Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gary R. Bunt is senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Wales. He is author of Virtually Islamic and Islam in the Digital Age.

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iMuslims

The University of North Carolina Press

Contents

Acknowledgments..................................................................xiNote on Transliteration..........................................................xiiiIntroduction. iMuslims and Cyber-Islamic Environments............................1{1} Locating Islam in Cyberspace.................................................7{2} Accessing Cyber-Islamic Environments.........................................55{3} Decoding the Sacred: Islamic Source Code.....................................77{4} The Islamic Blogosphere......................................................131{5} The Cutting Edge: Militaristic Jihad in Cyberspace...........................177{6} Digital Jihadi Battlefields: Iraq and Palestine..............................243Conclusion. The Transformation of Cyber-Islamic Environments.....................275Glossary of Key Islamic Terms....................................................291Notes............................................................................295Index............................................................................349

Introduction

The Internet has a profound contemporary impact on how Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century. While these electronic interfaces appear new and innovative in terms of how the media is applied, much of their content has a basis in classical Islamic concepts. These link into traditional Muslim networks with a historical resonance that can be traced back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. iMuslims explores how these transformations and influences play out in diverse cyber-Islamic environments and how they are responding to shifts in technology and society.

My use of the umbrella term "cyber-Islamic environment" (CIE) acknowledges diversity among and within different zones in cyberspace that represent varied Muslim worldviews within the House of Islam, all of which present a reference point of identity with a conceptualization of Islam. The source encoding of such environments follows specific protocols of identity with particular Islamic reference points, including essential beliefs shared by the majority of Muslims. The encoding is refined and in some cases hacked to engineer manifestations of Muslim understandings that adapt to networks, contexts, histories, and contemporary issues. Islamic diversity encompasses many areas, ranging from elements in the headlines to those outside the realm of the media. Not all aspects of Islam are fully represented online, especially those from Muslim cultural-religious contexts with low levels of Internet connectivity, as well as traditionally quietist elements.

Specific forms of online or digital Islam, distinct from offline or analogue Islam, have developed. A place of religious instruction may only exist in a virtual context. A network or community may only gather online. Their name may not have a real-world equivalent. This is not just a phenomenon linked to so-called jihadi militaristic factions. It is one that is located in other areas of belief, such as elements of Shi'ism where, for personal safety, followers must practice secrecy or dissimilitude—a circumstance that has a long-term historical resonance.

The utilization of the Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, in the name of Islam has necessitated a reconsideration and reconfiguration of Muslim networks. While elements of historical networking patterns and concepts apply, there are also new issues to address. An innovative knowledge and proselytizing economy has emerged, causing a challenge to traditional "top-down" authority models. A collaborative, horizontal knowledge economy, reliant on peer-to-peer networking, has enveloped areas of Islamic cyberspace. Much of the content is also given away for free, and users are invited to make comments, amend information, and provide contributions in some areas. User input may come as a response to a question, a suggestion for a reference, or a commentary on a particular topic.

This might be described as "wiki-oriented" Islam in relation to the forms of interaction, knowledge sharing, and development that occur. Wikipedia describes the noun "wiki" as "a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it." This collaborative element can be extended into other areas. Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams describe such an approach in relation to economics as "wikinomics," based in part on the precedents associated with the evolution of the Linux operating system. The deviser of Linux, Linus Torvalds, shared his version of the Unix operating system with other programmers in 1991 under a license that ensured that all changes would be made available to others for free. The Linux product is now well established as an open-source alternative to Microsoft Windows and other computer operating systems and retains its roots as a collaborative product. The concept of peer-to-peer sharing (or "peering"), for which Linux is such a valuable model, offers a system that lends itself to many other areas of human life and interaction, including Muslim networks and societies.

While there is still a hierarchy in Islamic cyberspace, conventional models have in some cases been shaken to the core or forced to adapt to an open-source model of Islamic understanding and interpretation. Based on a core code of values associated with the Qur'an, new conceptual frameworks have emerged rapidly, accelerated by the collaborative processes of cyberspace. CIES have always had a collaborative element, but this has been redefined through the application of social networking and other online innovations categorized as belonging to so-called Web 2.0.

The notion of Islamic knowledge development through history also had an open-source element. The development of scholarship centered on the collection of the sayings and traditions associated with the Prophet Muhammad, known as hadith, required scholars to network between centers of knowledge production in order to collect and transmit the versions of hadith that they acquired. This activity took place in the centuries following Muhammad's death in 632 C.E. and required extensive travel between Muslim communities in different parts of the nascent Islamic world. These were subject to critical evaluation, sifting, and enhancement by bodies of scholars across the networks of place and time in order that definitive collections of hadith could be compiled. In many ways, this represents one form of open-source Islamic scholarship and collaboration, although it could be argued that the openness was subject to limitations and restrictions over time.

Another precedent would be the refinement over time of Islamic legal knowledge, necessitating a similar process of networking and connectivity. Without contemporary communications media, these processes took centuries. Now, information can be circulated and worked on in a rapid manner by iMuslims. Some of this process reinforces previous forms of knowledge exchange in Islamic contexts, but there are also elements that necessitate what can be described as a "rewiring" of the House of Islam. "Wiring" is something of a metaphor. It has metaphysical and technical connotations. In a literal sense, the individual interface does not have...