| Muslim Networks: Medium, Methodology & Metaphor | |
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"The Digital Divide within Islam: Reinforcing orthodoxy or
limiting its appeal?" Bruce Lawrence (Religion, Duke University) It is too easy to assume that the expansive technology of the World Wide Web makes it as democratic in access as it is global in scope. Yet only certain groups of Asian - or Arab or Iranian - Muslims get their views projected on web pages in cyberspace. While no catalogue can be exhaustive, I propose to look at three different players in digital Islam. They roughly correspond to the three complementary vectors of contemporary religion identified by Stewart Hoover and Shalini Venturelli in their path breaking article on religion and the contemporary media. One vector is institutional, and it revolves around independent cultural associations and their portrayal of Muslim norms and practices. Another is public, and it relates to polities, major Muslim governments who project their view of Islam. A third is private; it derives from individuals who have neither the institutional nor political clout of the other two vectors yet are also committed to projecting Islam on the World Wide Web. Who counts as an authentic Muslim netizen? Are the criteria of authenticity, and the projection of authority, as stable in cyberspace as in precyber domains? Though no answer can be definitive, I will explore possible answers to these recurrent and crucial questions. |
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Duke University | Asian & African Languages & Literature Dept. of Religion | Franklin Center | International Studies Location: http://www.duke.edu/web/muslimnets/mnc_sum.html Last updated: March 7, 2001 Please send comments to: galli@duke.edu |