Islam Dot Com Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace

by el-Nawawy, Mohammed; Khamis, Sahar

• ISBN13: 9780230338159
• ISBN10: 0230338151
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book analyzes the discourses and deliberations in the discussion forums of three of the most visited Islamic websites. In doing so, it explores the potential impact of the Islamic public sphere, and the re-configuration of the 'virtual umma' (Islamic community) online, on the creation of multiple identities and resistances, which manifest themselves through various Islamic sites, producing varying degrees of consensus, divergence, and negotiation in multiple contexts and across different discourses. The book also investigates the extent to which these Islamic websites have provided a venue for Muslims to freely engage in vibrant deliberations and constructive discussions among themselves, as well as with 'Others', i.e., non-Muslims, about various political, economic, religious and social issues.

Author Biography

Mohammed el-Nawawy is an associate professor and Knight-Crane endowed chair in the School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He teaches international communication, mass communication, media globalization and Middle Eastern media courses. His research interests are focused on the new media in the Middle East, particularly satellite channels and the Internet, and their impact on the Arab public sphere. He is also interested in issues of public diplomacy and ways of initiating effective dialogue between the Middle East and the West. He is the author and co-author of three books: Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network That Is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism; Al-Jazeera: How the Free Arab News Network Scooped the World and Changed the Middle East; and The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the Reporting of Western Journalists. He has also published in several national and foreign journals in the international communication field. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Middle East Media and a board member on the Arab-U.S. Association for Communication Educators. el-Nawawy has professional journalistic experience in the United States and the Middle East. He was born and raised in Egypt, where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in mass communication at the American University in Cairo. He has a doctorate degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Sahar Khamis is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an expert on Arab and Middle Eastern media in addition to being the former head of the Mass Communication and Information Science Department in Qatar University. Dr. Khamis holds a PhD in Mass Media and Cultural Studies from the University of Manchester in England. She has authored chapters in the books Women and Media in the Middle East: Power Through Self-Expression, edited by Naomi Sakr (2004), and New Media and the New Middle East, edited by Philip Seib (2007). She has several publications in both international and regional academic journals and conferences in both English and Arabic and is the recipient of a number of prestigious academic and professional awards. She is an editorial board member of a number of journals, including Media, War & Conflict, Journal of Middle East Media, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, and Advances in the History of Rhetoric. Her areas of teaching and research interest are public relations, advertising, public opinion, audience research, mass media campaigns, gender and media studies, women's media images and portrayals, mass media and national development, and ethnographic media studies, as well as international and intercultural communication. Beside her university teaching experience in a number of prestigious universities, including the University of Maryland, the American University in Cairo, University of Manchester, Cairo University, Ain Shams University, and Qatar University, she has worked in prominent international media organizations, such as The Wall Street Journal and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and leading Arab media such as Al-Ahram and Al-Wafd.

Table of Contents

The Public Sphere in an Islamic Context * Religion in the Virtual Public Sphere: The Case of Islam * Is the Umma a Public Sphere? * The “Virtual Umma”: Collective Identities in Cyberspace * Islamic Websites: Divergent Identities in Cyberspace * Virtual Islamic Discourses: Platforms for Consensus or Sites of Contention?