specific software. It might also be added to a total of hits or visits to a website, and applied as part of the site’s publicity.

The nature of the Internet and its inherent accessibility means that webpages generally cannot be regulated (whether that is desirable or not). In some quarters, this has led to controversy regarding the contents of certain sites, for example neo-Nazi propaganda and pornography, and the attendant questions raised about freedom of information within this ‘electronic democracy’. The thousands of Internet sites on offer in cyberspace are theoretically accessible, with few restrictions, to an international audience of hundreds of millions.

Opportunities to acquire knowledge about Islam and Muslims have emerged through utilization of this computer technology, including Internet sites, newsgroups, discussion groups and related services. From scholars to casual browsers, millions of people, Muslims and non-Muslims, now use the Internet as a primary source of information, so their approaches to Islam and Muslims may be influenced by what they locate on the Internet. Given the random nature of search-engines (discussed in this book), the procedure of searching for information about Islam in cyberspace can have conflicting results. The writer’s wife, for example, was undertaking a research project and keyed in the words ‘Muslim Women’ on a search-engine. The result was links to thousands of pornographic sites, which may or may not have contained women who were Muslim but, given the descriptions on the search-engine listing, were certainly not undertaking ‘Islamic acts’. This particular avenue of research was not pursued, although a single appropriate Muslim site was located low down on the listing.

Many use the Internet to convey their own interpretation of Islam and Islam-related issues. This has serious implications, given the diverse material and perspectives available, and the random way in which this information can be accessed. An individual’s first experience of Islam in cyberspace is as likely to be a so-called ‘schismatic group’ or a ‘radical’ organization, as a mainstream ‘orthodox’ interpretation. It is not intended to imply any value-judgement through this statement, simply to suggest that when many Internet sites are not labelled in terms of their Islamic perspective, they may confuse readers and casual browsers.

In terms of understanding Islam, whether from an Islamic Studies/Religious Studies perspective or not, it is important to analyse developments on the Internet, as they are significant gauges of individual Muslim self-perception and specific group expression. Ahmed and Donnan’s comments relating to Islamic Studies are particularly relevant when discussing Islam in cyberspace:

. . . it is a critical moment in Islamic studies. We are at a cusp. It is time to point out the different features on the landscape – to point out where we were in the past and where we are heading for in the future.4

This present book emerged as a tangent from research, completed in 1995, discussing forms of decision-making issues in Islamic contexts.5 Several fieldwork interviewees believed that the Internet (and related technology) would have the greatest impact of any single innovation or social change on Muslims during the next few decades. An interviewee at the International Islamic University in Islamabad suggested that:

The development of this technology is going to make ijtihād [independent judgement based on Islamic sources] much easier for people. I don’t have to look into this Encyclopaedia of Law or a book of comparative law or go to a concordance of Qur’ān and find out where in the world ribā [interest] is used – how many times. [For example] I simply need to move to my keyboard and tap in the keyboard, and it is going to give me how many places it appears within the Qur’ān, in Hadith, in Fiqh books – and that is going to provide me with enormous material which can be analysed.

Yet the poor human being’s mind cannot be disregarded. With all this technological help, if I keep my mind locked and I never use it properly, no ijtihād. But I think modern gadgets make ijtihād much easier and with Internet it is going to be easier for me to verify my findings with a scholar in my micro-micro area who lives in Tunis. I just use my e-mail and reach him and verify from him and compare with him his observations and modify my views.6

Such comments led the writer to pay more attention to Islam in cyberspace. During this period, many significant technical developments have occurred, in particular the general shift from DOS text-only sites through to multimedia sites, and the improvement in browsers.7 The writer acquired knowledge of the basic mechanics of the Internet through learning hypertext markup language (HTML) in order to construct Internet pages. Awareness of Internet issues came through browsing what has become a proliferation of Islam-related sites, and attempting to monitor and record significant developments.8

As a result of this interest, issues discussed in this book include:

•     The nature of Islamic authority and guidance on the Internet.

•     Applications of the Internet in fulfilling Islamic obligations.

•     Islam and politics on the Internet.

•     The future of the Internet in Islamic contexts.

The term ‘computer-mediated communication’ (CMC) is applied within the parameters of this discussion, and a number of studies have been made of the broad impact of so-called cybersocieties and the foundations of CMC.9 Within this computer-mediated environment, key issues are raised regarding approaches to knowledge. The term ‘environment’ is itself of importance, given the perspective of the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who discussed how different media forms influence and change behaviour:

[So] the medium is the message is not a simple remark, and I’ve always hesitated to explain it. It really means a hidden environment of services created by an innovation. And the hidden environment of services is the thing that changes people. It is the environment that changes people, not the technology.10

McLuhan focuses on the impact of the medium, and its impact on human behaviour. Whilst he was talking in a pre-mass Internet/personal computer period, there is no doubt that his comments are relevant in terms of how patterns of thought have been changed for specific groups in the Muslim world. Methods of communication and dialogue have radically altered. The computer and modem have become a (or the) medium for analysing and discussing a wide range of Islam-related topics, transcending traditional barriers to communication.

In the context of this book, the forms of what could be described as Cyber Islamic Environments created by this technology are discussed in depth, to determine how they have integrated conventional paradigms of Muslim understanding with new patterns of behaviour. The sense of binding disparate individuals together seems significant when discussing various Internet activities. This may reflect Carey’s comment: ‘ . . . [But] the important element in cyberspatial social relations is the sharing of information. It is not sharing in the sense of the transmission of information that binds communities in cyberspace. It is the ritual sharing of information.’11

This ‘ritual sharing’ extends to the subject of ritual itself. Particular questions associated with Cyber Islamic Environments emerge, for example, relating to concepts of ‘sacred space’, the nature of Divine Revelation, and the nature of authority. Questions also arise linked with broad themes relating to research and debate in other cyber-linked fields of study, for example, on issues of identity, privacy, access and democracy in computer-mediated communication.12

Questions are raised as to how computer media are understood in these different frameworks and contexts. Strate, Jacobson and Gibson (echoing McLuhan) suggest that computer media: ‘ . . . are best understood not just as means or agencies through which communication takes place, but as environments or scenes in which communication occurs’.13 Undertaking research on (or within) such an electronic environment raises specific methodological considerations and a need to define specific parameters of study. Matters relating to technical issues, including the different configurations and types of hardware and software applied in the creation of sites, whilst perhaps interesting to some readers, are not covered in this book. The definitive book on which Muslim organizations and individuals use Netscape Composer or Microsoft Front Page as a basis for their webpages has yet to be written!14

As well as surveying the ‘information superhighway’ and discussing related issues with scholars, material for this book has been acquired through e-mail interviews with those parties willing to engage in dialogue. Not every prospective interviewee was willing to participate, for a variety of reasons. These included: fears regarding their security; reluctance to engage in dialogue with a ‘western’/non-Muslim ‘academic’; and willingness only to engage