CYBER COUNSELLORS

Abstract

The Internet and satellite TV have introduced substantial innovations in both the production and the consumption of Islamic knowledge. The development of new infrastructures, skills and communication patterns has resulted in the emergence of ‘new media ecology’, where established traditional Muslim authorities compete for audiences with charismatic satellite preachers and Internet-based muftis. This article explores four distinct websites providing normative content for Muslim minorities in the UK. It focuses on the connections between these Islamic websites and global and local Islamic institutions, the interactions between online and offline Muslim communities and the ways in which the normative content online shapes offline religious manifestations and practices. By doing so, it aims to locate the sources of authority associated with these websites and to explore how Muslim identities are built, negotiated and performed in new discursive spaces. Essentially, this article argues that the underlying logic behind Islamic cyber counselling emphasizes the role of self, the privatization of faith and the increasing insistence on religion as a system of values and ethics. It also demonstrates that the popularity of Internet preachers and muftis converges with the broader transformation of contemporary religiosity, which similarly emphasizes the role of the individual. Such transformation promotes a ready-made and easily accessible set of norms and values that might bring order to daily life and define a practical and visible identity. Nevertheless, the article also demonstrates that the Internet has in the long term reinforced culturally dominant social networks and that while fuelling individualization and privatization of faith, the Internet simultaneously asserts conformity and compliance with established religious authorities.

Keywords:

• religion online
• Muslim minorities
• Islamic law
• information and communication technology
• identity
• religious authority

Acknowledgements

This article was supported by a research grant entitled ‘The Concept of Time in Humanities and Social Sciences’ (No. 261107) financed by the Specific University Research and investigated at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in Prague, 2010.

Notes

Our aim, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/ouraim.html (28 February 2011).

Scholars biographies, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/scholarsbiographies/15thcentury/permanentcommittee.htm (28 February 2011).

Divorce procedures in non-Muslim countries, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/muslimminorities/0000920_2.htm (28 February 2011).

A woman embracing Islaam whilst her husband does not, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/muslimminorities/0000324_2.htm (28 February 2011).

Study and work in mixed-sex-environments, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/muslimminorities/0000324_3.htm (28 February 2011).

Marrying non-Muslim women, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/muslimminorities/0000822_5.htm (28 February 2011).

Calling non-Muslims ‘brother’ or ‘sister’, fatwa-online, [Online] Available at: http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/muslimminorities/0000920_4.htm (28 February 2011).

Smatch, [Online] Available at: http://www.smatch.net/ (28 February 2011).

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In the case of talāq, the husband has to provide his and his wife details, reasons for asking divorce, details about children and financial obligations, and pay the required fee. Upon receiving the application, the Council will issue a talāq form to the husband, which he has to sign in front of two witnesses and return back to the Council. The Council will then inform the wife by sending her a letter giving her 30 days to submit her claims. If she has no objections (or no response is received), and providing all other requirements are met, the Islamic divorce certificate will be issued by the Council. At the same time, the petitioners are advised to consult a solicitor for obtaining a civil divorce. Talaq Application, Islamic Sharia Council, [Online] Available at: http://www.islamic-sharia.org/docman/divorce-froms/divorce-form-men/download-2.html (28 February 2011).

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