The borders of virtual space: new information technologies and European Islamic youth culture

Abstract

The 2000s have seen the emergence of an unusual combination of western pop culture with an Islamic theme. Religious hip hop, street-wear with Islamic slogans or media for “cool” religious youths have become meaningful forms of expression for young practising Muslims in Europe. This article draws on the results of a wider research project on Islamic youth culture, but focuses on the role of new information technologies in this context. The empirical basis of this research is qualitative data collected in Germany, France and Britain in 2008–09. This comprises a collection of Islamic “virtual artefacts” ranging from, among other things, a French comedy website, a German youth platform and a British fashion blog, to in-depth interviews with the producers of these online spaces. The article analyses to what purpose the producers chose their respective means of expression. It also looks at how they use and shape existing forms of new information technologies by adding an Islamic feature to them. Arguably, the use of new information technologies greatly facilitates the growing movement of a European Islamic youth culture. But despite having obvious transnational potential, evidence shows that there is little interaction across national borders, let alone a significant awareness of similar trends in the neighbouring countries. The presence of young Muslims in virtual spaces is very often and deliberately a confined national project, shaped by their disputes with dominant society in the national context of their home country in the west.

Keywords:

• youth culture
• new media
• young Muslims
• Islam in Europe
• global cultural flows

Notes

1. The methodological approach of the full study was based on an ethnographic and reconstructive approach, using a variety of collected data as a basis: youth cultural artefacts such as religious rap, street-wear with Islamic slogans, comedy sketches and Internet facilities for the exchange of young Muslims’ issues; participant observations among consumers of Islamic youth culture; and 32 qualitative in-depth interviews with French, German and British producers of Islamic youth culture from different subcultural genres.

2. A webisode, a portmanteau word of web and episode, denotes a short video released on the Internet instead of television and is usually part of a series.

3. All names have been changed. A list of the interviews can be found in Appendix 2.