Islam in the Digital Age: E-Jihad, Online Fatwas and Cyber Islamic Environments / Edition 1

by Gary R. Bunt

Overview

The Internet is an increasingly important source of information for many people in the Muslim world. Many Muslims in majority and minority contexts rely on the Internet — including websites and e-mail — as a primary source of news, information and communication about Islam. As a result, a new media culture is emerging which is having a significant impact on areas of global Muslim consciousness. Post-September 11th, this phenomenon has grown more rapidly than ever.

Gary R. Bunt provides a fascinating account of the issues at stake, identifying two radical new concepts:

Firstly, the emergence of e-jihad ('Electronic Jihad') originating from diverse Muslim perspectives — this is described in its many forms relating to the different definitions of 'jihad', including on-line activism (ranging from promoting militaristic activities to hacking, to co-ordinating peaceful protests) and Muslim expression post 9/11.

Secondly, he discusses religious authority on the Internet — including the concept of on-line fatwas and their influence in diverse settings, and the complexities of conflicting notions of religious authority.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745320984
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Publication date:	09/20/2003
Series:	Critical Studies on Islam Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.32(w) x 8.46(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Gary R. Bunt is a lecturer in the Department of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, University of Wales, Lampeter, United Kingdom. He has published two related books: Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2000 and The Good Web Guide to World Religions (London: The Good Web Guide, 2001).

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

APPROACHING CYBER ISLAMIC ENVIRONMENTS

The writer's computer crashed completely whilst this chapter was being drafted. Some might interpret this as a sign of critical Divine Providence, although it was in fact a computer virus, something of an occupational hazard (the writer's firewall has since been updated). Internet and e-mail access became impossible. The writer, insulated in his office in west Wales, had lost contact with friends, colleagues and the sources of information usually consulted on a daily basis.

Given his research area, he considered what would happen if 'Islam', Muslims and Islamic organisations lost their computer access: the Qur'an and other Islamic sources would not be lost forever. It would not be like the consequences of a battle after the death of Muhammad in 632, when so many individuals who had memorised the Qur'an were killed that concerns were raised about the preservation of the sacred text, and according to tradition a decision was made to produce a 'definitive' collection of the various texts: without the Internet, Islam as a religion may not lose anything that is intrinsic or central to beliefs. There would still be a hajj pilgrimage, although it might be organised differently without computers. There would still be prayers, although the calculation of timings might in some contexts revert to traditional methods. There would still be zakah, the annual tithe on Muslims, although some authorities would have problems without their accounting software. Scholars would still talk to one another and questions would still be asked, but the answers would be less immediate for some, and anonymity would be less ensured. In effect, Islam does not need computers; in many parts of the 'Muslim world', Islam is practised without computer interfaces or the use of a mouse, and the Internet may remain a rumour or a luxury in the hands of an elite.

So, why write about Islam and the Internet? Well, although Islam as a religion would function effectively, a substantial minority of Muslims and Islamic organisations would be bereft of their significant propagation and networking tool, unable to dialogue, research and disseminate their message to followers or to interested (Muslim and other) observers. Some would be bound by the shackles of state censorship, unable to access other forms of media, and restricted in the forms of local and global contact and dialogue facilitated through the Internet. Sermons would continue to be circulated, perhaps in print, by fax or cassette, but their immediacy would be lost. Decisions on points of interpretation and reactions to current events would become restricted in their diffusion. Individuals whose international status has been enhanced through the medium, even though they are unrecognised or seen as pariahs by some local authorities, would return to their restricted local networks and a relative obscurity. Some observers would suggest that such a development would not necessarily be a bad one, and indeed they would encourage the creation of barriers to knowledge and dissemination around such individuals and organisations.

In the post-11 September 2001 climate, overt and covert efforts have been made to facilitate such restrictions – although there is also a consciousness that the Internet is in fact a window (forgive the term) into aspects of the 'Muslim world' and consciousness, which other forms of intelligence-gathering are unable to acquire. Whilst activism and Islamic activities (the two are not synonymous) were significant features of the Internet before September 2001, since that time they have acquired a new urgency and immediacy. The proliferation of Islamic websites, chat rooms, e-mail lists and other related media activity – including expressions of beliefs and the articulation of agendas – was a phenomenon heralding a maturity of Cyber Islamic Environments.

