Doctoral Workshop: Digital Media, Islam, and Politics in the Middle East with Assist. Prof. Dr. H. Akın Ünver (original) (raw)

The 6th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies in Basel, Digital Media, Islam, and Politics in the Middle East, immersed students in comparative studies of Islamist politics in the Middle East and North Africa through the lens of how violent and non-violent Islamist state and non-actors, as well as their opponents, use and manipulate digital and social media to further their goals. The workshop was specifically interested in exploring themes in how the region’s religious, political and social forces interact and mobilize in digital space, including their competing organizational networks and narrative claims. As an increasingly more popular and politically-relevant topic in the region and beyond, we seek applicants whose work lie at the intersection of ICTs (information and communication technologies – such as Whatsapp, Signal, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other web channels) and social media platforms on the one hand, and religion, politics, culture, and mobilization on the other. Related questions that the workshop explored included: 1.The definition of "Islamism," Islamic vs. Islamist vs. jihadist hierarchies, communication strategies, and organizational networks of influence in the digital world a. How existing religious hierarchies adapt to digital media? Formal religious institutions, traditional pipeline of fatwas, how do traditional formal religious communication differs from online? b. Digital culture of ICT-imams: How off-the-grid imams and religious figures emerge and gather followers on Twitter, Youtube etc. and create a wedge between the ummah and traditional sources of Islamic authority? c. Networks of extremism and tolerance: which types and formations of religious hierarchies and networks preach extremism online and which others emphasize tolerance, integration and co-existence. d. How do ICTs impact religious resource mobilization? How digital technologies impact the way in which religious groups organize, maintain ties and act in a uniform matter? e. Islamist political parties and voter mobilization in digital space: How do various strands of Islamist movements interact with the digital space and other types of party formations? 2. Digital Surveillance, Censorship, Protest, Voice, and Opposition in the Middle East a. Online and offline interaction in protests: What is the role of ICTs and platforms in voicing grievance, mobilizing resources and challenge hegemony? b. Protest technology in the Middle East: How do protest technologies (drones, encryption, messaging) impact the way in which protests are organized and mobilized? Do they provide a significant advantage to opposition groups, or have the region’s states fully developed capabilities to counter them? c. Circumvention and privacy: To what extent could the post-Snowden awareness on state censorship enable technologies that disable surveillance and government monitoring? Have they been successful in enabling freedom of expression and voice? d. “Who Censors What?”Allowedvs.criminalizedformsofdigitalexpression:whattypesof content get censored in which Middle Eastern country? All countries officially censor content that is against moral values, but censorship is also a highly political issue whose content that varies across different countries in the region. e. External Actors of Middle Eastern Surveillance: Although surveillance and censorship is rampant in the Middle East, most of the technology that enables the region’s states to do so come from democratic countries. What are the stakes of Western surveillance companies in the region and how do they impact surveillance politics? 3. Organized Diversion: Fake News, Trolls Bots a. Purpose and mechanics of organized diversion: The influence of digital spoilers and distractors on the region’s politics has grown significantly in the last few years, from the Saudi-Qatari-UAE dispute to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such digital diversion methods have grown into an analytical field of their own. b. Regime type and narratives of diversion: We have to focus on which actors have created fake news concerning these moments, the tools and techniques that have enabled the creation and dispersion of such narratives, political uses and abuses of such narratives, and motivations for their creation and international ripple effects of especially potent fake news narratives and dispersal strategies. 4. Online Radicalization and ICT Use of Extremist Groups a. How jihadi groups recruit, track and mobilize online: social media allows extremists to recruit and propagandize across borders, in a way that 20th-century technology never allowed. This renders modern extremism deadlier, given their reach and ability to trigger coordinated, as well as lone-wolf attacks. b. Power bargaining and networking behaviour or radical groups: Extremist groups not only compete with their declared enemies, but also with each other in recruitment and diffusion of extremism messaging. How these groups compete in digital space gives us a clear idea on how their offline interests structures and strategies are shaped?