By
Irshad Ahmed Bhat and Zahid Sultan Magray, New Age Islam
28 May 2019
What about
internet? It is perhaps here on internet that some of the most interesting
things are happening. It should be noted that global technology of western
origin is turning into a vital tool for the conduct and propagation of new
hybridised practices. These practices are formed by inserting the normative
discourse of Islam into western discourse of information technology and are
classical example of “Globalising the local”. What are the implications of the
media revolution for those communities which inhabit global space, then? While
as Anderson once argued to the pioneering efforts of New World ' Creoles' in
the formation of imagined communities, he now talks of the new ' creoles' of
the information superhighway. But, we should refrain from jumping into the
conclusion that internet is suddenly going to transform Muslim understandings
of political community radically. Anderson further pointed out that
transnational theories, fixated on media and forms of alienated consciousness
distinctive of late modernity, tend to overlook the social organisation into
which new media are brought in a rush to the new in expression. Impressed by
what simmel much earlier called ' cosmopolitanism’, we overlook measures of
social organisation in pursuit of media effects.
To
comprehend the processes by which community is created, we need also to
understand the circumstances under which Muslim identities’ become diasporic. ,
How other aspects of identity influence the terms of religious discourse on
internet? Such issues are often battled out on internet using methods of
reasoning and Debate then in the traditional idioms of religious
discourse. Internet impacted the centre/
periphery relations in the Muslim world; country such as Malaysia considered to
be on religious & geographical margins in terms of influence, has invested
heavily in information & network technologies then the venerable
institutions of Cairo, Medina or Mashhad have . Even the ayatollahs of Iran
have jumped on the information bandwagon.
For overwhelming majority of Muslims in West, internet is mainly a forum
for the conduct of politics within Islam which is gaining ground in non western
Muslim societies too. In the absence of sanctioned information from recognised
institutions, Muslims are increasingly taking religion into their own hands,
and internet provides them useful medium for disturbing information about Islam
and about behaviour required of a good Muslim.
Internet
has also served to reinforce and rectify the impact of print capitalism on traditional
structures and forms of authority. Instead of having to go down to the mosque
to elicit advice from local imam or
mullah, Muslims can now receive ' authoritative ' religious pronouncements via
the various email Fatwas services . But due to
the largely anonymous nature of the internet , one can also never be
sure whether the authoritative advice received via these services is coming
from a classically trained religious scholar or hydraulic engineer moonlighting
as an amateur Aalim. This new media has opened up new spaces for religious
contestation where traditional sources of authority could be challenged by a
wider public. The fragmentation of traditional sources of authority is a key
theme with regard to the nexus of Islam and Globalization. But on the other
hand, internet created availability of Qur’an, several collections of
prophetical sayings, Tafsirs, and other jurisprudential works, created a sort
of new constituency for religious texts. This sort of Ijtihad toolkit in the
words Zaiuddin Sardar in his book ,”Media, culture and society” observed, Would amount to a virtual Aalim and
would pose a further challenge to traditional religious scholarship authority.
Internet and communication networks have also improved the capabilities of
Global terror outfits like Al Qaeda, ISISI and similar others to plan and
conduct operations with far more devastations. It particularly improved their
capability in Areas of proselyting, coordination, security, mobility and
lethality; propagate their version of theological arguments to legitimise
Global jihad Ideologies. Internet in Muslim world is serving as a double aged
sword.
However, the issue of internet in Persian Gulf
and other gulf countries, the distinction has to be made between the
availability of internet access and their domain of usages. With strict
censorship, ban in political activism, unquestioning obedience to political and
religious authorities, a medium which by its very nature is heavily resistant
to any attempt to control, closed society, censorship or regulation makes the
issue a quandary. It must be noted that access to information technology
requires resources and permission to political liberty to explore such
networks.
It has
become apparent that the encounter between Islam and the globalised
technologies of communication is as multifaceted as the religion itself.
Globalization which is seen as a source of homogeneity also be
understood as a
culturally heterogeneous force as well. What we need to understood is
the extent to which the Globalization of information and communication
networks can provide
a new framework within which Muslims can re-imagine the Ummah.
Firstly, it
is worth mentioning to recognise we are dealing with Virtual community; is a
context in which indirect and distanciated relationships are sustained through
computer – mediated communication. To invoke Gibson’s metaphor, participants in
this kind of community are ' wrapped in media’; such that one's corporeal
existence becomes insignificantly de- emphasized. Community here is a product
of communication then the one in which one is born (ethnicity or nationality).
It fosters social networks through which distanciated Muslims can organise and
communicate. Communication networks provide spaces for critical dialogue ,
Debate about Islam and encounters with the Muslim order; Allowing Muslim
movements to locate and share resources and more particularly , opening forums
in which Muslims can find solidarity, and support to the cause of Ummah.
But the
question is to what extent would original sense of Ummah as a new social
paradigm be recreated; that is a form of community where factional identity
barrier are subservient to a religious whole.
What about politics within such medium? And who can administrator this
virtual Ummah? How will traditional
centres are going to reproduce themselves in cyberspace? These are some key
paradoxical questions will lay at the heart of Globalization and Islam
paradigm.
Zahid Sultan and Irshad Ahmad Bhat are Research
scholars of political science
9:45 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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