This is not to suggest that there was a lack of sophistication before that time; indeed, the extensive application of the Internet as a means of projecting Muslim authority and disseminating religious opinions represents a long-term and technologically adept integration of religious symbolism and traditional notions of power, wrapped up in a 56k modem and sent in digital packets on uncharted and twisted routes across the world. Measuring such activities and their impact is problematic; one scale might be to ask local imams and mosque leaders whether they would 'miss' the Internet. Some might feel more secure without it: how many in their community no longer came to them for advice, preferring a Google search or a visit to an online scholar? Others might wonder where Friday's sermon might come from as they drew upon the media for inspiration, downloaded a pre-written sermon from an affiliated superior authority elsewhere in the world, or searched an online Qur'an or hadith database for a tricky, half-remembered quotation. Some activists, seeking to synchronise the contents of sermons or discussions with their colleagues networked across the globe, would have to resort to more conventional channels of communication. Again, we may be talking about a minority, albeit a disproportionately influential one. The majority would retain their traditional, non-electronic connection with religious opinion and authority. Some scholars would suggest that this is not a bad thing: too many questions can distort beliefs. An analogy might be the physicians challenged by patients brandishing Internet opinions about treatments and diagnoses, wishing that these sources would suddenly disappear. Casual searching on the web will reveal a variety of opinions and dialogues about Islam to an interested Muslim, whilst her library shelf may contain only a copy of a Qur'an (that in itself would be seen as 'sufficient' by many!).

The tendency to set off alarm bells about the Internet is not just associated with Islam, although a number of authorities and individuals have sought to challenge or negate its influence. For external observers, the combination of the Internet and Islam with such terms as jihad or fatwa may be seen as a provocative or sensationalising strategy. However, this detracts from the fact that it is these two areas that have seen a most significant integration of electronic activity with religion. By discussing these themes, it may also be possible to defuse the alarmist tendencies and realistically posit a rational analysis and discussion that does not incorporate fear of the Internet or fear of Islam.

Finding appropriate models to follow in this journey can be difficult: the writer has always been struck by two very different, but significant, writers about Islam and Muslims, Ibn Battuta and Edward W. Lane. In idle moments, he has speculated how they might have reacted to time spent in Cyber Islamic Environments.

Ibn Battuta was a great explorer and recorder of the Muslim world in the fourteenth century (Common Era), venturing into regions that had been obscured by distance and history, traversing dangerous roads and ultimately writing about what he saw. A scholar of Islamic law, Ibn Battuta's book al-Rihla became the key guide for future travellers over the centuries and was translated into many languages. Would he have produced a guide to cyberspace or dismissed it as an irrelevance? Could it have given him an understanding of the diversity of Muslim expression, and to what extent would it have been an equivalent to its real-world manifestation?

Edward W. Lane, by contrast, lived in nineteenth-century Cairo, recording the manners and activities of Egyptians – including their religious understandings and belief patterns – and was significant in introducing many facets of Islam to his English-speaking audience for the first time, in a rational and non-sensationalistic manner, as well as recording their utterances and developing detailed Arabic–English dictionaries. This translation of statement and experience was a key to Islam for later scholars. Again, the writer's contemplation of Lane's possible reaction to cyberspace engages him: would he have 'lurked' in a chat room, attempting to blend into his surroundings as he did on occasion in Cairo? How would he have recorded and chosen the sites, and how would the diffuse conceptual frameworks have manifested themselves on the page?

Both authors are no doubt rotating in their celestial havens at the thought of being integrated into such a discussion, and despite some aspirations, it is not the intention of this writer to endeavour to emulate such esteemed and influential individuals. The point of this diversion is to highlight the point that those 'traditional' Islamic landscapes and environments in contemporary contexts must be recorded and analysed, but if a holistic contemporary understanding of Islam is sought, then part of that interpretative process has to include (even as a small proportion of an overall picture) a discussion about the Internet. This present book is a modest contribution, or a single pixel, in a substantial, high-resolution screen of knowledge.

DEFINING CYBER ISLAMIC ENVIRONMENTS

Cyber Islamic Environments have the potential to transform aspects of religious understanding and expression within Muslim contexts, and the power to enable elements within Muslim populations in minority and majority arenas to dialogue (not necessarily amicably) with each other. In conjunction with traditional forms of knowledge and media about Islam, access to (and perhaps ownership of) the Internet has become a significant element of propagation and identity for Muslim individuals and organisations. The changes may be subtle rather than overt. A complex spectrum of access, dialogue, networking and application of the media associated with Cyber Islamic Environments emerges. Like the Internet itself, this spectrum is not one that can easily be classified or systemised, and does not fit neat categorisation models.

A broad range of Muslim expressions can be located online. This writer has discussed elsewhere the religious and political factors influencing the development of Internet access within Muslim contexts. In particular, the pronouncements by 'authorities' on the Islamic legitimacy (or not) of the Internet have combined with political strategies, often articulated utilising religious 'values' and concepts, which have sought to engineer specific forms of what are described by this writer as Cyber Islamic Environments, an umbrella term which can refer to a variety of contexts, perspectives and applications of the media by those who define themselves as Muslims. These may contain elements of specific Muslim worldviews and notions of exclusivity, combined with regional and cultural understandings of the media and its validity. These pronouncements have often been tempered with a realism, which recognises a need to have a voice in cyberspace in order to propagate values and views within the information marketplace.

