.umma – Cyber Solace in the Digital Age: Faith-Based Top Level Domain Extension for a Global Muslim Union (original) (raw)

“Cyber Ummah”: The Internet and Muslim Communities

Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives, 2021

This chapter unpacks the complexity of the concept of "cyber ummah" and its numerous religious, social, and cultural implications on modern Muslim communities. It starts by defining the concept of "ummah," in general, and the notion of "cyber ummah," in particular. In doing so, it tackles the contemporary currents which gave birth to the concept of "cyber ummah" or "virtual ummah," as it manifests itself in cyberspace today in the form of a "transnational" and "digital" Muslim community, within the international, global sphere (El Nawawy and Khamis 2009). It then moves on to shed light on the numerous implications of the multifaceted, dynamic, and complex notion of the "cyber ummah" on modern Muslim communities in three distinctive, yet overlapping and intertwined, realms, namely: the religious, social, and cultural spheres. In discussing the religious realm, the chapter tackles important issues, such as the mechanisms of redefining religious authority and religious expertise in the age of the Internet. In discussing the social realm, it sheds light on the potential of new modes of

Virtual Ummah and Religious Movement Contestation: Identity and Discourse

2020

The virtual ummah is a study of the object of the Ulama's behavior and the virtual ummah in using the internet as a means of spreading ideas, forming community networks and movements. This research uses a virtual ethnographic approach. The engagement of Ulama and followers in the digital world shows that new media, both in the form of online media and social media, have resulted in changes in all aspects of life, including socio-religious life. Changes that arise from the dynamics of socio-technology have three fundamental characteristics: informational, global, networking. Based on the analysis of figures and discourse content that appears in the network of Ulama and virtual Ummah, we can understand the new symptoms of the virtual Muslim community in Indonesia. Virtual Islamists are supported by puritan Muslim figures. This group activist through social media is a means to reunite the Ummah in the form of e-Ummah or virtual Ummah. Digital social platforms are expected to contri...

Internetic Islam: (Re)Configuring Islamic Authority through Facebook and Email

This paper examines how “new interpretive communities” of Western-educated Muslim scholars are challenging and reshaping traditional ulematic (scholastic) authority in the digital sphere. Historically, Islamic authority revolved around a notion of consensus among “interpretive communities” of scholars, which overlapped and disagreed on various issues. The Sufis and the Fuqaha are good examples of such interpretive communities. Colonialism disrupted, and in many ways reconfigured, Islamic thought, opening up traditional interpretive communities to lay-Muslim intellectuals (the role of modern, Western knowledge and education being significant in this regard). Today, modern, Western knowledge and norms are (re)shaping the terms of the debate between many new interpretive communities, as can be seen within the (post)modern interpretive space of Web 2.0. Email-based discussion groups and groups on Facebook provide (post)modern conditions of possibility as far as the (re)articulation and (re)configuration of traditional ulematic authority. Based on analyses of four internet-based fora, this paper argues that, as far as the centralization of “Islamic opinion” is concerned, such sites of interpretation and argument provide avenues for the continued fragmentation of traditional Islamic authority, as Western-educated Muslim scholars and publics intellectuals are refashioning their faith in powerful ways to fit their (post)modern, Western sensibilities.

Islamic Religious Authority in Cyberspace: A Qualitative Study of Muslim Religious Actors in Australia

Religions, 2022

The arrival of new technologies has always presented new challenges and opportunities to religious communities anchored in scriptural and oral traditions. In the modern period, the volume, speed and accessibility of digital technologies has significantly altered the way knowledge is communicated and consumed. This is particularly true for the way religious authority is constructed online. Using in-depth fieldwork interviews and survey findings of Australian Muslims, this article examines the way religious actors, including imams/sheikhs, educators and academics in the field of Islamic studies, perceive and use online platforms to convey their religious knowledge. The findings suggest Muslims value the benefits of accessing knowledge, communicating ideas and facilitating religious pluralism via digital platforms. By the same token, participants warned against the dangers of information anarchy, “Sheikh Google” and the limitations of “do it yourself Islam”. Importantly, the article sh...

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN THE VIRTUAL ISLAMIC PUBLIC SPHERE: Contemporary Discourses in Two Islamic Websites

International Communication Gazette , 2010

This study utilizes a textual analysis of selected threads from the Arabic discussion forums of two of the most popular Islamic websites-Islamonline.net and Islamway.com-to explore the potential impact of the new Islamic virtual public sphere, and the reconfiguration of the 'virtual umma' (Islamic community) online, on the creation of collective identities. The study also assesses whether the discourses and deliberations taking place in these two sites' discussion forums exemplify an ideal Habermasian public sphere, through shura (consultation), ijtihad (interpretation) and ijma (consensus), as defined within the Islamic context. Findings indicate that there is an uncritical, unquestioning type of emotional consensus among posters who did not exemplify a truly rational-critical debate, particularly when it came to issues of political salience. Discussions among the posters show that they consider being a 'Muslim' as the most important 'identity signifier' in their lives. However, in some cases, especially while discussing political issues of a 'pan-Arab' nature, a parallel 'Arab' identity also emerged, confirming the parallelism and interrelatedness of 'Arab' and 'Muslim' identities, and the overlap between mediated 'Arab' and 'Islamic' public spheres.

Participatory Culture and New Imagined Community: Competing Imagination of Muslim Ummah in Islamic Online Media in Indonesia

2015

The participatory culture marked by the introduction of the term Web 2.0 has contributed to the potential development of the internet as a convivial and democratic medium for the dissemination of information and the construction of identities in the twenty-first century. This paper specifically asks how the idea of participatory culture and the operation of personalised media have contributed the construction of a sense of community in Islamic online news services in Indonesia. The paper argues that the participatory culture of the internet has played an important role in the process of reconstruction and re-imagination of the concept of ummah as a central concept in defining the idea of religious community in Islam. The paper also argues that the personalised tendency of the current internet news services and social network sites has contributed to the development of new imagined communities on the internet. While the boundary of the nation state has been overcome, a new boundary h...

Online Religion and Rethinking the Da’Wah Authority Toward an Inclusive Da’Wah: A Conceptual Study

Jurnal Dakwah

This paper aims to examine the concept of da’wah authority in the context of the relationship between religion and new media. The presence of new media has an impact on the development of Islamic da'wah especially regarding the issue of da'wah authority. By using a qualitative method based on library research, this paper concludes that first, the da’wah authority has shifted from the sender authority to the recipient authority, who is free and active in interpreting da'wah messages. Second, in the realm of new media, there is no clear boundary between the sender and da’wah messages recipient so that someone can be both the sender and the recipient of da'wah at the same time. Third, new media allows the opening of space for dialogue between religions. Fourth, feedback from da'wah recipients requires that the message conveyed must be valid, argumentative, and convincing. Fifth, da'wah in new media can no longer be forced to be accepted by the recipient except b...