Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Undoubtedly this book makes an important contribution to the existing literature on Islam and the Internet. Its lucid discussion of theoretical issues will be an indispensible resource for students and researchers in this field." - Eugenia Siapera, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
"Islam Dot Com provides an account of the virtual Muslim public sphere characterized by unprecedented conceptual and empirical richness. By transcending a narrow focus on the Internet as a space of radical foment and by drawing on a unique combination of English and Arabic source sites, Nawawy and Khamis show that contestation and deliberation over religious authority and Muslim identity constitute the heart of Islam online. Compelling and vital reading." - Peter Mandaville, PhD, Associate Professor of Government & Politics, Co-Director, Center for Global Studies, George Mason University
"Islamic websites have become a primary vehicle for thinking about Islam in public, and Islam Dot Com tackles the central issue of how they shape mainstream Muslim thought. Nawawy and Khamis's approach persuasively suggests how to think about 'electronic' Islam for years to come." - Dale F. Eickelman, co-editor of New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere (2002)
"As the use of the internet rapidly spreads in Arab and Muslim countries, the expanding Islamic discourse and changing notions of Islamic identity are increasingly important issues that have not been sufficiently captured. Professors el-Nawawy and Khamis provide an important window into this discourse as it appears on three of the most popular Islamic web sites. Both the rich description and the thoughtful analysis help fill a large gap in this emerging literature." - Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
"Those interested in international communication, and specifically communication in the Arab world, have been blessed with a wealth of new information via academic journal articles and books in the past few years. Mohammed el-Nawawy (co-author of a well known book about Al Jazeera) and Sahar Khamis are offering new insight about Arab- and Islamic-world communication in this book by examining discourse on Islamic-oriented web sites. Several studies have examined mass media discourse in the Middle East, but this is the first study I know of that ambitiously examines discourse via new media. Indeed, the authors, both U.S.-based academics with Arab-world roots, are especially well qualified to undertake this research.This examination of what is being discussed in cyberspace among those following Islam reveals a fascinating view of how new media are being used in the Arab/Islamic world." - Douglas A. Boyd, University of Kentucky
Review
"Undoubtedly this book makes an important contribution to the existing literature on Islam and the Internet. Its lucid discussion of theoretical issues will be an indispensible resource for students and researchers in this field." - Eugenia Siapera, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
"Islam Dot Com provides an account of the virtual Muslim public sphere characterized by unprecedented conceptual and empirical richness. By transcending a narrow focus on the Internet as a space of radical foment and by drawing on a unique combination of English and Arabic source sites, Nawawy and Khamis show that contestation and deliberation over religious authority and Muslim identity constitute the heart of Islam online. Compelling and vital reading." - Peter Mandaville, PhD, Associate Professor of Government & Politics, Co-Director, Center for Global Studies, George Mason University
"Islamic websites have become a primary vehicle for thinking about Islam in public, and Islam Dot Com tackles the central issue of how they shape mainstream Muslim thought. Nawawy and Khamis's approach persuasively suggests how to think about 'electronic' Islam for years to come." - Dale F. Eickelman, co-editor of New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere (2002)
"As the use of the internet rapidly spreads in Arab and Muslim countries, the expanding Islamic discourse and changing notions of Islamic identity are increasingly important issues that have not been sufficiently captured. Professors el-Nawawy and Khamis provide an important window into this discourse as it appears on three of the most popular Islamic web sites. Both the rich description and the thoughtful analysis help fill a large gap in this emerging literature." - Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
"Those interested in international communication, and specifically communication in the Arab world, have been blessed with a wealth of new information via academic journal articles and books in the past few years. Mohammed el-Nawawy (co-author of a well known book about Al Jazeera) and Sahar Khamis are offering new insight about Arab- and Islamic-world communication in this book by examining discourse on Islamic-oriented web sites. Several studies have examined mass media discourse in the Middle East, but this is the first study I know of that ambitiously examines discourse via new media. Indeed, the authors, both U.S.-based academics with Arab-world roots, are especially well qualified to undertake this research.This examination of what is being discussed in cyberspace among those following Islam reveals a fascinating view of how new media are being used in the Arab/Islamic world." - Douglas A. Boyd, University of Kentucky
Synopsis
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," the 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.
Synopsis
Peace is the cornerstone of our survival as humans. It is imperative for PEACE to have a prominent place in education. The book Conflict Resolution and PEACE Education provides this supreme human value a status in learning."--Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town. Peace Prize Nobel Laureate The Masters and the Slaves theorizes the interface of plantation relations with nationalist projects throughout the Americas. In readings that cover a wide range of genres--from essays and scientific writing to poetry, memoirs and the visual arts--this work investigates the post-slavery discourses of Brazil, the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Martinique. Indebted to Orlando Patterson's Slavery and Social Death (1982) and Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic (1993), these essays fill a void in studies of plantation power relations for their comparative, interdisciplinary approach and their investment in reading slavery through the gaze of contemporary theory, with particularly strong ties to psychoanalytic and gender studies interrogations of desire and performativity. This fascinating work presents the two conflicting positions within Christian thought-traditional and radical-as they developed through some of the most important periods of church history. Simut traces traditional Christian thought through Late Antiquity, Early Modernity, and Post Modernity in specific works written by Gregory Nazianzen, Jean Calvin, and Ion Bria. He analyzes Radical Christian thought as it gradually developed in Post Modernity, particularly during the twenty and twenty-first centuries through authors such as Erich Fromm, Paul Ricoeur, and Vito Mancuso. Public Universities and the Public Sphere argues that two crises facing America - a crisis of public discourse and a crisis of public higher education - are closely connected. The center of significant public discussion in the United States is located in a core public sphere consisting of publications, associations, and universities that was consciously constructed in the nineteenth century. The modern American university originated in the process that created the core public sphere. Public universities essentially democratized the core public sphere in the twentieth century. Part of the solution, Smith argues in this timely work, to both crises lies in understanding and building on the connection. This book delves into the reasons why pop culture, and all of its "X-Rated" features, are so appealing to masses of people, even though they may hate to love it. The late eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of the literary family: a collaborative kinship network of family and friends that, by the end of the century, displayed characteristics of a nascent corporation. This book examines different models of collaboration within English literary families during the period 1760-1820. Beginning with the sibling model of Anna Barbauld and John Aikin, and concluding with the intergenerational model presented by the Godwins and the Shelleys, this study traces the conflict and cooperation that developed within and among literary families as they sought to leave their legacies on the English world of letters. In this compelling narrative, Alessandra Piontelli explores the different roles that twins play in societies around the world. In her travels throughout Africa, Asia, South America, and the Pacific rim, Piontelli has observed how some cultures deify twins while other cultures attribute evil spirits to them and others outright destroy all multiple siblings. Twins in the World mixes anthropology, ethnography, and religious studies to show the most critical aspect of comparative world culture--how a society cares for its young--through the lens of twins, who seem to hold a special place in all cultures. Listening to poets read their work focuses critical attention on the craft of the poem, while raising questions about the relationship between social history, technology, and the poet's
Synopsis
This book analyzes the discourses and deliberations in the discussion forums of three of the most visited Islamic websites and investigates the extent to which they have provided a venue for Muslims to freely engage in discussion among themselves and with non-Muslims about political, economic, religious and social issues.
About the Author
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?