The development of online khutbahs, or sermons, either transmitted 'live' or recorded and uploaded onto websites, has extended the audiences for several imams. Specific interpretations of Islam, justifying political and religious actions, can also be located online and are frequently updated. They can contain news, chat and networking opportunities that go beyond the traditional ideological and religious frames of reference of many organisations. Frequently, these are networked to other platforms operating similar sites on related issues.

The writer has received responses from some readers, who have reservations about the term Cyber Islamic Environments 'inappropriately' relating to some 'Islamic' perspectives, or for the writer not criticising the application of the Internet by some 'Muslim platforms'. It is stressed here that the intention again is to 'delineate the Islamic Internet landscape'. This is seen as a significant task in its own right, given the dramatic changes that have taken place within cyberspace and the real world since Virtually Islamic was published in 2000. Rather than simply updating that volume, this book intends to explore some of the key issues it raised in a greater depth, with the benefit of having discussed these elements with a variety of interested parties, both on- and off-line, and having continued to publish reactions and analyses in the interim period.

The evolution of using the Internet as an 'Islamic tool' has been observed in a relatively compressed historical period, and it may be only with the passage of time for an appropriate perspective for the full picture to be realised. One significant issue and problem for future research in this area is that little has been archived or recorded to date, and that sites emerge and disappear with regularity. The archiving issue is a critical one for studying Cyber Islamic Environments; this writer has made a modest effort to archive sites he writes about, although clearly it is not possible to visit every site on a regular basis, given that there are so many activities to observe in cyberspace. This is reflected in the book, which cannot offer a scientific analysis of web traffic, visitors, page updates and usage of sites, but can offer a commentary on significant changes in relation to content and ideas expressed on the Internet, and developments which are significant religiously, socially and politically.

The term 'Internet' in this book refers to the connected network of computers and other electronic communications tools, through which diverse forms of electronic communications and media can be facilitated. The 'web', orWorldWideWeb (WWW), can be defined as:

A global Web of interconnected pages which (ideally) can be read with any computer with a Web browser and Internet connection. More technically and specifically, the WWW is the global Web of interlinked files which can be located using the HTTP protocol.

The focus of the present volume is on Islam and the World Wide Web, although that term can seamlessly flow into other elements of the medium. The term 'cyberspace' is utilised when discussing the Internet, being the electronic, amorphous territory navigated or surfed through the use of a browser (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or Opera) across the Internet.

The origins of the writer's interest in the subject are associated with approaches to Islamic knowledge and expression, and how methods of communication have adjusted and influenced forms of dialogue and self-understanding, in local, regional and global contexts. This has some linkage with cyber-cultural studies, although the writer's approach is based more deliberately in the area of phenomenology and the study of religions: symbolism, authority, diversity, experience and expression are key 'filters' for the writer when observing Cyber Islamic Environments. Other writers may select different avenues and methodologies to explore these elements of cyberspace, contributing to a developing field. The appropriate intellectual tools and rarefied conceptual frameworks may emerge within such studies. However, the current book seeks to describe and discuss essential features and observations, perhaps contributing to future analytical arguments that have had the luxury of historical perspective and resources in order to facilitate them.

One issue that surprised the writer is that the subject held a wider appeal than the Religious Studies and Islamic Studies framework it emerged from, but that there were also occasional conflicting (and unrealistic) methodological expectations from those in other disciplines. The present volume holds those expectations in mind, but still aims at the informed, general reader with an interest in Islam and the Internet. It should be stressed early on that a complete analysis of Cyber Islamic Environments is a task beyond the single writer and his resources, especially given the radical expansion in the number of websites, e-mail lists, chat rooms and other forms of electronic communication; there is a substantial increase in languages other than English being applied on the Internet, and this is reflected in the discussion where possible. It is hoped that future research can be encouraged, to embrace languages that cannot fully be represented in this volume. The writer has started to network with interested academics and commentators worldwide, in an effort to encourage such research and resources, with a view to publishing findings in a future volume.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Glossary

1 Introduction

2 'The Digital Sword'? and Defining 'E-Jihad'

3 Hacktivism, Hacking and Cracking in the Name of Islam

4 Cyber Islamic Reactions to 9-11: Mujahideen in Cyberspace

5 Cyber Islamic Reactions to 9-11: The ‘Inter-fada’ and Global E-jihad

6 Cyber-Islamic reactions to 9-11: Jihad for Peace

7 Islamic Decision Making and Advice Online

8 Sunni Religious Authority on the Internet I: Muslim Majority Contexts

9 Sunni Religious Authority on the Internet II: Muslim Minority Contexts

10 The Online Mujtahid: Islamic Diversity And Authority Online

11 Islam in the Digital Age

12 Bibliography

Index