- ISBN13: 9780807859667
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Exploring the increasing impact of the Internet on Muslims around the world, this book sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community.
The Internet has profoundly shaped how both Muslims and non-Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century, says Gary Bunt. While Islamic society has deep historical patterns of global exchange, the Internet has transformed how many Muslims practice the duties and rituals of Islam. A place of religious instruction may exist solely in the virtual world, for example, or a community may gather only online. Drawing on more than a decade of online research, Bunt shows how social-networking sites, blogs, and other “cyber-Islamic environments” have exposed Muslims to new influences outside the traditional spheres of Islamic knowledge and authority. Furthermore, the Internet has dramatically influenced forms of Islamic activism and radicalization, including jihad-oriented campaigns by networks such as al-Qaeda.
By surveying the broad spectrum of approaches used to present dimensions of Islamic social, spiritual, and political life on the Internet, iMuslims encourages diverse understandings of online Islam and of Islam generally.
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“iMuslims” by Gary Bunt is very useful for understanding how the internet is impacting how young Muslims receive secular information from non-Islamist websites. The author exposes not only how various Islamic-religious websites provide basic information about Islam to inquiring minds, but also how the internet threatens the Wahabbi-Islamist establishment as Muslim youths and unhappy Muslim husbands gain access to `cybersex’ websites that Islamic-moral guardians find objectionable. Muslim women may divorce their husbands upon discovering their husband has been `voyagering’ on cybersex websites in search for an additional wife, catching them in other acts of infidelity by seeking a `virtual girlfriend’, or posting pornographic photographs of themselves on Muslim dating websites (p. 66-67). The author discusses how Middle Eastern governments attempt to censor websites promoting political reform. The author notes various websites that have published the Quran on-line, and which ones inform a reader whether a surah (chapter) originated in either Mecca or Medina. Even the Egyptian al-Azhar University Library has an English-language website. This book lists various “Holy Warrior Jihad’ website addresses, and posts a few militant photographs from them. The author notes how a web-surfer can research behavioral norms from the ahadith that are posted on line. Bunt notes that “diverse gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual individuals…who identify themselves as Muslims have had an active presence online” (p. 111). The author discusses “researching [militant] jihadi networks in cyberspace” beginning on page 179, and notes that the U.S. Army at West Point has `The Militant Ideology Atlas’ which publishes jihadi writings online, and he notes the MEMRI translation website, too. The author has a 60-page long chapter titled “Militaristic Jihad in Cyberspace” and other 30-page “Digital Jihadi Batlefields” chapter pertaining to Iraq and Palestine resistance-movement websites. A very informative read regarding Islamist cyberspace.
Rating: 5 / 5