“IslamOnline.net: Independent, interactive, popular”, in: Arab Media and Society, 2008. (original) (raw)
Related papers
“Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi in Cyberspace”, in: Die Welt des Islams 47(2007)3-4, 403-423.
The article introduces and analyses the homepage of the Azhar-trained Egyptian scholar Yåsuf al-Qara· §wÊ. This includes not only the analysis of the website's content but also of its context of production, i.e. Doha, a place that can be described as a hub of mediaproduced reality of Arabic-speaking Muslims since the mid-1990s. The author, Bettina Gräf, states that Qara· §wÊ was one of the first scholars to realise that the cooperation with journalists, editors, and producers of new media institutions would help to restore the influence of Muslim scholars in Muslim societies and worldwide. She identifies the techniques by which Qara· §wÊ's self-proclaimed position as a global Islamic authority is implemented on his website. The potential of Qara· §wÊ being recognised as a global authority, however, is questioned. The author argues that the relationships constitutive of his almost translocal authority were and still are negotiated in special sets of actions, namely in Qaãar, Egypt, Palestine, Europe and, on the occasion of various conferences with a Sunni Islamist agenda, around the world. Although Yåsuf al-Qara· §wÊ's worldwide popularity, based on his activities in both the traditional and the new media, is beyond dispute, the author points to the necessity of distinguishing between popularity and authority.
2009
From democratization to terrorism, economic development to conflict resolution, global political dynamics are affected by the increasing pervasiveness and influence of communication media. This series examines the participants and their tools, their strategies and their impact. It offers a mix of comparative and tightly focused analyses that bridge the various elements of communication and political science included in the field of international studies. Particular emphasis is placed on topics related to the rapidly changing communication environment that is being shaped by new technologies and new political realities. This is the evolving world ISLAM DOT COM
The Islam-Online Crisis: A Battle of Wasatiyya vs. Salafi Ideologies?
Islam Online has been one of the most prominent and stable Islamic websites since it was founded in 1997. However, in March 2010 Islam Online suffered a major crisis, which has come to be known as 'the IOL-Crisis'. This is a suitable case for exploring whether multiple layers of authority are at play in online religious communities(Campbell 2007). At the time of the crisis, I was conducting fieldwork with the social team of IOL-Arabic. This article provides rich ethnographic detail about the time before, during, and after the crisis – as experienced by the social team. I outline how the social team made sense of the crisis through producing crisis-narratives that draw on Islam Online's institutional narrative. Moreover, I illustrate how narratives about the crisis gradually shift to alternate explanations, in tact with new developments of the crisis. I conclude with reflections on what types of authority were drawn on during the IOL-Crisis.
The model of online al-Da'wah al-fardiyyah
2010
The emergence of the Internet as a most popular medium of communication that combines all elements of traditional media brought a new dimension to al-dacwah alfardiyyah as it can now be undertaken in cyberspace as well as face to face. This study proposes a model of online al-dacwah al-fardiyyah that incorporates the traditional approach of aldacwah al-fardiyyah which is based on face to face with a model of online communication. The traditional approach of aldacwah al fardiyyah is selected from the al-Dib's work (2002) while the model of online communication is selected from a model of online learning called as “e-moderating” developed by Salmon (2000). The main elements of the proposed model is based on socialization that should be directed into three levels namely dissemination, participation and mobilization.